The New New Orleans is the next boom town

[LSU Tiger Z71]

Originally Posted by Prytania

What is with the hate people have for New Orleans anyhow? I posted this article link in a business forum and 3/4th of the replies consist of screw that city, its going to be destroyed....Detroit is nicer, uninformed comments about the lack of universities, etc and so forth.

Are people that afraid of a place that is that different from "middle America'?

No idea!! I really don't get it either. If I could live in NOLA, I would..

I actually thought Detroit had a lot of heart..

[imaterry78259]

Originally Posted by Minnehahapolitan

You are thinking both in the past and out of context.
First of all, speaking on transportation, New Orleans is pretty exceptionally well positioned for rail, both passenger and freight. The airport isn't terribly small relative to the population of the area it serves. Most cities with around a million people, even cities with upwards of two, usually don't have more than one flight to Europe (at that). What is more important is that you are getting more flights and not fewer. Mexico City, maybe Toronto. If you haven't noticed, air travel is not doing particularly great. There isn't alot of promise that it will get better either. New Orleans has good service from interstates. Not any better or worse than any other city. It isn't making or breaking the city. Plus, when gas is $4 again, every city on a river will be thankful for it. When you say "biggest boomers of our time", please remember how vulnerable that time is. Phoenix is not a city built for the future, New Orleans (with minor changes) is.
Crime is a transient, impermanent thing. Ten years ago, I lived in a Minneapolis with nearly 100 murders. This year, thus far, we have had 6. New York went from a crack-infested hell-hole worse than anything in New Orleans to one of the safest cities in America -- in less than 20 years. Companies don't plan for natural disasters. If so, the Silicon Valley would be in Utah, Hollywood would be in Pennsylvania and Microsoft would be headquartered in Chicago. New Orleans's sort of natural disasters are actually some of the easiest to mitigate. You just need better levees. How is Seattle going to predict its apocalyptic earthquake?
New Orleans doesn't need big corporations, it needs smart corporations and adventurous people. Big corporations took a middle-class Detroit and turned it into a ghetto Detroit. Most people aren't employed by big corporations anyways.
Think, instead, of how New Orleans is particularly well-positioned to adapt to the new sorts of economies that all American cities will have to learn to adapt to. The city doesn't sprawl, the city is highly walkable and compact (even, relatively, in its suburban areas). The city lies surprisingly close to the natural resources that any city depends on. It has some top universities and a water supply that the other cities you mentioned will be jealous of.
New Orleans does need help to become more competitive. Better schools, less crime, cheaper housing, stronger port facilities and levees, more reliable public transportation and port facilities and more wetlands with fewer political hacks. Better schools and crime are just as easy to solve in N.O. as they will be in Chicago. Cheaper housing is simple compared to Boston. Guess how pleasant Houston will be when gas is too expensive to the laymen. Transportation is easy in New Orleans, not so much in Los Angeles. It sounds like a daunting task, but other cities will have many more problems that will be much more difficult to solve when the system they rely on goes bust. New Orleans has always kinda chosen to be on the edge of that system, and it will eventually pay off like nobody would believe.

One of the best post ever- Please run for mayor

[waltlantz]

Interesting post.

I say two things to work focus on short AND long term, is education and affordable housing.

If people don't want the bad part of gentrification, then the cities' population have to get their act together before mass immigration into the cities.

Also for the inevitable influx of new people (itll happen at some point in big fashion) get a good hold on housing pricing via the law. Cause once the real estate monsters get in there, there will be nothing but hell for the poor and lower income peeps.

[Louisiana'sLegend2]

Originally Posted by alon504

New Orleans is fine....we are coming back strongly and we are not a declining area. The city got hurt with Katrina bad, but, it is rebounding. Just before Katrina in the prior 3 or 4 years, the population of the City of New Orleans actually reversed and the city, again, began to increase in population. New Orleans IS. It's solid as a rock and has a very strong inner core. It is why we are coming back so strong. Now, as far as explosive growth...DON'T WANT IT. I want my city and the area to come back and it is, but, leave the big growth to the cookie cutter cities of America like Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Charlotte, and so many more. They are all ALIKE. We are unique. Listen, more people means nothing these days except more pollution and damage to our already fragile environment. Leave it to the other cities. They are already destroying their own environments. I have a decent job....it would pay me no more and no less if New Orleans had 1.3 million or 8.3 million people. We have a good thing going in New Orleans and those that move here, generally fit in and appreciate this city for what it is and grasps the culture. We don't need a bunch of bland, average Americans moving in here and trying to intermingle with something (our way of life) that they would never, in a lifetime, understand. Leave them in Atlanta, Houston, Austin, Charlotte, Denver, Minneapolis, Kansas City, and the rest of the plain places. I'm serious. I want growth, but, let it happen at the pace we like--slow, steady, and solid. I want neighbors that suck the heads of crawfish.

cool, never thought of it that way

[Prytania]

Affordable housing is market rate housing, period.

I struggle as a middle class, middle income earner to pay my $750 month rent but I make too much to live in "affordable" housing. The poorer people in the city keep it from gentrifying which some of that would be a good thing.