New Orleans shrinking

from the Times-Picayune (11/23):

THINK SMALL
It's time to get real, experts say: New Orleans is a shrinking city. Redirecting resources can help the city not only survive its population losses, but also thrive.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
By Gordon Russell

"Buffalo. Pittsburgh. Cincinnati.

The poets will never compare them to Paris -- or, for that matter, to New Orleans, the fountainhead of so much American culture.

Still, those humble burgs are New Orleans' peers these days, in at least two important respects: About 300,000 people now call them home, and their zenith, in terms of population, has passed. And cities like these have something to teach New Orleans: how to cope with getting smaller.

It's not easy. Lost population usually translates into widespread blight, crumbling infrastructure, stretched budgets and the loss of civic confidence and clout. But more than three years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans must confront the reality of a reduced population, as resettlement has slowed to a trickle." ...

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