BUT WILL THEY STAY?

After finishing her morning coffee, she walks down Loyola Avenue wearing a simple black sheath and flip-flops, her brown hair pulled back in a loose chignon.

The red neon letters that spell City Hall loom above. Inside, the mayor's staff is facing a firestorm of criticism about troubles in the city's blight-remediation program. In a couple of days, one round of scandal-dodging will flow into another, as public outrage flares over an Award of Distinction for Recovery, Courage and Leadership to be given to Mayor Ray Nagin.

Krista Lois Colson works for the city, but she isn't headed to City Hall.

She passes the building and moves briskly toward Poydras Street, where she works as a strategic planner for a relatively new piece of city government, the Office of Recovery Development and Administration.

Colson, 30, is from Seattle. She came to New Orleans in the summer of 2007 after earning a master's degree in urban planning from the University of California, Los Angeles. For most of the past year, she has helped move $117 million in Community Development Block Grant money through a labyrinthine bureaucracy toward projects across the city. Parks, markets, street repairs -- there are 68 projects in play, and it is Colson's job to bring them from paper plans to real examples of progress.

Colson is just one of many young professionals, many of whom had no ties to New Orleans, who have moved to the area to build their careers in a rebuilding city. Since the influx began after Hurricane Katrina, some have stayed and others have left, with more newcomers arriving steadily. Like Colson, many have settled into relatively high-powered jobs, while some continue to search for permanent work.

For young professionals and graduates across the country, New Orleans remains a magnet, blending a timeless allure with newfound dynamism.

"Instead of just working behind the scenes, I'm in the decision-making circles," Colson said. "I didn't expect to do that. It's good. You feel like you're actually part of it, and you can see the fruits of your labor."

--- Coming and going ---

Just how long the new residents will stay is far from clear.

Because of scarce census data, quantifying the post-Katrina influx of young professionals in New Orleans is difficult, said Allison Plyer, director of the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center.

If anything, available numbers do not point to a significant net gain, said Greg Rigamer, owner of the demographic consulting firm GCR & Associates. The proportion of new Orleans Parish voters who are ages 25 to 29 has held steady near 14 percent from 2004 to July 2008. The percentage of newly registered voters in the 21-to-24 age group has declined, by about five points, from pre-Katrina levels.

"It's remarkable, actually, how stagnant (the numbers) are," Rigamer said.

Such readings do not necessarily show that the 21-to-29 population has not changed since Katrina, but it does reflect a certain transience, Rigamer said.

"First and foremost, if you are a young professional who is coming here to be involved in the recovery, chances are if you did not see yourself as transient, you would register to vote," Rigamer said. "Secondly, we know that young professionals are more likely to vote than people who are less educated and the same age. So unless these young professionals are thinking, 'Hey, I'll be here a year and then go back,' they would probably register to vote."

Such statistics do not measure whether some young people have left the area and been replaced by other youthful newcomers.

The results of a recent survey of young professionals offer more clues about their backgrounds and outlook. Conducted by the Louisiana State University department of sociology and commissioned by a young professionals networking nonprofit, the NOLA YURP Initiative, the survey captured information about 263 of NOLA YURP's 2,600 members.

As one might expect, the so-called YURPs -- Young Urban Rebuilding Professionals -- are well-educated, with 95 percent holding an undergraduate degree and 30 percent reporting they have a graduate degree. About one-fifth are native New Orleanians, with 14 percent from the rest of South Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The largest contingent, however, is from the Northeast, which comprises nearly one-quarter of the sample population. Sixty-five percent consider themselves ideologically liberal. They are engaged in civic affairs, with more than one-third belonging to a neighborhood association. Roughly the same percentage attend public meetings at least twice a month.

The YURPs are also overwhelmingly optimistic. More than 80 percent polled said they believed that New Orleans' economy and its quality of life will improve during the next five years. Roughly 60 percent of the general public gave the same answer in a parallel sample poll.

Perhaps most telling, nearly 60 percent of the young professionals considered it "very likely" that they would stay in New Orleans through the next two years. About one-quarter said they would "very likely" stay for a decade or longer.

--- Bringing youth to city ---

For Nathan Rothstein, NOLA YURP's executive director, the hopeful signals from young professionals come as no surprise.

Rothstein, 24, has spent the past year developing the organization, which was founded in July 2007. In addition to hosting mixers and workshops, NOLA YURP has been forging connections with local civic leaders, other groups of young professionals and like-minded organizers across the country. Throughout March, the organization hosted events for more than 2,000 college students on spring break to tell them about the community of fresh college graduates in New Orleans.

"(The college students) were just shocked and amazed that so many of the people driving the recovery were young people," Rothstein said. "I think the message is starting to get out of the city that you can be young and take an immediate leadership role. Once again, this is the place to be if you want to solve any type of problem. If you're young and idealistic, and you're thinking about education, social justice, health care, this is the capital of all that right now."

While NOLA YURP is still a new organization and is comprised almost entirely of 20-somethings, Rothstein said it has formed a healthy partnership with the Young Leadership Council, made up largely of professionals in their 30s and 40s.

"I think there's a lot of opportunities for synergy between the two of us," said Nolan Marshall, 29, the Young Leadership Council's president-elect. He said the two organizations have connected with the Urban League's young professionals arm, as well as LatiNola, which reaches out to young Latino adults.

The Idea Village, a nonprofit that supports local entrepreneurs, is preparing to launch its "504ward" initiative, orchestrated and partially financed by longtime civic activist Leslie Jacobs. In addition to a business competition for entrepreneurs and "matchmaking" program to connect young talent with older professional peers, the initiative includes a Web site that links users to services, information and organizations for young professionals.

--- Needing a reason to stay ---

Despite a growing network of talent-retention programs and organizations in New Orleans, there is no guarantee that the city's newfound cachet among the young creative class will last. Young professionals moving to New Orleans offer mixed views.

Among 16 featured in a Times-Picayune article one year ago, two have left the city. In the informal poll, money concerns and the slow pace of recovery were cited as important factors in deciding whether to stay in coming years.

"The perpetual lack of city infrastructure has been the most frustrating part," said Katie Mears, 27, who is still working as the Episcopal Diocese's rebuilding coordinator. "It feels very Wild Westy, still, because you always think it's going to get better but it doesn't."

For Stephanie Slates, 29, the "most frustrating part about living here has been the ongoing corruption and the damage I think it's doing to our city's already fragile image."

Slates, who came to New Orleans in 2002 and was a project manager for New Leaders for New Schools, last week moved away to pursue a doctorate in sociology at Johns Hopkins University. She said she hopes to return to New Orleans to continue working in education reform after she finishes the graduate program.

Several young professionals reported that, by living in New Orleans, they were sacrificing a shot at larger salaries elsewhere. The city's ability to provide competitive pay may not matter greatly now, while these progressive newcomers are still in their 20s, but that might change in a few years, Marshall said.

"For the first year or two, there is that feeling of, 'I'm willing to sacrifice.' But when you're 24, 25, you start to go through that transition of, 'I'm willing to sacrifice, but I need to have that upward momentum,' " Marshall said.

"The money is going to have to follow up pretty soon," said Katherine Bray, 24, who is still in New Orleans, having switched from public relations work to managing an art gallery. "It needs to show up soon because, you know, phases of life."

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Molly Reid can be reached at mreid@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3448.