Rachel Wimberly

New Orleans Needs a Break
December 21, 2007

Sometimes, as a reporter, a story that starts out as one thing takes on a life of its own in a very short period of time due to unforeseen circumstances. Such is the case with a story currently posted on our Web site, “New Orleans’ Image Suffers,” that will also appear in our Jan. 7 issue.

It all started on the showfloor at the Intl. Assn. of Exhibitions and Events’ Expo! Expo! at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas Dec. 10-12. My colleague Heidi Genoist and I met Bob Johnson, who heads up the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.

Johnson was bemoaning a University of New Orleans study released earlier that day based on a survey of more than 700 respondents (none of whom lives in Louisiana). He called the findings “shocking”: more than 25 percent thought the city was still submerged, 60 percent thought most of the residents were still in temporary housing, 43 percent thought only one in 10 restaurants were open and on a sliding scale New Orleans ranked poorly in crime.

I started working on a story on the findings and interviewed Johnson, a representative from the Metropolitan New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau, numerous associations that pulled their events from the city after Hurricane Katrina, and others that committed to sticking with the city.

The bottom line was this question: With all of these “misperceptions”, as many deemed the study’s findings, how many events were skipping the city altogether because they felt it just wasn’t ready to host them?

Honestly, I thought New Orleans was getting a hard knock, and still do. But, the night before my story was filed I saw on television news a melee that had broken out at New Orleans City Hall involving angry protestors who didn’t want a number of public housing units demolished. The protestors stormed the gates of City Hall as police sprayed pepper spray and struck people with tasers. All in all, a hectic scene that once again cast a dark shadow over the city.

Johnson told me he thought the media was to blame for portraying New Orleans as a place that hasn’t recovered after the storm. After the recent protest, an Associated Press headline read: “Battered N.O. OKs Razing Public Housing.” So, I see his point. But, at the end of the day, it’s hard to gauge how many potential convention and meeting attendees also might have seen the chaos on the news and vowed not to come to New Orleans.

Posted by Rachel Wimberly on December 21, 2007 | Comments (0)