Jazz Fest, Jazz Fest, Jazz Fest
From the Wall Street Journal:
The thousands of fans rocking at this city’s famed jazz festival this weekend—and the millions of dollars they are spending—bear out a triumphant revival of tourism here, yet the industry is straining to lead the broader recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
From the quality of headliners alone, from Stevie Wonder Friday night to Jimmy Buffett on Sunday, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival seems positioned to generate its usual $300 million impact on the area. Absent any other thriving business, the timing couldn’t be better.
Overall restoration remains uneven and torturously slow. The population is about 239,000, according to the Census Bureau, or closer to 299,000, according to the city, compared with the pre-Katrina count of 485,000. Thousands still await federal grants to rebuild their homes; tens of thousands more can’t afford to salvage theirs. Huge swaths of neighborhoods remain vacant, their blown-out windows boarded up since the storm passed. Most communities still lack necessities such as supermarkets and pharmacies, habitable schools and functioning fire stations.
