New Orleanians who attended recent public meetings on the 2014 city budget had a lot of complaints, but none came up so frequently as the city’s crumbling streets. With constant construction on the city’s major commercial arteries, residents of smaller streets wondered when the city planned to get around to them.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s 2014 capital budget may finally offer some relief. Of the $247 million dedicated to capital projects in the proposal, more than half is slated for minor street repairs.
The capital budget also includes $20 million to start work on renovations to Charity Hospital, which has been shuttered since Hurricane Katrina. Landrieu hopes to turn the one million-square-foot hospital into a civic center complex, housing city offices and the Orleans Parish Civil District Court.
The project is expected to cost $300 million, but Landrieu has not identified funding beyond next year.
