FAREWELL NEW ORLEANS
The Demise of an American Superculture
Copyright©2005By Cocomo Rock All rights reserved.
As difficult as it is for me to imagine an America without the allure of New Orleans, it appears that her magic may be dead forever. The world has known only a handful of what one might call supercultures, and of that handful, without dispute, New Orleans has been our American Queen. She has not basked in the light of the sun like other ladies, New York, San Francisco, Rome, or Paris, those ladies a gentleman looks to squire around the tea circuit and perhaps take home to mother. Rather, our New Orleans has ruled the realm of exotic mysteries, a queen of the night. Historically, with her taboo mix of high and low diversions, New Orleans has reigned as a dark, delta beauty that every lusty adventurer yearns to ravish for a night but only the most foolhardy would deign to marry.
By the time New Orleans fell into the arms of a young America back in 1805, she had been around. Through more than 80 years of political intrigues, France and Spain had tossed the new world beauty back and forth between them half a dozen times. Finally weary of her charms, or perhaps in desperate need of cash, Napoleon I sold her off to the daring young American president, Thomas Jefferson. Yes, down through the years, America and the world has burned with love and desire for New Orleans but, in light of the severe indignities she recently suffered, will the lady ever be able to love us back with the same passions of old?
Poised at the crossroads of the mighty Mississippi, the Ohio River, and the rich Gulf ports—the economy of our new American Queen quickly took root in the booming shipping, cotton, and slave trades of the day. She became known as the Paris of America… the Never-Ending-Good-Time… and America’s Most Interesting City. Finally, we came to know her as The Big Easy.
For 200 years, New Orleans reigned in America as the mistress of the good-time. A grand dame whose allure lay largely in our desire for her undesirability. Our undisputed Queen of Easy. But, as the citizens of any monarchy will readily attest, the upkeep of Queens can come with crippling costs. In recent years, New Orleans’ infrastructure lay crumbling under the weight of a constantly declining economy. Ever since the abolishment of slavery and the severely strained race relations that consequently strangled her recovery during Reconstruction, New Orleans has been a “lady in distress.” These last 50 years she has spent almost entirely dependent on the kindness of two strangers, one named Tourism and the other, Government Subsidy. Unbeknownst to most, the sitting monarch had long been a sitting duck.
