“What is Zellomania and is it worth my valuable time?” should be your initial questions. Here are your answers.
When I relocated to New Orleans 20 years ago, the population had been steadily decreasing since 1980 by a couple 1,000 people a year (Did you know the same is the case for 2022 and 2023?). I didn’t move because of marketing or based on a trend. At the time I’d been looking to head out of the country, and frankly, New Orleans felt like a wholly other part of the world itself. A place to immerse in and try to figure out. Michael Allen Zell did not exist then, only a shy person who got tongue-tied trying to pronounce “beignet” and “Biguenet.”
But yes, I moved to New Orleans in 2003, two years before Hurricane Katrina/The Storm/Federal Flood blew in, grabbed the calendar, and flipped it forward in one perhaps-irreparable swoop to do what had already been incrementally occurring. I somehow intuited in this sinking city with sinking population that the people had a strong abiding spirit that couldn’t be shaken. The promise of a new day.
Maybe that was just the outsider in me talking. I know now, thanks to a piece by The Data Center, that over ½ the city’s residents have zero net financial worth, that “fully 32% of all Black households in New Orleans live in poverty, compared to only 10% of white households.” I know now the flip side of what thrilled me back in 2003—the charm of buying a drink & tipping the band instead of a cover charge on Frenchmen St. means most musicians are struggling. And I know now, if you want to wrap Daoist dualism around your brain, that New Orleans is both the most and least American city.
You might be wondering why I’m focusing so much on population. It’s simply this—New Orleans is definitely about place, a unique one for sure, but what is a city without people? A vibrant, confounding, joyful, cranky, hardy & hearty, listless & unhealthy, blessed & stressed people filled with miles of style. I knew there were layers back in those last few days before The Storm bounced so many out of the greater New Orleans area that it took sixteen years to get back to pre-Katrina levels. No question, layers. And mystery.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Zellomania to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.