New Orleans: Land of Dreams

I’m walking down Decatur Street on a brisk, rainy night. I’m in the touristy French Quarter, but it’s the off season on a weekday and there’s not much more than a few locals hanging around. The faint sound of simple chords on the piano can be heard in the distance. A crowd of about ten people is gathered around the side of a rundown RV.

I approach to see a humbled audience peering into a large rectangular hole; a window into a miniature living room with a fraying Persian rug, a small stove brewing apple cider and the petite frame of a beautiful woman softly singing folk tunes with the smokiness of Norah Jones and the playfulness of Regina Spektor. We stand together, like a family gathered after dinnertime, protected by the seductive warmth of her lantern-lit nook and steaming mugs of Christmas. A notecard written in sharpie taped to the windowsill kindly states “tips are greatly appreciated.”




The creativity and entrepreneurialism in New Orleans is extraordinary in a country that's dominated by cynicism about low unemployment rates and a tanking economy. It stands outside the nationwide mentality of dashed hopes and persists as arguably the last remaining city where the American dream lives on. On any given day, you’ll see robotic men standing as still as statues, young black teenagers tap dancing on wood planks, poets for hire sitting on the sidewalk with small tables and typewriters, unlicensed vendors walking around with baskets of homemade empanadas, psychics, busking musicians and every other creative type imaginable performing on the street. Anyone can make rent with a good idea on the right corner. In this cash-only city of tips, no one hoards what they make, money quickly flows through hands and, in the most simplistic way, Keynesian economics is at work.

This spirit and potential has inspired thousands of aspiring, young professionals to pour in since Hurricane Katrina. According to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, New Orleans had 501 business startups per every 100,000 adults in the three year period ending in 2012– a rate that exceeded the nation by 56 percent and continues to expand. The supportive community and low cost of living make it a fertile ground for inspired college grads, artists and anyone who’s looking for a way to make money doing what they love without capital. It’s common to meet recent transplants in their twenties from New York, San Francisco or L.A. who impulsively sold all their belongings on Craigslist and hopped on a plane to Louis Armstrong airport with only a few bags. It’s a romantic notion; but in New Orleans, it’s not a foolish one.

Everyone’s trying to get by, but most importantly, they’re having fun while they do it. That’s the American dream, isn’t it? To work for work’s sake; to enjoy what you do so your life doesn’t becoming a means to an end. Well, maybe that’s not everyone’s dream, but carpe diem sure fuels the soul of New Orleans; the city where the impossible really is possible.