That's right, you heard me. Shanna and I are moving to Old Metairie in September. The double homicide less than two blocks from our house a few weeks ago and the brutal murder at Pal's two nights later were the straws that broke our backs. We're retreating to the edges of this battle.
There's also this map of crime within a mile of our current home from January 1st - August 1st, 2007:
That pink square in the center is our block. Anyone have any questions about why we are moving?
Good luck! The crime map is what convinced me to avoid many neighborhoods. This city is going to lose many more of its professionals because of the crime. We may be able to overcome destroyed buildings and unstable economics, but there is no way I'm going to endanger my loved ones when there's a chance I can live in a better environment. God, this makes me sick.
Posted by: oscar | August 28, 2007 at 03:38 PM
Link to crime map?
Posted by: Will | August 28, 2007 at 05:27 PM
Nevermind - found via www.nopd.com
Posted by: Will | August 28, 2007 at 05:47 PM
what does the new neighborhood look like?
Posted by: casey | September 11, 2007 at 07:26 PM
It looks like 1920's suburbia. A row of 1920's mission house on a dead end street off a dead end street connecting to Metairie Road.
Quiet, peaceful, safe.
Posted by: Jonah | September 12, 2007 at 02:43 PM
It's sad and frankly unfair that N'awlins gets painted with this image, when the crime is primarily a localized and situational problem. Take a look at the NOPD crime map for my neighborhood, Broadmoor (input something like 3500 Napoleon or Napoleon and Claiborne--just a central point, not my address), which is probably only 2-3 miles from Jonah's (former) pink square. Several orders of magnitude safer. Yeah, there's been one murder in the last year--typical drug-related, turf war spillover situation. Thug got tracked to his grandmother's house on Louisiana Ave. Pkwy., so while statistically within bounds, factually it's an anomaly. Jonah apparently made a choice to live in a cheap, funky, and also dangerous part of town. If he'd asked me or any native, we could'a told him that's what he was gettin' into, even before Katrina. There are plenty of other cheap, funky, safer and family oriented neighborhoods we could direct folks to, as well. I fully understand the flight to Metairie, but it also needs to be made clear that living in an urban center, particularly the one and only NOLA, fundamentally lawless in the best and worst ways, requires a commitment to deal with some difficulties and take care of ourselves in exchange for the wonderful benefits in neighborhood comraderie, art, music, food and all-round free ambiance that makes N'awlins the place we love. Yeah, I have a concealed carry permit. So does my wife. Yeah, I religiously lock my house and car doors and fence gates. But you'd better do that in Metairie, too. When there's no crime, no litter, no run-down shotgun housing, and everything runs like Mussolini's trains, there may also not be ya-ya art, spontaneous second-lines, Mardi Gras Indians, and all the other vibrant and "dangerous" stuff. For my part, I like life with a little more "edge" than Metairie offers, but to be fair, not such a jagged and rusty edge as Central City or the project neighborhoods (including the still-unacceptably dangerous, St. Thomas area). Of course, the reason those areas are like they are, is that they were abandoned by middle-class families running from taxes, crime, federal housing projects, and forced school desegregation. Rebuilding NOLA-east instead of focussing renewal on these central areas of the city is one large example of how leadership is failing and the city is probably going to stay much the same for the next 100 years.
Posted by: Ay Uaxe | December 17, 2007 at 11:08 AM
Dude, you don't know me. I AM A NATIVE. When I moved to the Treme it was definitely as an experiment and honestly I was hoping that the situation would improve after the storm.
If you think crime is not a serious problem in New Orleans you are out of your mind.
Posted by: Jonah | December 17, 2007 at 09:59 PM
Also, if you read the post carefully I mention the murder at Pal's lounge as a factor, which happened in a completely different neighborhood.
Finally, I'm using that (former) pink square as an office now, injecting tax money back into the city's economy.
Posted by: Jonah | December 17, 2007 at 10:03 PM