Hello Joe,

No, I don't think that New Orleans needs to be abandoned. It just needs to be fixed, like New York needed to be fixed and Washington DC needs to be fixed.

Start by impeaching the mayor for incompetence. Ditto for the governor. Fire the police chief and clean out the higher echelon of the NOPD... for incompetence, ignorance of civil rights, and graft.

Implement school vouchers because the Orleans Parish public schools are a joke. Implement testing in public schools, of both teachers and students, don't advance flunking students, and after giving them one chance fire flunking teachers.

The reconstituted NOPD needs to adopt a zero-tolerance policy towards crime, as the NYPD did under Guiliana. Retake the projects from the criminal gangs. It's unacceptable that there are parts of the city that the police will not go into. Within a year New Orleans should be a safe city to walk in at night.

Change the city's tax laws to make it worthwhile for higher-paid people and businesses to reside there. Eliminate the city payroll tax. Create incentives for businesses who hire employees and train them. Tourism is great, but it only creates low-paying jobs. What New Orleans needs is some businesses that develop intellectual property. Create a VC fund, work with LSU and Tulane (in New Orleans) to allow for cross-pollenization, and get out of the way. Manufacturing jobs also pay fairly well, so incentives should be developed to get them to come into the city also. There's certainly a lot of unused real estate that should be available for bargain-basement prices.

New Orleans' problem isn't geography, it's incompetence multiplied by corruption. The city, the state, and America can either fix this problem or run away from it.

My vote is to fix it.

The corruption is a completely different issue. It's the geography that I'm talking about. The Mississippi IS going to reroute itself. It can't be stopped. It's only a matter of time, 10 year, 20 year maybe, and then it will move. New Orleans is sinking at the same time as the river is rising, pushing the mouth out further into the ocean every day. What is it? Something like 100,000 TONS of silt every day is dumped into the ocean. Read my first posting on this.