Keeping the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Pontchartrain out. Nothing quite like living below sea level.

The idealist 20 and 30-somethings that have moved in, growing up watching "Friends" and think it's cool to live in the city instead of living in the suburbs - there's more of a desire to actually live in-the-city. So these folks, bless them, want bike paths, public transit and other such things and think that it's normal for middle class people to use them. Now if they'll just stay around long enough, and vote (it's voluntary here), to help see some of their visions through, before they become jaded, and utterly fustrated with the old-guard/old money bastion that really runs the city.