NEW ORLEANS GETS A SECOND CHANCE!

Monday, October 20, 2025.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

NEW ORLEANS GETS A SECOND CHANCE!

 

For those who do not live in the deepest of the deep southern states, you may not realize that New Orleans, the Queen city of the South, has been under siege. No, not from hurricanes. The siege has been from within. New Orleans is known as the City that care forgot. But it’s hard to let the good times roll in the Big Easy when the dice keep coming up snake eyes. 

 

The Crescent City has been in a battle for a number of years to stay afloat as it dealt with Major Street crime, inept public leadership, and a dysfunctional criminal justice system. Even federal officials can no longer be trusted. Author James Lee Burke writes about this corruption and dysfunction in his novel Last Car to Elysian Fields. “One of the most beautiful cities in the Western hemisphere was killed three times, and not just by forces of nature.”

 

Many crimes go  unreported out of a sense of frustration that nobody will do anything about it anyway. Drug deals gone bad play a major role in a majority of the killings according to the New Orleans Police Department. The city is a cesspool of illegal drug activity in many neighborhoods, even in broad daylight. Recently, I watched a Tom Cruise movie “Jack Reacher: Never go Back.” It was made in the Crescent City. A local drug dealer tells Cruz: “More  s--t in the streets of New Orleans then they make in Afghanistan.”

 

In the movie “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,” Nicolas Cage plays a corrupt New Orleans police officer, and tells a fellow cop to “Shoot him again.” “What for?” says his companion. Cage casually observes: “His soul is still dancing.” You can’t kill enough in New Orleans. It is the murder capital of America with one of the worst murder rates in the world. And the killings continue at an ever-growing frequency.

The system that is supposed to protect the citizens of New Orleans is rife with corruption and incompetence. In too many instances, those who are charged with safeguarding and serving have betrayed their mission to see that the public is protected, and that justice is done. The current Mayor is currently under a federal criminal indictment.

Is there any hope for New Orleans? Actually, yes. A brand new mayor has just been elected and she starts out with a huge mandate. Helena Mareno is a lady of  Spanish decent and a  former state legislator and former head of the New Orleans City Council. She won the race for mayor easily in the first primary. The voters’ message was they had enough of the old and were looking for some new, progressive and highly competent leadership.  Do I think she is able to bring about major reform? Yes, I am cautiously optimistic.

I would offer the new Mayor two pieces of advice. First of all, clean up all the trash. The city has become a waste dump. The last mayor ran off a very competent cleanup guy Sydney Torres IV.  Give him free reign and direction to clean up the city, make it smell better as he did in the French Quarter some years back and get the trash off private property that’s been allowed to pile up for years.  If landowners don’t comply, put a lien on their property.

Secondly, meet with the President. Tell him you will willingly meet him more than halfway and you want to cooperate. Tell him yes, you would like Louisiana soldiers under the direction of the Governor to bring New Orleans National Guard members into the city to work with the New Orleans Police Department. Have it done in a cooperative manner and not have confrontation. The new Mayor is both persuasive and attractive, and has the ability to bring the President around even though she is a Democrat.  

It would be wrong to give up on New Orleans, particularly with the new leadership that will take over soon. The city has always been a special place for me. My first apartment there was in the French Quarter back in 1961 when I was a student at Tulane Law School. I’ve had an apartment off and on there for the past 64 years.  So the Queen City now has the second chance under a dynamic new Mayor. Let’s all wish her well.

Peace and Justice.

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.