WP: A Shrinking New Orleans (Nagin says to 1/2 population, 1/3 budget)

[DeepModem Mom]

A Shrinking New Orleans
Mayor Says Infrastructure Can't Support Previous Population
By Ceci Connolly and Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 26, 2005; Page A02


NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 25 -- Mayor C. Ray Nagin, who has vowed to resurrect his crippled city, conceded Tuesday that New Orleans will shrink to nearly half its pre-hurricane population and will have to make do with one-third of its previous budget.

With as many as 250,000 homes uninhabitable and some neighborhoods still lacking basic services, Nagin estimated the city's shattered infrastructure could support 250,000 to 300,000 residents over the next year, compared with the half a million people who lived here before Hurricane Katrina struck Aug. 29.

"That's every available space," he said in an interview in New Orleans City Hall, where signs warn visitors to avoid contaminated basements and workers are replacing blown out windows. Nagin said his staff is scouring lists of blighted properties that could be renovated for temporary housing, as well as scouting for vacant lots, parks and supermarket parking lots to place thousands of trailers.

On Thursday, Nagin, who once oversaw a $600 million annual budget, intends to unveil a $230 million spending plan, boosted -- "if we're lucky" -- by tax revenue from businesses reopening in the city's least damaged sectors, he said. That projection, he said, relies heavily on loans and has a $70 million to $80 million shortfall that he has yet to figure out how to fill.

Two months after the worst natural disaster in modern U.S. history here, Nagin spoke from his second-floor office, where a copy of Rudolph W. Giuliani's book "Leadership" is displayed next to the conference table. Nagin acknowledged much of the city's future -- and his own -- is out of his hands....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/25/AR2005102501627.html