ICYMI, here are a few stories from around the web last week covering New Orleans start-ups and business culture.
City Business: Naked Pizza is partially clothed in Dubai: Although Western culture has quickly spread with foreign investment in the construction-happy emirate of Dubai, one New Orleans franchise is not taking chances in upsetting the conservative, predominately Islamic culture there. In Dubai, Naked Pizza is instead known as N_K_D Pizza. Read more.
WWLTV: Students take to social media to curb violence: As the city of New Orleans fights to stop the violence, a grassroots movement is underway fueled by a local group of students that has decided enough is enough. #NOLALOVE Read more.
City Business Opinion: Back the Biodistrict: A $2.4 million state grant was provided two years ago to create a master plan for the district, and McNamara said a final draft is expected soon while negotiations with community members continue. With that grant money all but spent, the BioDistrict faces a distinct financial barrier. Read more.
Times-Pic: New Orleans Area Adds 6000 Jobs in 2011: The New Orleans area added 6,000 jobs between December 2010 and December 2011, the most of any metropolitan area in the state, according to figures released Tuesday by the Louisiana Workforce Commission. The positive employment report, which came despite a dip in the number of education jobs in the final month of the year as academic semesters ended, capped off a year in which local employers hired steadily. Read more.
Times-Pic: Tulane’s A.B. Freeman School of business to beef up its size: The Tulane University A.B. Freeman School of Business will hire 15 new tenured and tenure-track professors in the next two years as part of an attempt to become a “school of choice,” the business school’s dean said this week. Ira Solomon, who became dean of the business school in June, said he hopes to increase the staff by 40 percent by the 2013 academic year, replenishing what was lost following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Read more.