Hatfield & McCoys

Real Estate Investor does a profile of Joe Canizaro, whom some have likened to the "Donald Trump of New Orleans". The article starts out as mostly fluff but further down someone named Rosen describes the political atmosphere of New Orleans that is holding back recovery.

“The problem in New Orleans, more than anything, is that the political leadership seems to be very fragmented,� says Rosen. “Besides Joe Canizaro, I don't see anybody who has the energy, or the direction. They're just back and forth fussing about this and that, and the state doesn't agree with the city.�

However the article concludes with a positive note that private investors are addressing the housing problem by first identifying the needs and then locating areas that are prime for immediate redevelopment:

The targeted development zones are downtown, Algiers, Central City, the Almonaster Corridor and the Lower Ninth Ward.

And these targeted areas are big sites, generally on high ground, that are ripe for larger developments to spearhead the early stages of the recovery. “The Almonaster Corridor is a great example,� says Canizaro. “You've got some industrial, but you've got a lot of vacant land out there also, and it's a site that I think can be put together pretty easily.�

So it looks like private investors will lead the the recovery effort while our elected leaders act like the Hatfield and McCoys.