New Orleans of Future May Stay Half Its Old Size - by Adam Nossiter at NYTimes

[applegrove]

January 21, 2007
New Orleans of Future May Stay Half Its Old Size
By ADAM NOSSITER
The New York Times

NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 20 — The empty streets, deserted avenues and abandoned houses prompt a gnawing question, nearly 17 months after Hurricane Katrina: Is this what New Orleans has come to — a city half its old size?

Over and over, the city’s leaders reassure citizens that better days and, above all, more people are in the future. Their destiny will not merely be to reside in a smaller city with a few good restaurants and curious local customs, the citizens are told.

But some economists and demographers are beginning to wonder whether New Orleans will top out at about half its prestorm population of about 444,000, already in a steep decline from its peak of 627,525 in the 1960 Census. At the moment, the population is well below half, and future gains are likely to be small.

“It will be a trickle based on what we know now,” said Elliott Stonecipher, a consultant and demographer based in Shreveport, La. “Low tens of thousands, over three or four or five years, something in that range. I would say we could start losing people, especially if the crime problem doesn’t get high visibility.”

............SNIP"

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/us/nationalspecial/21orleans.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print

[sam sarrha]

1. with the changing weather, tragically it probably shouldn't be rebuilt below flood level to prevent

future catastrophes .. which are inevitable

[rocktivity]

2. Yeah...the white half.

:(
rocknation

[nealmhughes]

3. The colorful local culture is in exile. Creole culture is destroyed in NOLA.

Black culture is destroyed in NOLA. What exists in its present form is a white corporate city with a Disneyland for adults in the Quarter...not the old city. Nothing short of a miracle can save NOLA now as we all knew and loved it until the end of August 2005.
The city will become a copy of Baton Rouge only with better food, gay bars, and hotels and scenery.

[Demeter]

4. The Way Things Are Going, NOLA Will Cease To Exist

The city lost its soul and its workers, can't reduce it to a suburb to nowhere. The management class will have no one and nothing left to manage...

[MasonJar]

5. Without its quixotic diversity, New Orleans will not be New Orleans.

I hope the whites who are fostering this new city come to realize that no one will want to come there anymore. Congrats to the Saints for a phenomenal season under the most adverse circumstances.