WEEK 5:

Philadelphia vs. New Orleans

We got a big win Sunday against the New Orleans Saints. Meantime, the civic numbers this week were fascinating and surprising. I didn’t expect New Orleans to outperform Philly in categories like residents between 22 and 34, percentage of those moving into the city and of those biking to work. Turns out, according to Prof. Richardson Dilworth of Drexel’s Center for Public Policy, the data on New Orleans’ civic health took a decided shift after Hurricane Katrina.

“For most years, New Orleans was worse in all these categories than Philadelphia—more murders per capita, higher poverty, higher segregation,” says Dilworth. “And then came Katrina, which had the primary effect of pushing the poorest people out of New Orleans, many of whom were African-American, and they have had the hardest time returning. According to a recent survey from the LSU Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs, 56 percent of the city’s newest residents–and note the higher proportion of people who moved to New Orleans in the past year—are white and have higher incomes and educational levels than the residents they have replaced.”

Here, we’ve been dealing a lot with issues of gentrification. Professor Dilworth says New Orleans has our issues—but on steroids. “Oddly enough, Katrina basically fast-forwarded gentrification in New Orleans, so that the city now looks more similar to Philadelphia, where gentrification has been a more gradual process. In previous years, New Orleans would have had lower scores than in many of these categories, but no longer. In that sense, New Orleans offers a pretty interesting example of both the good and bad of gentrification.”

I’m not smart enough to know the answer to gentrification, but I know from my community work at the Make The World Better Foundation that when newcomers and longtime residents of a community work together on public space projects, amazing things are possible. Here’s hoping that cities like Philly and New Orleans continue to do the hard work of making our cities home for everyone, no matter their race and income levels.

Next week we take on the New York Giants.