New Orleans Blight Ranks Worst In Nation (Detroit comes in second place)

The Times Picayune ^ | August 22, 2008 | Gordon Russell

[Prole]

New Orleans has a far greater proportion of vacant homes than any other city in the country, due in large part to a lagging recovery in about a third of the neighborhoods that were badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, new analyses show.

The nonprofit Greater New Orleans Community Data Center released two reports Thursday, one of which used U.S. Postal Service data compiled in March to compare New Orleans with seven other American cities that have large inventories of blighted or vacant housing.

When it comes to abandoned homes, New Orleans is in a class by itself, the report indicated, with more than one in three residential addresses vacant or unoccupied. No other city surveyed had as many as one in five.

Detroit, which has lost roughly 1 million people in the past half-century and has become synonymous with urban decay, was No. 2 on the list. The survey found that 18 percent of Detroit's residential addresses are vacant or unoccupied.

[Linden1209]

They are told to evacuate and stay.”
80% of the New Orleans citizenry, pre storm population of 450,000 people, evacuated before Katrina came through.
_______
Most of those in the “bowl” didn’t. Saw many people taken off roofs into helicopters and from the water and muck into boats.

[MinorityRepublican]

Sure looks like the South will vote for McCain and the North will vote for Obama and the election will basically come down to Ohio again.

[Prole]

Yup.

Let's hope that Ohio votes McCain so that this ridiculous Obama campaign can be finished once and for all.

[Mila]

"Most of those in the “bowl” didn’t. Saw many people taken off roofs into helicopters and from the water and muck into boats."

80% or approximately 360,000 people left New Orleans ahead of the storm. Approximately 90,000 did not. When I do the math, that tells me that "most" left.

[Linden1209]

Pls reread. I wrote “Most of those in the bowl”...