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The port
New Orleans has always been primarily a commercial centre, with manufacturing playing a secondary role in its economic life. The busy harbour, besides adding to the city’s cosmopolitan atmosphere, is the foundation of the metropolitan economy, influencing many aspects of urban life.
The era of the modern Port of New Orleans began in 1879 with the construction of jetties in South Pass, one of three passes that flow from the river into the gulf. Sandbars had formed at intervals in these passes and had hindered ships entering the river since the city’s founding. The jetties narrowed South Pass, forcing the river to cut a deeper channel to a depth of 30 feet (9 metres). Later, a second channel, Southwest Pass, was deepened to 40 feet (12 metres) by installing jetties; it is now the main pass used by seagoing vessels entering and leaving the river. The distance from New Orleans to the gulf is about 110 miles (180 km).
Another major step forward for the port was taken in 1896, when the state legislature removed wharf facilities from the control of private contractors and created the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans (the Dock Board), a body charged with administering the public wharves. In 1908 the Dock Board was authorized to issue negotiable bonds for the improvement of port facilities. The projects subsequently accomplished included the rebuilding and expansion of public wharves and the construction (in partnership with the Board of Levee Commissioners of the Orleans Levee District) of the 5.5-mile (9-km) Industrial Canal, which links the river to Lake Pontchartrain, the Intracoastal Waterway, and the Mississippi River–Gulf Outlet. In 1963 the Mississippi River–Gulf Outlet, a ship channel shortening the passage to the gulf by 40 miles (64 km), was opened to maritime traffic.
The Dock Board formulated a plan, called Centroport U.S.A., by which much of the port’s activities would be switched from the Mississippi River to wharves and industrial complexes along the Gulf Outlet and the river frontage thus retired from maritime use would be diverted to such projects as high-rise apartments and public recreation areas. The Julia, Erato, and upper Poydras wharves were developed as the site of the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition. Permanent structures enhancing this area are the New Orleans Convention and Exhibition Center and the International Pavilion.
New Orleans is a major grain port both in the United States and worldwide; other exports include raw and processed agricultural products, fabricated metals, chemicals, textiles, oils, petroleum and petroleum products, tobacco, and paperboard. There has been substantial growth in bulk exports since the early 1980s, which has made New Orleans the lighter aboard ship (LASH) cargo and Seabee barge capital of the world. Grain, coal, and animal feed make up a major portion of LASH and Seabee trade. In international commerce about 5,000 oceangoing vessels dock at New Orleans annually, and more than 40 nations have consular offices in the city.
Industry
Greater New Orleans is a major industrial area. A concentration of petrochemical plants has sprung up along the Mississippi River above New Orleans. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration established the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans in 1961 to produce the giant Saturn rocket boosters used in flights to the Moon. The principal goods manufactured in the Greater New Orleans area are food products, clothing and related items, stone, clay and glass articles, primary metal and fabricated metal items, and transportation equipment. Tourism is an important industry.
Petrochemical industries along the Mississippi above New Orleans and offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico have become serious polluters, however, through oil-rig fires, oil slicks, and discharges of mercury, arsenic, and lead, which have threatened the city’s drinking water, ruined the taste of river fish, and endangered the ecology of the gulf. Despite federal actions against the offending industries, much remains to be done.
Transportation
The transportation facilities of New Orleans include three airports: New Orleans International Airport, to the west of the city; New Orleans Airport, on Lake Pontchartrain, devoted to private and corporate use; and the U.S. Naval Air Station, serving air reserve units of the various armed services. Several railroads operate out of New Orleans, and passenger bus, truck, and barge lines transport people and cargo to and from the city. Regular express sailings by steamship lines also offer passenger- and cargo-carrying service. The major access bridges serving the Greater New Orleans area, in addition to the Greater New Orleans Bridge, are the Huey P. Long Bridge, which crosses the river above the city, and the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, a twin-span structure that is among the world’s longest bridges, stretching nearly 24 miles (39 km).
Administration and society
Government
Both the political life and the municipal government of New Orleans have been dominated by factions of the Democratic Party. The question of state interference in city affairs versus home rule was long a major issue. In 1954 New Orleans finally received a strong home rule charter, which substituted a mayor-council form of government for the mayor-commission form that had existed since 1912.
In addition to the mayor and seven council members—five elected from districts and two at large—who serve four-year terms, the position of chief administrative officer to the mayor was created. The mayor is the top administrator over the 14 municipal departments and oversees the affairs of various commissions and boards. The chief administrative officer, appointed by the mayor, is charged with supervision of city departments, the preparation of the annual budgets, and the coordination of city relations with state and federal agencies. The council is strictly a legislative body.
Political issues have changed. Gone is the antagonism between city and state governments that spanned the era from governors Huey Long in the 1920s through Earl Long in the 1940s. Political corruption is no longer an issue in city politics, and Blacks have become more politically articulate since they emerged as the majority of the city’s population. There has been an increase in voter registration among African Americans, and Black political groups now play an effective role in municipal politics. The city’s first African American mayor, Ernest N. Morial, was elected in 1978 and reelected in 1982. His son, Marc H. Morial, was elected mayor in 1994 and reelected in 1998.
Although most city and parish government has been consolidated in New Orleans, Orleans parish officials continue to play an important role. These officials include the district attorney, the board of assessors, and the Orleans Parish School Board, which supervises public education under the state department of education.
Municipal services
Expansion of new residential areas in New Orleans, combined with the spiraling cost of services, has caused the operating budget for municipal services to rise dramatically. The municipal government has been hampered by a lack of funds necessary to carry out its work effectively and to provide an appropriate income for the employees of its various departments. One of the major problems is the low assessment of taxes on both residential and industrial property and the loss of taxpayers to the suburban parishes.
Drainage has always been the main problem among municipal services. The city is virtually surrounded by levees—25 feet (8 metres) high on the Mississippi River and nearly 20 feet (6 metres) high on Lake Pontchartrain—and has some two dozen major drainage pumping stations. The drainage machinery used at these stations is among the largest found in the world. Following the disaster of 1965, when Hurricane Betsy flooded the city’s lower Ninth Ward, the Sewerage and Water Board operating the pumping stations drafted a plan to improve these facilities against future major hurricanes. Further improvements in drainage canals and pumping equipment in the older sections of the city were also made. These operated well until they were overwhelmed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Flood control along the river, Lake Pontchartrain, and secondary waterways in the city is under the direction of the Board of Commissioners of the Orleans Levee District. In addition to its primary job of flood control, the board has, since the 1920s, reclaimed hundreds of acres of Lake Pontchartrain bottomland and developed it into one of the most scenic lakefront areas in the United States. A majority of the land is dedicated to public facilities, which include sandy beaches, a marina, a cement seawall from which fishing can be enjoyed, picnic grounds, parkways with flower beds, fountains, and shelter houses. The remainder of this reclaimed land has been turned into residential subdivisions, which are among the finest in the city.
The city’s police department has taken a number of measures in its fight against a steadily rising crime rate. These include introducing a guard-dog corps, reorganizing its patrol system to increase its effectiveness, creating additional police districts, building new stations in older districts, more than doubling its automotive equipment, establishing a community relations division, and putting into operation a communication van that acts as a field command post in times of emergency. Police programs designed to mobilize citizen groups were greatly increased to include the Neighborhood Watch Program and the New Orleans Neighborhood Police Anti-Crime Council. A police psychologist was added to the force, and the narcotics squad was increased.
Health
New Orleans has become a medical and educational centre. The Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans is the teaching hospital for two adjacent institutions, the Tulane and the Louisiana State University medical schools; the nearby veterans hospital is also affiliated. In addition to serving local residents, specialists frequently treat patients from Latin America.
Education
Among New Orleans’s institutions of higher learning are Tulane University, Loyola University New Orleans, the University of New Orleans, Delgado Community College, Our Lady of Holy Cross College, Dillard University, Xavier University of Louisiana, and Southern University at New Orleans. The city has many private, parochial, and business schools. The public school system began in 1841 with 83 pupils and four teachers and now has some 1,000 times as many students and teachers. In 1960 a public school crisis, attracting international attention, developed when an attempt was made at the token integration of two white schools. Within 20 years the school system became overwhelmingly Black, both students and teachers.
