If you were a New Orleans resident pre-Katrina, it can sometimes be jarring to drive through old neighborhoods and see just how much has changed … both in terms of the landmarks, architecture, or the demographic shifts that have happened in the past 20 years. Some neighborhoods are almost unrecognizable from the state they were in even before Hurricane Katrina slammed into the region.
While some areas of the greater metro area never made a full recovery, others have seen notable infrastructure improvements and demographic shifts. “New Orleans has rebuilt a lot and it has certainly changed dramatically since Katrina,” noted local real estate expert Arthur Sterbcow. “New Orleans has always had the oldest housing stock in the country. So, before Katrina there were a lot of older homes that had never been renovated and kept up. There were older roofs, termite damage, and a significant amount of structures that had serious problems,” he went on to say. After the storm hit, many of those older neighborhoods and homes underwent dramatic renovations, which led to a slew of new residents interested in buying and staying in the area.
Sterbcow noted the Ninth Ward and St. Claude corridor as being notable in their recoveries. “As the tourism industry has come back, that whole section (of the city) has come back,” he emphasized. “A lot of service industry workers and young people lived in that area and have really made it hot,” Sterbcow went on to say. That said, he was also quick to note that the St.
Claude and Ninth Ward haven’t become bland suburbia, but have instead drawn new faces to the historic area by maintaining its character. “It’s still a mom and pop shop neighborhood. The locals still have their little restaurants and bars. It’s a very vibrant and walkable community. That’s what the people around there like, no matter where they’re from,” added Sterbcow.
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