Since this column is written a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, and a month pre-Christmas, my “holiday season” mindset gets me thinking about the past year, family, friends and neighbors, the future of OffBeat and New Orleans.
We’re still churning at OffBeat, and we just launched a new website (like it?), which has been a long and tedious time coming, but it’s finally here; nice and responsive and state-of-the-art.
As you may have noticed, we’re paying a lot of attention to our digital presence. We post more content on the website than we do in print while print remains our bread and butter, and we appreciate your subscriptions.
In 2014, we’ve gotten a taste in New Orleans of what it’s like to be the “it city” (I heard it called that the other day by a promoter who’s planning on bringing a lot of shows to the city next year—shows we once were only been able to see in a place like New York City).
New Orleans has become a mecca for the entertainment business, probably based on the fortuitous tax credits, the popularity of shows like NCIS: New Orleans (although that show isn’t really much about New Orleans unlike HBO’s Treme. Not by a long shot).
National television brings more attention to the city: more businesses want to get “in” on New Orleans, more people visiting and moving here.
The downside is that housing costs are sky-high, and costs of “affordable” housing for musicians, writers, artists and other creatives is getting prohibitive.
I heard that in San Francisco a low-end apartment rents for $2,400 monthly. So that means that even if there are two adults working full-time in the household, they still can’t afford an apartment.
There’s something really wrong with that picture, and if we keep going the way we have been, it’s going to be the same in New Orleans.
Music, art, architecture, writing—all creative pursuits—are what make New Orleans the unique city it is. I truly fear that over time, we will be losing our beautiful little enclave, and it will be transmogrified into a Southern city that’s like all the rest. Indeed, we’re surrounded by suburbs that are worlds unto themselves, more similar to Houston and Atlanta.
I think there are still many of us who will fight to the death to keep our artistic environment because this is a city whose culture is worth saving.
This is a season of reflection and thanks. Let us welcome new businesses and newcomers to the city, but let’s show them why and how we love New Orleans, its music and culture and why we just don’t want it to be like “anywhere else.”
