The scenes from New Orleans just one day after an attack that killed 14 people and wounded dozens of others were encouraging. Bourbon Street was closed on New Year’s Day as law enforcement investigated the attack, but it reopened Thursday afternoon. There was the usual bustle of tourists. The Sugar Bowl played on. Life in the city seemed to quickly return to normal.
That normality, and the speed with which it arrived, isn’t surprising. This is New Orleans, after all. Few American cities have recently endured tragedy like this one while, simultaneously, and seemingly always, finding a way to rise above it.
This is a city I’ve been to dozens of times. Have family and friends there. Was there after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The storm killed thousands of people and caused property damage estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars. Its impact can still be felt today and might be forever. But New Orleans still stands tall.
New Orleans, again, is giving the country a lesson on how to get back up. It always has. It always does.
‘This city is amazing. This city is known for its resiliency,’ said Anne Kirkpatrick, the city’s police superintendent, at a news conference on Thursday. ‘This is a city that is still impacted from 20 years ago with Hurricane Katrina. This city knows pain. But this city also knows how to recover.’
No, New Orleans isn’t perfect. Like other cities, especially in the South, it has an extensive history of slavery, segregation and anti-Blackness. But from those tragedies, centuries of them, arose Black political leaders and power.
Even the city’s NFL team has seen stunning lows and come back to remarkable highs. The Saints were one of the original joke franchises, fans perfecting bag-over-head. Then quarterback Drew Brees came to town. He’d become a leader off the field as well in the aftermath of Katrina.
‘When I was first drafted by the Saints, I am not going to lie, I was pretty scared,’ former Saints running back Reggie Bush once said. ‘I was nervous. I didn’t know what to expect. It was a year after Hurricane Katrina, and they didn’t even know if they were going to have a home field to play on. I didn’t know what to expect.
‘Drew Brees called me the night I was drafted and told me he was excited to play with me. He told me how he got to play with LaDainian Tomlinson and he was looking forward to playing with me. That changed my entire view on what I was going into. It also eased my mind. I had a chance to watch Drew play when he was with the Chargers, so for a guy like Drew to call me says a lot about him. It eased my emotions about what I was getting into.’
Will the city be ready for Super Bowl 59 next month? Well, a better question might be, why would you ever bet against this city?
‘…We here in New Orleans have proven time in and time out that we can provide safe environments,’ said Kirkpatrick. ‘Look at (the) Taylor Swift (concert) that was just a few weeks ago – incredible environment of fun, incredible environment where they can come and know they’re safe. We have plans.
‘This is a terrorist. The terrorist is going to be hell-bent no matter what, to create carnage and to destroy, but we as a city and as a law enforcement community have already proven over time that we can handle and manage these large crowds.’
We’ve seen this New Orleans story before. The city is expert at the comeback.
It’s happening again.