[AntiGuv]

I don't know the neighborhoods of NO, but looking through the 2000 census housing stats for NO, it looks like well over 60% of the residences in the completely flooded areas are rental properties. Many of these owners will take the insurance and federal grant money and run, simply put.

Yup. That's what I've been thinking too.

[JerseyHighlander]

I'm not too sure that a new arrival hispanic population will replace the current construction trades people in NOLA. The pay is so low down there, most illegals can make more working almost anywhere else in the country. Looking at the pay scale down there, illegals in NJ make more than union construction workers in NOLA. It's mind boggling to this guy from NJ.

I'd expect anti-illegal rhetoric coming out of the NOLA labor unions when the large federal reconstruction programs are announced, similar to the America of a hundred years ago, or even Depression era America, with all of the racist rhetoric, marches, strikes, and unrest.