There are no New Orleans secrets.

New Orleans has a few reputations.  It is known as a party town.  It is also known as a gothic town, a haunted town, perhaps the definition of Southern Gothic.   Deep and troublesome secrets lurk in New Orleans' muck and mud.

As I have crisscrossed New Orleans' cityscape, I haven't witnessed much that troubles me no matter how much I read the newspaper.  New Orleans is atmospheric but it doesn't give me the heebie-jeebies or the shudders.  It is probably the least scary place in which I have ever lived aside from my boyhood home in suburban Connecticut.  While the businesses and shades of people's skins are somewhat different from what I grew up with, St. Bernard Avenue is little different from Main Street in Ridgefield, Conn.

I wouldn't say New Orleans needs a super hero.  It wouldn't hurt to give the city a more positive spin, however.

"New London needs a hero" c. 2005.  Courtesy of its current owner, Tambria Moore of that same city.

Some cities need a super hero but New Orleans isn't one of them.  New Orleans doesn't need anything.  It's got everything wrapped up in parti-colored paper wrapped up in a bow.  Content to go its own way, letting the chips fall where they may, letting the good times roll alongside the bad, raising itself by its own ingenuity, New Orleans stands alone.  It may be a bit bruised and scarred but it is set to defy gravity and deny the worst expectations anyone forms against it.  In New Orleans, the future offers 24 karat promise.

It is good to live in New Orleans.  It refreshes the spirit and puts pep in your step.  There are secrets here but there are also joys to be milked that no other city on earth can offer.