Went to a nice party last week presented by the Preservation Resource Center to discuss their “Ladies in Red” gala on June 10. I love going to small parties and hanging out with interesting, intelligent people who make me think. Now, you say, everyone likes to do that, but I differ in that opinion. Sometimes you just want to hang, not think, get loose and relax. Being an adrenaline junkie, I prefer people with provocative ideas that turn me on, that put my mind into overdrive. There’s so much to think about and hopefully put into action!

New Orleans is a great city for ideas. This is one of the richest, most creatively fertile places on earth, and what we lack in manufacturing jobs, we make up in artistic endeavor. I bet we have more creative people per square inch in New Orleans than anywhere else in the South. My attitude is that we as a city have the unique opportunity to recreate ourselves as an artistic (musical, of course) Mecca, rather than a playtime city.

At this party, I got to spend some time with one of my favorite folks, George Schmidt, artist, musician, writer, raconteur, historian and true New Orleans character (Schmidt and his band, the New Leviathan Oriental Fox-Trot Orchestra, were the subjects of our cover story in October 2003). George told me some fantastic stories about Storyville and his extremely plausible theory about why Storyville was closed (has to do with beer and Germans, actually, but that’s an article George should write for OffBeat some day!). George speaks at local schools and noticed that in several local private schools’ advertising pitch, they showed kids as future doctors “in Baltimore” or future actors “on Broadway.” (Guess which gender was which; if you’re a New Orleanian, you know.)

But I digress. George questioned why these wonderful private schools were grooming smart, young, educated people to leave the city, and pitching it to their parents.

Why aren’t we educating our kids on the unique value of the city they live in? Why aren’t we encouraging them to stay in New Orleans to preserve our wonderful little slice of this earth and make it better by putting our entire culture—not just Mardi Gras—on a pedestal?

Yes, we love our Mardi Gras traditions: costuming, music and food, parading, partying with friends and family. But unless we can keep the best and brightest involved in coming up with creative ideas to help New Orleans rise above the “Mardi Gras mentality” we don’t have a lot of hope to bring the city back to the Queen of the South it once was and should be again.