Business group turns efforts to update image for N.O.

NEW ORLEANS — The president of a business organization in New Orleans says the group is focusing on changing the image the city presents to businesses that are thinking about relocating or expanding.

Rodrick Miller, president and CEO of the New Orleans Business Alliance, told a luncheon Wednesday that many people often associate New Orleans with Bourbon Street, jazz and its port. But Miller said they don’t think about the new things coming to the city like the film industry and technology companies.

“New Orleans is cool and hip, but there’s more to it than that,” Roderick told the luncheon held by the Association for Corporate Growth.

Roderick told the luncheon group that New Orleans has problems finding people for midmanagement positions because people don’t see New Orleans as a great place to raise a family.

“Our biggest hurdle is image,” Miller said. “There’s the perception that New Orleans is corrupt and under water. Increasingly, crime is being brought up.”

However, he said, a business has never told the alliance that they weren’t coming to the city because of crime.

He said it’s important to show businesses how successful they can be in the city and the emerging markets that have found support in the area..

“A lot of New Orleans is faring better than the rest of the nation,” Miller said.

“Economic development is about job growth, job creation and growing the economy in a sustainable fashion,” Miller said.