NEW ORLEANS – Mayor Mitch Landrieu and city officials noted the “tremendous successes” across city government in 2016 at City Hall Tuesday, Dec. 27. City officials also highlighted the special event public safety plan for the New Year holiday weekend.
“In 2016, New Orleans experienced a breakthrough year,” said Mayor Mitch Landrieu. “Together, we have made great strides in public safety, improving infrastructure, creating jobs, offering new recreational opportunities for children and families while providing additional pathways to prosperity for all residents. Our population is growing, property values are up and neighborhoods across the city are coming back strong.”
For months the Landrieu administration has been working on ways to increase security and protect citizens from large, terrorist-like attacks, City reps said. Beginning with New Year’s Eve and Sugar Bowl preparedness, the City will increase security measures throughout the French Quarter and other sensitive targets in the City. New security measures will include: additional light towers; temporary security cameras; law enforcement sky towers; a full complement of NOPD and Louisiana State Police personnel; K9 units; special operations personnel guarding Bourbon Street and other areas of interest.
Beginning Saturday, Dec. 31, to Tuesday, Jan. 3, the 100 to 800 blocks of Bourbon Street will be closed to vehicular traffic from 5:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. each day. In the coming weeks, the Landrieu administration will outline additional security measures that will be enacted throughout the city.
Mayor Landrieu, City councilmembers, City officials and law enforcement partners stated:
CITY OF NEW ORLEANS 2016 SUCCESSES
Commitment To Public Safety
• Continued to reform NOPD by investing over $50 million in the Consent Decree for better training, equipment and police monitoring
• Passed final phase of 15 percent across the board pay increase for all NOPD officers
• Continued to implement our comprehensive murder reduction strategy, NOLA FOR LIFE, by advancing 30 initiatives targeted toward enforcement, prevention, intervention and rehabilitation
• Since 2012, connected over 113 at-risk individuals to jobs, job training, GED preparation, housing assistance, emergency financial assistance, child care, substance abuse counseling and/or mental health counseling through the Group Violence Reduction Strategy
• Since 2014, impacted over 5,800 students across 11 partner schools through NOLA FOR LIFE using school climate improvement initiatives
• In the four and a half years since the NOLA FOR LIFE launch, the murder rate is 21 percent lower than in the four and a half years prior to initiative launch
• Had fewest group/gang-related murders since NOPD started actively tracking such activity in 2010 (89 to 45)
• Held a Youth-Police Dialogue, created to engage with youth on violence prevention and help young people understand the role of NOPD in their communities, between 63 young individuals and 10 NOPD officers
• Hosted the NOLA FOR LIFE’s fourth Youth Violence Prevention Summit
• Continued federal, state and local resources to operate the Multi-Agency Gang Unit leading to more than 128 indictments from 13 groups/gangs since 2012. Four individuals were indicted in 2016
• NOPD redeployed 94 officers to the streets, which led to over 60 percent reduction in response times to emergency calls
• Since May 2014, purchased and implemented the use of 800 body-worn cameras strengthening our commitment to improve NOPD transparency
• NOPD has reached its goal of providing CIT (Crisis Intervention Training) to 20 percent of its patrol officers
• NOPD launched new website, NOPDNews.com, provides an interactive open data portal, which links to open policing data and analysis, and Uniform Crime Reports. Additional data sources include: Calls for service data; Stop and search data; Metadata for body-worn cameras and in-car cameras; Public reports; Data on recruitment efforts; and Use of force data
• Invested $500,000 more in an aggressive NOPD recruitment campaign, increased the number of applications to over 4,280 and cut application processing time by 1/3
• Launched four new NOPD recruit classes in 2016
• Citizen satisfaction with NOPD has grown from 33 percent in 2009 to 64 percent in 2016
• Built a $14.8M New Orleans Coroner and EMS Headquarters after facilities were destroyed during Hurricane Katrina
• Conducted 25+ emergency response training exercises
• Began training 30 new Firefighter recruits in October
• NOFD installed 3,300+ free smoke alarms and 1,500 free batteries in homes across NOLA
• Since 2002, the number of fires in New Orleans has decreased by 64 percent (764 to 275)
• The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice joined the White House’s Data Driven Justice initiative, committing to use data to identify and proactively break the cycle of incarceration; equip law enforcement and first responders with the tools they need to respond and divert; and use data-driven, validated, pretrial risk assessment tools to inform pretrial release decisions
• The Criminal Justice Council has allocated nearly $750,000 in grants funds to NOPD, Juvenile Court, District Attorney, Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, Criminal District Court Health Department, and Kingsley House
• Awarded $1.5 million by the MacArthur Foundation to reduce local incarceration and racial and ethnic disparities through the Safety and Justice Challenge
• Successfully consolidated all 9-1-1 personnel from NOFD, NOPD & EMS departments into the consolidated 9-1-1 center at Orleans Parish Communications District
• Achieved National Fire Protection Association national standards for 9-1-1 call answer times. Since September 2016, more than 95 percent of emergency calls are being answered within 15 seconds or less
Creating Jobs & Opportunities
• Since May 2010, the Landrieu Administration has created more than 15,000 new jobs
• Attracted more national and local retailers to New Orleans, giving residents greater access to fresh food, high-end shopping and health resources
• Added two new digital software companies to New Orleans in 2016
• Decreased the city’s unemployment rate from 6.7 percent to 5.8 percent
• Decreased African-American male under-employment rate from 52 percent to 44 percent
• Broke ground on the $807 million North Terminal Project, scheduled to be complete by Oct. 1, 2018
• Increased service at Louis Armstrong International Airport via 17 airlines to 59 non-stop destinations, including seven international destinations
• Added three new non-stop services, British Airways, Condor, and Choice Aire – reconnecting New Orleans with Europe and South America
• Hosted Collision, the largest tech conference in the U.S. There was a 47 percent attendance increase upon moving to New Orleans in 2016. Collision has since committed to holding the conference in New Orleans in 2017 and in 2018
• SmartAsset magazine: No. 1 in the Nation for Creatives and No. 2 Tech Employment Growth in the U.S.
• U.S. Chamber of Commerce, “Innovation That Matters”: Top 25 Cities Ready to Navigate the Next Wave of the Digital Economy
• Launched the Anchor Institutions Initiative at NOLABA, a strategic effort to connect local small businesses with procurement and contracting opportunities with organizations so deeply rooted in New Orleans that they are unlikely to move, such as hospitals, universities and the Sewerage & Water Board
• Secured a $375,000 grant from Surdna Foundation to improve small business workstream support
• Created a Road Construction Toolkit for New Orleans Businesses with StayLocal
• Certified 95 new DBE firms
• Paid $42.7 million was paid to DBE firms, representing 39.05 percent DBE utilization for City contracts
• Awarded $18.9 million in City construction contracts to DBEs as Prime Contractors
• Awarded $14.4 million in goods and services contracts for the City to DBE Prime Contractors
• Helped BuildNOLA Graduates secure over $3 million in public and private sector contracts
• Since 2012, all of the City’s public sector investments have spurred over $5 billion in private sector development
Building Back Better than Before
• Secured $2 billion settlement with FEMA to fund repairs to roads and subsurface infrastructure damaged by Hurricane Katrina
• Adopted new flood maps which brought 53 percent of properties out of the Special Flood Hazard Area, lowering rates for thousands of homeowners. 97 percent of residents received decrease in flood insurance premiums
• Capital Projects completed 14 projects totaling in $12.1 million bringing the total complete projects to date to 176 totaling in $321.2 million of the 251-project, $562 million Capital Program
• Completed projects include the Gallier Hall façade, the 3rd District Police Station and Lafayette Cemetery #1 and #2 Cottages
• Added 4.48 miles of bikeways, bringing the total to 107.54 miles in the City
• Conducted major quality of life improvements including repairing 114,876 potholes; installing 5,001 traffic signs and 1,133 street name signs; cleaned 7,122 drainage catch basins; and 76 miles of drain line
• Repaired over 10,407 streetlight outages (99 percent of the City’s streetlights operational)
• Successfully piloted a letter outreach campaign to over 3,000 blighted property owners resulting in over 600 cases closed due to owner-driven compliance
• Over 80 percent of properties eligible for FEMA demolition complete and we’re on track to demolish all eligible properties before the 2017 deadline
• Secured more than $200 million for resilience projects that combine water management, stormwater protection, workforce development and neighborhood revitalization. This includes the $141 million HUD National Disaster Resilience Competition and the over $60 million FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program
• Received American Planning Association National Planning Excellence Award for a Best Practice
• CAO and First Deputy Mayor Jeff Hebert was appointed to the Governor’s Coastal Advisory Committee Coastal Protection and Restoration Leadership
• Launched planning and design of Bike Share Program with vendor
• Department of Safety and Permits served over 48,000 Customers while maintaining a 15-minute average wait time, and created an automated process for releasing electric service approvals to Entergy, reducing the turn-around time between inspection and installation of service
• Passed the Short-Term Rental Regulations, aimed at regulating, taxing and enforcing short-term rentals
• Department of Public Works completed 25 projects valued at $44.1 million
Creating Opportunities for Youth & Kids
• Continued the job creation focus on young people by employing 736 youth in the 2016 Summer Youth Employment Program
• Employed 1,000 youth in 2016 NORDC Teen Camps
• NORDC opened three new recreation centers and one new swimming pool – bringing total of recreation centers, parks, and playgrounds in to 35
• In 2016, over 70,000 youth participated in NORDC programming
• Since Mayor Landrieu has taken office, we have provided 9,906 jobs to youth
• In 2016, NOLA FOR LIFE Midnight Basketball Season’s 11, 12 and 13 offered over 2,100 participants’ access to jobs, job training, education and other resources. Over the course of 13 seasons, there have been over 11,000 participants since 2012
• Renovated Nora Navra and Latter Libraries and opened new Mid-City Library location
• Expanded adult literacy classes with the YMCA Educational Services
Making Government Work
• Balanced every budget proposed to the City Council since taking office & will do so again in 2017
• Held Budgeting for Outcomes community meetings in every City Council district to hear the people’s priorities
• Served over 48,000 customers and maintained a 15 minute average wait time
• Sales tax revenue collections, hotel/motel sales tax revenues, motor vehicle sales tax revenues and occupational licenses tax all up from 2015
• Launched #EquityNewOrleans equity strategy to assess the role of equity in city government
• Hosted two #EquityNewOrleans community listening sessions with Angela Glover Blackwell, President of Policy Link and one community listening session at the Neighborhood Summit
• Launched results.nola.gov to provide the public easy-to-understand performance data
• Creation of the Open Data Policy to institute citywide standards for collecting, maintaining and cataloging data that is free and open to the public
• Appointed over 100 people to boards and commissions
• Continued to streamline city government by consolidating New Orleans Building Corporation and Canal Street Development Corporation
• Reactivated NOLA Pay it Forward Fund in partnership with Greater New Orleans Foundation providing $250,000 in grants to organizations in New Orleans and southeast LA to support parishes impacted by August flooding
• Awarded grants to over 60 local non-profits totaling over $1.6 million
• Leveraged over 30 partnerships and philanthropic opportunities to support city priorities
• Mayor Landrieu elected 1st Vice President of the US Conference of Mayors
• Mayor Landrieu appointed Chairman of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protection
• Reorganized former Office of Coastal and Environmental Affairs into Office of Resilience and Sustainability, broadening mission and scope
Taking Steps Toward Our Future
• Raised City’s credit rating saving taxpayers money
• Successfully passed $15 million drainage renewal
• Successfully passed $8.9 million fire millage
• 36,000 lot maintenance cuts through New Orleans Redevelopment Authority
• Unveiled Welcome Table New Orleans (WTNO) Algiers and Mid-City circles murals celebrating racial reconciliation in their communities, and unveiled the WTNO Carrollton Circle’s Equity Circle promoting racial reconciliation in Mid-City
• WTNO Mother’s Circle launched a community education and workshop series for mothers who have lost children to gun violence and mothers who children have taken lives
• WTNO Mother’s Circle hosted the Mothers Taking a Stand March, a silent march to bury violence and give birth to peace
• WTNO Business/Civic Leader’s Circle presented at New Orleans Entrepreneur Week on Threaux Inc., an initiative to create and produce throws in New Orleans
• Coordinated over 500 community meetings for residents
• Continued the Civic Leadership Academy with more than 90 enrolled participants over two semesters
• Launched pilot faith-based Adopt-a-Park Program with five parks and five churches participating
• Conducted the 2016 Neighborhood Summit and awarded the inaugural Mayor’s Community Excellence Awards to 13 community leaders
• Secured $2.4 million in federal funding to support housing and mental health services for homeless individuals
• Moved up nine spots in the American Fitness Index Rankings (42 to 33)
• Returned 3,582 former Road Home properties to commerce
Promoting Our Cultural Economy
• 50 film tax credit projects spending $4234 million YTD in 2016
• 121 film non tax credit projects in 2016 spending $5.8 million YTD in 2016
• 2nd best city for travel – Travel + Leisure – No. 7 in the world
• Least expensive city for summer travel – TripAdvisor
• No. 1 Food City in the U.S. – Travel + Leisure
• No. 2 Best U.S. City for Culture – Travel + Leisure
• No. 4 Most Fun City in the U.S. – WalletHub
• Still the best city in the world to host special events. In 2016 we hosted 135 festivals and cultural events.
• And the NBA announced it would move its 2017 All-Star game to New Orleans
