By DAN JUNEAU

New Orleans has seen some tough economic times in the last few decades.

Louisiana’s largest metropolitan area has been hit hard by out-migration and the loss of quality jobs in the areas of manufacturing, oil and gas exploration, and production headquarters. Two recent events, however, give some hope to the “Big Easy.”

For the first time in a long time, the voters in New Orleans have elected a mayor who understands that, without jobs, there is little hope for turning around the fortunes of the city.

Ray Nagin is a rarity in the Byzantine local politics of Orleans Parish: a man who believes that city government is really there to serve the people, not simply to provide patronage to keep a political machine alive.

Mayor Nagin faces an almost impossible task of turning around decades of neglect (at best) in promoting true economic growth in the city. As a businessman himself, Nagin is well aware that, without a dynamic economic engine fueling job creation and revenue growth for government, the myriad of problems facing the city simply cannot be solved. And those problems are daunting.

The infrastructure of the city is, by most measures, deplorable. Streets are in poor shape, abandoned housing blights the landscape, and finding the funds to staff and equip a police force to keep crime in check is a daily challenge.

Some question Nagin’s sanity in seeking the job of mayor, but he is rising to the challenge and not backing down.

From an economic development standpoint, one of the biggest drawbacks New Orleans has faced in recent years is the perception that you have to take care of politicians to do business in the city.

The extent to which that perception is true is almost irrelevant. The fact of the matter is, the perception is there. Nagin has done yeoman’s work in a matter of a few short months to change that image. He has pushed strongly to root out corruption wherever it exists in City Hall, and he has made it clear to those who want to do business with the city that quality, competency, and cost will be the factors his administration looks for – not political connections and support.

Nagin is a breath of fresh air for New Orleans from an economic development standpoint, but a recent ruling by the Louisiana State Supreme Court may well have saved the city from an economic death penalty.

Union organizers and their supporters passed a ballot initiative in New Orleans that would have established a minimum wage for the city which would have been higher than the national minimum wage set by Congress.

The only true growth that currently exists in the Orleans Parish economy comes from trade and tourism.

The hotels and restaurants are keeping the city afloat from an economic standpoint.

Establishing a minimum wage higher than the national one would have been a huge blow to the hospitality industry. If that sector of the New Orleans economy even marginally hits the skids, the “Big Easy” will become the “Big Queasy” over night.

The Supreme Court decision in the minimum wage case gave New Orleans a reprieve from an economic disaster – a definite plus for the city.

Ray Nagin’s commitment to bring quality jobs to New Orleans is the only hope for long-term economic growth and stability. The machine politicians in New Orleans do not want Nagin to succeed. The idea of politics without patronage is anathema to them. But the true welfare of the public in Orleans Parish is tied directly to how successful Nagin can be in stopping the out-migration of jobs and workers and bringing new investment into the city.

If he is successful, what once was can be again. If he is not, the “party” may well be over.

DAN JUNEAU is the president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry.