Parts of New Orleans to Open Next Week

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AP - 55 minutes ago
NEW ORLEANS - Mayor Ray Nagin announced Thursday that large parts of the city will reopen early next week, and the French Quarter the week after that. The reopened areas of the city represent 182,000 residents. "The city of New Orleans will start to breathe again. We will have life. We will have commerce. We will have people getting into their normal mode of operations, and the rhythm that makes this city so unique," the mayor said.

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Many already venturing back to N.O.

Getting past checkpoints no problem, they say

By Steve Ritea
Staff writer

While much of displaced New Orleans awaits word on whether neighborhoods that didn't flood will reopen early next week, some residents and business owners are making the trip on their own timetable: now.

They were out and about for the first time Wednesday, reporting no problem getting past checkpoints. But it was unclear whether the access was government-sanctioned, a slip in procedure or a look the other way.

"They didn't check anything," said David Bergeron, who made it to his Uptown ice cream shop, Creole Creamery, by taking River Road through Jefferson Parish to Prytania Street. "No questions, no nothing."

A block down, Ben Lazich swept up glass on the sidewalk in front of his Prytania Street business, The Wine Seller.

"I saw troopers, but they didn't stop me," he said, as the stereo in his SUV played in the background. "I was more worried about traffic."

Down on Magazine Street, resident Chris Chocheles reported that
guardsmen asked to see his driver's license, but let him in after a quick glance at it.

"I said, 'I live here,' and they just asked for ID and waved me in," Chocheles said.

Residents have whispered about sneaking into the city on back roads or using connections to a friend in law enforcement or some other emergency-related profession to maneuver their way past guards in the weeks since Katrina.

Wednesday's anecdotal activity suggests restrictions may be easing. Mayor Ray Nagin said this week that, pending environmental testing and other reports, he hopes to reopen parts of Orleans Parish that didn't flood - Uptown, Algiers, the French Quarter and the Central Business District - as early as Monday.