Slow & Greasy in the Big Easy…
[url=http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070117/D8MN7NVO1.html]The French Quarter Is in a Funk
Jan 17, 2:41 PM (ET), By CAIN BURDEAU
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The hookers are back on Bourbon Street. So are the drug dealers, the strippers with names like Rose and Desire, the out-of-town businessmen, the college students getting blitzed on candy-colored cocktails and beer in plastic cups.
But a closer look reveals things are not back to the way they were in the French Quarter. Sixteen months after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans’ liveliest, most exuberant neighborhood is in a funk.
“The money’s not the same. I remember when I made $1,200 a night,” said Elizabeth Johnson, a manager and dancer at a Bourbon Street strip club, frowning at another slow night. “I know girls who used to never let people touch them, and now they’re resorting to prostitution.”
Robert Boudreaux, a beefy hotel bellman in an olive green vest, scanned the street with folded arms and said: “Very boring.”
The Quarter still has its characters - palm readers, magicians, street musicians, mimes. But the cheap fun is largely confined to the weekends these days, and seven-day-a-week stores, restaurants and clubs such as Preservation Hall are cutting back on their hours. The nonstop party is no more.
The “cams” - real-time camera footage of Bourbon Street, shown over the Internet - are dull on weekdays. Dixieland bands play to empty barrooms.
“The Quarter rats are drunk and high still, but they’re less drunk,” said bartender Dawn Kesslering.[/url]
