INDReporter

Biz site: NOLA ‘dead forever'

by Walter Pierce

The quality of our professional football teams notwithstanding, lumping New Orleans in with Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit is just plain wrong!
Eighty percent of New Orleans' pre-Katrina population has returned. New developments are replacing the razed public housing complexes. The port is once again bustling. But don't tell that to the website Business Insider, which ranks the Crescent City fifth on its list of "10 American Cities That Are Dead Forever."

Rust Belt cities along the Great Lakes and in the upper Midwest dominate the list. Galveston is the only other Southern city to be ranked and, like New Orleans, its alleged demise is tied to a hurricane - Ike in 2008. In both instances the website makes a less-than-compelling case, citing population loss following the hurricanes but neglecting to factor in revitalization efforts and population gains since the storms.

See the ranking here.