More prosperous uptown neighborhoods also have their challenges. Hilton general manager Joe Rabhan took early retirement after 25 years with the hotel chain and, on Aug. 31, 2001, had his loan application approved to buy a 17-room bed-and-breakfast on St. Charles Avenue, one of America's most beautiful boulevards. Eleven days later, terrorists killed 3,000 and, incidentally, tourism for a time. By 2005 Rabhan was finally prospering: Then came Katrina and more economic pain. Is he glad that he became a New Orleans entrepreneur? "Absolutely. There's nothing like being your own boss. . . . We've had 200 small weddings here. And we don't have people carrying on late at night, or husbands and wives screaming at each other, stuff I saw in the big hotel business all the time."
Probably the key human determinant of New Orleans' future, though, will be those striding through an educational system into which new resources are being poured. Arielle Joseph, one of six African-American middle-school girls on an early July field trip to a bank, is finishing her third summer in an all-day program funded by Breakthrough, a nonprofit that hopes to increase educational opportunity for students like her. Throughout the summer Arielle and others come to school at 8:15 for breakfast, then have morning classes (class size: 5-9 students) in English, math, science, and social studies.
In the afternoon teachers offer elective classes on subjects like film history, rocket science, fashion design, and mural painting. As Katrina was about to hit, Arielle's mom and grandma took her to Baton Rouge, and she went on to Houston before being able to come back. Conditions were "nasty," and Arielle is now determined to make things better for herself and others: Her goal is to do well in high school, go to Harvard and then law school—and to come back to New Orleans to practice family law.