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Mayor Landrieu Outlines Goals in State of the City

Office of Mayor Mitchell J. Landrieu

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu has delivered his fourth State of the City address. He used the annual event to present an overall optimism of the city’s future.

Mayor Landrieu began his remarks with a nod to the past.

He ended with a look ahead to the city's 300th birthday.

“I believe that the true measure of our success or failure in 2018 will be the condition of our neighborhoods and how our families are doing. After all, everything that we do is merely meant to achieve the ultimate goal of a better life for our friends, our neighbors and a better life and a strong foundation for our children.”  

Landrieu listed projects under way that he says will build a better city, such as housing and business enterprises.

But he also said more work is needed to improve the police department and jail, and a community-wide drive to cut violent crime.

After the speech, University of New Orleans political science professor Ed Chervenak says the yearly address is designed to outline concepts more than details.

“When you’ve seen the mayor in these speeches in previous years he’s always laying out lots of numbers — how many street lights fixed. How many potholes filled. He didn’t really do that this time, except for when it came to murder and overall crime.”  

Landrieu says work needs to continue on breaking what he calls the culture of violence that feeds the crime rate.

Chervenak says the mayor’s message seems to connect with what surveys show are the public’s feelings.

“He’s the city’s biggest cheerleader — very enthusiastic, very optimistic. And if you look at some of the survey research data, the people in the city are very optimistic about the future as well.”    

Landrieu ended by calling for continued cooperation and support.

Eileen is a news reporter and producer for WWNO. She researches, reports and produces the local daily news items. Eileen relocated to New Orleans in 2008 after working as a writer and producer with the Associated Press in Washington, D.C. for seven years.