March 31, 2006

By SUKI DARDARIAN
President, Associated Press Managing Editors Association

Dardarian

New Orleans is a city of contrasts. Houses battered into kindling just miles from a thriving neighborhood. Boarded-up storefronts not far from the bustling French Quarter. Despair and grief one moment; joyful celebration the next.

This is what recovery looks like for the city where APME is scheduled to hold its 2006 conference this fall.

Our newspapers' pages recently told the six-month anniversary story of what has changed — and what has not — since Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. And it has prompted some of you to ask: Will New Orleans really be able to host us? And do we really want to go there?

We've explored those and other questions, and we've learned that not only will New Orleans be ready for us, but the folks there are excited for us to come. It is, editors and convention industry folks there say, a way to help the city rebuild itself. It is important to them that we do this.

And I think it's important to us that we do this, too.

There are good reasons for journalists to gather in a place that experienced our country's worst natural disaster. It will be a place to explore leadership during critical times, to talk about reinvention, rebuilding. It will be a place to deepen our conversations about the power of online journalism. (And, of course, it will be a place to talk about emergency planning.)

And in a community with so rich a history in storytelling — in art, music, religion, even food — what better place to explore the craft? And where else would you really want to celebrate great journalism?

But, you're thinking, will The Times-Picayune really be able to host us? Will the hotel be in decent shape? And will there truly be reason for merry-making?

First, the Times-Picayune will indeed host our visit. Managing Editor Peter Kovacs and Executive Editor Jim Amoss have been unwavering in their commitment to the conference, even as their newspaper has remade itself to cover a different community in different ways.

When APME Executive Director Mark Mittelstadt, Conference Program Chair Donna Reed and I visited New Orleans earlier this year, the staff of the Times-Picayune hosted a powerful brainstorming session. Yes, it will take a village to run this conference, but we have some very inspired partners in planning: Editor Stan Tiner of The Sun Herald in Biloxi, whose community similarly struggles to recover; Managing Editor Carl Redman of The Advocate in Baton Rouge; AP Bureau Chief Hank Ackerman; and Jay Shelledy and Larry Snipes of Louisiana State University.

These journalists want us to visit their communities, to experience their story. You've heard others say this, and you will, too: It's almost impossible to grasp the magnitude of the tragedy in the Gulf until you stand amid the ruins.

Kovacs drove us through the most stricken areas of New Orleans. We saw block after block of flattened homes. He steered his car around houses that had been pushed into the middle of the street by flood waters. White FEMA trailers dotted the curbs in otherwise uninhabitable communities. Blue tarps covered most of the roofs. And we had little trouble imagining the power of the water as it overwhelmed the 17th Street levee as we looked at the huge holes ripped into houses just yards away.

After the tour, we agreed to book time and to charter buses so conference attendees could witness the devastation, too. It's clear there will still be much to see come October.

And now the contrasts: back in the French Quarter, we ate great food, listened to music and watched the street theater. A few weeks later, the city's streets were filled with Mardi Gras floats and celebrations.

And right at the corner of Canal and Bourbon streets is our hotel — the Astor Crowne Plaza. Our stay there was pleasant (as was the beer and the plate of oysters at the oyster bar), and the hotel managers and staff were great hosts. They're determined to show us a good time in October.

Anyone who doubts the hotel's resolve need only hear the story of how it cared for its guests during and after Katrina and how it took in evacuees from around the region in the months that followed. These are people who searched the city for ice and generators, hauled containers of fuel up the stairs and did everything necessary to keep the hotel functioning during the flooding.

The hotel, mostly undamaged by the storm, endured some wear and tear in the aftermath. It is now renovating some of the meeting space and guest rooms. Between conference sessions, we'll be able to stroll out onto their second-floor balconies and watch the street scenes below.

There's no denying the city is battered. But while its population and infrastructure are weakened, the resolve of those who remain there is strong. Chat with a cab driver, a displaced resident, a newspaper staffer, and you'll feel the commitment to keep going, the passion of the human spirit to rebuild.

And in New Orleans, you'll almost certainly see the wink of the eye as well. Humor has helped them get by, from spray-painted jokes on the sides of homes and cars in devastated areas to Mardi Gras themes such as the "Blue Tarp Blues" and "C'est Levee."

So it's with that resolve — and that sense of spirit — that we'll continue working on our plans for a successful conference this fall in New Orleans.

We hope you'll join us.