Mike’s Real Estate Show

My wife and I  attended NAR’s yearly convention in New Orleans a couple of years back. We had volunteered for a work crew preparing the City Park for their annual Xmas party. The park itself and especially the diverse amount of plantings were really suffering. We were told they had gone from a paid staff of 2,000 down to 200. Seems their income was derived from the Park, its golf course, and the lack of attendance and play on the course (ruined by the flooding) was almost nil. And this is a Park which is BIGGER than New York’s Central Park!
  But what was really revealing was our bus driver who, instead of taking us back to the convention center, told us he was taking us on a side trip. We went through the Lakeshore district (think that’s the name) and it was devastation for blocks and blocks and blocks. Occasionally we’d see one of the tiny FEMA trailers in front of a home which was being rehabbed but it was extremely depressing to see these neighborhoods absent of their owners, the families, the small businesses. I truly believe this will be a “generational” rebuilding process. It’s going to go on for years. 
  I had a cabby who was 60+ years old, real nice guy, who told me about his trials with his home and the insurance company. He pretty much lost everything. We drove through the quarter and he stopped in front of an old “shotgun’ house and said he’d been born in a back bedroom of that house over 60 years ago. But he was still there in Nawlins. Said he thought about moving but couldn’t bring himself to do so. “Your home is your home”, he said.
  The quarter was hardly effected. We stayed at Place De’arms which is a great hotel in the heart of the quarter. Great courtyard with hanging ferns, brick, fountain. Walking distance to Anita’s, Cafe DuMonde and the St. Louis Cathedral. My wife and I had been visiting Nalins’ for years especially during the Holiday Season.
  Nawlin’s had issues, as every big city does, before Katrina, and is facing major hurdles. Our CRS Northern California Chapter gave generously to the Katrina Funds. We actually got the “Chapter with a Heart” award as our President; Joanne Frazier led a group of us to work in Mississippi for two weeks. Realtors are a generous lot.  NAR made a huge decision to have the convention there so quickly after Katrina. Many were trying to dissuade the leadership to go to another city but they insisted on going to Nawlins as they stated it simply was the right thing to do.  We were just one of many other working crews who spent a day or two helping out. 
  Rebuilding Nawlin’s is kind of like eating a full Mulfalatta sanwhich at The Central Market; you do it ONE BITE AT A TIME!