Posted on 12/17/2006 7:17:34 AM PST by mcg2000
You'll be happy to hear that Biloxi's gaming business not only has made big strides since Hurricane Katrina devastated the coastline, but also that the restored casinos have expanded what they offer, and new properties are on the way.
Before the storm that destroyed tens of thousands of gulf-area homes, Biloxi had nine casinos. Today, seven are back in business, including the glitzy Beau Rivage Resort & Casino, which reopened at the end of August, a year after Katrina hit.
After the hurricane, the city changed its laws to allow casinos -- previously confined to floating structures at the water's edge -- to be located up to 800 feet inland. The hurricane's sweep cleared property that is being used for casino expansion. (However some, including the Beau Rivage, Imperial Palace and Boomtown casinos, remain on the waterfront.)
The city's mayor, A.J. Holloway, has predicted the city's casino surge will continue and eventually Biloxi will challenge Atlantic City as the country's top gambling city after Las Vegas. (Anyone taking bets?)
As for Biloxi's other facilities and attractions, the rebuilding slowly continues, and all agree the challenge is huge.
"It's going to take us five to 10 years to get our attractions back," said Kay Miller, outreach services director for the Biloxi Visitors Center, but she noted that progress is being made and would-be visitors no longer have to ask if restaurants and gasoline are available.
"We're way beyond that," according to Miller, who said that besides the casinos with their hotel rooms and restaurants, all the area's golf courses are back in action, schooner tours are available, a 70-minute Biloxi Shrimping Tour takes visitors into the gulf, and the Biloxi Tour Train offers historic tours that include the impact of the hurricane.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
In the meantime, murder rate in NO is climbing, Blankos program to get citizens is in shambles, wildlife now reside in vacant homes, fields are being raped, women are being pillaged...
Biloxi and NOLA are both southern cities, both hit by the same storm. One came back. Why not the other ?
La. has a liberal govenor, Miss. has a republican govenor.
On the other hand, drive the Mississippi coastline and you will see the direct damage that Katrina really did.
The media forgot about the real victims of Katrina, the people of Mississippi, and focused on people on roof tops.
The MSM told me it's because Biloxi is full of rich, white, Confederate racists, and Bush likes them and hates black people. ;)
Exactly! And to take it further... NOLA rejects free enterprise development and wants the federal government to build it all back while Miss. accepts free enterprise development. It's a micro Socialism vs. Capitalism.
Yep, what should have been done abotu NOLA is to simply declare it an income tax-free zone for a limited time. Private investors and businesses would have rebuilt that city within a few months.
There, fixed it for you.
Would you rather vacation in a beautiful setting with great sandy beaches where you and your family are safe? Or would you rather vacation in a slime infested drunken brothel of a city where drunks and homosexuals abound and women get beads for showing their breasts,and you can get knocked in the head at any moment.
They do anything productive in that town?
Biloxi?
Its funny....almost everyone who ever traveled through the state of Mississippi...come out with extremely positive thoughts. They don't complain about corrupt cops....crime in Jackson or Bioloxi. They don't talk about how dirty things look. Its always that way. Now....New Orleans....is a different story.
Article makes them sound like a town full of card dealers.
And they reelected Ray "School Bus" Nagin. They truly deserve what they get. In addition, their police force supposedly had around 1900 officers, who were being paid, but in reality had closer to 1000. No wonder the place is in complete chaos, even before the storm.
It's mostly a touristy article, but I know what you mean. The casinos employ 13 or 14k people at the moment ... so it is a large part of it's identity. Keesler AFB, shrimp & seafood industry, cruise lines, Dole, oil rigs & refineries, etc.
It's essentially a typical town that has a substantial casino district.
I think the main reason is that the folks in Mississippi pulled themselves up by the bootstraps, got back to work on cleaning & rebuilding their homes and cities, and you didn't hear or read any news stories about those wonderful people over their bad mouthing the government and with their hands stuck out looking for a government check! I would hope that the great story of the backbone and tenacity displayed by these people (both here in Alabama and over there on the Miss Gulf Coast) will finally kill the stereotype that has been around for years about Alabama and Mississippi! (The typical southerner is NOT lazy, uneducated and bigotted!)
I would be offended by the article if I was Biloxian. I'm sure they're plenty of good folks there.
It must be racism. There is no other possible explanation. Offering any other potential suggestions is also racist. It is also racist to fail to say it is racism.
/sarcasm
You're assuming good folks don't work at the resorts?
Here too, is the link to Beavoir's website:
It's good to see that work has begun on reconstruction and preservation.
I think the gambling industry is dissipative, not constructive. It'll do more harm than good for a city that becomes dependent on it.
P.S. There's also a link to other before and after damage photos of Beauvoir, at the bottom of the Beauvoir webpage.
Last May I spent a day driving all over New Orleans. I was appalled at the destruction. I was amazed that so little had been done in the eight months since Katrina hit. Hundreds and hundreds of homes and businesses, damaged and not touched since Katrina. Just sitting and rotting.
This past September I spent a day driving around the Mississippi coast, including Biloxie, Pascagoula and Gulfport. I was amazed at (compared to NOLA) how little damage could be seen. People I spoke with graphically described what the area had been like after Katrina. Like night and day.
Heartened by what I saw in Mississippi, I drove over to New Orleans. Wow, what a disappointment. Many damaged buildings and homes I saw last May looked exactly the same in September. The big difference I saw was that there seemed to be MORE FEMA trailers. Naive me, I figured there would be less :)
IMHO, large parts of NOLA have been a snakepit for a long, long time. But there was no publicity. Until Katrina hit.
Kudos to Mississippi and shame on NOLA.
Fair point.
You can easily look at casino cities and their lack of balanced economies -> Atlantic City, Reno, Tunica, Northern Indiana.
Biloxi's attractive climate, low crime rate and conservative policies tend to counter-balance other towns. That's why the social comparisons to Vegas are so very much off the point imop.
The military presence and their retiree population tend to keep the extremes at a minimum.
I'll have to pay a visit some day.
The NE quadrant was a cat-5 when it came ahore in Mississippi.
Biloxi-We have been set back but we are on track to become better than we were pre-Katrina.
I wonder what created such a difference in mindset between the two?
Unaffectionately known also as "The Great Blunder".
Yes and no. The full brunt of the storm hit the Mississippi coast, NOLA only got the wind and part of the tidal surge. Had it not been for the levies breaking, NOLA would not be in the shape it's in.
I live East of Biloxi, in the Florida panhandle. I went with a team just after the hurricane assisting Keesler AFB to get their communications back on-line. I spent 12 hours on base and whatever I could off base helping the locals.
What was very telling about their situation was when we stopped to help someone clean/repair what was left of their homes, they would thank us and tell us to go help someone else who was worse off then they were. It was an attitude of "I'm OK, but someone else needs help more". It was fantastic! Nobody was whining for government help, they all stepped up to help each other.
One sad note. Of all the beautiful old mansions along US Highway 98, none of them survived. Some of the most wonderful houses all on one road -- gone. And what's going up in their place is a bunch of "pseudo-mansions" that just destroy the whole experience.
Traveler
Back when they were know as reporters and newscasters before the day's of "journalists".
Or
You dropped the ball and now we are suffering vs. We are holding on to our ball and refuse to pass it to you.
New Orleans has long been a $hithole. Hard to believe that people here on FR actually defend the sankepit that is NOLA. Used to go there a lot in 1980-1981 when I was a student at USM in Hattiesburg, MS. It was a Shithole then also.
Is it possible for Mississippi to claim St. Tammany and Washington Parishes? I know it would make both the states look awkward but I really would like to live in a sane state.
Kudos to Mississippi and shame on NOLA.
Indeed, much of New Orleans had become a festering sore caused by the welfare state. Many other large cities have similar problems; they're just not as vulnerable to having the depths of the problems suddenly laid bare for the evening news.
As for the difference between NOLA and the Mississippi coast, I've seen recovery efforts in both areas. Katrina smashed so much of the MS coastal housing and businesses to splinters that there was no arguing over which homes to bulldoze - they were simply *gone*. In New Orleans, where the flooding was slow and the water stayed for weeks, there was a huge cleanup to plan and get to work on before any rebuilding could commence. The storm impacted each area quite differently.
There's something else that's not been mentioned: Biloxi has a military base that has helped their local economy. Indeed, Keesler AFB played a large role in keeping that towm from fading away after Camille hit in '69. It is true, though, that Misissippi is rebuilding a lot more quickly this time. There were no deep-pockets corporations on the coast to really sink the spurs in after Camille.
Yup, and it was pushing a cat-5 surge all the way in, too. By the time the winds dropped, the surge was already in the Mississippi Sound.
Have you read the recent book about Camille, titled "Roar of the Heavens"? Interesting stuff.
No, I haven't.
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