As long as the feds sign off, the New Orleans body politic will gain a shoulder and lose a finger in 2014.

Like a good andouille, the final U.S. Census numbers for New Orleans tasted just right to Mark VanLandingham. But getting a glimpse of how any sausage has laid waste to many appetites, and VanLandingham is no different. In an op-ed published in today's New York Times titled "Making Murder Count," the Tulane demographer argues that Nagin administration posturing during post-Katrina population estimates by the Census created artificial signs of progress that left us feeling burnt when the actual 2010 numbers came in lower than expected, and more money wasn't available to combat endemic issues like the homicide rate. Read the whole thing here.

There's less than a month to go before the New Orleans City Council must submit its new boundaries to the feds. Eight maps for redistricting remain on the table, but with two coming from members of the City Council, there's little mystery as to which have the most pull.

The smoke-filled backroom commonly known as the Louisiana legislature gets a once-in-a-decade opportunity this week to operate how it truly wants to. In closed-door sessions that began yesterday, lawmakers will redraw the boundaries of the state's legislative districts, and we won't even get to see the handshakes. Perhaps times have changed slightly, as the plans aren't completely secret. But that doesn't mean they're any better for New Orleans. Responding to the plummeting NOLA population recorded in the 2010 census, House Speaker Jim Tucker released a plan to wrest six House seats from the city's grasp, and give them to the North Shore.

As we move into the new year, it's time to find out what we're really made of. No, we're not talking about consecutive days of debauchery and the ability to subsist on King Cake alone. U.S. Census numbers are scheduled to be released sometime after the first of the year that will indicate how many people the city actually has since Katrina, and where the boundaries of our Congressional districts will lie. Last week, the state released some suggestive numbers to whet our demographically-thirsty whistle, the Advocate, of Baton Rouge, reports.