New Orleans
Founded 1718 in a swamp, destroyed 2005 by Katrina (80% flooded). Rebuilt with 35% more startups than national average and new $14.5B levees.
New Orleans should not exist. Founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne on a swampy crescent of high ground above the Mississippi's mouth, the city was destroyed by hurricane in 1722 and rebuilt in the grid pattern that became the French Quarter. The Choctaw called it Bulbancha—'land of many tongues'—and the name proved prophetic: French, Spanish, African, Caribbean, and American cultures collided here to produce jazz, Creole cuisine, and a city unlike any other in North America.
The strategic logic was irresistible: whoever controlled New Orleans controlled the Mississippi River, and whoever controlled the Mississippi controlled the American interior. Thomas Jefferson understood this when he negotiated the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. For most of its history, the port was the economic engine—America's gateway to global trade. But geography cuts both ways. The same below-sea-level bowl that made the port accessible made the city a flood trap.
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall. The levees failed. Over 80% of the city flooded. More than 1,800 died. Population dropped over 50% almost overnight. The disaster exposed a century of underinvestment in flood protection and a city whose wealth had not been shared equally. Yet New Orleans did something unexpected: it rebuilt and reinvented. Post-Katrina, the metro area launched startups at 35% above the national average. Crime, once among the nation's worst, dropped to its lowest levels since the early 1970s by mid-2025.
The 20th anniversary of Katrina in 2025 finds a smaller but more entrepreneurial city, protected by $14.5 billion in new levees. New Orleans remains America's great experiment in resilience: can a city that exists despite its geography continue to exist because of its culture? By 2026, that question has no answer—only an ongoing bet.