Free Republic

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Nearly a year after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans remains without a blueprint for reconstruction, the lack of which leaves its already shaky future in doubt. Without a plan outlining which neighborhoods will thrive again and which won't, the remaining critical elements have yet to take shape for New Orleans -- its makeup, direction and, ultimately, its economic outlook. Mayor C. Ray Nagin has vowed to rebuild every neighborhood, even those severely flooded when Katrina's storm surge trashed several levees and deluged three-fourths of the city on Aug. 29. "The mayor's not casting off any area of...