The Not-So-Sudden Rise of Eugene Green on the City Council and in Louisiana

Anyone who has watched Eugene Green work over the years knows he doesn’t do anything by accident. So when word got around that he’d spent an hour at the Governor’s Mansion with Jeff Landry, while the mayor and most of the City Council can’t get a phone call returned from Baton Rouge, I wasn’t surprised. I was relieved somebody went.

Here’s where things stand. Landry has said he won’t personally meet with Mayor Helena Moreno until the investigation into the botched indictment of Attorney General Liz Murrill is finished. She’s welcome to talk to his staff, he says. The five council members who got Murrill’s letters are on the outside too.

Will Sutton wrote in NOLA.com that the governor ought to sit down with the council members who had nothing to do with that fight. I’ll give Landry credit here, because plenty of politicians would have dug in. He read the room and called Green. A few days later he told Sutton and Camille Whitworth on WBOK’s Good Morning Show the meeting was “very productive and heartwarming.”

Taking Heat for Taking a Meeting

Some folks didn’t like it. There’s a crowd that believes a Democrat should never be seen walking into a Republican governor’s house, period. Green’s response to that, in a radio interview, was pretty plain: “Who would pass up an opportunity to speak to the governor?”

What I noticed is how careful he was afterward. He didn’t run around calling himself the city’s new ambassador. He said he went for District D, he said he hopes Landry starts talking to the mayor again, and he left it there.

He also came home with something. Green says there are deliverables he’ll talk about in November, some involving the Port of New Orleans. And since that meeting, Landry has hinted he might take another look at some of the New Orleans projects he vetoed this summer, and he’s said he’ll reach out to Councilwoman Lesli Harris next. That’s movement we didn’t have a month ago.

What’s in District D

People forget how much of the state’s business sits in Green’s district. You’ve got about 80,000 residents, five universities and colleges, eight high schools (St. Aug, his alma mater, among them) and five miles of lakefront. State highways and two interstates run through it. The bridges over the Industrial Canal belong to the state, and so does jurisdiction over the lakefront and the canals.

So when Green sits down with the governor to talk about his district, he’s talking about Landry’s roads, Landry’s bridges and Landry’s universities. He’s just giving the governor a reason to show up for them.

The City Can’t Afford a Standoff

Let’s be honest about the money. Back in July, Moreno pulled a $110 million loan request from the State Bond Commission because she figured it would be voted down. We’re paying for that now. Your trash bill went from $24 to $32.25 a month on Oct. 1, and her 2027 budget cuts another 152 city jobs, takes nearly half of Public Works’ general fund money and leans on higher fees and property taxes to fill the gap.

I understand the mayor’s pride might be bruised after the way Baton Rouge has treated this city. But raising fees and cutting services is hard on people who are already stretched, and she has to find a way to save face and still get the money.

Landry needs us, too. I’ll say it plainly: he has been very good at bringing business to Louisiana. SpaceX’s $100 billion spaceport in Vermilion Parish, the Meta data center up in Richland Parish and the Hyundai steel plant are big wins for this state. Not one of them is in New Orleans, though, and our port, our hospitals, our universities and our tourism economy still send a lot of tax money up I-10. If you want to show off what “one Louisiana” can do, New Orleans is low-hanging fruit. I think he knows that.

Not So Sudden

Anybody calling this a sudden rise hasn’t been paying attention. Green went to Harvard, came back home, and spent years doing economic development for City Hall before running the New Orleans Regional Business Park. He was a congressional chief of staff. He chaired the Council on Aging, sat on the City Planning Commission and the City Park and French Market boards, and he’s run his own real estate company since 1989.

He’s a seasoned and skilled politician, and he knows how City Hall, Baton Rouge and the money between them actually work. When a power vacuum opened up, he was the one ready to step into it. For the people of District D, and frankly for the rest of us, that’s a good thing.

Related reading at BSM: New Orleans Is Losing Louisiana. The 2026 Session Just Made It Official.

Sources

• Fox 8: New Orleans councilmember says he got commitment from Governor to assist district (Sept. 25, 2026)
• WWL-TV: ‘It was a start’: Landry opens door to talks with New Orleans leaders
• WWL Radio: Green defends meeting with Landry
• Louisiana Illuminator: Landry says he won’t talk to New Orleans mayor until after Murrill indictment investigation (Aug. 14, 2026)
• Louisiana Illuminator: ‘It’s not over’: Landry, Murrill tout consequences for New Orleans (July 22, 2026)
• WAFB: Landry, Murrill say fight doesn’t end with dismissal of charges (July 22, 2026)
• Louisiana Illuminator: New Orleans withdraws request for loan approval from state (July 10, 2026)
• Axios New Orleans: Budget proposal cuts 152 positions (Sept. 22, 2026)
• City of New Orleans: 2027 Proposed Budget
• Verite News: Moreno proposes lean $1.47 billion city budget for 2027 (Sept. 22, 2026)
• Fox 8: City Council approves sanitation fee increase in 6-1 vote (Sept. 4, 2026)
• BGR: On trash fee hike, Moreno says she has ‘no choice’
• The Bond Buyer: Without bonds, New Orleans mayor proposes budget cuts
• Fortune: SpaceX commits $100 billion for Louisiana spaceport (Aug. 27, 2026)
• New Orleans City Council: Councilmember Eugene J. Green biography
• Eugene Green campaign site: committee roles and civic service
• [JEFF TO SUPPLY: Will Sutton NOLA.com column URL]

Jeff Thomas

Publisher — Black Source Media Jeff Thomas Publisher • Opinion Columnist •  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 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

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