A month after Katrina, a long road ahead

The blame game
“Our local politicians say it’s FEMA, FEMA says it’s the locals. No one can give us an answer on what to do here. All I want to know is what my options are,” fumed Marvin Alberado, a resident of nearby Chalmette whose machine shop and home are deep in oily muck.

The mayor has said he will soon have a commission start developing a plan for the new New Orleans, and civic boosters are talking about putting together an effort to promote the city around the nation.

Nagin has been pushing to get residents back into the dried-out neighborhoods, brushing aside warnings that crucial services are not in place.

“People are saying it’s too early to bring back jazz, the gumbo and the red beans,” Nagin said. “If it’s too early, when is the right time?”

It seems certain that post-Katrina New Orleans will be a smaller city, with a less diverse economy.

Loren Scott, an economist and Louisiana State University professor emeritus, expects the port-related businesses, including petrochemical and shipping industries, to bounce back, and said that tourism will eventually rebound, too.

But many service-related businesses will probably not be able to hold out during the long rebuilding.

Question of whether residents will return
Kent Koerkel, who owns a furniture store, wondered where he will get the customers to survive. “This was not a small town,” he said. “I’m seriously wondering if enough people will come back to have an economy.”

The city of some 475,000 pre-Katrina residents could lose more than a fourth of its population, by some estimates. With such uncertainty here, many New Orleans residents who were evacuated after Katrina may settle where they are, rather than return.

Brandon Page, 25, said he interviewed for jobs while staying in Atlanta, then returned to New Orleans to work on his damaged house. He works for a market research firm whose prospects are hazy.

“I’ll clean up here and then decide if I need to relocate for a job,” Page said. “I’ve got a big decision.”

Historian Douglas Brinkley, a Tulane University professor, predicted the rebuilt New Orleans will be largely gentrified, centered around the French Quarter and arts district, filled with townhouses and tourist lures. Along the way, it may lose some of its funky traditions and lowbrow charm, becoming more like Charleston, S.C., or Santa Fe, N.M., he said.

“The bottom line is it will not be the city it once was,” he said.

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