New Orleans Must Become a Destination for African Americans

By Jeff Thomas

New Orleans should be a sanctuary city for African Americans.  Every policy and regulation possible should support this notion.  And given the egregiously regressive and burdensome past, city government should fast track all current, available solutions.   Even a cursory glance at   the plight of  hard-working African Americans  in the city provides ample evidence of the urgent need for change.

Broken Paradigm

Our current paradigm has created and sustains the crime-plagued, underperforming city that NBA superstar Anthony Davis spent millions to leave. Low-performing schools contribute to the highest dropout rates in the country.  Gentrification and low-paying jobs force many into the rental market in our city.  And people who own their homes are nearly 90% less likely to commit crimes compared to those who rent. Though the murder rate is indeed lower, shootings have increased.  African Americans in NOLA die at alarmingly high rates. Especially when it comes to young people.  We must fix serious and deeply-entrenched problems here quickly.  It can be done with surprising ease if a coordinated attempt is employed.

THE SANCTUARY CITY MODEL

Characteristics of the sanctuary should include community-based policing, jobs training, living wages, home ownership programs, good neighborhood schools, quality healthcare and ample business opportunities with direct access to available financing.  Combined, these targets will dramatically reduce poverty and improve the quality of life for all our citizens.  With access to good-paying jobs and pathways to home ownership, crime will drop precipitously.  Working men, who earn living wages, will fatten city coffers via property and sales tax payments.  Needing fewer police officers, more money could then be shifted into job training programs which prepare young people to enter the workforce.

SWB JOBS PROGRAM

The Sewerage and Water Board can be the greatest jobs program in city history.  With billions of FEMA dollars scheduled to be spent repairing crumbling infrastructure, the board must hire, train and demand excellence from its repair people.  From the street hustler to the street plumber, our men must be transformed by new opportunities.  Work financing for home purchases could be matched by local banks who partner with the city and water board. 

HOME OWNERSHIP

Eighty five percent of people who commit crimes do not own their homes. Neighborhoods where people own their homes are cleaner, safer and provide ancillary activities (kids sports programs, block parties, etc.) that promote healthier living.  Living wages help people qualify for mortgages.  City-sanctioned home ownership classes would motivate and inspire people to save for down payments and improve their credit scores.  The soft second mortgage programs should also be expanded.

NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS

Working families need close and convenient good schools for their children.  Our experiment with charter schools must shift to emphasize local school excellence.  Good neighborhood schools reduce stress, increase participation and reduce dropout rates, which in turn strengthen families.  Parent-school partnerships are easier when parents are able to access school personnel close to home.  Friendly rivalries centered around athletic and academic achievement will transform educational achievement[  in The Bowl.  Businesses could offer cash prizes to the students who perform best and the schools which achieve great successes.

COMMUNITY POLICING

New Police Chief Shaun Ferguson has risen through the ranks and is a man from our streets who now leads the men and women who patrol our streets.  He says, “The community and police must form a partnership.”  He is correct when he says the NOPD needs citizen support.  Right now, our governance style contributes to criminal behavior.  Arresting and jailing people for minor crimes, even for short periods of time, has dramatic and real effects which result in yet more crime.  Instead, community policing operates in an atmosphere of cooperation and respect.  Too often, police have operated with a rigidity and oppressiveness which has stifled the community support it needs and deserves. 

For too long, New Orleans and other municipalities have focused on fines and fees to finance government.  Police decide who gets pulled over and issued a ticket.  Furthermore, rigid rules and immediate late fees from municipal utilities create undue stress in an already overburdened populace. 

In the 21st century, our cities must uplift the lives of the citizens who make these places home.


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8 thoughts on “Sanctuary Cities Are A Good Thing”
  1. illegal immigrants, are used to exterminate black americans .
    abortions exterminates black americans,

    the illegals will get your stuff, your mule, and the 40 acres and Pelosi and
    others will finally do what the kkk did not complete.

    Then slowly the chinese and japanese will replace New Orleans people with
    artificial intelligent robots and exterminate whos left !

  2. ::: SOUNDS LIKE::: “NO WHITE PEOPLE ALLOWED”,, MAYOR CANTRELL ALSO A FEW WEEKS AGO STARTED SOME EVENT THAT WAS ” NO WHITE PEOPLE”, except
    maybe, A FEW “REAL FEMALE WHITE CHICKS”?
    COLLEGES ARE HAVING SEMINARS AND EVENTS AND POSTING SIGNS WITH ,
    ” NO WHITE PEOPLE ALLOWED ” ?
    SO,,,, ??? HELP ME UNDERSTAND FROM THESE SO CALLED ALLEGED PEOPLE OF
    LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING, WHERE IS YOUR ALLEGED “DIVERSITY & INCLUSION”?
    WOW? WONDER WHAT MARTIN L. KING WOULD CALL THIS TYPE OF PRACTICES IN CITY’S, COLLEGES AND EVENTS?
    THESE IDEAS DO NOT EXPOSE HYPOCRITE’S, IT EXPOSES, IGNORANCE & EVILS!
    ACROSS THE USA, THE DOCTRINES OF GENTRIFICATION IS DESTROYING THE BEST
    OPPORTUNITIES FOR PEOPLE OF COLOR, AND REPLACING THE OLDER RESIDENTS WITH HUMANS THAT HAVE BEEN BRAINWASHED WITH BELIEFS THAT WILL ONLY LEAD TO MENTAL AND FINANCIAL SUICIDES, AND THEY CANT SEE IT !
    THESE HUMANS HAVE “ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE” AND ARE PROGRAMMED TO ABORT ALL THE OLD PEOPLE AND BRING IN THE NEW PEOPLE, WHO LIVE ONLY FOR THEIR MONEY, FUN, AND KEEPING THEIR GENITALS HAPPY!
    IT IS A INCREMENTAL SUICIDE !
    2019, MAY 06
    ——————————————–

  3. NOLA is already run by and has been run into the ground by its black politicians . It IS a sanctuary city for the entitlement culture of every color. It IS a no whites mentality and economic disaster. The high sales tax competes with the number of potholes for the bad place to live award. The sheer lack of knowledge of its own history led to removal, just like Mid East terrorist groups, of significant statues by misguided and fundamentally ignorant leaders. There is no need to promote the decay of New Orleans because it is well on its way.

  4. SWB leading the way for “job training”??? Lest we forget the motto, “go to work for the SWB and retire from working”! Let’s be real here, working for the SWB is an “asbestos” job, fireproof! What happened to all the downtown employees that were ripping off the handicapped parking places with forged handicapped placards?

  5. The Unmitigated Gull of Racist?

    LBRC- Glittering Perceptions of Racist vs Tangible Proof? History is a “Data” Point! Racist eleminate the letter “a” then add “e” to the end of Data! Now Examine…, 

    1. The Brutal Masacre and “Removal”, Genocide and Smallpox Blankets, of an “Entire” Native American “Indigenous” Population and what ‘Dat says? Whites wanted it, so…,  “Whites only”? Native Americans you’re off to “The Reservation”! We could cite other international examples like Australian Aboriginals, South African Apartheid, Pacific Islanders and on, as it relates to the “White Only” Paradigm! We smell Hypocrites  somewhere! You not only ‘Doth  protest too much, but ABSOLITELY have “No Grounds” on which to do it! 

    2. “The Peculiar Institution of American Slavery” said what? “Whites Only” and the right to enslave and imprison others based on skin color, absolutely “White Only” Domination and Supremacy! African- Americans (The Gifted, Average, Elderly, Children, infirmed, Young, Old…, to “The Plantation”, prison, aka “Blacks Only”, ‘gee thanks ,though arguably more brutal and dispicable than Nazi Concentration Camps! “Whites Only” granted free ingress and egress not requiring “Passes”, a Local Passport Paradigm! 1863- 1865 ended all this? Now say 20th Century Jim Crow, whereby “Whites” say directly and emphatically- “Whites Only”, search your attics, not just talking faucets! This was Openly accepted Caucasion “Codified Public Law and Policy”! When Blacks objected because their “Tax Dollars” paved streets in front of Racist Businesses, supported all Public Schools Including “Whites Only” (Where’s The Refund to Blacks?), filled Local and National Tax Coffers, provided Lights and paid electric bills for “Public Streets”, built City Hall and the White House physically/financially and on…, because “Whites Only” was the “Implied and Inherent” Standing Supremacy Policy!!! 

    3. “The Law of Pitch and Catch” says (btw- Don’t Shoot The Messenger)? You’re probably not familiar, but Newton said it like this, “For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction” (Pitch and Catch?)! Lots tout “The 10 Commandments”, let’s talk- “Thou Shall Not Kill”? Actually, in numerous original text “Pre” translations, it read- “Thou shalt not Murder”! Isn’t ‘Dat about “Pitch and Catch” aka “You have to bring some to ‘Git some”? If one attempts to Murder another, the other maintains the right to “Kill” the aggressor attempting to “Murder” the other! Proverb- “He who says I’m the Greatest, i.e.,  (White Only?), is like unto one who knocks down every house taller then theirs, in order to say mine is the tallest (Note: Because they lack or have what it takes to build the Tallest! Duh?). Don’t get it twisted, we’re talking observations consistent with experiences, not Platitudes, Emotions, the ad hominem, like Racist generally do! They ‘luv to pitch, few can or are willing to catch! 

    *** A Quick Civics Lesson you missed? Communism is a 1 Party System. A Democracy requires “At Least” 2 Parties! Racism in and of itself says only one is “supreme”! 1st and foremost you have insulted The Most High, who you deny. Okay? Then you “Declare” yourself a De Facto Communist, only one! You said this in 1862 when your Uncle  Bureauard fired on Fort Sumpter and made you proud! You instituted on- Going Jim Crow on into 2019, Whites invaded South Africa and installed Apartheid, not to mention…, and now you have “The Unmitigated Gull” to protest a “Rational Extraction” like what The Healthy want to do to common Germs? (And Take Your Negro Germ “Coons” With You, they revere and ‘luv ‘yah)- We just ‘Sayin…?

    Newsflash! Racism never had and never will enjoy Impunity! Duh?

    Peace Out…

  6. […] If you really want to make New Orleans a great place to live, then we have to be bold and flip the script.  First things first. So, black people having more money is not a threat to anybody.  And more money in the local economy is good for everybody. You see, crime and poverty are inextricably linked. And for the last 300 years, too many black people in New Orleans have been mired in poverty.  But for too long too many white people have dismissed this as fake news. But facts are facts. […]

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