Entercom had its managers meetings in New Orleans this year, and since my return I haven’t stopped thinking about my experience there. Outside of the conference itself, we had several planned excursions into the city itself, all of which changed the way I think about New Orleans.

From a tourist’s perspective, the French Quarter and Bourbon Street look really unchanged since Katrina. What most tourists know of New Orleans was bustling: stores, restaurants and clubs were open at all hours (which I love) and there was a vibe; a melding of art, music, alcohol, and history which I really haven’t seen anywhere else.

The first couple of nights I honestly wondered what all the fuss was about: I mean, Brad and Angelina live here now, the Superdome is rebuilt, everything is as it was, right?

Then we took a tour through the residential neighborhoods closer to Lake Ponchartrain; block after block of boarded up windows, empty schools and businesses, parks overgrown and filled with debris. Above is a home in the formerly desirable Lakeview area, showing how high the water line used to be. There were too many homes like this to count.

It’s been 18 months, and the sense I got driving through these areas was: why are there still so many homes like this? The tour guide said there are still dozens of homes that haven’t even been opened since the flood, which I found astounding.

Outside of Lakeview was row upon row of former rental housing – deserted. This is where the people working in the French Quarter used to live. I wondered where they live now, and what would possess landlords to just abandon their property? Needless to say, it was an eye-opening experience for me.

The folks at Entercom gave back to the community the Saturday we were there, clearing a city park of brush, trash, and debris. Here we see the Buffalo team, and me covered in river mud.

Without getting too political, let me just pose this question: what would my Katrina bus tour have looked like had just 10% of the money currently being drained into the sands of Iraq been spent helping New Orleans instead? I talked with so many normal, everyday Louisiana folks last week that just wanted help, and they couldn’t get it. Whatever your political persuasion, that’s a sad commentary, and shows a warped sense of priorities.

Ultimately, I liked New Orleans a lot. Don’t believe all the bad things you hear lately – I had a great time, walking around the French Quarter and along the riverfront, and I felt completely safe. During Friday night’s dinner at historic Antoine’s, the oldest continually run restaurant in the country (founded 1840), our party was nearly alone in the main dining hall. I asked Cedric, our waiter, what a Friday night would have been like pre-Katrina. He said “we probably would have still been seating people.”

That says a lot about New Orleans 2007. Check out this site if you’d like to get involved.

–Brian