In New Orleans the climate is always right for having fun.
Let the good times and the thunder roll.
New Orleans’ Crescent City Connection
New Orleans may be the most fragrant city in the world. The scents are ubiquitous and intoxicating. Sweet olive mingles with gardenias; the magnolias intertwine with honeysuckle and night-blooming jasmine. The air is dense and sweet, drifting like currents along the river breezes.
Fragrance, however, is our only atmospheric excess. Unlike the Northwest, we tan rather than rust in the summer. Unlike the Northeast, we seldom freeze in the winter.
True, occasionally it rains with tropical abandon, making music as the drops hit wide banana leaves and palm fronds. But the torrents are short-lived. And the original city planners chose high ground for the French Quarter, so it doesn’t flood.
The climate here is mild and pleasant most of the year— a cross between the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. If you’re looking for a fantasyland, New Orleans’ weather edges out even Disneyworld, site of an imitation French Quarter and mini-Mardi Gras parades. According to the National Weather Service, you can enjoy the originals in a milder climate.
New Orleans heads the list of America’s most fascinating cities. We think it’s the greatest place to live or visit on the planet. But it’s not the biggest.
Greater Metropolitan New Orleans extends about 360 square miles (200 land, 160 water) through the parishes (local equivalent of counties) of Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard and Plaquemines. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, our population in the city proper was only about 485,000, with a total of about 1,034,000 in the metro area. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the household population has dropped. According to the U.S. Postal Service (source: Times-Picayune, Nov. 29, 2006), there are about 200,000 people in the city proper, though the metro population numbers remain at roughly 1 million.
Though 2005 and 2006 tourism numbers were affected by Hurricane Katrina, the Crescent City has traditionally hosted more than eight million visitors annually. The industry anticipates that tourism numbers should return to within 90 to 100 percent of pre-Katrina statistics by 2008.
One of the largest ports in the U.S., New Orleans is at the center of the world’s busiest port complex: Louisiana’s Lower Mississippi River. The Port’s facilities, which include 22 million square feet of cargo handling area and 6 million feet of covered storage area, accommodate an average of 2,000 vessel calls per year. One of the country’s leading general cargo ports, New Orleans tops the U.S. market share for import steel, natural rubber, plywood and coffee. Amazingly, within six months of Hurricane Katrina, which disrupted port activity dramatically in September and October of 2005, the Port of New Orleans had regained 100 percent of cargo ship calls.
Louisiana is a rich state, and much of its salt, food and agricultural products, sulphur, petroleum and natural gas passes through the Port of New Orleans en route to northern climes or to Central and South America. Because of its importance as a gateway of trade between the Americas, New Orleans is also a thriving financial center.
But our greatest product is our way of life. It can’t be manufactured or duplicated. It can only be experienced.
This material may be reproduced for editorial purposes of promoting New Orleans. Please attribute stories to the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.
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The Sweet Smell of Excess