A new report lists Louisiana at #50 in health and #49 in education. We just re-elected Landrieu...Nagin was re-elected...and Jefferson will probably be re-elected this weekend. The same families and same party have ruled this state for years and we continue to be last in most quality of life categories. Do we have a chance to turn this state around? Is Jindal the answer? Can he get enough support across the aisle to make a difference? Without a miracle, we've pretty much lost New Orleans. Sure people will continue to come to get drunk, eat good food, urinate in the street, and hope to get flashed for a pair of beads. The problem is nobody will be interested in investing in New Orleans as long as we have a huge crime problem and crooked politicians. The actual voters (majority) of New Orleans are either satisfied with subpar living conditions or are too stupid to know the difference. It's nice to walk around the French Quarter to see the history, architecture, restaurants, and entertainment but you don't have to walk far to find people hustling or loudly using profanity. Even after Katrina we still have a lot of low-class losers running the streets in the city. It's too beatiful a city to let it be wasted by a handful of thugs and crooked politicians. Can anyone in here EVER remember having a decent mayor in New Orleans? If you do, you must be at least 70-80 years old. I know we haven't had one in the last 40 years. Can any of this be fixed or are we so accustomed to these results that we've just settled on mediocrity? I think we need to ruffle some feathers and not worry about offending anyone or being politically correct. It's our state and we need to take it back!
Does New Orleans have a single Fortune 500 company based there anymore? Until they can attract some back, N.O will sadly just be as you pointed out, a place for tourists to come get drunk and piss in the street. Entropy is death.
A lot of people thought it was cute and funny that Louisiana was so corrupt for decades. They enjoyed the songs and chants and it's history. Jindal is trying to get rid of that image but until the citizens hold the politicians accountable for their actions nothing will change. It is amazing that some of these people hold government jobs.
And Fortune 500 companies do not settle in places with public education systems that are beyond awful. We had a number of Katrina kids come to the school in Plano where I teach, and when I tell you, they were far behind, that would the a serious hyperbole. I was teaching 7th grade exclusively that year, and we received a 15-year-old boy from New Orleans. After two or three days, he came up to me and asked, "You mean dere ain't no mo 15-year-old sevemf gradas her?" Seventh graders? We didn't have any 15-year-old 8th graders, either. We have a problem with middle schoolers being able to drive themselves to school, I guess. New Orleans is one of the worst school systems, but many aren't far behind it. Communities with horrible public education systems cannot attract businesses, and when that happens, communities don't thrive. It saddens me that I will probably never live in Louisiana again, but honestly, I can't truly fathom taking my daughters away from the opportunities they'll have here in public schools, plus I'd have a hard time adjusting to teaching in Louisiana again.) I'd have to pay top dollar for similar educations in Louisiana (though, one could argue that my property tax bill of over $400 a month is way more than I'd pay in my home state--it's still cheaper than 12 years of private school.) People are mad at Raising Cane's for moving corporate to Dallas. Well, they couldn't attract the professionals they needed to move to Louisiana.
Along with schools, its still taking time trying to get a friendlier tax situation for larger corporations besides the oil and chemical companies. Granted the reason the economy hasn't slowed as much as other places is because of these companies at the moment, but if we were tax friendly to all corporations and not just the oil and chemical ones, it would be a good start. But like Stacey said, its an education problem too.
St. Tammany Parish has been ranked at/near the top in most quality of life categories for the past 30+ years. The education level has not just been at the top in state but also above the national average. As a result, we're starting to see migration from New Orleans again but not like the patterns of the past when people were moving to get away from areas going down the drain. Now we're starting to see an increase in people who will not contribute to our standards. For years we've passed every tax/proposal/amendment etc. to increase police and fire protection and to have better schools, roads, and libraries. Now we're seeing people (leeches is probably a better term) moving to the area not to assimilate or improve their life but to suck the wealth of the community dry before moving on to another area. It's sad because many of these new residents like the parks, malls, restaurants, schools, etc. but don't care to conform to local norms and values like not painting your house green and purple with orange trim or parking three junk cars in the street. New Orleans east once (not too long ago) had the nicest mall in the state (or region), many restaurants, three Mardi Gras parades, and nice neighborhoods. Through government intervention and community organizing, the east was lost overnight. Now there's nothing and we can't blame it on Katrina because it was gone long before that. On a political note...isn't it amazing that Louisiana has been ranked toward the bottom as long as we can remember and has been ruled by one party...yet the few areas of the state that have always done well have been dominated by the other party? It ain'ts be no co-in-see-dense!
Entergy is based there. Pool Corp is close to cracking the Fortune 500 and is growing rapidly, but they are in Covington. The number of fortune 1000s is growing in the last few years. As a state we have Entergy, Shaw, Pool Corp, Century Tel, and recently added Albermarle. Louisiana is in the finals for 2 fortune 500 relocations presently. As to the education system in New Orleans... the charter schools are among the finest in the nation, and as long as that is the blue print for the future of public education in NOLA things are going well. Its to bad we are 10-12 years away from those kids getting into college.
Charter schools generally haven't been very successful. What is New Orleans doing differently, in that respect?
