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

[DatFiyah]

In recent history, New Orleans has dealt with many issues. Gentrification and growth have never been among them. Until now.

Almost 10 years to the date of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has definitely gotten back on her feet. Now that the debris has been cleared, existing homes repaired and services restored there are new issues. Not that crime and the economy aren't still issues.

There is a smaller, yet growing population and construction is occurring everywhere in the city. New Orleans' neighborhoods are changing and some are fearing that it's culture may as well.

Two recent articles have locals and new comers alike heated up over the direction of the "new" city.

A long time lurker.....I am very curious to hear Skyscraperpage's urbanist views on these issues:


"In fight against gentrification, New Orleans City Council loosens density restrictions"
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.s...elated_stories

"Where will working poor live in future New Orleans, if gentrification continues?"
http://www.nola.com/futureofneworlea...incart_m-rpt-2

[Leo the Dog]

I wouldn't fear the change. Every single city in America has seen dramatic change since 2005.

Hurricane Hugo (1989) devastated Charleston, SC. It was a Cat 4 at landfall, much stronger than Katrina. The destruction and devastation gave Charleston the opportunity to redevelop into a true gem. Areas that were once depressed were redeveloped. The central core/peninsula has been completely revitalized and the over-all region is attracting jobs/growth, spurring further growth.

[austlar1]

There is a whole lot of New Orleans left untouched by gentrification at this point in time. The economy there is really not growing with new high paying jobs, and many of the people who are moving to New Orleans are doing so because they are attracted by the possibility of a somewhat bohemian lifestyle in a very atmospheric locale. The bedrock of the New Orleans economy remains tourism, port activities, and off shore services. The problem with the housing situation is that there are many areas still likely to flood in another Katrina like situation, and those areas are where the really poor (and often not working poor) people live. The crime in those areas remains through the roof. Death by gunfire is a very real possibility. Newcomers and returning residents, including not particularly affluent ones, are not drawn to those areas (not yet anyway), so the pressure is on in areas that typically are slightly above sea level and have lower crime rates. Those areas are less than a third of the entire city of New Orleans. Those are the areas where prices are the highest and most of the new development is taking place.

[ThePhun1]

Originally Posted by Leo the Dog

I wouldn't fear the change. Every single city in America has seen dramatic change since 2005.

Hurricane Hugo (1989) devastated Charleston, SC. It was a Cat 4 at landfall, much stronger than Katrina. The destruction and devastation gave Charleston the opportunity to redevelop into a true gem. Areas that were once depressed were redeveloped. The central core/peninsula has been completely revitalized and the over-all region is attracting jobs/growth, spurring further growth.

Katrina was a powerful storm and might as well have been a C4 at landfall, so it couldn't have been that much more powerful.

[Ryanrule]

yeah if i had a rich relative who died, ide buy property in detroit and new orleans.

[Ant131531]

Originally Posted by austlar1

There is a whole lot of New Orleans left untouched by gentrification at this point in time. The economy there is really not growing with new high paying jobs, and many of the people who are moving to New Orleans are doing so because they are attracted by the possibility of a somewhat bohemian lifestyle in a very atmospheric locale. The bedrock of the New Orleans economy remains tourism, port activities, and off shore services. The problem with the housing situation is that there are many areas still likely to flood in another Katrina like situation, and those areas are where the really poor (and often not working poor) people live. The crime in those areas remains through the roof. Death by gunfire is a very real possibility. Newcomers and returning residents, including not particularly affluent ones, are not drawn to those areas (not yet anyway), so the pressure is on in areas that typically are slightly above sea level and have lower crime rates. Those areas are less than a third of the entire city of New Orleans. Those are the areas where prices are the highest and most of the new development is taking place.

This. How far can gentrification go without high paying jobs being created in mass?

[brickell]

Originally Posted by Leo the Dog

Hurricane Hugo (1989) devastated Charleston, SC. It was a Cat 4 at landfall, much stronger than Katrina.

Two completely different situations, as you probably know. New Orleans problem wasn't the hurricane. It was the levees failing and flooding the city.

[Reverberation]

Originally Posted by austlar1

There is a whole lot of New Orleans left untouched by gentrification at this point in time. The economy there is really not growing with new high paying jobs, and many of the people who are moving to New Orleans are doing so because they are attracted by the possibility of a somewhat bohemian lifestyle in a very atmospheric locale. The bedrock of the New Orleans economy remains tourism, port activities, and off shore services. The problem with the housing situation is that there are many areas still likely to flood in another Katrina like situation, and those areas are where the really poor (and often not working poor) people live. The crime in those areas remains through the roof. Death by gunfire is a very real possibility. Newcomers and returning residents, including not particularly affluent ones, are not drawn to those areas (not yet anyway), so the pressure is on in areas that typically are slightly above sea level and have lower crime rates. Those areas are less than a third of the entire city of New Orleans. Those are the areas where prices are the highest and most of the new development is taking place.

That's pretty much it. New Orleans is pretty much done in most peoples' opinion as anything more than a port, old money stronghold, and a place for rowdy bachelor parties.

Companies looking to add higher paying jobs are choosing Baton Rouge instead. Same river, lower cost of living, and no risk of a catastrophic flood disrupting business operations for years by flooding most of the city with toxic swamp water. Come to think of it, how is that city not a superfund site?

[DatFiyah]

Originally Posted by Reverberation

That's pretty much it. New Orleans is pretty much done in most peoples' opinion as anything more than a port, old money stronghold, and a place for rowdy bachelor parties.

Companies looking to add higher paying jobs are choosing Baton Rouge instead. Same river, lower cost of living, and no risk of a catastrophic flood disrupting business operations for years by flooding most of the city with toxic swamp water. Come to think of it, how is that city not a superfund site?

Not necessarily. New Orleans has been attracting many newcomers from the creative class and new businesses are definitely popping up everywhere in the city and surrounding areas. Anyone who has visited recently and is familiar with the state of the city before the storm can see that. The rate of business start-ups in the New Orleans region is 64 percent higher than the national average.

"New Orleans economy soars since Katrina although wages lag behind, Data Center finds"

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.s...cart_big-photo

I think many people have faith in the new 14.5 billion dollar levee and pump system. So while Baton Rouge and the Northshore may reap a few benefits, New Orleans is still holding it's own and even excelling in some areas.

[ardecila]

To some extent, the resurgence in the city is caused by the white elite and middle class of the region re-centralizing in the city. The young lawyers, accountants, teachers, etc are all now choosing to live in the historic city when previously they would have found a house in Kenner, Algiers or Slidell. That's great for historic preservation, but offers no net gain for the metro as a whole.

As austlar noted, many of the newcomers to the city are here for quality of life first and employment second. That's why the startup rate is so high - people are entrepreneurial and they'll find a way to make money so they can stay. Similar phenomena occur in desirable beach towns and college towns, but New Orleans has a vastly more robust infrastructure, so hopefully some of those startups can scale and grow to create more jobs in their own right to build the economic base.

Between the native elite class and the young newcomers, the historic city may indeed fully gentrify at the expense of the suburbs. Gentrifiers don't typically occupy buildings at the same densities as those they replace, so a smaller population of gentrifiers is able to occupy more of the city. Given the ridiculous barriers to new construction in New Orleans, I don't think that's a solution either once the vacant land runs out.

One possible avenue for growth is retirees... the suburban wet dream of a ranch house on a Florida golf course is quickly losing its luster. NOLA offers a much richer set of amenities, plus the ability for retirees to scale back on driving as their faculties diminish.

[fflint]

A gay couple I know moved to New Orleans from San Francisco almost a year ago. Gentrification is absolutely underway.

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by ardecila

To some extent, the resurgence in the city is caused by the white elite and middle class of the region re-centralizing in the city. The young lawyers, accountants, teachers, etc are all now choosing to live in the historic city when previously they would have found a house in Kenner, Algiers or Slidell. That's great for historic preservation, but offers no net gain for the metro as a whole.

As austlar noted, many of the newcomers to the city are here for quality of life first and employment second. That's why the startup rate is so high - people are entrepreneurial and they'll find a way to make money so they can stay. Similar phenomena occur in desirable beach towns and college towns, but New Orleans has a vastly more robust infrastructure, so hopefully some of those startups can scale and grow to create more jobs in their own right to build the economic base.

Between the native elite class and the young newcomers, the historic city may indeed fully gentrify at the expense of the suburbs. Gentrifiers don't typically occupy buildings at the same densities as those they replace, so a smaller population of gentrifiers is able to occupy more of the city. Given the ridiculous barriers to new construction in New Orleans, I don't think that's a solution either once the vacant land runs out.

One possible avenue for growth is retirees... the suburban wet dream of a ranch house on a Florida golf course is quickly losing its luster. NOLA offers a much richer set of amenities, plus the ability for retirees to scale back on driving as their faculties diminish.

I have a very good friend who is now 70 years old and residing in SF with his 60 y/o partner. My 70 y/o friend is a native of New Orleans and has family in the city. He is very familiar with New Orleans. He is about to retire and owns a home now in the Sunset District of SF that he could sell and cash in with considerable equity. He constantly explores the idea of moving back to New Orleans, but so far he has balked at doing so. His reasoning is that he does not want to live in the Quarter or the warehouse district. He wants a small house with a nice garden in a safe part of town where he would not have to drive to market for groceries or other errands. He is able to do all those things at his present home in SF, and he got rid of his car a few years ago. Also, if he sells his SF home, he wants to invest most of that SF equity for income. He is up against the fact that unless he decides to live in the Quarter or possibly in other parts of the CBD, he can't safely exist without driving a car. Bywater, Bayou St. John/Esplanade/City Park, and most of Uptown can be quite dangerous for elderly pedestrians because of opportunistic street crime which unfortunately happens far too often in New Orleans. These neighborhoods outside of downtown are charming in appearance, but they are all mostly lacking in convenient clusters of decent food markets and other amenities. Most people living in those neighborhoods drive on a daily basis and most households own one or more cars. Also, those areas have become extremely pricey (actually they have always been rather expensive due to the fact that they are on slightly higher ground and have long housed the New Orleans elite and professional classes), so he would have to sink a lot of his SF equity into an outright home purchase, if he wants to avoid a mortgage or rent. New Orleans still holds a lot of appeal for him, and I expect that he will eventually figure out a way to live there in his old age. Still, I don't think that New Orleans is going to be a huge magnet for retirees. I think in many ways it could be a very difficult place for old people due to crime, cost, and climate.

[ardecila]

^ Hogwash. Maybe you have a case as far as perception goes, but the numbers don't back it up. Crime in New Orleans, like in other so-called high-crime cities, is driven by murders connected to the drug trade, prostitution, and other illegal activities. This is largely confined to certain impoverished areas of the city. The bad old days of the 1970s predators are gone in pretty much every American city, NOLA included.

NOLA Robberies, 2014: 1470*
NOLA Population, 2014: 384,320
NOLA, robberies per 1000 people: 3.82

SF Robberies, 2014: 3267**
SF Population, 2014: 852,469
SF, robberies per 1000 people: 3.83

* = NOLA data
** = SF data

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by ardecila

^ Hogwash. Maybe you have a case as far as perception goes, but the numbers don't back it up. Crime in New Orleans, like in other so-called high-crime cities, is driven by murders connected to the drug trade, prostitution, and other illegal activities. This is largely confined to certain impoverished areas of the city. The bad old days of the 1970s predators are gone in pretty much every American city, NOLA included.

NOLA Robberies, 2014: 1470*
NOLA Population, 2014: 384,320
NOLA, robberies per 1000 people: 3.82

SF Robberies, 2014: 3267**
SF Population, 2014: 852,469
SF, robberies per 1000 people: 3.83

* = NOLA data
** = SF data

That's not what I hear from my friends in NOLA, and I don't think those robbery figures speak to the true nature of crime there. Violent crime and armed robbery is much more prevalent in New Orleans. My friends in NO are quite fearful, even the one or two I know living in the Quarter. I think my chances of getting mugged (or gunned down) in New Orleans while walking down the street with or without a bag of groceries are a lot higher than they would be in SF, but you are correct that crime rates in SF rose sharply over the past few years. The link below breaks things down more graphically than the stats posted above. I also suspect that crimes like assault and armed robbery are seriously under-reported in New Orleans, especially black on black crime. This is due in part to mistrust of the police and the criminal justice system (often quite justified in New Orleans) by large segments of the population. Just about anybody in New Orleans, black or white, has a horror story to tell about dealings with the NOPD.

http://raycomgroup.worldnow.com/stor...rmed-robberies

[BnaBreaker]

It irritates me to no end when I hear people write off New Orleans as nothing more than a run-down, dying city who's only purpose to the outside world is essentially as a place to party. If that is truly your opinion of such a gorgeous, eclectic, one-of-a-kind city, then either you've never been there, or you lack a soul.

[austlar1]

I love New Orleans. I attended Tulane and lived in New Orleans for years. I have friends and family all over the NO area. I visit fairly regularly and speak on the phone almost weekly with folks over there. I am very aware that New Orleans is a beautiful and soulful place, but I also know that it is not the urban paradise that so many SSP forumers imagine it to be. It has come a long way since Katrina. Parts of the city are nicer than ever before, and there has been a lot of positive change. That said, the ongoing battle with crime there is very concerning to anybody who cares about New Orleans, and this forum is an appropriate place to discuss those concerns.

[austlar1]

I am tempted to regale SSP visitors with my experiences back in the Dark Ages as a temporary census worker for the 1974 "Victims of Crime Impact Study", which was a special census study of crime in the US back in the last days of the Nixon administration. I was living hand to mouth in the French Quarter at the time and needed this temporary gig to make ends meet. I moved to SF a short time later. As a census data collector, it was my job to interview pre-selected households, mostly in the Iberville projects adjacent to the French Quarter and in the Treme. It soon became obvious that very few black people we interviewed were comfortable discussing anything related to crime. It did not matter that we were seeking information to determine the actual crime rate, and we reported none of our findings to law enforcement. There was hardly anybody willing to provide accurate information. It seemed as if nobody was ever a victim of crime. We went to these homes in pairs, and after a while we just quit trying to gather information and submitted bogus data in order to collect a paycheck. I am not proud of this, but it was the tail end of the Viet Nam era, and most of my generation was not enamored of the Nixon administration. That was how we justified our slacker behavior at any rate. Within less than a decade nobody in their right mind would have tried to knock on doors in that particular housing project. More than a few tourists strayed over in that direction over the years from the Quarter and met a bloody end. I think that the Iberville project was pulled down after Katrina, so it is probably a different ballgame there today with some new construction, etc.

[Larry King]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Or...ropolitan_area

So new orleans metro only 1.25 million people?

am I missing something or is the new orleans region much smaller than i thought?

[niwell]

I could happily live in Bywater. Only been there once but I absolutely fell in love with New Orleans. It is by far the most unique experience I have had in the US. The French Quarter and Warehouse districts were interesting but perhaps my least favourite of the neighbourhoods I went to. We stayed in an 1880s house in Irish Channel which was great. Actually were close to some crime (shooting at a grocery store down the street and we locked ourselves in a bike store) but I'm not sure it would deter me too much.

My coworker who lived in Nola for a year (Uptown) saw some shady stuff but never really feared crime. She didn't have a car and is an attractive girl in her late 20s. A couple of times she said she had to basically turn down a street because of what was going on but never felt too unsafe.

[dc_denizen]

anyone have any pics?

Interesting:

Long-vacant Rault Center in downtown New Orleans being transformed into boutique hotel