Because the old New Orleans is no more, it could resurrect itself as the great new American city of the 21st century.

Or as an impoverished tourist trap.

So says an LA Times article (via eTurbo News). The author goes on to say that New Orleans could rebuild itself similar to Houston, a modern city that emphasizes its infrastructure and support system. Well, of course, it’s become glaringly obvious that NOLA’s infrastructure needs serious rebuilding. But unlike that article’s author, I don’t believe it should be done at the expense of preserving its touristic charm—that’s what makes the city such a draw for meetings and conventions, which is a huge business the LA Times author seems to disregard. But when visitors to the city bring in $5 million, and 40 percent of that is from meetings, I’d argue that equal care should be taken to keep NOLA the city people want to come to to drop that $5 mil., and not just a cartoonish theme park of what we loved about her before Katrina came along, or just any city, USA.

A while back, I posted about the appropriateness of using portions of meetings fees being donated to help with hurricane relief efforts. This morning, I read Katrina Relief: Do Good Deeds Make Good Publicity? in Chief Marketer, which explores the issue a little more. As with everything, perception is key—Home Depot can probably do it and people will take it in the right spirit, where Enron donations probably would be looked at cynically. They also suggest giving staff time off to help with relief efforts, rather than tying efforts to sales.

One type of effort I personally dislike is companies that are letting their employees donate their vacation time pay or other bennies to those in need, without adding any matching funds from the company. But maybe that’s just me.