Just curious, Would anyone here want to live in New Orleans either before or after Katrina? Nagan can have his chocolate city and eat it too the way things are matter of fact it wouldn't matter to me if he was mayor there for the next 40 years. Sorry, I couldn't resist, haha!
You are partly wrong. I was born in New Orleans and have visited relatives there but never lived there. Most relatives I had lived there and moved away years ago but I had some leave for good after Katrina. Btw I spent quite a few weekends in Baton Rouge and New Orleans since December, NO especially Mardi Gras. What I really meant is live there the way things were before and after Katrina, crime, corrupt police force. I'm not saying NO is the only city but things seem mighty bad there.
True, things seem mighty bad - in certain parts of the city - but I kind of agree with LSUsupaFan that New Orleans is under such a thick microscope that all of its problems are shown. A lot of cities have some of the same problems we do, ours have just been magnified because of Katrina. There's a lot that can be done, but sadly, I don't see anything in place to get the ball rolling. Having the National Guard start patrolling the uninhabited parts of the city is a good start, though, at least with regards to crime. What a lot of people in the country don't realize is that there are parts of New Orleans that are thriving right now (French Quarter, CBD, Uptown, Garden District) and quite frankly, if you drove through these parts, you would have no idea that a hurricane even hit. New Orleans was a great place to live before "The Thing" (to quote Chris Rose) and it will be a great place to live for many years to come. A good majority of my contemporaries who are living and working in other cities are just itching to get back into the city. It'll bounce back. It may take awhile, but it will.
I know this as a fact, I had an uncle, (ex-uncle) who was on the NOPD in the seventies until he got caught in a prostitution ring or something like that. My Aunt and her kids left once they were being shot at. I was really young then but any how they are well known for being part of the problem instead of the solution. We are talking about pre-Katrina as well.
no doubt about it. IT is the most corrupt police force in the country. And just to think it is not nearly as bad as it was under Sydney B.
Yes, and yes. I did years ago, still own a house there, and look forward to the day I can move back. What I am hearing from a lot of my friends there is that the majority of the looters that are being arrested are from out of town. Opportunistic thieves coming in to take whatever they can find. The population maybe down, but the property to protect is still at pre-K levels (for the most part). The smaller police force has to patrol the harder hit areas like Lakeview and the 9th as well as the more populated areas like uptown. Add to that, you don't have the organized neighborhood associations like the one in Lakeview able to help with community watch programs, etc. because of the small scattered population. And don't give me the argument that those hard hit areas that have little or no people living there don't need patroling because almost everything is in ruins. Besides the looting, vagrants and squatters (again, mainly from out of town) are trying to move in. There are many (that are from the fringe of society) who thought they would head to Nola for the quick buck jobs, but got there and found out that it was the contractors, not the workers, making all the money. And on top of that, the low-paying jobs were so low, that it is mainly "migrant" (I use that term because that's another topic) day laborers that are working to clean up the mess. So yeah, those areas still need police protection. Another problem is that there is no place to house juvenille offenders that I know of. Even in setting up a juvenille curfew, which the City gov't is trying to do, the problem of where to house the curfew breakers has to be solved first.
