2008 Woodie Awards
The party must go on if disaster were to hit San Antonio
By Julie Ann Sanchez
Last update: 5/17/06 at 8:20 AM CST
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The Big Easy was back to its old ways the past two weeks.
As a message to the world that the city will prevail from the beating it took from Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans celebrated its famous Mardi Gras celebration.
Although scaled down, the city was still thumping with crowds, booze and food.
Evidence of Katrina still filled the streets with detritus as floats showed water marks from the floods that inundated the city. Most neighborhoods were still in shambles, but the city of New Orleans felt the show must go on.
When the city decided to celebrate Mardi Gras, many people were critical of how the city could focus on luring back tourists when much of the infrastructure of the city was destroyed or badly damaged.
Many believed the focus and money should go into rebuilding the city, but advocates for Mardi Gras said the celebration would be a money generator that would be beneficial in resurrecting the Big Easy.
The situation is something San Antonio would have to think about if a natural disaster on the same scope and scale happened here. With Fiesta as one of many tourism magnets, would this city put resources toward a party if much of the city was in ruins?
The answer is a qualified yes.
Tourism is San Antonio's second largest industry, Angela McClendon Johnson, community relations manager for the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau, said.
"I think you can never say it could never happen," Johnson said, noting New Orleans' and San Antonio's infrastructure is different.
Tourism is the No. 1 industry in New Orleans, and although the city of New Orleans' mind frame is to rebuild, it also needs to generate revenue, Johnson said.
"It's kind of a catch-22," she said.
If a natural disaster were to hit San Antonio, Johnson said there would have to be a decent timeline before the city begins pushing to bring back tourists or continue Fiesta.
"It's hard to pinpoint a time," she said. "Naturally, everyone wants to get over the shock of what happens."
Bexar County Judge Nelson W. Wolff, a former mayor of San Antonio, was in full support of New Orleans officials deciding to continue with Mardi Gras in the wake of the disaster.
Wolff said Mardi Gras generates a profit of $200 million for the city.
"If you don't have it, people don't have jobs," Wolff said.
Wolff joined Johnson in noting that a city needs time to recuperate after a natural disaster, but San Antonio would need the economic spinoff of Fiesta.
"There has to be a time frame of in-between," Wolff said. "People got to live."
After all, even a sniper couldn't stop the party in 1979.
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