Do you REALLY want to make NOLA better?? Honestly (New Orleans: best neighborhoods, sex offenders)

[calmdown504]

I know this question may seem like a silly one, but let's honestly look at our contribution the city in a critical light.

One of the biggest obstacles we have facing the progression and growth of the city we all love is crime. In my humble opinion, the single most crime feeder is acceptance, we accept crime in this town. We ignore the problem and act as if it's intrinsic and innately applicable to NOLA while we all know it's not. One symptom of our acceptance of crime is our lack of progression from the economic development side.

The biggest way to deter crime is to shun and publicly shame behavior that begets the action. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to stores or small neighborhood restaurants and have seen pan handlers outside loitering and begging everybody in sight for change. These folks are the customers of the drug dealers who kill each other on a seemingly weekly basis in NOLA. This has to END. One way we could end it is to put pressure on our local public officials to FINE every place of business who allows this act to continue. Let good ole capitalism's profit motive help deter violence by cutting off loitering.

Now I know what you're thinking, "loitering isin't going to singhandedly stop a guy from mugging me" and you're right, it won't. But it'll immediately help pour funding into our city's depleted budget and also enhance quality of life in most of our neighborhoods. Another thing we should do is urge the city to adopt a main street program that forces all commercial properties on our city's main streets to adhere to a new set of design codes. How many time have we seen a tile and cabinet company take over an old gas station, or we've seen main streets like Elysian Fields house some of the most rotten looking businesses on earth? This is an eye sore, and it happens in some of our city's best neighborhoods, like Gentilly Woods Lake Oaks, Gentilly Terrace, some parts of the East, Bywater, Marigny, Broadmoor, etc.

It's time to enhance the look of our main streets so that any suspicious people would stick out like SORE THUMBS across our city. Criminals HATE economic development and strict regulation because it makes them stick out. Instead of abandoned school buildings, some of these properties should be turned into rehab clinics to help Heroin addicts (our biggest selling illegal drug) get off the dope and stop funding the drug dealers.

Also the Judges, we need to DEMAND the court to release a list of repeat VIOLENT offenders and push for laws to make these people enter a public registry similar to what sex offenders do. Public scrutiny and shame is a huge deterrent of crime. Let's make it so humiliating to commit a crime that these folks won't even want to show face around NOLA.

Middle class black neighborhoods will ALSO need help, I urge all NOLA citizens who are looking for clean and safe places to live to consider moving in middle class black neighborhoods like Pontilly (some white residents, not a lot) Gentilly Terrance (pretty mixed about half white half black), Holy Cross area (around the NEW holy cross school), etc. So that we could prove to each other that we are UNITED against the enemy, the losers who constantly rip us off!

All of these corner stores and fly by night BS businesses that open shop on our major streets should adhere to the new rules and we should ALL have a say-so in what TYPE of business goes up in our neighborhoods. Lets get a movement going so that we could make this happen.

My neighborhood is SAFE AS CAN BE (Gentilly Woods) but I HATE the main street, my neighbors and I don't deserve to see a few panhandlers cross the tracks and ruin the places we go to eat and purchase small items. I know many of you feel the same way, hopefully these small steps could change some of the backwards culture in the high crime zones.

Lets push for curfews in HIGH crime areas after this is done so if we see some suspicious folks on our main streets they will be QUESTIONED immediately, it's time to take control, not just whites and not just blacks. We have to SEPARATE OURSELVES FROM THE CRIMINAL, SECLUDE HIM AND MAKE HIM FEEL DISTANT AND UNSAFE. This is the only WAY.

[belleislerunner]

You think pan handlers are a cause for concern? You need to learn a little compassion for those less fortunate. Most people aren't bothered by panhandlers in the least - every city has them - San Fran, DC, NYC etc. If you see someone on the street with no means to fend for themselves, try sliping them a buck or two or wish them a good day. Just because one may enjoy more pecuniary success in life doesn't mean you should be absolved from the plight of the poor.

[thepointykitty]

I almost always give money when someone asks, especially if they seem to have a physical or mental disability. I've even been known to buy food or clothing for a homeless person before. I pretty much agree with calmdown504, though. Although every city has panhandlers, most cities have ordinances to keep them in certain areas. I'd rather deal with it on busy Canal Street than at a relatively quiet neighborhood corner store where there would be fewer potential witnesses if that person decided to demand more than a buck or two. Like it or not, panhandlers and loiterers in neighborhood areas are definitely a sign of worse things. There are other ways to feed the hungry and help the poor than just allowing them to loiter anywhere in the city. NOLA has some great food banks and outreach programs. Getting involved with one of those will do more good than encouraging panhandlers (says the woman who gives money to panhandlers!)

I think the OP has some great points. I completely agree that making improvements to certain areas will make the criminals more obvious and less comfortable. We're getting ready to buy a house within the next few months. We prefer living in a safe, racially diverse neighborhood and have recently started looking at Gentilly. I totally agree with presenting a united front. I think there's a lot of complacency about crime here, and a "well, what can you do - that's just the way it is?" attitude. It doesn't have to be "the way it is" but we must make some fundamental changes in our attitudes toward crime or nothing will ever change.

[Speleothem]

Don't feed the pigeons.

[Nico82NO]

Is it not the reponsibility of the NOPD to handle loitering. I can't imagine its legal for a business owner to forceably remove loiterers. They can however request them to leave or make a purchase, and thn call NOPD to have them removed. Id imagine good'ol capitalism will rear its head when businesses externally innundated by loiterers begin losing business due to the blight. At that point id expect them to make the calls without fines and taxation.

I wholeheartedly agree with the statements about economic development. In a country that revolves around money, better economic opportunities for citizens can encourage the pursuit of higher education and justify those costs. I would hope we all agree that the true crime deterrant is education. Likwise the factor hat contributes the mot to increased quality of life is productivity. Better economic opportunities can both provide and justify those.

Of course these are hard economic times so blight, poverty, and panhadling are expected. Likewise I'm sure there are many wealthy millionaires addicted to many an illegal narcotic (coke, meth, heroine, etc.). Drug addiction is not just a poor mans trait.

Pardon any spelling mistakes, cell phone posting lends itself to that.

[calmdown504]

Nice post Nico... In you guys opinion... What should be the top 3 things NOLA should do immediately to progress? You don't have to be politically correct, just give us your honest thoughts.

[annie_himself]

Jobs
Crime
School

Everything else will fall in place and New Orleans will be where it was in 1850. Pan handlers shouldn't even be mentioned in a serious plan to turn a city around. Your idea for publicly humiliating a person for committing a crime is a good idea for all convicted felons, although it pretty much defeats the purpose for them to return to a contributing member of society, which is more important than trying to publicize them.

[Neworleansisprettygood]

I'll second annie's post, but I think the most direct approach to solving the city's problems almost paradoxically lies in NORD. NORD was once a model department; with all the health problems and criminal danger associated with living in New Orleans, giving kids a constructive way to work out their differences (I'd much rather them say "meet me on the court" than "meet me in the alley") and also providing adults with healthy, safe alternatives to going to a bar and seeing who can drink the most as a way to impress the ladies would go a long, long way towards making the city a better place to live.

I know the above post reads like one long run-on sentence, but I really feel that one of the most important, if not THE most important, functions of city government is to manage its real assets in the most effective way possible. It's a bottom-up approach, yes, but better health and athletic activites-> better performance in school->less temptation to pursue a criminal lifestyle-> better jobs environment, which to me is the top of the pyramid.