As Life Roars Back on Bourbon Street, Locals Question City’s Priorities

At various points along Bourbon Street, people had left flowers, candles, stuffed animals and what appeared to be a tamale wrapped in foil. On the bustling corner of Bourbon and Canal Streets, the outside wall of a Walgreens was covered in handwritten messages:

“We will neva forget.”

“Terror didn’t win.”

Once again, Bourbon Street was a magnet — for residents, for visitors, for those who were stumbling their way through the pain, physical and emotional, unleashed by a staggering display of violence.

“I was there, I was there, I was there,” said Jovon Bell, 45, who lifted his T-shirt to reveal the adhesive patches left on him from his hospital visit.

The attack only underscored how much of a contradiction Bourbon Street could be.

Ryne Hancock is a disc jockey at WTUL, a New Orleans radio station, and a native of the city, who used to work in a restaurant nearby. The area is a dump, he said. (“I can say that,” he added. “You can’t say that.”)

“I hate Bourbon Street,” he said in one breath.

“It represents joy,” he said in another.

These past few days, he has been wrestling with everything he felt after the attack. He wanted to be surrounded by community. He wanted to leave a message for the victims.

So here he was, standing on Bourbon Street.

Campbell Robertson contributed reporting.