What makes a city?

I was surfing this morning and went over to the Bayou Buzz, and read this article, about the choices New Orleans needs to make to survive as an American city.

We find this little quote:

The TP also comments that “but if local leaders don’t consolidate behind a rebuilding plan within the next three months, population experts say that original-resident figure could drop to 20 percent”.

Read that again. The population could drop to 20 percent of what it was pre-Katrina. That is huge.

What makes a city? Why do cities form? Basically, a city is a bunch of people living in close proximity to share the benefits of living in a particular locale. They might live in close proximity for any number of reasons; for city services, for cultural opportunities, for business opportunities, to be near family, or just out of habit.

From my understanding of American History, most cities formed because of some unique natural resource that was easily exploitable. New York, Boston, and San Francisco were based on natural harbors and the ease of trade that cae from those harbors. New Orleans originally formed as a portage between two bodies of water. Houston grew out of the oilfield boom of the sixties and seventies. Dallas and Fort Worth came about during the stockyard era. You get the idea, I'm sure. Folks came, worked in the local industries and just stayed.

Cities that couldn't sustain a basic level of convenience, died. The silver mining towns of Arizona, Colorado, and Alaska are just shells of their former glory. All across America there are ghost-towns that sprang up to take advantage of something that are now just shells of their former selves, whether that something was timber, or coal, or oil, or whatever. When the boom was over, people left.

The autumn of 2005 brought us one of the great migrations of the modern era. One weekend in late August, about a million people just got up and hauled ass. Ran from a hurricane. Across southern Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, folks ran away. Then came Rita, slamming into Louisiana on the other side. More folks hauled ass.

Dale is living in a trailer, near the slab he called home. YRHT isn't back in New Orleans yet. Whizbang hauled butt too. There are a lot of bloggers who were affected, and many of those are making homes where ever they find opportunity. Some will come back, some won't. The recovery continues, and those that are left will have to figure out what happens next.

One thing is for damned-sure. The decision point is approaching for many of them. Move back to where they were before, or make a life where ever they landed. The other thing that is damned-sure is that Katrina and Rita were watershed political events for Louisiana. What passed for good politics won't pass for good politics any longer. The public is going to demand a change and the public that is left will get to vote.

With New Orleans one-fifth as big as it was, with Baton Rouge twice as large as it was, with evacuees scattered all across the United States, the demographic of New Orleans, and with it, the impact that New Orleans has on Louisiana politics will change. 2006 is going to be a big year for Louisiana politics. People will come back to New Orleans if it is attractive to do so. If not, they will stay away. There are a million individual decisions being made this week and they will firm up in the next month. Some will move home in time for the elections. Some will not.

The voters that are left will get to make the decisions. Those that stay away will also make a decision. Such is the manner of the American experiment. We may be watching the death of a boom town. The people will decide.

If I were Ray Nagin, I would start looking for work.