The altered demography of post-Katrina New Orleans

"New Orleans has not become a Disneyfied version of its former self, as some residents feared when the first wave of planners arrived in early 2006 eager to re-imagine the city," The Times-Picayune says in a report on how the area has changed since Hurricane Katrina. 

But the population is about 22 percent smaller, and not quite so poor. "It remains a predominantly African-American city, although not as demonstrably as before, with its African-Amercan majority dropping from about 67 percent to 61 percent," the newspaper says in an article available here. 

The suburbs are now home to the majority of the region's poor, according to "The New Orleans Index at Five," a recovery survey published by the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center. Market rents for two-bedroom apartments in the city have jumped to $982 a month from $661 since Katrina. In the near term, researchers believe that continued reconstruction, especially the massive Lousiana State University-Veterans Administration Hospital complex (criticized by preservationists and new urbanists) will buffer the economy.