http://blog.nola.com/jarvisdeberry/2008/12/in_2006_the_first_full.html
In 2006, the first full calendar year after Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Saints were miraculously ascendant, and those of us in their devastated hometown felt just as much on the rise.
In 2008, the third full calendar year after the hurricane, the Saints played beneath their potential and, at 8-8, turned in a perfectly mediocre season. And many in their hometown must have felt just as stagnant. Some may even have wondered, as one of Jack Nicholson’s movie characters did, “What if this is as good as it gets?”
This is beauty: Stephanie Jordan singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the city’s first-ever NBA All-Star Game. This is fear and shame: our city being designated the most dangerous in the nation. This is the return of streetcars to South Carrollton Avenue, the return of red streetcars to Canal Street. This is new indictments for political corruption. This is Road Home money reaching more pockets. This is some homeowners wondering if they’ll be the only ones in their neighborhoods to rebuild.
This was two hurricanes not hitting us but plunging us into darkness and further eroding our coast. It was Mayor Ray Nagin pressing New Orleanians to leave in advance of Gustav only to have critics blast him for his frightening descriptions of what the storm would do. It was people getting out before the storm made landfall but having to crawl along the interstates well into Mississippi.
Nola.com
12/30/08
