The is a city so many love, for so many reasons.
We just want it to work.
Tourists and visitors come and go.
We who live in one of the  and one of the  love it enough to stay and make the best of this culturally rich, urban paradise. But we would like to see red lights and street lights working, we'd rather not know there are places where streets will flood with normal and heavy rainfalls.Â
We certainly want the Sewerage & Water Board to work.
Project Director Pres Kabacoff, Policy Director David Marcello, Project Coordinator Emma Trunkle and about 30 prominent business and civic leaders called the City Services Coalition are taking stock of residents' dissatisfaction and recommending ways to change it.
A December survey  showed that 65% of city voters think New Orleans is on the “wrong track." Though 53% said they plan to stay in the city in the next five years, 40% expect to move out of New Orleans into another Louisiana community (11%) or to move out of the state (29%).
The city's quality of life is viewed negatively by 69%, with only 19% of Whites and 18% of Blacks believing things have gotten better in the last several years.
That's disheartening.
Pres Kabacoff, a member of the City Services Coalition, speaks on March 10, 2025
New Orleans had more than 600,000 people just a few decades ago. The city has fewer than 385,000 people today.
Imagine about 150,000 people up and leaving. Going somewhere. To Jefferson, St. Bernard, Plaquemines or St. Tammany parishes. Or to eastern Texas, southern Mississippi or southern Arkansas.
Baton Rouge has more than 200,000. Shreveport has just short of 200,000. Metairie pushed above 140,000 recently.
People aren't moving because the city has bland food, few festivals and a weekends-only nightlife. People die, take new jobs, move to join family. And some move because the city they love can't seem to get things done.
Perhaps the biggest, most outrageous proposal by the coalition is that the city cooperate with neighboring parishes to create a regional water purification operation on land the city purchased in St. Charles Parish some years ago. It would cost at least $1 billion.Â
That's a big ask. Financially. Politically. I can't imagine all the key parties coming together and agreeing to create something over which they would have limited control as the coalition suggests. But, hey, after the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina and levee failures nearly 20 years ago, we set aside cultural and political differences and philosophies to protect lots of people with a 10-year storm surge protection levee system and prevention efforts continue with .
With a city focus, the coalition has suggested changes that would require city charter, state Legislature and maybe state constitutional changes. There are many, and it's worth taking time to review what they've suggested.
The group looked at governance structure, streets and infrastructure, drainage and water management, permitting, public safety and justice and trash and clean public spaces. Nearly no one would argue with that list. We're likely to debate what and how to get it done.
I'm pleased to see the coalition stick with a strong mayor form of government, though it wants to give the chief administrative officer greater authority and responsibility. I struggle to understand why any elected mayor would willingly relieve themselves of veto power over CAO personnel decisions.
In fall 2023, Orleans Parish Assessor Erroll Williams and former Mayor Sidney Barthelemy floated the idea of  to run the day-to-day city department operations, leaving overall leadership and vision to the mayor.
"Should the position of chief administrative officer be expanded? Should professional qualifications and management experience for this job be spelled out in the city charter?" they wrote in a November 2023 guest column in this newspaper. "Is a city manager form of government, along with the Mayor-Council, a more efficient and proactive way to operate in today’s world? It works for Jefferson Parish, would it work equally well here?"
Orleans and Jefferson are different culturally and politically. I'm all for looking at government operations elsewhere to consider how New Orleans might improve.Â
Coalition representatives have reviewed the report with the current crop of prominent would-be mayoral candidates: City Council Vice President Helena Moreno, former Judge Arthur Hunter and City Councilmember Oliver Thomas. Former Orleans 911 Communications Director Tyrell Morris announced his bid on Thursday; they plan to offer him the same courtesy. They've talked with members of City Council, too.
Incumbent Mayor LaToya Cantrell can't run for re-election, but she's had nearly eight years of experience. She should be included.
New Orleans is a great city, and it needs an update.
But let's not make it Atlanta, Minneapolis or Nashville.
