10 Years Later....A "New" New Orleans

[DatFiyah]

Cool article about Bloomberg What Works Cities Initiative, a new pilot program to improve life in America's cities. New Orleans is one of the cities involved.

"The project intends to spend $42 million over three years to help U.S. cities address issues like economic development, public health, crime and transportation."

These 8 Cities Are About To Become Better Places To Live
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/0...n_7937060.html

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by austlar1

Are you saying that there is a large migration of upper class residents back into the city from tony Northshore areas like Mandeville and Covington or from a close in suburban area like Metairie?

Migration? Not exactly. It's more of a generational thing, like most cities. The city is flooded with LSU, Ole Miss, Bama, Tulane, etc grads who grew up on the Northshore or Jefferson Parish. Nobody's really packing up and moving in from the suburbs except young people. I don't really see families moving into the city. Maybe certain well-off empty nesters.

It remains to be seen whether these young people will stay in the city as they form families - unlikely - but now living in the city is almost the default option for young people in the 22-30 y.o. range with a college degree.

New Orleans has a unique situation vis-a-vis sprawl. The metro area has essentially maxed out the suburban land that is contiguous with the city, and can't add more land without expanding the levee system and paving wetlands. After that, you've got the Northshore, which is absolutely exurban and very much on the fringe of how far people are willing to commute. It is only successful because it leeches from New Orleans and Baton Rouge metros alike, and because certain corporations like Chevron have moved operations there to form complete ecosystems detached from New Orleans entirely except for superficial cultural stuff.

[austlar1]

That makes a lot of sense. I bet many will try to stay assuming there are some decent educational options for kids. The good private schools are pretty expensive. I have been told that there are a couple of decent public (one charter and one public) high schools nowadays in New Orleans. Do you think public schools in New Orleans will ever regain the support and patronage of the middle class (whatever that might mean in this day and age) again? New Orleans always had so many kids in private schools and Catholic schools in the past, but there was a constituency of involved parents in at least some of the public schools up until white flight really took hold back in the mid to late 1970s.

[ardecila]

Yes, I went to Tulane with a few people who graduated from Franklin and spoke highly of it.

I can't speak for educational quality but the Jefferson Parish schools look just as dilapidated as the city schools...

[DatFiyah]

Interesting. I don't think the metro is maxed out at all. There is tons of non-wetlands land available adjacent to the city on the west bank; Westwego is still sparse in development along with Avondale, Luling, Hahnville, Destrahan and on into the river parishes. Some of it is wetland but a lot isn't. Even though it is not exactly close, St. James Parish was also just recently re-added to the metro.

[ardecila]

Yeah, there is some growth in those areas. Suburban growth isn't 100% maxed out but there is absolutely a scarcity of developable land inside the levee system. Plus, a huge backlog of developed but blighted property exists in the city, St. Bernard, Algiers, etc and further depresses the value of housing.

[austlar1]

Regarding safety from crime in New Orleans: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/...s_11_vict.html

[SlidellWx]

Here are the crime rates per capita over the last 30 years since 1985. I pulled these numbers from the FBI database, and the NOPD. Overall, crime in New Orleans is near historical lows. There was an uptick in crime last year, but numbers are trending down this year. People here got used to the overall lower crime rates, so any increase seems like the worst thing ever. Of course, the reality shows that the city is much safer than it has been in a long time, and the trends for this year show a return to the crime levels experienced throughout most of the early 2010's. I have zero fear walking alone at night in much of the city. Of course, I won't go into certain parts of town alone at night, but that can be said for most any city in the world (i.e. the wrong side of the tracks).

In the long run, as the populace becomes more educated (this is happening now), there will be more opportunities for people to become gainfully employed in the poorest neighborhoods instead of resorting to crime to feed families. It is going to be a long process, but the foundations have been laid.

Year      Pop.  Violent Crime Rate  Total Crime Rate  
1990	496938       2259.2              12436.0
1989	506903       2012.8              11744.7
1996	474098       2324.6	         11373.0
1995	480926       2261.5              11103.4
1991	491306       2232.6	         11039.6
1993	487626       2055.7	         10822.4
1986	542994       1687.9	         10476.9
1992	489828       2043.0              10297.7
1994	484653       1923.2	         10284.1
1988	518718       1720.2              10113.4
1997	469053       1791.7               9743.9
1987	529774       1449.3	          9626.9
1985	549348       1496.7	          8870.9
1998	464578       1482.6	          8784.5
1999	460913       1286.8	          7758.7
2001	477835       1229.9	          7545.9
2000	484674       1063.6	          6979.1
2006	210768       1069.9	          6847.8
2007	288113       1197.8	          6606.4
2002	472556        964.1               6603.7
2004	461600        967.7               6235.5
2003	467515        983.1               6218.6
2008	311853        920.0               5691.5
2014	384320        981.0               5243.5
*2015   384320        859.7               4660.7
2011	360740        761.5               4646.0
2009	336425        777.0               4623.3
2013	378715        782.9               4618.2
2012	369250        801.1               4456.1
2010	343829        754.2               4434.5

* mid year figures extrapolated to the end of the year and assumes no net gain in population.

NOPD

[Eightball]

be interesting to see how these large oil co layoffs will effect N.O.

http://www.nola.com/business/index.s...art_most-read_
http://www.nola.com/business/index.s...incart_m-rpt-2

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

Have you guys seen this Associated Press article about the continued vanishing of New Orleans' cost? Probably doesn't tell some of you anything you didn't already know, but it's still kinda sobering.

[SlidellWx]

The disappearing coast has been discussed greatly down here. There are tons of plans on what to do, but funding has always been the problem. The BP oil spill money will help, but it's only a fraction of the needed amount to protect the region properly. Nature is working against us in terms of subsidence and sea level rise. In my opinion, all of the river levees below Belle Chasse should be leveled. It's all rural below Belle Chasse, and if you live down there you should be in a raised home anyway. That way the river can flood the delta like it used to.

The oil layoffs hurt, but given the job losses associated with consolidation of the industry to Houston over the last couple of decades, not nearly as bad as in the past. Fortunately, the economy is much more diversified now, so the impact to the economy will be more muted. The increasing tech industry will help to counter-act some of these losses.

[N830MH]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Yes, I went to Tulane with a few people who graduated from Franklin and spoke highly of it.

I can't speak for educational quality but the Jefferson Parish schools look just as dilapidated as the city schools...

Actually, that was my cousin who went to Tulane and she's already graduated. She just became doctor. She will be working for babies.

[dc_denizen]

Surprised this hasn't been more discussed on SPP...only 3 pages.

The articles that I've read about Nola's rebirth (Guardian, NY Times, New Yorker) are all pretty elegaic, lamenting the turnover in population (eg, more diversity, less black/white only), the continued decline in the black middle class in the city, and (especially) the (successful?) charter school experiment.

However, I read through the updates and seem to see plenty of investment and in-migration to the city - surely great things from an urbanists perspective.

The articles also want to convey that the city is losing its sense of authenticity. Probably, the same writers are bemoaning Brooklyn's runaway boom up here in NYC...

Do these articles have any basis in reality?

Maybe I just need to visit finally...

[ardecila]

I don't think those articles are accurate. Care forgot New Orleans for decades. You can leave Katrina out of the discussion entirely and you're still left with the sad fact that New Orleans was on a long, slow slide for most of the 20th century, hemorrhaging people first to its suburbs and then to other cities, even as other Southern cities hit their stride. The city was becoming a backwater, a cultural and economic dead-end with virtually no fresh ideas or innovation going on. Severe blight crept into the city, houses started to be abandoned like a steady, slow-moving cancer. Katrina just sped up this process, and unlocked Federal money for demolition of blighted structures.

Right now, though, here's a really good energy and it feels like the tide is turning. Katrina sadly displaced much of the city's black population, but it also weakened the grip of local elites on the direction of the city. People are now coming to New Orleans to start things - businesses, art, new forms of cooking. Even the music scene is starting to diversify. Would have been unimaginable in 1995 or 2000, but it was much needed. Some folks right now lament that the city is losing its authenticity. They are blind to the fact that their desire, and the local elites' desire, to preserve the city and its culture in amber was slowly suffocating the city from inside out. I think it's possible, and not even all that difficult, to preserve the best parts of local culture while allowing for experimentation, growth, and improvement. It seems like the city is moving down that path right now.