There is a sad beauty to this city. I was struck by this thought this morning as I mused on friends who wanted to move or friends who were moving. I was reminded of those people who chose to stay in Cuba, especially Havana, which is a harsh life to say the least. At this point, anyone who really wants to leave Cuba can, yet there are many who still choose to stay. Whatever that motivation, I believe it is related to the reason so many people live here their entire lives, even though it is a struggle at times.
Since I spend about 75% of my work time either in or thinking about New Orleans but live in Austin, I am often asked to compare the two places. I spent the last five years of my life as a highly visible, highly vocal booster of New Orleans, so many people I meet are surprised when they hear that we have settled, at least for the near term, in Austin. For Cassie and me, the decision to stay in Austin was pretty easy. We didn't have any assets to protect in New Orleans. Our house was pretty thoroughly destroyed so there was no hurry to come back. We also wanted to find some degree of stability for our son; New Orleans is a dynamic place right now and since he had already spent about a fourth of his life in evacuation/gypsy mode, we decided we would try to give him a rest. So we arbitrarily chose Austin off the map. It was a reasonably short drive away from New Orleans. It was the only really progressive city in Texas. Much like New Orleans, it's a blue island in a sea of...
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