U.S. President George W. Bush is playing up the location of this year's North American Leaders' Summit in New Orleans.

He says it's a great opportunity to show the world that the city, devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is back and open for business. His officials point out convention traffic is back up to 80 per cent of what it was pre-Katrina, and tourism is up 75 per cent.

That said, a group of activists holding their own unofficial summit here this week say the leaders are ignoring the major problems that remain in the city, almost three years after the storm.

While the leaders are sticking to posh hotels in the downtown core, hundreds of homeless people continue to live in a makeshift tent city under a highway overpass. The lower 9th ward has yet to be rebuilt and the school system faces major challenges.

NDP MP Peter Julian is attending the alternative summit and visited the lower 9th ward yesterday. He says he was shocked by the lack of progress in rebuilding the area and criticized Prime Minister Stephen Harper for not making a side trip to see the area for himself. *

But then again, neither are his two other amigos President Bush or Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

Postscript: Later, before leaving to head back to Ottawa, the Prime Minister was taken on an impromptu tour of the 9th ward by the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, David Wilkins.