So many times, I have written that the way to actually improve the lives of the citizens of Louisiana that live in New Orleans and the region, to reverse out-migration while, at the same time, breaking the cycle of poverty, is to refocus all civic and political energy on a growing economy. So, how would I suggest that we start on that concept.

The first thing I would do is to commit to the belief that if we do the right things we have a future, that our city and region is not doomed to be like so many in the Rust Belt that didn’t see the need for major reform and became economically irrelevant. I would have confidence in a future.

My vision then would be to identify and change the impediments that have resulted in our five-decade cycle of decline. Perhaps I would impose upon a relatively small group of the most successful national business leaders I could find to help us to identify changes we must make in order to be positioned to be a leading growth economy moving into the middle of the 21st century. These would not be low tier executives; they would be the best and brightest from modern American capitalism. We must make it clear we don’t just want their money; we want for a time their personal intelligence and talent.

In order to get them to help we would need a commitment from the mayor and governor (a good way for them to work together) to send an SOS, perhaps appealing to their patriotism or even their ego, to help us break the chains that prevent growth. At that point the governor and mayor would agree to back off. The executives would not have to come here directly but commit to the use of their staff and resources working collectively to development the point-by-point strategy. The effort must be non-political, so a neutral body would need to manage the effort, though perhaps the Louisiana Department of Economic Development could suffice.

The charge to this group would be, without any constraint from the politics and self-serving that we always let get in the way, to identify very specifically the top obstacles to growth that could be corrected by state and/or local government efforts. It’s that simple, tell us what causes us to be behind, what you would do to fix it, and accept our heartfelt thanks.

Of course, this would by-pass the usual chamber of commerce planning processes and the state and city bureaucracy, but those have not led to any good end anyway (for instance the much-vaunted Blue Ocean strategy of a few years ago and all the economic development districts around town).

The next part of my plan would be to rally support for structural changes that the national business leaders would identify. The efforts of the civic and business groups would be to demand change by reform of the statutes and policies that prevent us from rising up. This would entail a real commitment, something rarely implemented by the people most affected, the civic and business communities of the region. It would be a commitment to accept nothing short of total surrender by the special interests that prowl the halls of the legislature and council. This would also entail a strong PR effort to make the people believe that they and their children could have it better, but only if we stop the business as usual and we set out in a new direction.

I know that a similar approach was tried after Katrina and that local politics overrode its good advice. The irony is that exactly what that plan foretold has come true, and by ignoring that good advice we are struggling today. I also know that if we don’t do something radical our future as a region is one of at the very least stagnation.

I also know that I am dreaming of a La La Land that in Huey Long’s Louisiana has little chance or will never happen. But under the right leadership in Baton Rouge and City Hall it could happen. My fondest hope would be that the governor and the mayor would put aside their differences and more, put aside their own politics, in order to work collectively for a real growth strategy that would a overcome the fifty- or so-year cycle that has seen our city and region go from the Queen City of the South to an also ran.

Did I say I live in La La Land? But didn’t I also say a real commitment from state and city leadership to a growth strategy would work?