Downtown New Orleans is a neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana. The city's "downtown" area was originally considered to be all portions of the city downriver from Canal Street, but its definition later shrunk to include solely the Central Business District. The area came to include many construction sites, businesses, restaurants, bars, a bath house, and the Federal Reserve building, and it served as the lucrative commercial and financial center of the city. The area was one of the few New Orleans neighborhoods to escape the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In 2000, Downtown had 3,435 inhabitants.