N.O. has no potential to be anything other than what she is. N.O. is filled with people who are convinced that they are perfectly entitled to be ignorant, unproductive and hateful. I say this as someone who has loved N.O. in spite of her copious faults for thirty years.
You, too, huh? I was in mourning for the place until the residents started opening their mouths wanting handouts. I had loved New Orleans all my life until that point. The mourning period was over.
Hey, man, that's a big chunk of America today, especially in the cities.
Having just returned from a 3-day convention (my first visit) I have to say that what I saw on the local t.v. stations, listening to locals and going out and about that my overall impression matches your's. My (upscale) hotel's gift shop promenantly displayed print t-shirts outside the store with FEMA abbreviated as: Fix Everything My A@@. A good summation was given at a bar by a tearful, sobbing woman in her 50s who was going on about how bad things were since Bush was elected with N.O. the epicenter of America's failings. Running down the list from the stock market, to 9/11, to the Columbia, to Katrina, the housing market, etc. ...they were all essentially Bush's fault.
All in all it was enough for me to write off the people and therefore their city. They're finished, really. It's reminiscent of how the Soviet Union and Cuba would blame "counter-revolutionaires" and the West for their system's social and economic failings.
I mentioned to a co-worker they might as well just get another Cat. 5 in there ASAP and finish N.O. off rather than waste more time and money prolonging the inevitable. And it is inevitable because from what I could see the locals take no responsibility for themselves or their city.