Post-Katrina report a mixed bag for New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A report on New Orleans' progress in the five years since Hurricane Katrina extols a "new spirit of reform and enhanced self reliance" and the remaking of the public school system, but it laments high crime, racial disparities and economic dependence on industries that are losing steam.
Encouraging signs in the fifth edition of "The New Orleans Index" by the Brookings Institution and the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center include the finding that the metro area recovered more than 90 percent of its population and almost 85 percent of its jobs, based on 2009 census estimates. In the city itself, the report said, the latest census estimate — 354,850 people as of July 2009 — means New Orleans has recovered 78 percent of its pre-Katrina level. But Katrina accelerated job losses in the city, allowing
