New Orleans – Cajun music, live and lively, drifts onto Bourbon Street, where handfuls of people sip from tall mixed drinks or super-sized cups of beer as they stroll.
Dozens of people throng the dance floor at Razzoo’s Bar and Patio, singing along to “We Are Family.” A barker urges passers-by to take a look inside at nude dancers in Big Daddy’s, and in the Bourbon Street Strip-Tease store, Dale Juneau sells thong underwear to a young woman.
He says the adult clothing and toy store has been busy since it reopened more than a week ago, particularly with sales to military and relief workers ready to return from their exhausting duty with something for their wives and girlfriends back home.
“Bourbon Street is Bourbon Street,” he says. “That’s why they come here, to party, to let their hair down.”
Built on higher ground than most of the city, the French Quarter was spared the worst of Katrina, mostly suffering scattered wind and water damage.
And each night, there’s a little more beat to the bawdy heart of New Orleans, the stretch of bars, restaurants, strip clubs and stores specializing in T-shirts with X-rated messages that is one of the city’s strongest tourist lures.
For now, it’s visited by locals who have returned from evacuations and out-of-towners who came to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, a project that remains staggering in scope a month later.
Fewer than half of the businesses on the strip have reopened, but by Friday night, there were half a dozen live bands in bars and nearly as many open strip clubs.
If such merrymaking seems incongruous in a city hit by one of the nation’s worst natural disasters, one that took hundreds of lives, those who are trying to kickstart a revival welcome any signs of comeback.
“When you see some activity, that’s a sign of optimism,” said attorney Kim Boyle, a member of the “Bring New Orleans Back” commission announced Friday by Mayor C. Ray Nagin. “We can’t walk around looking sad and being in the doldrums 24/7. When I see people smiling, it makes me smile.”
