John Kucko: Welcome from New Orleans
Updated: January 27, 2013
By John Kucko:
Welcome from The Big Easy. Got here this afternoon and was greeted by gridlock traffic. Why? Because a Mardi Gras parade (the King Arthur parade) was held today. This is all leading up to the massive Mardi Gras which is a couple of weeks away. Beads were flying and crowds gathered as major streets such as Canal Street, were closed for the festivities. Never seen anything like it and can only imagine what this will be like when hundreds of thousands of visitors arrive here by week's end.
Spent time around the Superdome on Sunday night. The NFL did a nice job of shrink wrapping the outside of the dome with various 49ers and Ravens photos (see pictures in our photo gallery). The NFL spares no expense when it comes to dressing the host city in EVERYTHING Super Bowl. It's quite impressive and extremely expensive.
Locals are excited to have the game back here. The city of New Orleans has physically recovered nicely from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, but as one local business owner told me. It's the emotional damage that still lingers. The Super Bowl will go a long way toward repairing that hurt, not to mention will pump upward of half a billion dollars into the local economy.
Welcome from The Big Easy. Got here this afternoon and was greeted by gridlock traffic. Why? Because a Mardi Gras parade (the King Arthur parade) was held today. This is all leading up to the massive Mardi Gras which is a couple of weeks away. Beads were flying and crowds gathered as major streets such as Canal Street, were closed for the festivities. Never seen anything like it and can only imagine what this will be like when hundreds of thousands of visitors arrive here by week's end.
Spent time around the Superdome on Sunday night. The NFL did a nice job of shrink wrapping the outside of the dome with various 49ers and Ravens photos (see pictures in our photo gallery). The NFL spares no expense when it comes to dressing the host city in EVERYTHING Super Bowl. It's quite impressive and extremely expensive.
Locals are excited to have the game back here. The city of New Orleans has physically recovered nicely from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, but as one local business owner told me. It's the emotional damage that still lingers. The Super Bowl will go a long way toward repairing that hurt, not to mention will pump upward of half a billion dollars into the local economy.
