New Orleans' Population eclipses 300,000

[SlidellWX]

Excellent news!

[tennis1400]

Although I question the accuracy of mail counts. My sister, Her boyfriend and I all have our mail deliverd to where we work. Mainly because of the issues we had after Katrina and the frequency of our moving. So while I live here, I dont actually get mail sent to New Orleans. I wonder how many people do that!

Anyway, it seems New Orleans is past the recovery mode and now heading into rebirth and in some industries/sectors actual growth!

[NCB]

More great news here!

Population growing, according to new estimates

WWLTV article and video

Greg Rigamer of GCR and Associates now has statistics pointing at a city population of about 300,000. He also estimates that the population of the New Orleans metro area is now over 1.2 million.

[NCB]

Just a little FYI, the latest official population estimate for the New Orleans metro area is 1,236,505. That estimate comes from GCR.

So after Katrina, we all heard that New Orleans would be extremely lucky if its population exceeded 300,000 by 2010, and that it would take just as long for the metro population to even hit 1 million. Well here we are with a city population of over 300,000 and a metro population of well over 1.2 million, and it's not even 2008.

Cheers to the people who said that New Orleans would never come back!

[tennis1400]

Its amazing how so many so called experts are so wrong, while us amateurs are so right! Why do these people still call themsleves experts anyway! Two reasons they were wrong:

1. New Orleans is more nescessary than people think.

2. New Orleans has a very loyal populace( more people born here stay or return here than any other major city in the us). Per capita of course!

I always thought this city would return quicker than thought! And we all thought right! Now if we can see some decent rebuilding, we will attract some people as most of the nation heads to what I believe will be a pretty bad recession! People will inevitablty seek places with lower costs of living and better weather!

[jascowhiz0]

Its amazing how so many so called experts are so wrong, while us amateurs are so right! Why do these people still call themsleves experts anyway! Two reasons they were wrong:

1. New Orleans is more nescessary than people think.

2. New Orleans has a very loyal populace( more people born here stay or return here than any other major city in the us). Per capita of course!

I always thought this city would return quicker than thought! And we all thought right! Now if we can see some decent rebuilding, we will attract some people as most of the nation heads to what I believe will be a pretty bad recession! People will inevitablty seek places with lower costs of living and better weather!

[JPKneworleans]

Well, we've passed the pre-swamp drain number.

The statement was a bold one. But, there is some truth to it. New Orleans have a population that is very loyal. We love our city because it is so different. If only, though, that difference did not extend to the corruption of its government and the xenophobic tendencies of the local "elite" and business communities, New Orleans might still be the Queen City of the South.

[Spartan]

Does anyone know if the population that is moving into New Orleans is at all being offset by population leaving Baton Rouge or Houston? Also, to what extent is there a plan to NOT let these people move back into the lowest parts of the city. I admit I haven't kept up with the reconstruction plans, but I'm curious to know how much impact they are making on the city's redevelopment.

[SlidellWX]

From GNOCDC report on January 15,2007. Population Data is from Nov 2007.

New Orleans: 70.5% of pre-K population (452,170)

318,780

6 Parish region: 86.3% of pre-K population (1,284,884). Caveat...this number excludes Plaquemines and Tangipahoa Parishes.

1,108,855

[JPKneworleans]

Does anyone know if the population that is moving into New Orleans is at all being offset by population leaving Baton Rouge or Houston? Also, to what extent is there a plan to NOT let these people move back into the lowest parts of the city. I admit I haven't kept up with the reconstruction plans, but I'm curious to know how much impact they are making on the city's redevelopment.

[TSmith]

From GNOCDC report on January 15,2007. Population Data is from Nov 2007.

New Orleans: 70.5% of pre-K population (452,170)

318,780

6 Parish region: 86.3% of pre-K population (1,284,884). Caveat...this number excludes Plaquemines and Tangipahoa Parishes.

1,108,855

[blackcoat]

Spartan, about the population offsets in Baton Rouge and Houston, I am unaware of any such studies; as it is, the best population estimates for New Orleans are based on utility hookups and mail delivery. That being said, I am certain that a fair number of people fled to Baton Rouge and Houston, only to return to New Orleans later. In a rather interesting twist, there has been a substantial influx of Mexican immigrants, and a smaller influx of northeasterners and Brazillians.

As JPK stated, people are not being discouraged from rebuilding in low-lying areas. In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, plans produced by the Bring New Orleans Back commission would have prevented rebuilding in some of the lowest areas of the city, but these plans met significant public opposition. Combine this with the fact that Katrina struck New Orleans only 7 months before the mayoral election, and no one was going to get elected without championing everyone's right to return to their previous address.

To better understand the topography in New Orleans, I strongly suggest reading the Times-Picayune article "Higher Ground". The entire article is worth reading, though there is a paragraph near the end of the article that makes an important point about flooding during Katrina. There are numerous canals that run through the New Orleans metro area, and as storm surges pushed water into these canals, sections of these canal walls gave way, causing neighborhoods to flood in ways that are not wholly consistent with the elevation of the area:

After Katrina smacked the city, floodwaters soaked above- sea-level parts of the Holy Cross (Lower 9th Ward) neighborhood, but did not inundate parts of Bywater at roughly the same elevation. The location and severity of levee failures determined which of those areas flooded. The same was true for below-sea-level areas on different sides of the 17th Street Canal. Floodwaters spewed into Lakeview from a collapsed section of the floodwall on the Orleans side while some low-lying parts of Metairie remained dry because they were behind the Jefferson Parish side of the floodwall, which held.

Elevation, ruptured levees, collapsing flood walls, failed pumps, clogged catch basins and the overtopping of levees all affect whether a particular spot floods and how much.

[Temeteron]

Well, we've passed the pre-swamp drain number.

The statement was a bold one. But, there is some truth to it. New Orleans have a population that is very loyal. We love our city because it is so different. If only, though, that difference did not extend to the corruption of its government and the xenophobic tendencies of the local "elite" and business communities, New Orleans might still be the Queen City of the South.

[TSmith]

Last time I checked, the Queen City of the South was Charlotte

[SlidellWX]

Tsmith...not sure why they exclude Plaquemines. I always thought it was strange as well.

On a side note...had several friends in town for the AMS convention last week. One guy had been here in August 06 and was amazed at the progress in the city since his last visit. He could tell there were signficantly more people living in the city. All of these guys are sending out the word that NOLA is awesome again to everyone they know in the rest of the country.

[JPKneworleans]

Last time I checked, the Queen City of the South was Charlotte

[bobby255BR]

I still think that New Orleans is the Queen City of the South!!!

[NCB]

Well, Greg Rigamer, of GCR and Associates Inc. now has stats that also peg the city's population at over 300,000; 302,191 to be exact. According to Rigamer, New Orleans is picking up about 2,000 new residents per month, and the city is beginning to reach a new "fill point." We had that type of situation back when the city's population was approaching 200,000, and we all heard that growth would hit a wall until more neighborhood rebuilding took place. It took awhile, but here we are 16-20 months and well over 100,000 new residents later, and we're faced with another problem; public facilities and public transportation. More hospitals and schools, along with an expanded public transportation system, are needed before we can start to look towards the 400,000 mark.

Looking at those needs, I'm pretty confident in the continued repopulation and growth of the city. The school system is coming back slowly, but more importantly, the schools seem to be performing much better than they did in the many years before Katrina. The major hospitals and neighborhood clinics will come...don't ask me when, but they'll come. The local clinics are already coming back, and once more of them pop up in neighborhoods like Lakeview, Gentilly, and NOE, the larger stuff will follow. As for public transportation, we all know that RTA has had to completely rebuild their entire system, from destroyed streetcars and buses to the almost total destruction of the Saint Charles Ave. line. I've been very happy with the work that's been put into restoring the streetcar system(though we're all still looking for the red Canal/Riverfront cars) and these stories about RTA bringing in dozens of new bio-diesel buses are very promising. And even more promising is the fact that there is a huge amount of federal money that has yet to be spent on rebuilding/improving infrastructure that will continue to be pumped into the city.

All in all, I think this city has a new attitude when it comes to the future. For so long it seemed like "oh, that'll never happen" was the thing we heard most when it came to future developments or rebuilding plans. Now, it seems like "it may take awhile, but eventually it'll come through" is the more common attitude, which, at least to me, is nice to see. Even small things like that can make living here so much more rewarding, because it's tough to be optimistic when it seems like everyon around you(especially the media) has fallen into a negative mentality.

And after all that, here's the actual story from WWL:

Link to video

Something else that was very nice to hear; according to Rigamer, the neighborhood with the most growth in the city over the last year has been New Orleans East.

Also, I've noticed that we have alot of non-New Orleanian forumers looking at this particular thread, and I realize to non-locals all of these different population estimates and surveys may be somewhat confusing. I just wanted to make it clear that we have many different organizations that release population estimates every month or every few months. The estimates are based on everything from mail delivery and electrical hookups to physical neighborhood counts. Greg Rigamer has the most complex system for putting together population estimates in the city, and has been dead on in the past when compared to Census estimates and other national demographers. However, many of the other estimates have held up in the past as well, so we make sure to include them in our discussion.

[NCB]

I thought about starting a new thread, but I'll go ahead and keep our population info here.

It was announced yesterday that between July 2006 and July 2007, New Orleans was the nation's fastest growing large (100,000+) city. New Orleans' population rose 13.8% which easily put it at the top of that list.

CNN Article

Wall Street Journal/MarketWatch Article

Here is the list of cities with the most numerical population growth:

1. Houston

2. Phoenix

3. San Antonio

4. Fort Worth

5. New Orleans

6. New York City

7. Atlanta

8. Austin

9. Charlotte

10. Raleigh

New Orleans was the only major Louisiana city to post a population gain between July 2006-July 2007. The city added 28,926 people.

After years of negativity regarding New Orleans' recovery, it's nice to see major national media outlets like CNN and The Wall Street Journal now using words like "strong" and phrases like "New Orleans is fighting back" to describe our recovery. Population and services have been steadily returning over the past two years, and New Orleans is slowly but surely regaining its position at the top of the Gulf South.

[djp4lsu]

New Orleans was the only major Louisiana city to post a population gain between July 2006-July 2007. The city added 28,926 people.

[NCB]

Good to hear we're finally getting some good publicity. I'm wondering, though, where you got the info about the other makor cities in LA? I'm not doubting you or nothing, but I'm from Lafayette and I know it's been growing a lot, and I was wondering if it stopped.

[SlidellWX]

GNOCDC put out new numbers as of May 2008 according to the USPS data they use.

According to the site, New Orleans has regained 72% of it's pre-storm population...putting the city at around 327,000.

Here is the percent returned for each Zip Code in New Orleans. I consider an area 95% or higher to have seen little change or to be growing...an area between 80 and 95% to be mostly recovered...50% to 80% partially recovered...and anything between 20 and 50% to be barely recovered. If it is less than 20% no real recovery has taken place. I also showed the change from last summer. It is interesting to see the population become more spread out in the last year. A few high ground areas actually lost population, while the flood zones grew substantially with the Bullard Ave. corridor in NOE leading the way.

Orleans Parish:

70112 (Medical District)

105.3% (area has grown)

percent change from last summer: +4.8%

70113 (Central City)

89.8% (mostly recovered)

percent change from last summer: -17.2%...largest population decline.

70114 (Algiers Point/Behrman/Naval Support)

88.0% (mostly recovered)

percent change from last summer: -10.6%

70115 (Irish Channel/Uptown/Garden District/Touro/Milan)

92.9% (mostly recovered)

percent change from last summer: +2.9%

70116 (Treme/Marigny/French Quarter)

87.5% (mostly recovered)

percent change from last summer: +1.8%

70117 (Upper/Lower 9th Ward)

50.4% (partially recovered)

percent change from last summer: +6.0%

70118 (Carrollton/Hollygrove/University/Audubon Park)

90.8% (mostly recovered)

percent change from last summer: +3.5%

70119 (MidCity/7th Ward)

76.4% (partially recovered)

percent change from last summer: +1.6%

70122 (Gentilly)

56.4% (partially recovered)

percent change from last summer: +3.7%

70124 (Lakeview)

53.7% (partially recovered)

percent change from last summer: +14.3%

70125 (Broadmoore)

66.6% (partially recovered)

percent change from last summer: +13.3%

70126 (Pontchartrain Park/NOE west of Crowder)

43.7% (barely recovered)

percent change from last summer: +8.9%

70127 (Read Blvd. Area)

48.8% (barely recovered)

percent change from last summer: +13.0%

70128 (Bullard Ave. Area)

67.3% (partially recovered)

percent change from last summer: +16.9%...largest population increase in the city.

70129 (Village D'lest/Venetian Isles)

56.6% (partially recovered)

percent change from last summer: no change

70130 (CBD/Warehouse District/Lower Garden District)

99.0% (little change)

percent change from last summer: +3.7%

70131 (English Turn/Lakewood/Lower Algiers)

101.0% (area has grown)

percent change from last summer: -0.3%

[djp4lsu]

djp, I got that piece of information from this article in the Baton Rouge Advocate.

Population gain/loss between July 2006 and July 2007:

• New Orleans +28,926

• Baton Rouge -3,644

• Shreveport -1,137

• Lafayette -675

[tennis1400]

I wonder how many of those people that left Baton Rouge and Lafayette may have moved to NOLA? That would be interesting to see!

[NCB]

I wonder how many of those people that left Baton Rouge and Lafayette may have moved to NOLA? That would be interesting to see!