Bloomberg Lists New Orleans Among the ‘Top 12 American Boomtowns’
The Bloomberg news service has listed New Orleans among its “Top 12 American Boomtowns,” citing the city’s population recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
“The area is growing as it rebuilds from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita,” the article says. “Tourism is booming, and the New Orleans area gained more residents than any other in the U.S. from 2007 to 2011. The population rose to 1.2 million in 2012.”
The article refers to and counters the recent controversial comments by Fox News television pundit Geraldo Rivera, conversing with Fox commentator Bill O’Reilly, calling most of New Orleans “a vast urban wasteland.”
“There’s plenty of job growth in heavy construction and even the television and motion picture industry, according to New Orleans demographer Allison Plyer,” the report says. “The unemployment rate, at 5.9 percent, is below the national average.”
It also mentions recent uncertainty over the fate of the state’s tax credit for film productions, although Gov. Bobby Jindal has since dropped his tax swap plan that proposed a less generous credit.
The other cities on the list are Austin, Texas; Raleigh, N.C.; San Antonio; Houston; Washington, D.C.; Oklahoma City; Nashville, Tenn.; Portland, Ore.; Charlotte, N.C., Dallas; and San Jose, Calif.