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It was a crisp November day, and the Uptown New Orleans gathering Boo Thomas had organized with several of the most prominent and influential women in the Crescent City seemed to be going well. Thomas, who heads the Center for Planning Excellence of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, had called the group together to discuss issues of regional cooperation, and she could feel they were making headway.

Almost as if on cue, one of the women at the meeting, a well-connected volunteer activist named Diana Lewis, received an e-mail from one of her many civic-minded acquaintances. The sender was livid, having just learned of BRAF’s efforts to market the arc from Lake Charles to Slidell along interstates 10 and 12 as the future economic development corridor of Louisiana. New Orleans is noticeably absent from the campaign, and the angry e-mailer was sounding the alarm bell that Baton Rouge was “out to get” New Orleans.

“The gist of the e-mail was, ‘There goes Baton Rouge again, going after control of the state,’” recalls Lewis, who declines to say who sent the electronic missive.

The timing couldn’t have been worse from the perspective of Thomas, whose whole purpose in being in New Orleans that day was to create a sense of partnership and trust on issues of common concern with key players in New Orleans. It took several subsequent phone calls on her part to convince Lewis and others in the city that the 10-12 Corridor initiative is not an attempt to hurt New Orleans or to steal business away. She thinks she eventually prevailed, but it’s still a touchy subject.

“It’s just typical of the misinformation that New Orleans thinks we’re out to get them,” Thomas says.

There’s no way of knowing how many people got the same e-mail that Lewis did, or whether it had any significant impact on attitudes. But the story is significant because it illustrates the mistrust, misunderstanding and cultural disconnect that divide the state’s two biggest cities. In the two-and-a-half years since Hurricane Katrina forever altered the geographic, demographic and economic landscape of southeast Louisiana, New Orleans and Baton Rouge have become paradoxically closer yet farther apart than ever as squabbles over population, recovery dollars and where the state’s locus of power lies strain what was already a competitive relationship.

“There was a lot of jealousy, fear, concern about people trying to take everything away when New Orleans was at its most vulnerable,” says the head of a statewide watchdog group that works with both cities. “Meanwhile, people in Baton Rouge say they were just trying to take a leadership role at a time where there was a vacuum.”

It’s silly, in a way, this petty squabble, but it has serious implications for the future of the state because it will color the very heated battles that will ensue when legislative and congressional districts are redrawn at the end of the decade. It will also affect how federal aid dollars are spent. Above all, it will hamper economic development efforts in a region that needs to be working together now more than ever.

“This is arguably one of the most important discussions to be having right now in this state,” Shreveport demographer and political analyst Elliott Stonecipher says. “This kind of regional rivalry is not a luxury Louisiana can afford.”

Worlds apart

In one respect, this rivalry is just the latest chapter in a long story. New Orleans has always stood separate and apart from the rest of the state, and, with its heavily Catholic and Creole population, has always been at odds with straight-laced Baton Rouge. Indeed, it’s strange to consider how very different are the cultures of the two cities, given their close geographic proximity and the many family ties that bind the residents of both.

New Orleans is an Old World city, rich with culture, charm, architecture and world-renowned food and music. It is also crumbling, inefficient, crime-ridden and heretofore unable to educate its poorest citizens. It is revered by tourists and fiercely defended by loyal residents, who love the city not in spite of its quirks and problems but because of them.

Baton Rouge, just 80 miles to the northwest, is a world away. It is suburban, sprawling and more like the rest of strip-mall America. It rolls up the streets well before the bars close at 2 a.m. It is also neater, cleaner, and safer, with public parks and libraries you can patronize without fearing for your safety and streets that—however congested—have no axle-bending potholes.

It’s no wonder there’s a cultural divide. But the tension that exists between the cities is rooted in more than just stylistic and cultural differences. For the latter half of the 18th and much of the 19th century, New Orleans really was the crown jewel city of the South, outshining Baton Rouge in just about every way. That bred an insularity and arrogance on the part of New Orleanians that still exists in attitudes and peppers conversations.

“It’s been a very difficult relationship all along because Baton Rouge has always been the ugly stepsister of all the glitz of New Orleans,” Lewis says.

This arrogance also manifested it-self in tangible examples of political

favoritism. Over the years, New Orleans political leaders have worked deals in the Legislature to ensure that their unique and special status was protected in the state Constitution. Among the many examples: New Orleans alone has two sheriffs, a disproportionate share of legislative representation and, until recently, seven tax assessors.

It worked, for a while. But by the late 1960s, New Orleans started the economic and political decline from which it has yet to recover. And as the city lost status, money and population, it became glaringly apparent to the rest of the state that it no longer deserved the mantle it had bestowed upon itself decades earlier.

“Many people in state government and politics have for decades known that if New Orleans were not protected in the Constitution and had not had far disproportionate representation in the Legislature, then it would not have been the locus of power for so long,” Stonecipher says.

Opportunity knocks

When Katrina hit, many saw the opportunity for which they had long been waiting. New Orleans was perceived as dead, or, maybe, presumed dead before anyone bothered to check for a pulse. Finally, Baton Rouge could make a legitimate claim as the true power center in Louisiana.

“People in Baton Rouge have been waiting on baited breath for any opportunity to shift the locus of power away from New Orleans,” Stonecipher says. “The moment the storm hit they saw their chance.”

There are some who would disagree with that interpretation, but there’s no question that in the aftermath of Katrina, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation stepped in and assumed a prominent leadership role, raising tens of millions for disaster relief. The money poured in, $31 million in recovery dollars alone by the end of 2005. In the weeks after the storm, leaders from BRAF and the Baton Rouge Area Chamber approached the top business and political leadership in New Orleans, offering in effect, to partner. They would put up the money in return for a voice in the process of planning and rebuilding New Orleans. They were sent away, hat in hand.

“We didn’t say no to the help, it’s how it was being offered,” says one Crescent City business leader who was familiar with the offer. “I was told 10 days after the storm that BRAF had $10 million to do an economic development study that was Baton Rouge-centric. How do you partner with someone who is Baton Rouge-centric?”

It didn’t help matters that BRAF was raking in recovery dollars from all over the world. To date, it has raised more than $45 million in Katrina-related funds, millions of which have gone back to the Crescent City, millions of which have not. Certain New Orleans leaders grew jealous of BRAF’s power and influence. To an extent, they still are.

“Some people in New Orleans felt for one reason or another like the [Baton Rouge Area] Chamber and the Foundation were trying to take business away from them,” says Mark Drennen, who until recently headed the New Orleans economic development entity GNO Inc. “I don’t believe that and never did—but I know some still do.”

BRAF officials deny they were trying to assume control of the recovery of New Orleans—or that there was a concerted effort to make Baton Rouge the center of power in the state. They do acknowledge those perceptions are there.

“My sense is that there are people in New Orleans who resent Baton Rouge because they feel we are the beneficiary of their bad times,” BRAF Executive Vice President John Spain says. “And there are people in Baton Rouge who are celebrating what they see as an opportunity for Baton Rouge to become the leader of the state.”

It was an unfortunate series of events that, in the short run at least, hurt New Orleans more than it did Baton Rouge. While there’s no way of knowing what could have been had New Orleans been more willing to accept the offers of help from BRAF and BRAC, it’s easy to see what hasn’t happened. At least three separate rebuilding plans have surfaced in New Orleans, none of which has come close to implementation. Education reform has produced mixed results, with charter schools showing some successes but still many failures. Crime continues to dominate headlines and the never-ending political scandals sustain the perception that New Orleans is something of a joke.

New Orleans lost even more credibility in the eyes of key Baton Rouge players—to say nothing of the rest of the country—when it re-elected Mayor Ray Nagin to a second term in spring 2006. If it wasn’t bad enough that the city was walking away from its best shot at a fresh start, worse was that old line, white conservatives were largely responsible for returning Nagin to office. Their reasoning, perverse as it seemed, was that four years of a proven buffoon was preferable to returning the Landrieu dynasty to office. It only reaffirmed the perception that New Orleans was a hopeless cause.

Stonecipher sees it as a tremendous missed opportunity from which the city will never recover.

“New Orleans dropped the ball, dropped it magnificently and dropped it irrecoverably,” he says. “They grossly overestimated their own ability to rebound. If a city can be accused of hubris that’s what it was; this was past arrogance.”

Where y’at?

New Orleans has always been arrogant, and even its biggest cheerleaders will admit that.

“We can be obnoxious,” concedes Ben Johnson, who recently announced his resignation as president of the Greater New Orleans Foundation. “Some of the things they say about us are true.”

But the reasoning has always been that New Orleans could get away with that because it was a world-renowned city and the biggest city in the state. Smug self-satisfaction came with the territory of being the locus of power in Louisiana. But can the city make that claim anymore, or has Baton Rouge surpassed it?

“To say it has been decided that Baton Rouge will be the new business center of the state, I don’t know if that’s appropriate at this time,” LSU economist Jim Richardson.

One way to get at the question is by looking at population data. From that perspective, there’s no question that metro New Orleans is still the biggest city in the state. Though Orleans Parish—with an estimated 295,000 residents—is considerably smaller than East Baton Rouge Parish, with its 431,000 residents—eight-parish metro New Orleans has an estimated 1.2-plus million residents compared to fewer than 800,000 in nine-parish metro Baton Rouge.

“When you look at Baton Rouge versus New Orleans, the strength of New Orleans is in the metro area, not the city per se,” says demographer Greg Rigamer, who heads GCR & Associates, the consulting firm that calculated the city’s population estimates.

When you compare which city has more political pull, Baton Rouge emerges as the leader. The capital is home to Gov. Bobby Jindal, and some of his closest advisers are either natives of Baton Rouge or have spent years in the city working the halls of state government. They include Chief of Staff Timmy Teepell, Commissioner of Administration Angèle Davis, Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret and Labor Secretary Tim Barfield, among others.

True, New Orleans can claim as its own the top legislative leadership. House Speaker Jim Tucker is from Algiers, and Senate President Joel Chaisson is from Destrehan. But the new administration and its transition team are heavily stocked with Baton Rougeans, which has drawn some criticism from other parts of the state, not only New Orleans but Lafayette as well.

The new administration has said such concerns are unfounded, and as Jindal has rounded out his cabinet appointments he has made an effort to pull from north Louisiana and the southwest, as well as from out of state. But the administration has a distinct and undeniable Baton Rouge flavor.

“Some of the closest advisers on his transition team were also from inside the Baton Rouge bubble,” Stonecipher says. “That’s going to influence a lot of their decisions.”

Perhaps the most important measure of a city’s status, however, is the strength of its economy, and when you compare the economies of New Orleans and Baton Rouge it’s something of a toss-up. When you think business in Louisiana, do you think New Orleans or Baton Rouge?

BRAC has tried to answer that question, but hasn’t been able to. Richardson hasn’t either. He says it’s simply too soon; too many variables are still in a state of flux.

“In 10 years you’ll be able to look back, but right now you’re waiting for businesses to make decisions and some will make decisions this way and some will make them that way.”

Those who side with New Orleans will tout its obvious advantages: the bigger port, a weakened but still world-class tourism and convention industry, seven colleges and universities, a medical complex and the aerospace center at Michoud.

“LSU medical and Tulane research dollars are greater today than they were pre Katrina,” GNOF’s Johnson says. “Boeing is coming out to Michoud. There are a lot of assets that we have—the museums, the office buildings downtown, the port and the convention industry. There are a lot of things we have going for us.”

Those who side with Baton Rouge note that it has the state’s flagship university, state government, one Fortune 500 company [The Shaw Group], one of the top biomedical research centers in the country and a still-thriving petrochemical industry.

“There is an unprecedented number of major capital projects anticipated over the next few years, especially in the petrochemical and refining sectors,” says Steven Grissom, BRAC’s interim president and CEO who is leaving next month to serve as deputy secretary for Louisiana Economic Development. “With many industrial and heavy construction services firms headquartered in the Baton Rouge area, we expect these capital projects and expansions to have a significant positive impact on our regional economy.”

As for who can claim to being the real business center, as far as the state’s banks and many, many law firms are concerned, that is still a toss-up.

“That’s something you’re going to see after the fact, and they’re not going to admit that anyway,” Richardson says. “Each one will decide individually and over time there will be some transition but that really depends on no other storms hitting in the next two or three years.”

Why it matters

Why does it matter whether New Orleans or Baton Rouge is the legitimate center of power in Louisiana? For several reasons, not the least of which is that after the 2010 census the Legislature will have to redraw both the congressional and legislative districts. Politicos on all sides are already steeling themselves for battle.

While many of the state’s residents have migrated north and west from New Orleans, making the 10-12 Corridor the biggest growth area, many others have left the state altogether, all but guaranteeing that Louisiana will lose yet another Congressional seat.

One of those Congressional districts will have to be a majority minority district. Because New Orleans is already disputing the U.S. Census figures, it’s a good bet to assume litigation will hold up the process. Smaller battles will take place over how to redraw the legislative districts.

“At the state level, Baton Rouge will be the big gainer, and it’s going to force a lot of these issues of competition out into the open,” Stonecipher predicts.

That competition won’t just be over Congressional districts, but over how state and federal funds are doled out in Louisiana. Recovery dollars will continue to pour into the state for at least a few more years; most federal funding from health care to education to criminal justice is based on the number of people in a given area.

“Population is important because a lot of federal dollars are based on formulas determined by head count,” Rigamer says.

Power struggles between New Orleans and Baton Rouge matter in a bigger sense, however, because both cities are aggressively trying to market their limited opportunities for economic development—and instead of working in concert they’re competing. BRAF is leading the efforts to market the 10-12 Corridor, which is the only legitimate area of the state to have experienced significant population growth—32% compared to 2% in the state overall. But in leaving New Orleans out of the effort, it is sending a powerful message to the rest of the country that New Orleans is not a good place to do business.

This is by design. BRAF spent big bucks—more than $500,000 so far—to hire a consulting firm to come up with the concept of how to market the region. In doing the market research, the firm found just how strong sentiments are around the country about the Crescent City.

“When people think of Louisiana they only think of New Orleans, and when people think of New Orleans they think of people on rooftops calling out for help,” GSD&M executive Haley Rushing told a group of 300 local business and civic leaders last fall at the Shaw Center when she presented her firm’s report on branding the corridor.

But it’s more than that. Proponents of the 10-12 Corridor initiative believe New Orleans is currently subsisting on an artificial economy that is sustained almost entirely by federal recovery dollars. When that well runs dry, as it eventually will, the state will need something to make up for what will be lost. Jump-starting the 10-12 Corridor is what that is all about.

“This isn’t about hurting New Orleans,” BRAF President John Davies says. “The 10-12 Corridor is where the population has settled, and if we’re not about building an economic development and business community to make up for the fact that the demographics have shifted then shame on us.”

Undaunted by criticism about its false economy, New Orleans is moving forward with its own economic development initiatives. GNO Inc. is launching its own marketing campaign to promote the entire metro area. The rebranding campaign will target the parishes from Plaquemines to Tangipahoa, making the Northshore the fortunate beneficiary of both cities’ efforts.

“They have all the chambers and business councils and economic development organizations from the whole region participating in this,” GNOF’s Johnson says. “They’re saying this is the opportunity to align and focus on our strengths.”

Missed opportunities

But others see missed opportunities in competing economic development initiatives. With only limited dollars and other states trying just as hard to lure high-tech firms and manufacturing industries to their states, it doesn’t make sense for the New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas to be promoting themselves at the expense of the other.

“We may be missing an opportunity if we cannot be working more closely together,” says Barry Irwin, president of the Council for a Better Louisiana. “It seems like we’re more fractured than ever before and it doesn’t seem to make sense.”

Others are even more adamant. They point to the fact that the state is not growing as fast as other states and has an aging population.

“We’re losing our fertility rate, and there is nothing about our tax structure that would incentivize anyone to come here,” Stonecipher says. “We’re not competitive with other states, and so for anyone to be fighting or beating their breasts is laughable.”

In fairness, the two cities have begun to partner on some business initiatives within the past few months. BRAF and the Business Council in New Orleans are specifically working on efforts to reposition New Orleans as the gateway to Latin America, a status it once enjoyed but lost to Houston and Miami in the 1980s. They are making progress.

“We have a great partnership with the Business Council of New Orleans,” Davies says.

But there’s still a long way to go, and in today’s global and competitive economy there isn’t the luxury of time for New Orleans and Baton Rouge to engage in rivalry and competition. They can no longer afford to only pay lip service to the idea of regional cooperation. They have to start practicing it now.

“At some point, we need to make this a New Orleans-Baton Rouge-Northshore triangle,” Richardson says. “We have to be less competitive and more complementary.”

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