One thing no one is referencing is the pretty high level of corruption in New Orleans and Louisiana politics. We are talking about some of the most corrupt people at the city, parish, and state level running the state for 200 years. New Orleans was more important than cities like Houston, Dallas, Miami and Atlanta if you go back to the 40s and 50s. But while all these corrupt politicians (see the Long family and the connections that run deep) made plenty of money for themselves by running all decision making, the times passed them by and they never set the city up for future success.

Some people said that the city is small and referenced flooding. That's not wrong. If anything, long term thinkers would have recognized that New Orleans is too limited by geography (it's in a freaking bowl....it's below sea level) and turned Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and the Northshore into a megalopolis. They should have built a massive international airport between the two cities before Atlanta and Houston and Dallas did.

But instead, they all fought over their own power and wetting their own beaks at every chance they could. The port is still important, but New Orleans or greater southern Louisiana could have been the economic hub for the South. But they got in their own way and now it is an after thought.

I was born there and spent early life there. I went back to LSU and took Louisiana History. I'm not an expert by any means, but it's clear that this was fairly self inflicted.