I moved from New Orleans to Chicago in 1985. The first apartment I got was a basement apartment in the building right next door to Mr. Beef. It was my introduction to the food scene of Chicago, and the standard for Italian beef for me.

After Katrina I was working all along the gulf coast repairing and rebuilding network systems. There was a franchise owner that had a hard time getting enough employees to run his locations, so he started bringing in young people from other countries on work visas. I think they only worked 2 months before they had to return and he would get another group. He bought an apartment building to house them. He paid them barely above minimum wage. They were put 4 to 6 per apartment and he charged them market rate for the room. The company towns are back, they just have a new look.