Six Years After: A Listener-Interactive Series on Post-Katrina New Orleans

 WWNO is exploring some of the important issues impacting quality of life and the future of New Orleans in a new public affairs series, New Orleans: Six Years After.  We hope to inspire discussion about these issues in order to help us work as a community to help tackle the challenges that face our city and region, and recognize the opportunities, during this extraordinary period of transition in New Orleans. Listeners were invited to tune in, listen, and join in the discussion as Sharon Litwin and Eve Abrams reported.  The series aired the week of May 21, 2012 There was a live survey on PollBob following each report, and listeners were encouraged to join in a discussion on our website.

On Friday morning of that week, Paul Maassen, the General Manager of WWNO, and Dr. Ed Chevernak, the Director of the UNO Survey Research Center,  discussed the University’s recent New Orleans Quality of Life report in relation to your comments and the survey results.

We recognize that the topics in our first installment of this series represent only a few of the many issues impacting New Orleans, there are certainly more. But in order to get the ball rolling, we choose these areas as a place to start the discussions. We plan to include many more topics in future reports.

Discussion Topics

MONDAY: Blight and Rebuilding New Orleans

New Orleans has 43,000 blighted properties, more than any other American city. Fighting blight can be complex, But since Mayor Landrieu’s administration took office, there’s been an invigorated effort at easing the problem.

TUESDAY: Community Trust and the New Orleans Police Department

The public’s trust in the post-Katrina New Orleans Police Department is still a fragile commodity. But the men in blue and their leadership are attempting to re-engage the communities they serve.

WEDNESDAY: Charter Schools and the Recovery School District

In New Orleans, the city with the most public charter schools in the nation, individual charters’ standards of discipline can vary widely, and the Recovery School District is dealing with challenges of equity in this new approach to public education.

THURSDAY: The Mental Health Crisis

As Mental Health services in our region face continuing funding cuts, what is the roll of this care in the overall health of the city.

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New Orleans: Six Years After is made possible with major support from AT&T, and with the support of PollBob and @NOLAtweetheart.

Research support from:   Dennis R. McSeveney, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology Emeritus, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts Emeritus, and Associate Provost Emeritus - University of New Orleans . For his helk

To participate in the surveys, visit each story page here on WWNO.org, head over to Pollbob.com, or download the Pollbob app for your iPhone or iPad.

Once you have the app, simply create an account, login, and search for #WWNO to find the hot-button issue polls for that day's segment. The polls and discussion boards will open immediately following each day's segment.