E Pluribus Unum

I moved to Baton Rouge about a year before Katrina; I've lived here a year since Katrina. And I have to say Wil Haygood gets it mostly right:

If the hurricane forever changed New Orleans, it has also permanently transformed Baton Rouge. Katrina has demanded realignments, shaken this city's sense of order and left it struggling to cope with a range of new, daily problems.

The traffic jams are unbelievable; but that is only a small part of the picture.

UPDATE: Apparently Anya Kamenetz resents what Baton Rougians have to say about New Orleans:

A more assertively provincial, narrow-minded, anti-progressive, anti-New South place you could not hope to find. The people who choose to occupy its many lifeless, cookie-cutter subdivisions are defined by the fact that they hate New Orleans and everything that it represents: crime, culture, city life writ large.

Actually, I'm not sure but I think she also resents the Post for quoting so many negative comments from so many negative Baton Rougians. Or something.

In any case, Miss Julie wrote a response to Kamenetz which I posted using my HuffPo account. Go look for it...it hasn't appeared yet, but it'll be there soon, I guess, once the moderator checks it out.