is crime concentrated in which part of New Orleans? (safe area, construction)

[thealfa]

Is there a south, north, east, west part of the city that should be avoided at most times? When I lived in Chicago, the South and West sides were to be avoided. It's got some ok spots in between. I'm curious about New Orleans.

[Innotech]

In general, there are safe areas all over the city and dangerous areas. No part of New Orleans is particularly dangerous but crime pretty much occurs in pockets throughout each district. You could walk down one street and be fine, but a couple blocks over there might be a shooting.

[thepointykitty]

Although I still maintain that it's not nearly as "patchworky" as many people say, you have to be here for awhile to be able to distinguish the genuinely dangerous areas from the just plain "old" areas. I visited several times before moving here a year ago, and it really didn't take long to figure it out, but I wouldn't have known much on my first few visits, which is why I stuck to recommended areas. There are many helpful threads on this forum discussing that information.

New Orleans has a lot of old architecture and, to the untrained eye (especially folks from newer suburban areas), a lot of it can look dirty or unkempt at first glance. For example, most of Mid-City is quite safe and full of awesome people, but it might look a bit rundown to many newcomers.

Here are some of my "red flags": dirty, unmaintained yards (really dirty, not "under construction"/ mostly really old, "beater cars" OR really nice cars that don't fit with the neighborhood, which is often a sign of drug dealers (nice cars in an old neighborhood with a lot of construction going on is probably a good sign, though.)/ groups of younger (not retired) men hanging out in the middle of a weekday doing nothing except sitting around watching people walk and drive by, especially if you see them day after day - they probably have "jobs" alright, and you don't want to be around when they're conducting business!/ People yelling in the street at night (although I don't advise checking out neighborhoods at night). I'm talking about neighborhoods, not Bourbon Street, lol!

After awhile I just got a general "feel", and it's quite easy for me to recognize potentially dangerous "pockets" of the city now. Honestly, there are many more good areas than I had been led to believe before I moved here.