I’m fairly sheltered from the destruction and loss of the hurricane where I live. I work and sleep in the sliver of the city that was spared almost everything. I don’t have to drive through destroyed areas if I don’t want to. So, sometimes things don’t look bad at all.

There are many signs of good things to come. There is a shuffle of garbage that changes daily. Every morning, I notice new large piles of trash curb-side (these include gutted sheet-rock, furniture, etc). They build up until suddenly they are all gone and the cycle begins again. I was asked yesterday by a new tenant in Meg’s builidng when the garbage gets picked up. I just laughed. Before the hurricane, garbage was picked up two days every week. A month ago they announced that each area of the city would have one pickup day a week. They haven’t been able to keep up, so no one knows when their next pickup will be. I don’t mind. They seem to be doing a decent job… the garbage is going away slowly but surely.

Restaurants are also a good indicator of areas that are returning. New ones seem to open every day. For those of you not here, what’s not being reported is that all of the restaurants open with limited menus. The first time that I went to Lucy’s, they only had 3 things that you could order. Happily, the menus seem to be getting much larger. A friend of mine sent me a link yesterday to a handy site that keeps track of all open New Orleans restaurants.