Deserted by tourists, New Orleans has the blues
Audio 19:30
Bourbon Street empty on the evening of February 16, 2021 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Getty Images via AFP - JON CHERRY
By: Anne Corpet Follow
35 mins
Tourism is New Orleans' main economic engine, but the wave of contamination that followed the Mardi Gras festivities in 2020 resulted in a very restrictive policy: bars and restaurants were completely closed from March to October, and only reopen very gradually.
The hordes of visitors who usually roam the Old French Quarter have disappeared, and their absence is causing a major economic crisis.
Publicity
A trumpeter plays alone on the sidewalk, under the neon lights of a Bourbon Street sign.
The most famous street in the Old French Quarter is normally overwhelmed every evening by thousands of visitors who come to sample the festive spirit of New Orleans.
But the musician's notes resonate in virtual silence: the disparate, drunken crowd, swarming under the wrought-iron balconies of the colorful houses, is no longer there.
"
I would never have believed over the years that seeing this street so clean would make me sad,"
says Isabelle Cossard, tourist guide for more than forty years in the birthplace of jazz.
To comply with health precautionary measures, she has fixed two shower curtains with Velcro in her white minibus, which separate the driver from her rare customers.
“
This year, I made 14% of my usual turnover.
I had to sell five out of seven minibuses, and I put my fifteen employees out of work,
”she regrets.
The vehicle travels smoothly through the usually crowded alleys of the old town, and ends in Jackson Square where the cathedral is located.
“
Look at those empty tables on the Café du Monde terrace, it's unheard of!
We normally have to queue for an hour to taste their famous donuts and drink a café au lait,
”laments Isabelle, before passing the golden statue of Joan of Arc, inaugurated by General De Gaulle, and the market stalls. French.
Several souvenir shops have their curtains drawn.
“
It's hard, but we're going to survive.
We are on the ground but we have our noses up.
Face down but still alive,
”concludes the idle guide.
A deserted souvenir store in New Orleans.
© Anne Corpet / RFI
"It's a vicious circle, everyone suffers"
Everywhere in New Orleans, the same refrain replaces the jazz tunes that normally punctuate daily life: "
It's hard, we can't get out of it
".
In front of his stall, which offers excursions in the surrounding plantations, hovercraft rides on alligator-infested bayous, or visits to haunted houses, Groovie tries to climb the rare passers-by who wander.
“
I barely manage to pay my rent.
I earn two thousand dollars a month instead of two thousand dollars a week, it's almost impossible.
If my owner hadn't agreed to lower his prices, I would probably be on the streets, ”
sighs the 50-year-old.
Trixie Minsk
, a burlesque artist who usually performs on the city's club scene, which has been closed for almost a year, says she tried to put on shows on the internet “
but it doesn't pay off as well as it does in real life, and it's difficult to play in front of a screen
”, she explains,“
I had to reduce my expenses to a minimum so as not to lose my accommodation
”.
In the dining room on Jackson Square, Joseph Campos shows the tables spaced two meters apart in front of the wide open picture windows.
Almost half are unoccupied.
“
Everyone is in pain right now.
Around the corner, at least six or seven restaurants have closed for good, despite being the city's most prosperous locations.
The people from whom we buy our groceries, our fish, our alcohol, are also suffering.
It's a vicious circle, everyone suffers
”.
In his small
downtown
hotel
, opened by his parents fifty years ago, in a historic mansion, Bobby Dunner talks to his accountant on the phone: he made 30% of his usual turnover in 2020. La bankruptcy has so far been avoided, but he is worried.
And seeing so many establishments shut down gives him the blues.
It is, according to him, the very identity of New Orleans that is in danger of disappearing.
“
Small family and independent businesses face the greatest difficulties, they are the ones who close first.
Banks and financial institutions are more likely to protect the institutions that depend on multinational companies or large companies, because there is more money in. In the
E
t
ats States, franchised chains are omnipresent.
New Orleans has always been an exception to this rule, and this is one of the reasons why it owes its uniqueness.
If our small businesses are replaced by these behemoths, we will become a city like any other, and that seems very boring to me
, ”explains the hotelier.
A huge shortfall
Kelly Shulz works at the
tourist
office
, which also had to make redundancies, and the figures she unrolls confirm the terrible impact that the pandemic has had on the city's economy: tourism is at the root of one hundred thousand jobs in New Orleans.
In 2019, the city welcomed more than nineteen million visitors who spent around ten billion dollars.
“
In 2020 when the pandemic arrived, everything stopped.
We have seen a decrease of at least 70% of the sector's activities.
This was a huge economic loss
, ”she explains before specifying,“
tourists' money benefits the entire population.
Taxes on hotel rooms, for example, help us finance our streets, our infrastructure, our school system
.
It was devastating.
"
Quentin Messer chairs the
New Orleans Business Alliance
, which brings together the major economic players in the city.
He now only organizes virtual meetings and only grants interviews via the internet.
And this new mode of communication imposed by the pandemic could, according to him, have a lasting impact on the economy of New Orleans, which lives on tourism, but also on the organization of major professional conferences.
“
Some jobs will disappear permanently,
” he says,
“because some companies will continue to work virtually in the future.
Business travel may not resume until early 2023 and probably at a slower pace.
Companies are now concerned about their carbon footprint, because in addition to the pandemic, we have experienced extreme weather episodes which have increased awareness about the environment.
I think people will adjust their behavior, and be reluctant to jump on a plane to attend a convention or participate in a business meeting that they can organize on the internet.
And this business tourism is an important part of our industry
”.
Seal Dalton in his bar, which has been closed for almost a year.
© Anne Corpet / RFI
All of New Orleans is thus affected by the crisis: the old French quarter, temple of tourism, that of business with its immense deserted convention center, and the outlying districts, where lives a population impoverished by the lack of resources.
Seal Dalton had to close his establishment, a modest café-concert located away from the city center.
Its local clientele, Afro-American, elderly, can no longer afford to come and buy a drink or stay at home for fear of the pandemic.
“
We have been closed since March 15th.
To open with the right to welcome only 25% of my clientele would make me lose money.
I have a loan to pay, my insurance, my taxes, my license, so yes I have a lot of difficulties.
I'm late on all my bills, I had some savings for my retirement, but I have nothing left, I have no more money aside,
”laments the sixty-year-old.
And in a voice broken with emotion, she adds: “
The federal government's program to help small businesses refused my file in May.
I did everything they told me, I sent them all the papers, but then they told me my business was unverifiable!
However, I opened my cafe twenty-three years ago.
But I got nothing, nothing, nothing.
I feel abandoned
… ”.
Benny Jones Senior, drummer of the Treme Brass Band receives food aid from the Krew Red Beans association.
© Anne Corpet / RFI
Help musicians to protect culture, an essential resource
The musicians, those who make the soul and the history of New Orleans are also all very hard hit.
They are prohibited from playing indoors.
Some therefore settle outside, and make the sleeve to survive.
The youngest only, because the oldest, mostly African Americans, know they are fragile in the face of the danger of the coronavirus.
Worried about seeing some great figures of local culture sinking into poverty, or even leaving the city, Devin De Wulf took matters into his own hands.
His association
Krew the Red Beans
, funded only by donations, employs young musicians to go shopping and deliver food to older people through a program called "
nourishing the second line
": intergenerational support that he considers essential for the survival of those who make the heart of New Orleans beat.
"
In that first year, we bought 130,000 dollars worth of food and funded the employment of ninety-seven people at a cost of three hundred thousand dollars,
" says Devin, who explains: "
it is about protecting our culture, an essential resource of our city.
Many musicians are self-employed, some work informally, they find it difficult to collect unemployment benefits from the federal government.
So they are particularly vulnerable and we do our best to hire as many musicians as possible
”.
Paul Thibodeaux, an unemployed musician, is employed within the framework of the “feed the second line” program: he does the shopping for older musicians.
© Anne Corpet / RFI
Equipped with a shopping list where he scrupulously highlights the products he piles up in his shopping cart
,
Paul Thibodeaux, percussionist, one of the musicians hired by Devin de Wulf, walks the aisles of a supermarket.
He shops for Benny Jones Senior, a drummer who leads the
Treme Brass Band.
“
He's an important figure, like a grandfather to me.
I'm happy to save him from having to go to the supermarket to help protect his health
", comments the young man, rummaging in the meat department for chicken drumsticks"
we call that drumsticks here
", He laughs, "
I'm not surprised Benny is crazy about it
."
The 77-year-old drummer quietly awaits his delivery on his porch.
That same morning, he accompanied with his group the funeral of an old musician.
“
Before we did more weddings than funerals,
” he comments soberly.
“I am really grateful for what the association does for all musicians.
I normally make a thousand dollars a week or sometimes more, but with this pandemic, you're lucky when you hit two hundred dollars.
We try to save our money to pay taxes on our group and everything.
Having food on our table is an essential help
”“
Benny is an important person in our community, he taught me a lot about the history of New Orleans, the African-American history
”, adds Paul, taking the food out of the trunk of his little car, "
I need this job to survive, but I would do it on a voluntary basis, you know."
I receive history lessons with each delivery
”.
Life rather than dollars
The restrictions imposed by the city are starting to cringe in New Orleans.
The cancellation of the Mardi Gras carnival, announced just ten days before the deadline in mid-February, aroused the anger of traders.
Some had already filled their stocks in anticipation of a festive week, and were betting on an upturn after a nightmarish year for business.
"
We had to make decisions that had a severe impact on the economy, but we had to choose between the value of life and that of the dollar, and we chose life,
" says Jay Bank, city councilor at the News -Orléans.
“
Even though it is costing us dearly, we have done the right thing for the safety of our citizens.
After the epidemiological disaster that followed carnival last year, New Orleans did an exceptional job of keeping infection numbers lower than anywhere else in the state, and possibly any other city in the same. size of this country
.
It is the continuation of these efforts that will guarantee a return to normalcy,
”he assures us.
In the streets of the old French quarter of New Orleans, the musicians make a living on the few dollars that passers-by give them.
It is little, very little, and yet the magic operates, and the city continues to attract artists.
“
I left New York three months ago to make a living from my music here.
The rents are exorbitant there.
In New Orleans, it's a little cheaper and you can play in the street, that's what saves me.
Honestly it's better than nothing, and it's hot in here.
No one can currently play in the cold streets of New York,
”
testifies Cristina Caminis, who sings in front of a souvenir shop.
“As long as I touch my unemployment benefits, I can survive,”
adds the young woman,
“the money I collect in the street allows me to pay for my phone and my internet subscription.
And practicing my art in front of a few passers-by is essential
”.
Jay Banks, City Councilor "New Orleans is hurt, but it's not dead, we'll get up!"
© Anne Corpet / RFI
Already reservations for next year
Thomas Rey, a Tour Operator who operates in New Orleans is convinced: the Covid will soon be a bad memory, and the city will quickly regain its former face.
“
We received two requests this week: one from a Belgian group of forty-five people for the month of March of next year, and the other for thirty-five people from Mexico, who are counting on the month of february.
I am sure that with the vaccine, we will have a total explosion of tourism next year
, "he confides with enthusiasm, before adding with a big smile:"
We are ready to welcome them, we have had a year to plan a lot!
".
An optimism, a confidence in the future shared by city councilor Jay Banks.
“
New Orleans is damaged, but it is not dead.
We'll do whatever it takes to get up.
We will get over it.
We live in the most resilient city on this planet
”.
Behind his desk, a Superman costume awaits the next carnival on a hanger.
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