DukeEngage | Duke Center for Civic Engagement

“When you see the Garden District, you’ll be wondering why you’re here.” This is what I was told as I rode from the airport to Loyola University where we would be staying for the next six weeks. Sure enough, the Garden District of New Orleans is absolutely beautiful…the flowers, the trees, and especially the houses. It’s clearly an affluent part of town. So for the past week, I have been living here and commuting downtown to the Health Institute for work via the St. Charles streetcar. Interestingly enough, at the moment it’s St. Charles street and not the more prominent Bourbon that is my favorite street here so far…It’s lined with shops, clubs and restaurants that I am looking forward to visiting.
Thus far, my Duke Engage trip sounds suspiciously like a vacation…so maybe the question that I was told I would pose to myself, “Why am I here?” is one that I should think about. And after two days in the Garden District I was prepared to do so. Well, interestingly enough that was the amount of time I needed to find my answer.
What I’ve learned about New Orleans so far is that it seems like several different cities instead of just one. The affluent Garden District is just one part of the story. I experienced another part of the story when a group of us were hungry on the way to one of what I am sure will be many Wal-Mart runs. Being new to the city, of course we had to stop for Po Boys. Instead of opting for a fancy restaurant, we went to a random hole-in-the-wall where you can find the best ones (remember this!). It was a neighborhood place on Washington Avenue, where everyone who usually comes in is from close by. So when we rolled up 10 deep in our van and walked in, the inquisitive stares we received made it clear that people knew that we weren’t’ from around.
So we ordered, got our food, and ate in front of this place, all sitting down in a line on the curb. This was both my first introduction to New Orleans humid heat (I thought I was ready for the heat being from Atlanta, but this humidity is not a joke…it makes a difference!), and to another New Orleans…a part that didn’t have houses that could make it on cribs. I didn’t feel unsafe or uncomfortable, but I no longer felt like a tourist. By the time I’d eaten all I could of my shrimp Po Boy, we noticed a homeless guy. He asked us where we were from, and we told him that we went to Duke in North Carolina. He told us if we wanted to kidnap him and take him back with us, he would tie his arms together himself, because it had to be better back there than it was here. We laughed at his dry humor and when we were ready to throw our food away, he gave us a box and told us to put our leftover in it, because he knew people who would want it. So we did this, and we left. Back in the van, I thought about the reasons why I had initially decided to come to New Orleans, and I decided that my preconceived notions weren’t necessarily correct. The city has made a lot of progress, and it is a lot different from the images that I saw on the news two years ago. But going to the city and just seeing the Garden District is misleading as well…the city isn’t perfect either. The reason that I’m here is because there’s still a lot of work to be done.