It was a cultural accident. Not conscious process.

but it wouldn't be the historical New Orleans.

The unique culture here is a product of the people. The population has always been a rich mix that brought out the best of New Orleans -- the music, the food. I'm not sure you can re-create that. But there is an opportunity to attack the issues of poverty and race now. The slate ... has been wiped almost clean.

Once you scatter the people, I don't know that you're going to be able to capture the past. You may come up with something new, you might be able to help the poverty and the problems that became so manifest during the hurricane, and that might be to the good. But it wouldn't be the historical New Orleans.

When I taught at the University of Houston in the Creative Writing program, we required the poets to take workshops in fiction writing, and we required the fiction writers to take workshops in poetry.

An event like this can be the proverbial straw that breaks the market's back.