Proceso de deshidratación de la piña

Businesses, like households, had to consider if recovery would be best back in St. Bernard or if

closure or relocation would be better. Businesses not only face

communities, but businesses can serve as social networks that connect people to one another. They link

coworkers, people in the same industry and clients to each other (Giddens 1986; Latour 2005; Soja 1989).

Businesses also can serve as places of interaction for social networks. They can be locations where

members of an individual’s social network interact and maintain their relationships, like a dance school

that connects groups of children and groups of parents (Giddens 1986;

we saw in the previous chapter, work also influenced where 38 percent of survey respondents chose to

live.

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The neighborhood itself, I did, I upgraded, if you will, for the purpose of getting a nicer neighborhood. I love it. And I love living on the water. Nobody else can take hrase. This is mine: “When I lived in Chalmette I had all the risks and liabilities of waterfront property but none of the benefits. Now I still have those risks and liabilities, but I have the benefits.”

Most relocating respondents (60.3 percent) did move into a bigger home, as shown in Figure 8.5,

although many informants stated that this larger home came at a great financial burden. However, more

relocaters than returning St. Bernardian respondents moved into smaller homes (28.8 percent vs. 18.7

Figure 8.5 Survey Responses comparing pre- and post-Katrina House Size

Businesses, like households, had to consider if recovery would be best back in St. Bernard or if

closure or relocation would be better. Businesses not only face recovery like households and

communities, but businesses can serve as social networks that connect people to one another. They link

coworkers, people in the same industry and clients to each other (Giddens 1986; Latour 2005; Soja 1989).

serve as places of interaction for social networks. They can be locations where

members of an individual’s social network interact and maintain their relationships, like a dance school

that connects groups of children and groups of parents (Giddens 1986; Latour 2005; Castells 1996). As

we saw in the previous chapter, work also influenced where 38 percent of survey respondents chose to The neighborhood itself, I did, I upgraded, if you will, for the purpose of getting a

Nobody else can take hrase. This is mine: “When I lived in Chalmette I had all the risks and Now I still have those risks

into a bigger home, as shown in Figure 8.5,

although many informants stated that this larger home came at a great financial burden. However, more

relocaters than returning St. Bernardian respondents moved into smaller homes (28.8 percent vs. 18.7

Katrina House Size

Businesses, like households, had to consider if recovery would be best back in St. Bernard or if

recovery like households and

communities, but businesses can serve as social networks that connect people to one another. They link

coworkers, people in the same industry and clients to each other (Giddens 1986; Latour 2005; Soja 1989).

serve as places of interaction for social networks. They can be locations where

members of an individual’s social network interact and maintain their relationships, like a dance school

Latour 2005; Castells 1996). As

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In St. Bernard Parish, three large industrial employers served as an anchor and resource to returning

St. Bernardians and the community. The rural area had commercial fishing; fishing in St. Tammany is

recreational. St. Tammany lacks the big industrial tenants or port, but it has more business and retail,

according to County Business Trends data published by the U.S. Census Bureau. Professional services

and finance industries are more prominent in St. Tammany. Payroll in St. Tammany grew until 2008, as

shown in Figure 8.4, when a national economic downturn impacted payroll in every industry but

healthcare.

Figure 8.4 Top Industries by Payroll in St. Tammany Parish

The trend in the number of employees in top St. Tammany Parish industries, as seen in Figure 8.5,

demonstrate varying trends by sector, but overall growth in the four-year period. Service sector jobs in

healthcare and finance grew, not experiencing the precipitous drop that St. Bernard experienced.

Healthcare continued to grow. The number of employees in accommodation and food services and

professional, scientific and technological services grew just slightly through the national economic

downturn in 2008. Lacking is the industrial base that was able to stabilize St. Bernard Parish after Katrina.

While the facility-based manufacturing jobs were certain to return to St. Bernard and return quickly, the

small businesses and services in St. Tammany are more footloose and not dependent on large facilities

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employment, the jobs in St. Tammany are more easily able to relocate, whether for a disaster or for any

other reason because they are not reliant on the large and expensive facilities that industrial employers

must build to operate.

Figure 8.5 Top Industries by Payroll in St. Tammany Parish

Dan, a Chalmette native and pre-Katrina St. Bernardian, now lives in Lacombe. He represents his

new community in the St. Tammany Parish Council after being elected to office in 2012. He

acknowledged that there was a comparative economic disadvantage in his new home parish. St. Tammany

lacks the stable industrial base that St. Bernard had. There were many small taxpayers instead of a few

substantial taxpaying refineries.

That in itself becomes a problem because they don’t have the tax base that industrial parishes like St. Bernard, Orleans and St. John can rely on. The refineries can pick up a lot of the tax base.

The stability of manufacturing jobs in St. Bernard Parish and the strength of the service sector can be

corroborated by demographic data from the Economic Census (2002, 2007) and American Community

Survey (2000, 2010). Manufacturing jobs in St. Tammany are just 11.2 percent of the economy in St.

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the economy of St. Tammany Parish and retail sales are more than 10 times higher than retail sales in

post-Katrina St. Bernard.