New Orleans’ culture was on full display during a highly successful Mardi Gras season. Well, at least that’s what the thought leaders in the media are saying.

In actuality there were a panoply of cultures on display that for a few weeks blended together into a celebration of something that defines who we are. What we saw were cultures fundamentally different, black, white, suburban, urban, educated, not so educated, rich, poor, and on and on, that during Mardi Gras becomes a gumbo that finds a common thread in street parades, social events, and just good fun. Tourists flock here to get relief from their own mundane culture, to feel the life of the season and leave in wonderment of it all.

But Mardi Gras leads inevitably to Ash Wednesday and reality.

This year there is something different in the air, a sense of hope that we haven’t felt in a long time. After decades of bad government, economic decline, and out-migration, the people of our Mardi Gras gumbo so badly need relief, and they believe that the new mayor is the person that can change the direction of the city.

She is saying the right things, public safety, fix the infrastructure, bring fiscal common sense to the budget…things so obvious to the fundamentals of good government, yet for so long things that have been pushed off into a corner in order to fulfill other, irrelevant political priorities.

Now that the end of Mardi Gras is reality, the questions to be answered are important. In light of our current financial disaster can she deliver on her promising start, and under pressure from those who feed at the political trough and from the very loud NGO oligarchy, will she stay the course and deliver good government?

I can tell you that optimism is the rule of the day, as people from all walks of life believe that she brings an invigorating promise of government for the whole of the people, a sentiment that is prevalent. The people are expressing faith in her ability to create a new culture for the city, a culture of good government based upon getting government back to basics and just doing it right.

So many of my friends, especially those away from here, believe that this is all just her honeymoon period, that she will soon enough forget good government basics, and veer off into a Leftist LaLa Land. But, just as Marid Gras finds its roots in a pagan celebration of the end of winter, New Orleanians are all hoping that a bright Spring in the form of a better city follows the Lenten season.

It’s just human nature; New Orleans is truly a gumbo of cultures. Perhaps our new mayor will find a way to rebuild our faith in city government so that we can collectively thrive. The promise of her approach, to concentrate on the basics as a path to making New Orleans run like other highly functioning cities run, is the way to grow prosperity even as we celebrate the gumbo that we are.

The next Mardi Gras is less than a year away. If all goes well, we should be on our way to that new Spring for our people. We have been let down so many times before, so let’s all look forward to a celebration in 2027.