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.

A Yard Short

Even though I'm a Green Bay fan, I was rooting for Flint's Mark Ingram to punch it in from the one last night for New Orleans.

Flint doesn't even rank when it comes to brutal, homicidal violence

I'm always happy when Flint is not included in a list ranking cities by some horrific crime statistic, so I was more than pleased when I finished reading a recent article in Foreign Policy listing "five cities that stand in a class all their own when it comes to brutal, homicidal violence." Why was I more than pleased? The Vehicle City was nowhere to be found.

Here are the unlucky winners:

Caracas, Venezuela
Cape Town, South Africa
New Orleans
Moscow
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea