09-02-2005, 07:37 AM
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#8 (permalink)
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Observant Ruminant
Location: Rich Wannabe Hippie Town
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As I said above, economic prospects for a New Orleans recovery (and a good housing market) are iffy if businesses don't come back. See the story below:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...a071752D18.DTL
Quote:
Baton Rouge Swells in Katrina's Wake
Friday, September 2, 2005
(09-02) 07:17 PDT Baton Rouge, La. (AP) --
In the span of a week, Baton Rouge has become Louisiana's most-populous city — at least temporarily — and a big chunk of that growth is likely to be permanent, officials say.
Evacuees from the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged New Orleans area have poured into East Baton Rouge Parish, along with rescue personnel using the city as a home.
"Baton Rouge is now the largest city in Louisiana and it's going to be for quite a while, if not permanently," said Walter Monsour, the top administrator to the president of the city-parish government.
Before the hurricane hit, Baton Rouge already had such long-running problems as traffic congestion and jail overcrowding. Those problems figure to grow exponentially, Monsour said.
"Is there going to be chaos in the city? No. Is this going to mean a different way of life here? Absolutely," Monsour said.
A number of companies are relocating their offices from the New Orleans area to Baton Rouge and many are buying homes and entire apartment complexes to house their employees, Monsour said. Monsour said that with the New Orleans airport closed, air traffic at Baton Rouge's Metro Airport could easily from 700,000 passengers to 3 million passengers per year, he said.
"All those air carriers that we have been courting for years are suddenly asking to come in," Monsour said.
Metro Council member Wayne Carter said many of the companies that are relocating to Baton Rouge will likely stay.
"Did you know that Galveston and Houston were the same size before Galveston got hit by a storm?" Carter said.
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