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Crime, graffiti, infrastructure issues —Downtown New Orleans faces many challenges, but more and more people and businesses are stepping up to be part of the solution.

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It’s clear New Orleans is struggling right now. Where perspectives differ are on the causes, priorities and solutions. While everyone agrees that crime is a core issue, that problem – and its solutions – are interwoven with a surprising number of additional concerns.

From economic stressors to COVID-19, the problems facing Downtown New Orleans are not unique.

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“No doubt the issue of having downtowns feel clean, safe and beautiful is a problem across many cities in America today,” said Michael Hecht, CEO of GNO, Inc. “Most of our challenges and most of our opportunities are generic ones with a little bit of a local twist. Solutions that will work elsewhere will work here.”

“Downtown is in an interesting moment post-COVID,” added Davon Barbour, who stepped into the role of CEO for the Downtown Development District (DDD) last December. “We have to restore confidence in downtown and attract workers back to the core. Downtown is the city’s largest employment center, and we have to improve occupancy in the buildings to support the retail in the area, especially the small businesses.”

The good news is that New Orleans is better positioned than some other cities in this regard, thanks to the exponential population growth in Downtown and the Warehouse District over the past decade.

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“The fact that Downtown is a true live-work mixed area is very positive,” noted Hecht. “This creates activity on the street 24 hours a day. The more we can get apartments and even short-term rentals on the upper floors on Canal Street, the more positive it will be.”

“Downtown has all the amenities, like dining, museums, performances and other attractions,” concurred Barbour. “People can walk to work, and really abandon their car altogether.”

Some of the area’s residents are now taking a proactive approach to being part of the downtown solution, according to Lesli Harris, councilmember for District B, which includes Downtown. A recently formed group called United for New Orleans is bringing new ideas and energy to crime fighting and other issues.

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“Any time neighborhoods and neighbors can get their voices united, they can contribute to the solutions,” said Harris, who added that her office is working actively to get residents involved. “Providing those engagement opportunities is critical at a time like this.”

Of course, not everyone living downtown is housed, and tackling the homelessness issue is a top priority for Harris. This has been an intractable problem for years, and she noted the increasing costs of living in New Orleans are only making the situation worse. Lack of mental health care access remains a major issue. Even such services as are available are often not reaching those most in need, and Harris feels that one important step toward resolving the problem is more effective publicity and outreach.

A more innovative approach she is looking into is increasing the number of “tiny houses” available.

“What if we took a vacant parcel and put a hundred tiny houses on it?” she asked. Harris said she feels this option would both provide a stable living environment and recreate the sense of community that can draw people into encampments over other housing options.

 

One Out of Three

The challenge of any downtown area is to uphold three qualities: to be clean, to be safe and to be beautiful,” noted Hecht. “Our downtown is already beautiful and acclaimed.”

Some of the so-called “parklets” that were installed during the pandemic will be retained, along with some of the additional outdoor seating for restaurants; both add to the beauty and character of the downtown area. However, cleanliness and safety remain major concerns, along with infrastructure issues such as nonfunctioning street and traffic lights, flooding problems, and crumbling streets and sidewalks.

Harris said the city’s Department of Public Works has signed an emergency contract to complete street and traffic light repairs. She noted that the contract will remain in place through the current hurricane season in order to expedite repairs if another damaging storm should strike. Given that there are lights Downtown that have been out since Hurricane Ida last year, this is definitely a plus.

Speaking of extreme weather, Hecht noted that safety Downtown includes addressing flood threats.

“Our infrastructure challenges, and specifically our vulnerability to stormwater, seem to ebb and flow in the public consciousness,” he said. “The levee upgrades mean that storm surge protections are largely handled, but now the existential threat is from above, in terms of heavy rainfalls. We need to pick up the pace on addressing this and not get lulled into a false sense of complacency.”

 

If You Clean It, They Will Come

One area that has received some attention lately is in general Downtown cleanup. The city recently announced the creation of a “Strike Force” to focus on keeping downtown cleaner, with a team of 50 new workers to be hired. This will augment ongoing DDD efforts to combat litter, graffiti and other eyesores.

“An attractive public realm is essential for a successful downtown,” said Barbour, whose DDD Clean Teams work around the clock on pressure washing, litter removal, graffiti abatement and even landscaping. While their work is restricted to public property, Barbour noted that the DDD offers grants of up to $2,500 for graffiti removal and other cleanup efforts on private properties in the Downtown area.

Which, more directly than many people might think, leads to the big, underlying problem: crime and public safety.

“We believe in the broken windows theory,” Barbour said, alluding to the premise that areas that are unclean and/or in disrepair attract undesirable activity. DDD cleanup grants can also be used in part to install observation cameras. A separate grant program provides up to $3,000 in reimbursement for businesses that increase their exterior lighting. Barbour pointed out that graffiti itself is a criminal activity, and that all of these components impact Downtown safety.

“We take a holistic approach to public safety,” he continued. “More businesses mean more lighting and more activity, which means safer streets.”
Hecht agreed with the connect-the-dots approach.

“Creating more of a sense of order, more beauty at the eye level, will enhance the experience and bring more people to downtown, and thereby create more safety.”

 


DID YOU KNOW?
Violent rime rates have increased dramatically in American cities since the pandemic. According to the Council on Criminal Justice, the number of homicides in cities studied rose 44% from 2019 to 2021. Rates rose from 2020 to 2021 for violent crimes like aggravated and gun assaults, and domestic violence, but dropped slightly nationwide for burglary, larceny and drug offenses.


Super Civilians

While these measures make valuable contributions, the same underlying causes that are driving increases in crime throughout New Orleans are key factors Downtown. Top of mind, of course, is the tremendous shortage being experienced by the New Orleans Police Department.

City officials such as Harris are working on officer recruitment and retention, with incentives ranging from increased pay to perks such as free or low-cost education at the local colleges and universities, and restoring blighted houses and flipping them to first-responders at greatly reduced prices. Harris also believes that providing NOPD officers with take-home cars is not only an appreciated benefit, it adds to the aura of safety in the neighborhoods. Lastly, she is supporting more funding for additional crime cameras, and encouraging private citizens to install cameras and link them to the city’s network.

This last component is an aspect of what is increasingly being called “civilianization” of crime fighting. Recognizing that getting NOPD’s force numbers up to acceptable levels is going to be a multi-year endeavor, many people are now looking for force multipliers to help fill in the gap. While private security guards are an obvious aspect of this, they are typically hired to protect a specific property and contribute little to overall safety.

To serve the larger district, the DDD has Public Safety Rangers — an unarmed civilian group that patrols Downtown streets. They perform tasks such as assisting tourists with directions and providing a safe-walk program to escort people from buildings to cars, all the while serving as extra eyes and ears for NOPD.

A newer, private-sector example of this is provided by On Scene Services, a local company that has been augmenting police responses to traffic accidents since 2018. The service, and the theory behind it, are pretty simple and straightforward, as explained by OSS founder and CEO Ethan Cheramie.

“The average car accident call ties up an officer for two and a half hours, so if we answer 10 calls, we are freeing up 25 hours of officer time,” Cheramie said. “We are working to expand capacity to where we are handling 10,000 calls per year. That would equal 25,000 more NOPD hours, which is the equivalent of adding 13 full-time officers.”

Cheramie was careful to note that “we don’t want to convey to people that we are the police. Our people are unarmed, and they don’t write tickets. We get written consent from all parties on the scene to proceed with our work.”

However, OSS does hire retired NOPD officers who have experience with handling traffic accidents. The company then provides specialized training in incident de-escalation, and it reports directly to the NOPD lieutenant who oversees traffic incidents within the department.

Given that there are approximately 27,000 annual calls to 911 reporting traffic accidents, with a full 10% of them occurring Downtown, this approach has high potential to reduce officer time spent on these types of minor incidents, while correspondingly increasing NOPD’s capacity to respond to, solve and hopefully prevent more serious crimes.

“OSS is a very good example of how civilianization can be a force multiplier,” said Hecht, who called on city officials and other stakeholders to be creative in finding additional opportunities to define and implement methods of augmenting NOPD crime-fighting capacities.

 

Crime Litterpicker

Safety (and Power) In Numbers

Bringing a wide consortium of people together to address the Downtown issues seems to be the only viable path to resolving them.

“It’s crunch time,” said Lacy Conway, president and CEO of Latter & Blum. “A safe city and Downtown are important not just for attracting tourists, but also for keeping our residents and businesses here.”

Conway and her firm just stepped up significantly in this regard, committing $500,000 to the newly formed NOLA Coalition. Currently a collaboration of some 350 businesses, nonprofits and individual community leaders, the NOLA Coalition is taking a two-track approach, advocating both for immediate, short-term actions to enhance public safety while also pushing for systemic reforms in areas such as mental health and increasing support and opportunities for young people.

Hecht and GNO, Inc. are taking a lead role in the NOLA Coalition, along with the United Way of Greater New Orleans.

“What’s new about the coalition is the breadth of the organization,” said Hecht. “There are businesses large and small, Black and white. The composition truly looks like New Orleans, while previous efforts were less inclusive, less representative.”

Hecht also emphasized the now-and-later focus.

“In the immediate term it’s about paying attention to the details, like litter, signage, missing bricks, vagrancy, and of course adding more police patrols on the street. But it’s also about the root causes, creating opportunity for everyone. We are advocating for simultaneous actions for safety today and generational change for tomorrow.”

“What gets me excited about the coalition is that it is such a mix of businesses and nonprofits,” agreed Conway. “It’s going to be a group effort with all hands on deck, it’s going to take the whole community investing to change the current course. We have to recognize the importance of youth and families, and end the cycles of violence. This is such a great vehicle to make an impact.”

That this type of effort seems necessary reflects the occasionally apocalyptic conversations being heard around the city and the region. Even Hecht, who described himself as an “honest optimist” said he’s “not going to deny the challenges even as I believe we can solve them.” Hecht called the NOLA Coalition was formed from “the closest thing to the post-Katrina spirit that I’ve felt in a long time.”

Perhaps it’s because of those types of past recoveries that the overriding sense among all parties is that ultimately downtown New Orleans will rise and thrive again.

“I’m really optimistic that we are going to make a difference in the city,” Conway stated firmly.

“There is so much opportunity here,” exclaimed Hecht. “It’s not a question of are we heading in the right direction, because we are, but a question of pace.”

“We want Downtown to be a sensational environment,” concluded Barbour, “with safe streets, reliable infrastructure, and an overall attractiveness. We want to be sure that the city continues to grow.”

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