New Orleans is the most unique city in the United States, a 307-year-old gem of beauty, history, and culture. It is the birthplace of jazz and musical legends such as Fats Domino and Louis Armstrong. New Orleans features the French Quarter, the Garden District, streetcars, amazing restaurants, incredible architecture, and world class events such as the Jazz and Heritage Festival and Mardi Gras.
With so many wonderful attractions, New Orleans should have a thriving economy, a wealthy population, and excellent public services. Instead, New Orleans is in a perpetual state of crisis, with decaying infrastructure, dilapidated streets, rampant violent crime, substandard public schools, a poor economy, and public officials who are either inept or corrupt.
Today, New Orleans is in serious trouble. August 29 is the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Prior to the storm, the population of New Orleans was 484,674, yet the current population of New Orleans is only 351,399, a staggering loss of over 27%.
Sadly, between 2020 and 2024 the New Orleans area lost 39,000 people, a decline of 3.9%, the highest in the nation for “the second year in a row.” During this period, New Orleans was the “Murder Capital” of the nation in 2022, a contributing factor to the population loss.
Another reason people are fleeing from New Orleans is the devastating result of leftwing political leadership. The last Republican Mayor of New Orleans, Benjamin Flanders, left office in 1872. Democrats have enjoyed total control of the city’s most powerful position for 153 years.
There is not one Republican among all the elected officials in New Orleans. Democrats have been elected to all positions on the school board, council, judgeships, and New Orleans based state legislative seats.
With progressive policies dominating New Orleans, the results are catastrophic. New Orleans public schools have a reading proficiency rating of 32% and a math proficiency rating of 24%. Both are below average among statewide public schools, which rank 44th in the nation. Overall, New Orleans public schools rate 3/10, which is in the bottom 50% of public schools statewide.
While the rate of violent crime is falling in 2025, the New Orleans Police Department is still several hundred officers below adequate staffing levels.
In January, city officials hosted a remarkably successful Super Bowl. Congratulations are in order; however, the homeless population that was moved for the “big game” has returned. Unfortunately, other events in 2025 have been devastating for the reputation of New Orleans.
The year started with a terrorist attack in the French Quarter as a jihadist drove a truck down Bourbon Street during Sugar Bowl celebrations that killed 14 innocent people. The attack succeeded only because of stunning incompetence. If the sidewalk had been blocked, the truck would not have been able to access Bourbon Street, and those innocent people would be alive today.
Several months later, ten inmates escaped from the Orleans Parish Prison in a brazen breakout aided by inside help, lax oversight, and inoperable door locks and cameras. The escape was not noticed for hours, so neither the police nor the public were informed of the danger. One violent criminal is still on the loose while the prison remains dysfunctional. In fact, several weeks ago, another violent criminal, who is still at large, was mistakenly released by prison staff.
The latest public relations debacle for New Orleans occurred on Friday as Mayor LaToya Cantrell was indicted on 18 federal counts of wire fraud, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and false statements to a grand jury. Along with her bodyguard boyfriend, Jeffrey Vappie, Cantrell is accused of “bilking New Orleans taxpayers out of $70,000 for trips.” While the travel was promoted as “official business,” it was mostly opportunities for Cantrell and Vappie to spend time together.
In the indictment, federal prosecutors state that Cantrell and Vappie “violated rules, policies, and criminal laws” and “attempted to distract and impede inquiries and investigations, including a federal grand jury investigation, about the true nature and circumstances of their relationship and their scheme to defraud.”
This is not the only controversy involving Cantrell. Last year, a New Orleans businessman, Randy Farrell, was indicted for “conspiracy to commit fraud with a public official.” It is widely believed the “public official” was Mayor Cantrell.
Allegedly, Farrell gave Cantrell gifts, including tickets to an NFC Championship game, in exchange for the mayor firing a city investigator who was examining his building inspection company.
During COVID, Cantrell completely shut down New Orleans with draconian mask and vaccine mandates, resulting in an exodus of business that has never returned. Throughout her two terms, Cantrell has maintained an excessive schedule of international travel to “climate change” conferences and other events not pertinent to citizens living in a broken city.
There have also been investigations into payments made by the mayor to her “image consultant” and personal promotional flyers mailed using taxpayer funds. Not surprisingly, grassroots activists launched a recall effort in 2022 that garnered thousands of signatures, but not enough to remove Cantrell.
At this point, Cantrell has an adversarial relationship with city council members due to disagreements on a variety of issues, including a lucrative sanitation contract in the French Quarter and Central Business District.
Hopefully, she will complete her last few months in office without bringing any more embarrassment or shame to New Orleans.
Cantrell joins a lengthy list of New Orleans politicians who have been indicted on federal charges such as former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who was convicted of bribery, money laundering and other charges. In addition, former New Orleans Congressman William “Dollar Bill” Jefferson was convicted of bribery after FBI agents discovered $90,000 “in cash in his freezer.”
Within the last few years, several council members, an assessor, a district attorney, and a school board member have also been indicted on various charges.
As New Orleans citizens go to the polls on October 11, it would be advisable to vote for change. Let’s end the corruption that has plagued this city.
Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and his award-winning program, “Ringside Politics,” airs Saturdays from Noon until 1 p.m. CT nationally on Real America’s Voice TV Network & AmericasVoice.News and weekdays from 7-9 a.m. & 6-7 p.m. CT on WGSO 990-AM & Wgso.com. He is a political columnist, the author of America’s Last Chance, and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and at Crouere.net. For more information, email him at jcrouere@gmail.com
