A new year means a new issue of Towerview. And as this issue hits the stands, New Orleans-area residents are gearing up for Mardi Gras 2006 celebrations, set to begin February 11. But this year things will be different.
Hurricane Katrina's wreckage still haunts the city. Many of the city's former citizens are still displaced in places like Houston, Atlanta and Baton Rouge. But people are coming back. And the first influx started with the January return of the thousands of college students who call New Orleans home. They know the show must go on.
But while New Orleans folk have always excelled at letting the good times roll, it is hard to ignore the destruction. Houses lay crumpled underneath barges. Supplies and resources are limited. This month writer Ryan McCartney and photographer Chad Custer take us back to the Crescent City, where they find that even five months after Katrina hit, life isn't easy in the Big Easy.
McCartney visits with some of the Tulane students we profiled back in October as they settle back into life at their school. He found Olivia Watson, who spent last semester at Duke, on a pier near the cruise ship she now calls home. Watson took McCartney and Custer aboard the ship (above), where they saw first-hand the small cabins and berths previously restricted from the media-and the struggles of maintaining a healthy student life on a floating residence hall. Throughout the city, from the wharf to the Lower Ninth Ward, McCartney found ordinary people with extraordinary experiences-people like Mike Serio, who owns a deli near the French Quarter, and Kate Schafer, a Tulane senior and editor of the school's newspaper. Schafer gives us her own insights on putting the pieces back together.
The new year also brings reflection over the past year, and video gaming, it seems, is one technological trend that has exploded in recent months. Sarah Kwak's "X-Jocks" (page 26) explores the burgeoning world of gaming, which has turned everyday Blue Devils into Halo Heroes and Xbox junkies. But gaming at Duke isn't limited to dorm rooms. Kwak finds academics and scholars who have embraced gaming as a science of the future and courses and programs which may position Duke as a leader in the study of the sport.
But who knows if this is video gaming's peak-or just the beginning? And only time will tell if New Orleans will ever fully recover from Katrina's reach. The future is uncertain, but we're hoping for the best. Here's to a new beginning, a new year and endless possibilities.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.