Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jared Allen offers apology to New Orleans residents, not city

I literally walked down Bourbon Street an hour ago at lunch and noticed no noxious odors, but I agree sometimes it smells. Not sure how much can be done about that. I think it was cleaner for a while under a pretty expensive sanitation contract that cleaned the Quarter twice a day, but budgets being what they are these days...

Anyway, don't doubt you love New Orleans in some fashion but I think the perception and the reality you cite don't always square up. "Perceptions" can be misguided and irrational (as I think they are in Allen's case) and you can exhaust yourself trying to change them. People who love New Orleans tend to do so unconditionally, accepting of its faults. Maybe that's a mistake, but in my experience it's a rare and valuable thing and it doesn't keep you from trying to solve the city's problems. It just means you aren't going to abandon it if they don't get solved. Speaking of perceptions, the city was recently ranked second in the nation for job creation among cities, according to Forbes, and number one for strangest citizens according to Travel + Leisure mag--who also ranked the city number one in civic pride. Accurate on all counts, I'd say.