New Orleans in the age of coronavirus is quiet and strange. But like after Katrina, musicians and artists are planning a revival

Creativity is the underlying pulse that gives New Orleans life, not death, and it’s in quarantine. Walking the streets and funky neighborhoods of New Orleans makes you crave the city’s rhythmic heartbeat. This city is quiet, and without music dancing in the air, it’s like Mardi Gras without bead-drenched parades. It just doesn’t feel right.

“Is it like Katrina in New Orleans?” is the question that keeps recurring. It’s the event by which all disasters are measured. And it’s the only way of getting close to offering any insight into what it’s like living in one of the coronavirus hot spots outside New York City. But the question falls short. It doesn’t completely capture what’s happening.Time in New Orleans is measured by Hurricane Katrina. Life events happened either before or after the storm. But in 2005, New Orleans residents largely escaped the the floodwaters. Many were forced to live apart from their hometown for a time but returned to a city in recovery.
In the coronavirus pandemic, there’s nowhere to go. The city is left to live in the disaster.
“It feels like Katrina and the Katrina recovery mashed into one,” said New Orleans City Councilman Jason Williams. “The streets are eerily quiet. You see people walking, but it’s not the vibrant city we’re all used to.”
Many French Quarter bars and stores are boarded up like there’s a hurricane brewing in the Gulf of Mexico and no one knows when it will make landfall. But at least when a storm is coming, the bars stay open until the last possible moment.
On a recent Friday night, the most exciting scene on Bourbon Street was watching Jarvis Davis work the corner, drumming up business for one of the few restaurants still selling take-out dinners. Davis, 62, has worked in the French Quarter since he was 8 years old. As a kid, he used to sneak out of his house to perform tap dancing shows for tips from tourists. Now, he’s known as Mr. Bourbon.These streets are home, and he’s never seen it this quiet. The French Quarter rats have had the run of the usually energetic streets, which has been a source of comedy and disgust. Jarvis is undaunted, but he’s alone out here hustling business.
“I’m talking to myself. Me, the rats and I. We’re pretty much having a good time, a little conversation every night,” Jarvis said with an infectious grin and laugh.