New Orleans Report Card

First came Katrina. Then the levees failed. Then came the president, with this message... "I believe," said George Bush, "that the great city of New Orleans will rise again, and be a greater city."

Today, almost a year and a half after the hurricane, those works echo bitterly across miles of still-desolate New Orleans.

The French Quarter is back. So is Tulane. So are — or were — the Saints as they drove for the Super Bowl. But the population of one of America's most storied cities is less than half what it was before the storm. The surging murder rate has brought desperate public protest.

"America's Baghdad" read one sign.

This hour On Point: we go back to New Orleans and ask what's going on.

Guests:

Jed Horne, Metropolitan Editor of the Times Picayune & author of "Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City"

Jason Berry, writer and jazz scholar, visiting professor of creative writing at Tulane University and author of "Last of the Red Hot Poppas." [2006]

Lolis Eric Elie, columnist for the Times Picayune

Glenn Davind Andrews, trombonist for the Treme Brass Band .