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.The majority of the Quarter s banquettes havenot been repaved in decades.Their cracks and fissures collect trash and stag-nate liquids.Before Hurricane Katrina, the city s drainage system was considered amarvel.After large-scale reconstruction from about 1900 to 1940, most of thecity s open drainage ditches and canals were covered and serviced by pumps.6New Orleanians fondly remarked that their city had more miles of canalsthan Venice.7The additional drainage caused widespread subsidence of existingstructures.It also opened up new land in the old back o town swamp forthose who thought man could overrule nature forever.8 Heavy rains mightcause some street flooding elsewhere, but the high ground of the old naturallevee the sliver by the river stayed mostly dry.That rainy-day comfortdepends on catch basins, called storm drains anywhere else.They are nor-mally ignored, and often confused with sanitary drains.The Quarter s catchbasins swallow rainwater, wash water, pollutants, go-cups, food, and at leastone cell phone the author s.Eventually, if all goes well, everything winds upin the lake, another frequently forgotten fact.To work, they must be cleanedout at intervals a nasty business for the strong of stomach.Even beforeKatrina, merchants were complaining that the Vieux Carré catch basins werenot being promptly cleaned after Fat Tuesday.Backed-up filthy water wasdashed all over pedestrians by passing vehicles.9 The catch basins were even-tually cleaned.The Bourbon Street Alliance, a group of over eighty Quar-ter firms, welded metal mesh screens over the catch basins along Bourbonfrom the 900 block to Canal and one block either side.The mesh screens keptsolid waste from clogging the drains and allowed street sweepers to scoop upsolid debris.10 By 2007 wear and tear from truck traffic had abraded the meshscreens and they needed replacement.11Animal droppings had been a common sight on Quarter streets for cen-turies, baking in the sun.At the end of the twentieth century, the last remain-ing draft animals were mules drawing tourist buggies.The compost-like muledroppings were a frequently cited nuisance.Councilwoman Clarkson fittedthe mules with canvas diapers.12 That helped, but as any parent knows, diaperssometimes leak.Dogs also walk the banquettes, and even though picking up is now ingrained into owners, merde de chien remains an ambulatory hazard. interlude: time and life in the quarter 197When I lived in the Quarter in the mideighties, my friends and I called thestretch of Ursulines between Bourbon and Dauphine Rue Doggie Deux forits plentiful canine souvenirs.Regulations and public training are all essential, but the city s famed heatand humidity work to create and waft pungent smells during most of the year.A native friend gave me a valuable tip for dealing with seafood shells.Hefroze them until garbage day and then put them out for collection.Hosing down sidewalks is a daily ritual for business owners, and someresidents do it also.A few hardy souls splash a little ammonia on the ban-quette to cut the eternal grubby film.In 2006, the city let a new sanitation contract, with SDT Waste & DebrisServices, LLC.In a few months, residents and visitors noticed a new cleanli-ness in the Quarter, even after Carnival.This remarkable transformation wonplaudits even from long-time residents.13 During the French Quarter Festivalof April 2007, I noticed the SDT personnel cleaning up while the festival wasin progress.This, in contrast to years past, when city sanitation tended to waituntil festivities ended before moving in to clean up.SDT even washes the streetswith a lemon-scented solution.14 One can hope that this level of attention willendure and the Quarter will get a new reputation, one for cleanliness.A Day in the QuarterTo Americans who often think of 1776 as Year Zero, the Quarter, antedatingthe nation by fifty-eight years, seems ancient indeed.Residents draw com-fort from this age, and the (until recently) slow trammel of change.The realpalpable difference of time in the Quarter is best felt by walking around it inearly hours and coming back out after a suitable nap in the deep swoon ofsummer afternoon at night.Starting down Bourbon from Canal, we encounter the nightclubs restock-ing from trucks parked in the street, cases of spirits, food, and cigarettes beinghandled by beefy drivers who live many miles away.The barroom doors arewide open as workers give the joints a swabbing.The parfumeurs of old Pariscould not imagine the mixed smell of beer, urine, and chlorine bleach that isthe signature of the early morning air.The music is still there, but subdued asthe last of the bleary-eyed waitstaff of the graveyard shift count the time tillthey can totter home. 198 interlude: time and life in the quarterFurther down, and along the side streets, other trucks are servicing therestaurants, which will not be open until 11 a.m.We detour around the latestcrop of tattooed busboys, smoking at the curb [ Pobierz 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