The things LA needs to do to grow the economy will take 20-30 years to develop. Houston did not become Houston overnight. We have some things in place, but we need a lot more.

The single biggest thing we can do is work on K-12 education. That doesn't necessairly mean throw more money at at. It's better spending the money we have, and prioritizing how we spend it.

There are some great things going on in some of the charters in Orleans Parish. (Some bad charters, too, of course). We need to figure out a way for the kids, and the parents, who want to be there and want to learn, to be able to do so. And not be drug down by the problems of the kids who don't want to be there / parents that just want babysitting services.

Make schools more like community centers. Offer parenting classes, ESL clases, GED classes etc. Get people into the schools. Not all will show up. But some will. Offer free child care (with homework help). for parents that show up at night for these activities.

In the 9th ward, there is a nice elementary charter school that is across the street from a nice community center. This is stupid. Build the community center into the school. You will save some money which can be used for programming.

The other thing is this. Our inner city schools aren't much better or worse than most major inner cities. Where we get our butts kicked is this... other places suburban public schools are much better than or suburban public schools. Our suburban school districts really need to get it together. There is no reason St. Tammany can't be on par with Katy ISD. There is no reason Ascension can't be on par with Conroe ISD. Etc.

The second thing is, we need to improve the infrastructure. Roads are part of it, yes. But drainage is more important.