Five Years Later, The Big Easy Pushes Forward

Five years after Hurricane Katrina broke the levees and New Orleans was flooded, the city's health is much improved. But like many patients still in recovery, New Orleans has its good days and its bad days.

Despite its charm and cultural richness, no one mistook New Orleans before the storm for an urban paradise. Many problems persist that were in evidence well before Katrina made landfall, including high crime rates, vast disparities in income and reliance on industries long in decline. A recent spate of mass layoffs among major employers hasn't helped matters.

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