Things fall apart, and it’s human nature to resist the forces of entropy by repairing, restoring, and rebuilding. But sometimes the right thing to do is embrace the decay and let a new kind of beauty emerge with the patina of age. This is something else the Big Easy has in common with many great European cities (especially Venice). I was worried that the French Quarter would feel scrubbed and sanitized like Disneyland or Times Square. Perhaps New Orleans old-timers would tell me that has indeed happened, especially in the post-Katrina recovery work, but it all felt authentically, wonderfully grimy to me.