re: What would it take to make NOLA great again?

NOLA techies are there to do anything but work. They’re there to party, and NOLA is among the best party cities in the world. Tech companies grow by inventing new things that create entirely new industries. They create a new gadget that improves lives, a new app that helps people learn, a new game that becomes a classic, come up with a new way to keep data secure from hacking, figure out a new application for an old thing, etc. It’s not just about working a 9-5 job for the weekend, but being a visionary that can create something entirely new. That innovative attitude (at least outside of the arts) doesn’t really exist in New Orleans anymore. The people of NOLA aren’t there to make something new, but to revel in a fetishized version of a past that never existed.

NOLA exudes a strange mix of escapism, nostalgia, hopelessness, lethargy, and contentedness that doesn’t exactly create the conditions of desperation for white collar people to want to spend all their time inventing something to escape their situation.

The other thing that keeps entrepreneurial techies out of NOLA is the hostile local and state governments that make renovating buildings and opening businesses extremely expensive in both money and time.