Returning to the scene of the crime

One of our first stops in NOLA was the office of New Orleans Publishing Group in the Heritage Plaza Building along the Metairie side of the 17th Street Canal (yes, THAT 17th Street Canal).

We were joined by Julie Bernard (on left), one of only four people remaining at NOPG who date back to our tenure in the mid-1990s.
We found a copy of the 15th anniversary edition of New Orleans CityBusiness in Julie's office. We all worked on that edition, and the back pages featured photos of the staff. I'm standing in the back right corner in this shot.
This was my view from my cubicle on the top floor of the building. That's the 17th Street Canal on the left - the levee break during Hurricane Katrina came near it's end in the upper-left corner of the pic. Everything to the right of the canal was flooded and destroyed.

If you look really hard at the upper center of the pic on the right, you'll see New Orleans' Central Business District. I loved watching clusters of pelicans fly in formation along the canal in the afternoon and CBD glass skyscrapers explode in a burst of orange during sunsets in the fall.

Apparently, a trip to Heritage Plaza wouldn't be complete without a stop at the drive-thru daiquiri shop a few blocks away. In Louisiana, carrying a daiquiri in a car is legal as long as the lid is on the top of the cup and a straw is on the side.