As revelers line the streets of the French Quarter in New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras, the city seems bent on promoting itself once again as the tourist destination in the South. At first glance, New Orleans looks to be well on its way to normalcy. Celebrities – chef Emeril Lagasse, actor John Goodman and musician Wynton Marsalis, to name a few – appear in tourism commercials inviting people to rediscover why they fell in love with the city. While this is great for tourists, what about former residents who cannot afford to return and become enamored once again with their homes?
Though life in the French Quarter and all along Bourbon Street may appear normal, the bulk of New Orleans is not fit for habitation. Destroyed houses sit untouched, looking even more weathered than after the hurricane, since so many are unable, or unwilling, to go back and carry out the painstaking task of cleaning up.
There are some camped out in trailers, living and hoping to see New Orleans return to its existence pre-Katrina. These people work in and around New Orleans in an effort to get back their lives and city. It might have been better if the city remained uninhabited.
New Orleans police officer Nicola Cotton was brutally murdered while on duty on Jan. 28. Cotton was alone on patrol when she came upon a man fitting the description of a rape suspect. Though the man was not involved with that crime, he turned on Cotton when she attempted to place him in handcuffs. The man beat the officer, then grabbed and shot her with her own pistol.
The man, now charged with murder, has been described by his family as a paranoid schizophrenic and was even referred to a mental health facility for evaluation for a period of 10 to 15 days; however, the mentally unstable man was released a scant few days later.
The incident points to not only shortages in the mental health industry, but to a city that cannot sustain itself. New Orleans officials are in the midst of a trip to Disney World this week in order to learn how to bring a sports complex that caters to young people to the city.
Instead of focusing on a diversion for the future, city officials ought to focus on the present. The safety and care of its citizens should be at the forefront of governing in New Orleans. While getting casinos, restaurants and the Mardi Gras festival up and running will bring back the tourists, it seems precious little is being done to welcome back former New Orleanians.
Residential reconstruction is moving at less than a snail’s pace, and crime is rampant. Tourists may stimulate an economy that was flat-lining post-Katrina but is now beating with vigor. Such effort and care should be given to those people, the residents, who are the backbone of New Orleans.
There were 209 murders in New Orleans last year. Witnesses in high-crime neighborhoods seem unwilling to testify, so more and more violent offenders are put back on city streets, becoming bolder with each arrest and tarnishing New Orleans with even more crime. Police officers themselves, in a Times-Picayune article from Jan.1, have attributed the problem to high poverty and a breakdown in public schools and public housing.
Instead of jaunting off to Disney World, city officials should be pumping that travel budget into solidifying city resources. More police officers need to be patrolling neighborhoods with rampant crime. Young people should be in school learning to prepare themselves for the future, rather than running amok on city streets.
While enticing restaurateurs, casino owners and the builders of sports complexes into venturing their efforts in New Orleans is nice, the minimum-wage jobs residents can apply for at such businesses will hardly be enough to get back what they lost.