New Orleans is a fun city. But it's strange in so many ways. Tons of tourist dollars flow in, but areas outside the French Quarter often look extremely run down, unkempt, etc. Yet they're spending millions on parades every year?
Those parades are the single biggest source of income the city has. Spending millions to make hundreds of millions is a rather good idea to me. For the record, most of the cost is covered by the individual parade crews and not the city. The city does incur some costs but as I said the tax revenue alone is many many times greater.
As far as "run down and unkempt" are you talking pre or post Katrina? IMO they shouldn't have allowed people to rebuild in the east. We simply don't have the population to support it so it is still in shambles with pockets of people trying to hold on.
Most other issues are somewhat related to the flight of the middle class and lower-upper class out of the city due to a whole slew of issues from crime, corruption in politics, corruption in the police department, deplorable schools, much higher taxes than surrounding parishes etc. The vast majority of what is left are the poor and uberwealthy who live behind gates uptown. The rest have moved to Jefferson Parish and the north shore, both of which are thriving.
An anecdotal story: A buddy of mine wanted to build a small strip mall on a piece of property he owned in Orleans Parish. After 18 months of fighting the permit process and city hall in general he purchased another piece of property 6 blocks away in Jefferson Parish. Within 8 weeks of purchasing the property he broke ground on construction. The fees, permits, and taxes are far less to boot. Things appear to be getting better (seen it before so I am withholding judgement) but in NOLA it isn't even about how much money you have, it is all about who you know.
Also, sort of unrelated, but I found it baffling that during the day, and early evening, near the parade routes, warehouse district and southern NOLA, the city's population is 90% black. But after dark, out in the FQ less than 1% of the people out are black. I assume it's because the FQ is mostly populated by tourists, but that seems strange to me. If I lived in NOLA, I'd still go to the FQ at night...
Why would you want to intentionally spend 4X on drinks, another $20 on parking, cover charges, etc...
The FQ is great during the day. The partying at night is strictly a tourist trap, the locals are generally smart enough to find one of the many other locations to have their fun. Next time you are in town you should check out the uptown area instead of downtown one night.
As for the "black" thing, the above goes for all races but the black population in NOLA tends to be poorer so they sure as hell ain't spending $6 on a beer and it isn't 90%. And for the record, the parade routes are, for the most part, not even close to the primarily "black" areas. The majority of NOLA parades roll up St. Charles and onto Canal St, pretty much the most expensive real estate in the city. With that said, there are plenty of black folk at the parades. I would be more than happy to give you some good locations the next time you are in NOLA for carnival.