In January, the city’s tourism industry got a boost when Zagat Survey released its first New Orleans guidebook since Katrina. The 2007 Best of New Orleans Survey covers nearly 400 restaurants, 94 nightspots, 29 tourist attractions, and 18 leading hotels. In the survey, 83 percent of locals report eating out as much or more than they did before Katrina, and 79 percent say their favorite restaurant is back in business. Nearly a quarter of New Orleans residents surveyed say Creole is their favorite cuisine.
Grassroots efforts are making headway. For instance, the White Boot Brigade, a project of Loyola University’s Market Umbrella, is trying to rescue the Louisiana wild shrimp harvest. It is creating new direct markets with consumers who will shun imports for the freshness, quality, and taste of Gulf shrimp, which are smaller and have a different flavor than farm-raised imports. So far, the program has supported the efforts of nearly 10,000 shrimper families in the region. In February, Whole Foods Market and Harry’s Farmer’s Market donated $2 for every Mardi Gras bouquet, $1 for every King Cake, and $1 for each pound of Creole catfish fritters sold to the White Boot Brigade. Even before the hurricanes, shrimp imports were challenging domestic production, which had fallen to just 12 percent of the U.S. market, according to Jerald Horst, professor of fisheries at LSU’s Agricultural Center Sea Grant Program.
Of course, it takes residents—farmers, shrimpers, fishers, and trappers—to harvest those products, process them, and take them to market. And the region is struggling to keep its residents. Last summer, Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, the Louisiana Recovery Authority, and the Office of Community Development launched The Road Home, the largest single housing recovery program in U.S. history. As of February 20, the program had received and recorded 109,053 applications, totaling $3.49 billion in benefits. But statistics from December show the number of houses for sale in the greater New Orleans area peaked at a level not seen since the late 1980s, while the number of home sales had been trending downward since last June, according to the Brookings Institution.
The Ledet family of St. Bernard Parish are among those who will probably be able to stay in their family home and business. Thirteen years ago, Lisa Ledet inherited her mother’s softshell crab business. She and her husband, Wayne, lived and worked together on Bayou Loutre. On August 29, 2005, a wall of water nearly 30 feet high rushed over their crab shedding facility and washed it out into the marsh—along with nearly every other crabbing business in the area.
This spring the Ledet family, along with nine other crabbing families, are open for business during the softshell crab season, thanks to the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center. For crabbers, the softshell season is critical: While hard crabs bring only a few dollars per dozen, softshell crabs can bring $35 to $40 per dozen.