Articles
"Hotels Re-open in New
Orleans", Wall St. Journal, © 12/8/5
Flood-shocked New Orleans takes a big step forward on Tuesday,
when
Marriott International Inc. and other major hotel operators restore full
service at more than a dozen properties.
In the two months since Hurricane Katrina ripped through this
tourism-dependent city, breaching three major levees and deluging more than
100,000 homes, most hotels have remained shuttered. Those that opened were
available only to workers employed in disaster relief or reconstruction efforts.
Marriott and
Orient-Express Hotels Ltd.'s Windsor Court luxury property will accept
reservations for all travelers, including tourists, conventioneers and business
executives unassociated with the official recovery effort. By the end of the
week, about 15,000 rooms are expected to be available -- a little less than half
the full inventory of the New Orleans area, but enough to breathe some life back
into the city's most important economic engine. By Mardi Gras, in late February,
28,000 rooms should be available.
The French Quarter has fully restored power and utilities, and
Bourbon Street, the famously seedy strip of restaurants, bars, strips clubs and
shot houses, pulses at night with rowdies. Most are recovery workers blowing off
steam, but a trickle of real tourists has begun. Last week the American Library
Association announced plans to hold its annual convention in New Orleans next
June, bringing more than 20,000 attendees.
Tourism has come back faster than anticipated largely because
the French Quarter and the Canal Street hotel district were spared the more
severe damage that befell other areas of the city. But hotels and restaurants
are desperately short of workers -- so rooms aren't cleaned every day, and
service can be slow. Many eateries are offering limited menus. Specialties such
as oysters on the half-shell are unavailable, owing to shortages of shuckers and
worries about pollution in the oyster beds. A 2 a.m. curfew and aggressive
police enforcement irritate bar owners. Much of the city remains without power
and other basic services.
Local and federal officials, moreover, have no clear responses
to many of the fundamental questions facing the city and suburbs. When will
building permits be issued for repairs and new construction? Will levees be
upgraded to give business and property owners more protection from future
storms? Whose fault was it that the levees failed?
A public meeting held by Mayor Ray Nagin and other elected
officials last week at the downtown Sheraton hotel attracted a crowd of 600. But
as dozens of citizens took to the microphone, the mayor had little substantive
information. Most attendees seemed buoyed by the first flickers of commercial
life nearby, and ready to give the mayor the benefit of the doubt. But it was
clear he has to have real answers soon.
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