Thursday, October 20, 2005

Are Yats an endangered species?

This writer gets it right. I hope there are plenty of other Yats who can help bring back a little of what was really wonderful about New Orleans> My favorite part of the article is his explanation that New Orleans is what it is because it's been "on simmer" for 140 years. That's the way you make a good gumbo. It's not just the ingredients, it's the simmering.

But this amazingly rich culture that has produced far more than its share of America's artistic, culinary, literary, and musical riches is likely to be gone before we notice that we miss it. Outside experts will have no chance to see it alive before they decide to bulldoze it into oblivion.
Many locals can't describe it because they are blind to it the way a fish is blind to water until he finds himself flapping helplessly on land. You cannot replace forty square miles of antique neighborhoods with a California vision of what a proper up-to-date American community should be and expect the soul of New Orleans to survive any more than a salmon can thrive in a parking lot.

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