According to DRUDGE, 8 people were shot to death in NOLA last week. Is it fair to say that as the city rebuilds, the criminals are coming back? i heard that one side benefit of Katrina, was the fact that violent crime took a big drop after the flooding. It reminds me of Washington DC: ex-mayor Marion Barry said something like: “if you subtract the killings, it’s pretty safe”! :smack:
So, how are things in NO now?
Yeah. One season of Da Vinci’s Inquest ought to cure those misconceptions!
Basically correct. It should be noted that before Katrina New Orleans had 265 murders a year, an average of over .7 per day. Having eight murders in one week is not a big leap over that average. Statistically speaking it’s probably wasn’t unusual before Katrina.
It largely depends on what neighborhood you lived in before the storm and where you worked before the storm. This breaks out into 3 big categories:
(1) If you lived in a dry neighborhood, or one that flooded only a few inches to a foot, you and your stuff and your neighborhood have a high likelihood of being in pretty good shape. If you were lucky enough to live in a dry area and your job didn’t disappear, you’re likely to be modestly optimistic about living here. I happen to fall into that category.
(2) If you lived in an area that took on a significant amount of water, it can be a mixed bag as far as how things are going. One flooded neighborhood got very organized and is doing quite well. Other areas with less organized civic groups are doing poorly. Many of these people are dependent on the federal block grants that are being doled out by the Louisiana Recovery Authority, but it’s a slow process.
(2a) If you flooded but still have a job, you can generally find a dry place to rent or live in a trailer while fixing your place.
(2b) If you didn’t flood too badly but don’t have a job, it’s a marginal existence.
and
(3) If your neighborhood flooded deeply AND you lost your job, then chances are you’re living elsewhere and aren’t coming back.
There’s been some significant political progress on some fronts - - better local levee management, a rational property tax assessment system, a new city ethics office - - and some craziness (the choice for the 2nd House District seat - - which crook do you vote for? - - led to William Jefferson’s reelection, for example). The mayor has been largely absent from public eye since his reelection, and people are getting peeved by it. Still, he hired a world-reknowned urban planner to head the recovery effort, so that’s a small bright spot. Hopefully better days are coming.
As for the crime wave, pretend you’re watching HBO’s “The Wire” when you read about New Orleans or see a news story about life here. Many of the people who sell and use illegal drugs fall in the 2b category. They felt they didn’t have much to lose before the storm, and now are more brazen due to the frustrations brought about by the slow recovery - - it’s harder for them to make a few bucks doing day labor. Also, there are more turf battles as gangs sort out who gets new corners. There’s a big worry in communities near the drug areas that snitches will be murdered to send a message, so people don’t come forward, even though they probably know the people committing the crimes.
A significant percentage of the perpetrators are believed to be teenagers whose parents and grandparents were in category 3 and have relocated elsewhere, but who have decided to come to New Orleans, raise themselves, and trust on the incompetence of the judicial system to keep from going to jail. It’s a pretty good bet for them - - few, if any are caught, and if caught, they get out of jail pretty quickly.
Personally, I ride an emotional roller coaster with living here. Some days I think that it will all work out; some days I want to take my family and move out. Right now, I’m wanting to take my family and move out.
Sorry for the long post - - even with it, I’ve only scratched the surface.
Yes, but those who make the estimates say that there are about 200,000 fewer people in the city theses days, making our per capita murder rate astronomical.
Partly it’s the criminals coming back, partly it’s the frustration with living here, partly it’s the drugs, partly it’s the randomness of a blighted urban area. One columnist suggests that the agressiveness is largely unchanged, it’s just that their aim has been better this week than is usual.
It seems like the recent calls for a curfew and changes in policing in New Orleans got very heated when Helen Hill, a filmmaker, was killed in her home on the edge of the French Quarter in an apparent robbery attempt, becoming the eighth homicide of the year for the city during the first week of 2007. Her husband Paul Gailiunas, a doctor, was found shot, holding their two year old son who was uninjured. The cynical part of my reaction comes in because Ms. Hill was pretty, white, professional, and a young mother, and her photos are sure getting a lot more play than the average New Orleans Central City murder victim since the storm. (As Ivorybill noted, a lot of people who’ve died have been young black men, mostly teenagers it seems, caught up in gang violence.)
The Gailiunas-Hills were also New Orleans transplants, who had moved to the city in 2001, evacuated for the storm and had returned to rebuild their lives, only to fall victim to violence. It’s not exactly an advertisement for anyone in the diaspora to rush back to the city.
I also think the fact that this murder happened damned close to the French Quarter is scaring the pants off the business community and the politicos, because if New Orleans loses what little tourist trade it’s gained, the city is doomed.
Dr. Gailunas ran a clinic for poor people near their home and provided low- or no-cost medical care to patients. This is significant in that it probably was not that unusual for him to have someone knock on his door at 5:30 am.
What was unusual is that apparently patrons at a nearby bed and breakfast scared away an armed man from the business a few minutes before the Gailunas-Hills were shot. Local conventional wisdom is that the Gailunas-Hills were the type of folks who would open their door to a stranger at any time of day or night, and paid a very high price for their lack of street smarts (or for their faith in their street karma).
As lisacurl says, they’re getting much more media attention due to the fact that it’s a white victim and a black perpetrator. Usually, violence doesn’t cross racial lines, and when it does, it’s unusual enough to cause interest. Most drug murders don’t make the A section.
As a 4th generation Coloradoan, I’m deeply offended by this crap. I’m with Lamar Mundane on this one. The worst I suffered in all of those storms was a very long wait to fly out for Christmas.
Besides, the glurge poster was wrong about not demanding government action. People in the cities up and down the Front Range were screaming their heads off about not getting quick enough action from snow-plowing city, county and state road crews. And our state government has contacted FEMA, and the storm did receive widespread coverage, and parts of Colorado were declared disaster areas and thus eligible for federal aid.
And on top of all of that, farmers and ranchers accept harsh weather conditions as part of the risk of living on the land. In return, we are rewarded with inspiring sunrises, endless vistas of wide-open space, almost limitless opportunities and relaxing sunsets – when the weather is good.
No, there is no comparison between Colorado’s snowstorms and the Rape of New Orleans. And you can tell that to you glurge-sending buddy.
I too fail to see the racism. It’s still bloody stupid.
Old movie alert! Old movie alert! Eve come in please.
Are you from Vancouver? I thought it was a great town when I saw it in '05, though admittedly I was seeing it as a tourist, and only briefly at that. Still the problems you mentioned exist in one form or another in nearly every city on earth.
I suspect the writer of that email was making another sneaky racist jab with the “48th parallel” comment. Exactly those countries you list are the traditional home of the white race, and the guy is such as stupid tool he doesn’t even know that Europe is now also quite diverse ethnically.