By Jeff Thomas
We all want a better New Orleans. The biggest and single most critical factor preventing NOLA from being as great as it can be is the 46% unemployment of African American men. This translates to crime, blight, and poor education outcomes. Changing this one statistic will transform NOLA into a progressive city with a huge tax base that can make the city an urban model of economic prosperity for all people. Making these easy changes can start moving the city and state in the right direction.
New Orleans
- Reduce African American male unemployment by 20%. An immediate jobs program to coincide with the Sewerage and Water Board’s planned $150 million spending. In fact, if more spending goes to African American male employment initially, then new bills will generate more income for the SWB. Also long term increased tax collection will result in more repair projects which will result in a better water system for us all.
- Restructure and strengthen the DBE program to REQUIRE contractors to give 35% of all city contracts to African American companies from Orleans Parish. Also, as part of DBE program provide contractor training and increase African American licensed contractors by 15% EVERY QUARTER.
- Begin analysis to restructure tax collections in New Orleans. Should we really fund Audubon Park and the Aquarium of the Americas at the expense of seniors – who need more meals on wheels and children who need better parks and recreation?
- Restructure NOPD to put more boots on the ground and out from behind desks. Better deployment of experienced officers in the streets will put our most experienced and effective officers on the front lines. Train and hire citizens to accomplish clerical work that many brass do on a daily basis.
- Pressure charter schools to hire more African American teachers who live in Orleans Parish. Charters can rebuild the middle class that was destroyed by Katrina. New Orleans needs the structure and tax base of families with teachers in the communities.
LOUISIANA
- Restructure New Orleans Hotel Motel tax and keep those tax dollars in New Orleans. Currently taxes from New Orleans fund projects across the state except for Orleans Parish. Legislation should require municipalities to access all available local sources of funding for their own local services before they can access New Orleans’ tax fund.
- Reduce biggest prison industrial complex in America! Savings of over $3 billion annually are available if the entire structure is changed. Instead of a focus on punishment, crime prevention through jobs, property ownership and a raised statewide minimum wage will improve the quality of life for us all!
- Scour commissions and boards in every parish that have taxpayer funded budgets and reinvest any budget excesses into economic development projects in those parishes
- Raise minimum wage or allow municipalities to raise their minimum wage.
- Make BDE a requirement and not a goal in all state projects
#BLACKMEN
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of Executive Appraisers Louisiana, an MBE-certified real estate appraisal firm, and EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
Publisher — Black Source Media
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of Executive Appraisers Louisiana, an MBE-certified real estate appraisal firm, and EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
Very well thought out and doable!
This makes sense. Now to get the leaders to get it started. Get citizens to back the five point plan.