I wrote this awhile back...
...in response to all my out-of-town friends who kept trying to convince me to leave. I thought you guys might appreciate it.

Move to New Orleans!
After deeply considering all of your offers to relocate to various parts of the country, I hereby turn the tables on you.

Come here. Take a chance. Buy a house for a fraction of its original price and rebuild it to your specs (limited offer - real estate prices will bounce back in a year or two). New Orleans has exquisitely temperate winters, and summer is for air conditioning or an enforced two week vacation (which must be taken between June & November). This is Disneyland for grown-ups: amazing restaurants (yes, STILL), crawfish boils, inexpensive, fat oysters (they were free at the bar last night with $2 Abitas), wonderful live music everywhere, cultural festivals year-round, and a creative, liberal-bordering-on-subversive undercurrent that is unequaled anywhere in the world I've ever been. Folks here have entire rooms of their homes devoted to nothing but costuming, and if you're of the creative persuasion (as I know many of my little frenids are) you'd have room to sculpt, write, paint, dance and LIVE like I suspect most of you can only dream of.

We have free flowing, amoeba-like parties that roll through the streets on Halloween & New Year's & St. Paddy's & funerals and whenever else the mood strikes us. We have a small town vibe where everyone from big towns comes to visit. I've bumped into friends from all over the country who I didn't even know were in town, just by riding my bike down the street. (No, they weren't avoiding me.) We'll soon have some great tacquerias and ceviche if the Hispanic population continues to grow.

For those of you who do computer work out of your homes, this can be an amazing place to live. My partner has been able to continue working with northern clients on websites, but it costs a fraction of what you'll pay in Boston or LA to live here. If you're a network tech, the whole TOWN needs rewiring. And for any of you who can competently swing a hammer there will be money for you for YEARS.

There are vast swaths of the city that got a little bit of of water (like one or two feet), and a lot of folks don't want to put up with rebuilding. There are deals to be had for those of you who want to come here with your big purple brains and your glossy dreams and your willingness to be a part of rebuilding one of the most vibrant, beautiful, alive cities in America.

Yes, the levees ARE being rebuilt. No, that storm last year was NOT a normal occurrence.

We'll take the truck around with a couple of daiquiris from the drive-through and I'll teach you about the neighborhoods.

So, what do you say? Hell, just fly down and check it out...see what you think.

Double dog dare you:)