Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Flint Meet New Orleans

I've always thought the economic forces that battered Flint were the equivalent of a natural disaster, a slow-motion hurricane Katrina followed by the flood. Now there's some evidence to bear that out. 

Richard Rainey of The Times-Picayune reports:
Since Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has consistently held the unwanted crown of most blighted city in America. That's no longer true, said Allison Plyer, chief demographer for the Greater New Orleans Data Center. A report released by the nonprofit agency on Monday shows that Detroit and Flint, Mich., had a greater percentage of dilapidated housing stock than the Crescent City, a first since the levees failed and drowned the city in 2005. 
The new report estimated that 8,000 properties in New Orleans were repaired or rebuilt between September 2010 and March 2011, leaving around 21 percent of all properties blighted, compared with 27 percent in Flint and 24 percent in Detroit.


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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.