The Ex-City Of New Orleans

I was thinking about how to assess and explain the magnitude of losing New Orleans, which has gone from being a city of almost half a million to a ghost town of maybe 10,000, they think.

I thought about putting up a list of the Top 10 biggest U.S. cities and crossing a line through New Orleans as a way of visualizing the loss. Seeing that crossed out name next to other Top 10 names like "New York," "Los Angeles," or "Chicago" could powerfully communicate just what our nation has lost.

But it turned out that I couldn’t do that. On researching the matter, I discovered that–despite its fame and its history–New Orleans is not in the Top 10 biggest U.S. cities. It’s not in the top dozen, or the two two dozen. The list would simply be too long to make the point I wanted to make.

By population, New York is sixteen times as big as New Orleans. Los Angeles is eight. Houston is four. The city I live in–San Diego–is almost three.

Places like Columbus, Milwaukee, El Paso, Charlotte, OKC, and Tucson are all bigger than New Orleans was.

I guess we were lucky that–as unimaginably horrible as the damage of losing New Orleans has been–it was not as bad as if a Top 10 city was taken out. That would have been even more unimaginably horrible.

So where was New Orleans in the rankings?

IT WAS NUMBER TWENTY-EIGHT.

That distinction now belongs to Las Vegas.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

25 thoughts on “The Ex-City Of New Orleans”

  1. Jimmy, I’ve been doing a little research on New Orleans myself. I ran across an article in the Dallas newspaper (Morning News) that mentioned New Orleans’ crime rate as being 10 times the national average. Turns out it’s true. Guess you could put that on a list to illustrate the source of the looter problem and why so many people wouldn’t leave their homes. Incompetent and corrupt police and politicians.

  2. Jimmy:
    I have some doubts about your list. Both Nashville and Memphis Tennessee are missing entirely. I believe both have a current population somewhere around half a million and a “greater-area” population around a million.

  3. regarding above post:
    Not that including Tennessee cities in the list would move New Orleans up any, but you know. It’s just that the list is not all that reliable.

  4. I think a commenter above noticed that same thing I did. Denver is listed at #22 with little over 500,000 people. With all the outlying cities, the Denver metro area is 2.4million. New Orleans, being unique in a “bowl” probably had its population total mostly accurate, but this wouldn’t be the case for most other cities. Any disaster affecting Denver would affect much more than listed in the city population list making a comparison of magnitude difficult.

  8. New Orleans may not rank high enough on the list as a major metropolis to make your point, Jimmy, but start listing major cities of great historical importance to the United States. New Orleans was probably the largest city of major historical importance in the South and ranks alongside Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, and St. Louis in that category. Of cities springing from the American Catholic heritage, New Orleans is probably number one.

  9. Mia: Sure but that’s not really as objective as what Jimmy hoped to do. You might as well say, “Here is a list of the top ten cities with great Mardi Gras celebrations” and then cross New Orleans off for dramatic effect.

  10. Historically, New Orleans has been in the top 10, although I’m not sure at what point it was knocked off that list. Every war, disaster, and economic downturn rendered New Orleans less vibrant and economically sound. I’ve never really personally evaluated the reasons why, but it really saddens me. I come from that culture and I think in my gut I can see why this has happened, but I can’t articulate it. If any of you readers get a chance, read an account of New Orleanians’ behavior during the Civil War occupation by the Yankee army. It’s very interesting and reminds me of the way Roman citizens often behaved during times of crisis.

  12. I think a little context is in order.
    So New Orleans was 10 times the national average higher in crime rate… thus the looting, eh?
    did you also read that pre-Katrina, 28% of New Orleans live below the poverty level… and 50 %… yes, you read correctly, that is FIVE ZERO… 50% of school children in New Orleans live below the poverty level.
    as for looting? if you or me or anyone else had to go 5 days without food or water and had lost everything…I refuse to judge anyone until I have to walk a mile in their sandals.
    See the article on CATHOLIC EXCHANGE.com Looting for bread? yes… looting for sneakers? maybe… looting for DVDs? no.

  13. Tim, the people were looting at once. Five days without food or water was not the cause of the looting. The looting itself was the cause of many people going without food or water.
    And poverty does not cause crime. It is an insult to the poor to say that they are not responsible for their actions because of their lack of belongings — and in most cases, a slanderous insult.

  14. Catherine L wrote
    “Historically, New Orleans has been in the top 10, although I’m not sure at what point it was knocked off that list. Every war, disaster, and economic downturn rendered New Orleans less vibrant and economically sound. I’ve never really personally evaluated the reasons why, but it really saddens me. I come from that culture and I think in my gut I can see why this has happened, but I can’t articulate it.”
    Among the major American cities, New Orleans has perhaps the least “modern” economic infrastructure. The city has been and still is a center for commerce and shipping, but beyond that most of the rest of the economic activity comes from tourism and gambling, two of the most volatile (and low-paying) industries. The city does have a long and charming history, and preserving that history is part of the appeal for tourism. However, it also means that the city basically keeps itself as a relic of the past. The digital revolution that swept through Silicon Valley and other parts of the country completely passed by the city (and the state). Furthermore, taxes and government regulations make the area one of the least hospitable for entrepeneurial activity. There’s plenty of wealth in the city, but most of it is old money; there’s little opportunity for creating wealth (except for casinos, it seems…).
    The political environment deserves some mention. Louisiana politicians tend to get elected by promising just about everything to everyone, and if things don’t work out, then it’s someone else’s fault (usually the federal government or business). It’s a dysfunctional political as well as economic culture, and generally people who want to make something of themselves just leave the state. Hopefully, if anything good can come out of Hurricaine Katrina, it’ll be the that the people of New Orleans and Louisiana will take a good, hard look at their society and accept responsibility for what they’ve done to create the environment for this disaster.

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