{"id":1104,"date":"2005-10-10T23:07:39","date_gmt":"2005-10-11T04:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1104"},"modified":"2005-10-10T23:16:06","modified_gmt":"2005-10-11T04:16:06","slug":"bush-showcases-progress-in-new-orleans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1104","title":{"rendered":"Bush Showcases Progress in New Orleans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Big Easy is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2005\/10\/10\/AR2005101000922.html\">slowly progressing<\/a> to rise from its knees as post-Katrina efforts continue.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>President Bush got a taste of some of New Orleans&#8217; finest attractions Monday in an effort to showcase progress in a hurricane-battered city. The president dined at a French Quarter restaurant before spending the night in a famed luxury hotel.<\/p>\n<p>The president&#8217;s effort to show New Orleans is making progress came even as much of the city remains in ruins.<\/p>\n<p>The historic French Quarter was mostly spared by the storm and is showing increasing signs of normalcy with lights back on and establishments re-opened.<\/p>\n<p>Still, many of New Orleans&#8217; stores and businesses remain closed, relatively few people are on the streets and many areas remain uninhabitable, even if mostly dry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>While I hope for the best for all of the city and all of its residents, I understand the stance of those questioning the value of federal rebuilding efforts of a city so geographically endangered.  That said, my selfish personal concerns lie with a handful of restaurants and other establishments I greatly enjoyed during my one visit there to date.  Chief among these is the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cigarfactoryneworleans.com\/\">Cigar Factory New Orleans<\/a>, whose web site has remained unchanged since well before the storm, leaving one hopeful but uncertain of the shop&#8217;s true status.  Another favorite was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.auntsallys.com\/\">Aunt Sally&#8217;s Praline Shop<\/a>.  According to the Aunt Sally&#8217;s site, they are again open for business, though one is kept from joy at this by the following message:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>All Aunt Sally&#8217;s displaced employees &#8230;we are looking for you.<\/p>\n<p>Contact:  Cathy Appling at : 504 349 0950<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>My best wishes those displaced.  Order either the chocolate pralines (abso-freakin&#8217;-lutely amazing!) or a combo of chocolate and original pralines.  You can rationalize the delicious calories by considering them a personal sacrifice for the New Orleans economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Big Easy is slowly progressing to rise from its knees as post-Katrina efforts continue. President Bush got a taste of some of New Orleans&#8217; finest attractions Monday in an effort to showcase progress in a hurricane-battered city. The president dined at a French Quarter restaurant before spending the night in a famed luxury hotel. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}