Hey there New Orleans, For my city I have HOPE... Our deeply rooted culture and Mardi Gras Indians are no joke. 

Our food is tasty, spiced real nice, it'll set your soul on fire... We got Jazz, Funk, and Brass Bands whatever your heart desire. 

For a city that once drowned and has since been revived... Our poverty stricken neighborhoods still has tears in their eyes. 

Not the 1st, the 3rd, but the 2ndline puts the rhythm in your feet... From the 3rd, 7th, to the 9th ward, we be dancing in the street. 

Hey there New Orleans, for my city I have FAITH... We've endured the deepest struggle, and the Government laughed in our face. 

We've been misportrayed by the media as people we are not... Lord please let my city no longer be "The City That Care Forgot." 

I come from a city of SAINTS, and where Princesses kiss Frogs, and where people continue to love one another even when times are hard. 

But that's the soul of a New Orleanian. Our hearts of Steel will always survive... Not even our Belligerent mayor can bring tears into our eyes. 

Hey there New Orleans, the city that I deeply LOVE... Where your Post Katrina violence sent my brother up above. 

I've Coped, and Cried, and tried to hide when he was laid to rest... But I had to survive and realize, that God always loved him best. 

So you wonder who we be? The people dancing in the street?... Were the French, Spanish, Indian, and Haitian decent that rises above defeat. 

No one can keep us down, we rather SMILE instead of FROWN...And as the water reside the spirits will fly out of purgatory which they were bound.

My Dear New Orleans,

All my life, you have been my touchstone, the place where I fit in and belong. I know the cadence of your heartbeat, the rhythm of your streets. You have shown me life so sweet, it brings joy to my heart and life so hard it makes me cry.

I have learned balance and how to keep it in the New Orleans equation that offers such a wonderful blend of culture, art , lifestyle, spirit and just plain living. These values prevail and continue to thrive, despite the drag and resistance of absent social justice, missing fairness and equal access that are so required to meet the quality of life promise that is yours to grab.

Dear New Orleans, you have shown the world the need to enjoy the fullest range of human experiences from birth to death. You help populate the human landscape with notice and ritual that reminds us of the true value of living. New Orleans,you are rising from a beat down disaster that would have destroyed most and are singing away your blues, dancing up a storm of revival while you take leap after leap of faith that around a near corner, across an overpass, or up a familiar street, a new New Orleans waits for us all.

And we are becoming stronger, better and more hopeful as we see progress marching down streets like a Sunday Secondline. Wave after wave of folks are joining, as the rhythm passes by and the brass band’s echo is calling the still away home.

We are intending ourselves into a new tomorrow where everyone has a good place to live, a decent job, lifelong education and great healthcare that assures wellness and safety that transforms our fear into vital energy. We are finding a new willingness and new ways to work outside our comfort zone, with each other, to create a new zone of well being for everyone.

My dear New Orleans, I was born here, I live my life here and this is where I will someday die. Add me to the long list of New Orleans believers, well wishers and mojo makers who are wanting, working and willing you into a new era of New Orleans brilliance!

Blessings and Best Wishes
From Your Forever Daughter

Carol 

Dear New Orleans,

Thank you.  

Thank you for opening up your city to us. For allowing us to witness your resilience the past four years.  
I have been here 921 days. 922 days ago,  I knew your city as New Or-leens.  

In the scheme of things,  my love affair with your hometown has only just begun. But I think it's time to tell you some things about us  --  post-Katrina transplants,  upwardly mobile 20- and 30-somethings who often have little familial connection to Southern Louisiana.  

Some people say we are a generation of altruism. A demographic of go-getters and big dreamers. We are typically teachers,  non-profit staffers and faith-based workhorses. I do believe,  more or less,  that most of us came with genuine intentions.  

But somewhere along the line,  behind the big ideas and world-beating attitudes,  working in New Orleans became the thing to have on a resume.  
And that's OK. As long as we,  the transplants,  recognize this and are honest with ourselves.  

I'm all for idealism. I'm all for world-beaters. But,  transplants must all remember that native New Orleanians are a courageous and competent bunch. We will learn more from you than you'll ever learn from us.  

I realized this two years ago when a New Orleanian told me he's a little tired of the idealistic newcomers who think they've "come to save our shipwreck from itself."  

My time in New Orleans has taken me inside the mayor's office,  up to the governor's mansion into conversations and opportunities that I'd never dreamed of having at 24,  25 or 26. You've opened your city to us and let us take risks,  make moves and even screw up.  

I realize now more than ever before that New Orleans will be more advantageous to me than the opposite.  

Know this,  though: Whenever I hear a new person say they're here to change the world or save this city,  I caution them with the words I received very early on here: We aren't here to save anything. What transplants must realize,  and what I try to subtly say to every newcomer is this: Listen more than you speak and know New Orleans will be just fine with or without us.  

We know we're a small piece to your story. Most of us will wake up old one day and cherish the memories you've shared and made with us. There's nothing like being along for the ride. It's your successes and struggles,  complexities and compassion that make New Orleans a beautiful,  mysterious and enchanting place.  

Thanks for having us. 

Sincerely,

Robert Fogarty

FOURTEEN REASONS TO LOVE NEW ORLEANS 

For months after Carnival, beads slap in the trees.

For breakfasts of brown gravy and crawfish étouffée.

For potholes, flying roaches, and rainstorms at three.

For Who Dat! and Where Y’at? and Jockomo fe nané.

For the city wakes to streetcars turning St. Charles to song.

For the crescent-and-star meters and the flags of fleurs-de-lis.

For the rills of Fess, that mother of K-Doe, and the horn of Armstrong.

For the tombs of St. Louis #1 and a bus named Cemeteries.

For red beans and potlikker and corn machoux.

For funeral marches down Camp Street with a doo-rag in hand.

For I bet a dollar I can tell where you got those shoes.

For the street call Rebirth! stands for more than a brass band.

For the neighbors and loves we lost to the flood.

For after the storm, we picked up hammers and wood.