As Michael leaned against the edifice of a vibrantly colored, 18th-century, French-colonial townhouse to relieve himself, he was hardly concerned with the history of the streets where he found himself pissing. 

The cobblestone-lined corridors of the French Quarter felt like a step back in time. The beautiful, Creole-style architecture had remained relatively unchanged for three centuries. Multicolored houses and steel-framed balconies stayed illuminated by the ominous flickering of the same...