Must Read

The most important article written about New Orleans/Katrina in the past 6 months. Most important article written since the revalations about the Corps of Engineers' levee flaws.

It focuses on the slow pace of disbursements with plenty of specific examples and numbers.

READ IT! Tell everyone you know.

Other Crime Mapping Efforts

New Orleans Crime Map on Geocities. Made from PANO's forum (one of my sources).

Another local crime map.

Chicago Crime. Mapping system that uses Google Earth. They have it set up right. First off, the incidents never "expire." Most major cities that have crime maps purge them after so often. The other thing that makes this effort special is they got direct access to Chicago's police database. They wrote a script that automatically took every police report filed by the city and made it into a sortable map.

I'd love to set up something like Chicago Crime in New Orleans. I'm not going to hold my breath on Riley to cough up the reports, though. It'll be a chilly day in hell before we get that kind of cooperation from NOPD's brass.

I've been meaning to check these crime reports against my mapping, but have been really busy as of late. If someone could turn it into a .kmz file for me to cross check later, I'd appreciate it.

Latest Crime Map on Rapidshare.

Same file hosted by Scott Harney. Thanks.

If you download the .kmz files, remember to click on the icons for detailed descriptions.

Oh yeah: Total murders to date (Orleans and Jefferson Parish): 22. That does not include the body dump in the lower 9th ward that was tacked on to last year's total or the fetuses found on the West Bank.

Bush's State of the Union

Not one word about Katrina, New Orleans, or the Gulf Coast. He just doesn't give a damn anymore.


Thank you, Senator Webb.

Nola Crime 2007

Finally figured out how to post the Crime Maps so that someone without Google Earth can view them. Check it out!

Most of the placemarks didn't upload, so here is just the murders

TP: Cycle of Death

Not nearly enough people have read this series by the Times-Pic. It's one of the few pieces of investigative journalism they've ever done. It's excellent. I don't have the time right now to go through it in detail, but I plan to in the future.

Definitely worth a read.


"Cycle of Death" by the Times-Picayune

Changes in Crime Patterns, Post-K

I took the map on this page and turned it into an overlay for Google Earth.

I compared the dots on the overlay with the crime mapping I've done to date and here are my conclusions:

The Following areas are more crime ridden over the past few months than in 2003:
* The French Quarter
* Central City (and it wasn't a exactly safe then!!!)

Decrease in Crime:
* Lower 9th Ward
* St. Bernard Housing Project Area
* Lafitte Housing Project area

Everywhere else had about the same crime.


I know there are some major flaws in this analysis (like charting only 2003 murders vs. all violent crimes in 2006/7), but I think it has some validity.

Hilarious Corporate Shenanigans

One of the most entertaining things I've read in a long time

My personal favorites are the Mayor who used the city credit card to pay for strippers, the 'little-tyke stripper pole' toy, and the head of the FCC caught "in bed with lobbyists."

Murder rate

A lot of people have been asking about the murder rate.

Here's my tabulation, through 10 PM January 22nd:

Jefferson Parish:
3 (1 in Kenner, 2 in West Jeff)

Orleans Parish:
1 in the Black Pearl
1 in Hollygrove
1 in Lower Garden District
3 in Mid City
4 in Central City
1 in the Iberville Housing Project
2 in Marigny
1 in 7th Ward
2 in 9th Ward

Orleans total: 16


Other deadly incidents:
Robber shot and killed in NO East
Fetuses found in sewer line (I'm not making this up...)
Body dump in Lower 9th Ward that was tacked on to last year's total

There's also a rumor floating around NOPD shot a guy near MLK and Claiborne a few days ago and used their cell phones to keep it off the police bands (and away from the media's prying eyes). If it did indeed happen, I don't agree with it, but I understand why they called it in that way.


I'm sure if you ask Warren Riley, he'll say that there have been no murder in New Orleans in 2007. He'll say it's a media conspiracy. It's really spontanious explosions of heads and chests resulting from eating too much fatty food. Damn you, media! Why won't you warn people about the dangers of spontaneous human explosion!!!

Who Dat

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright.
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light.
And, somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout,

but there is no joy in Mudville --
mighty Casey has struck out.

Crime Mapping Update

A few more days, a few more murders. There's been a HUGE slowdown, though. I'd say the march put some pressure on Riley, but most of the downturn, I credit to weather. It's been bitterly cold (at least by New Orleans standards) and that keeps people indoors.

.kmz file hosted on Rapidshare.com


Central City


Downtown

Sorry Captain Anderson, but you're wrong. It's more than perception when it comes to crime in the Quarter.

Interesting website of the day

Linkedin


What is Linkedin and how to use it.

Nola Crime Mapping - Preparing for tomorrow's march

Well, it's been a busy year in Noladishu. Murders, shootings, and stabbings galore! The red crosses are murders, the yellow exclamation points are shootings or stabbings, the police shields are major crimes, and the houses are break ins. I'm trying something new, too. I'm trying to put descriptions of suspects in neighborhoods with crime trends.


Downtown has been especially dangerous; several shootings on Bourbon and in Treme. One small problem, though. Some of my sources of information are getting tight. I leaned on cops posting on Nola.com's Crime and Safety forum and PANO's message board. I think the NOPD brass is trying to clamp down on disgruntled cops slipping messages out into the community. SHOOT THE MESSENGER! That's their philosophy, especially when the heat is on.

Go to tomorrow's rally and let the politicians know how you feel.

.KMZ File hosted on Rapidshare

BTW- Does anyone know a better way to post files for download than Rapidshare? Please let me know.

Canal Street at night

Just a cool photo I took of Canal Street at night. I've had a few depressing posts recently, so here's a lighter one.

Nola Against Crime

Went to the meeting in the Marigny yesterday. There was quite a turnout. Unfortunately, I couldn't get inside because of the crowd, but the day was not wasted. I believe just showing up was important.

Bumped into a fellow Ben Franklin High School grad. Anytime there's any sort of community action in New Orleans, there's sure to be at least one Ben Franklin grad involved.

I also got a chance to show off my crime mapping. One interesting thing was I took down a police report that, according to the guy I talked to, the NOPD refused to take. Here's what gets me: the criminal has a similar modus operandi to the Helen Hill murderer. This could be the description of the Helen Hill murderer!!! The NOPD didn't take the police report, so it's up to little old me.

Here is exactly as I wrote it down:


4121 Dauphine

6 jan 2007

9:07 AM

Attempted Home Invasion

He was 6'2", slim build, light completion african American, looked like snoop dog, black teardrop tattoo under right eye, red t-shirt, black pants, blue baseball cap

softspoken


"I was looking for Mr. Joe"

Went up Maizant, hung a left or right on Burgundy (went towards CBD)

On foot

(Taken manually at Crime Forum- Sunday)


Please pardon my shorthand. I could lengthen the description, but I wanted to keep it true to source. Very detailed description of the criminal.

I noticed from talking to several people there that there have been several attempted home invasions in the Marigny recently with similar MO's to the Helen Hill murder. Hmm, could there be a connection?

My first concious thought this morning

My alarm goes off. I slap the snooze button and get back under the covers. It was nice and quiet. I slip towards sleep.

POW! POW!

2 shots ring out in Treme.* About 5 seconds later, sirens from the two district police stations near me start up.

I think, hmmm, should I get under the bed in case a bullet comes flying through my window, or should I just say fuck it and keep sleeping.

And that is shows why I named my blog Noladishu...


* Someone was shot on coming out of Club Fabulous (a notoriously shady establishment on the other side of Armstrong Park).


PS- In case you're wondering, I stayed in bed.

2007 Total Crime

I'm going to make my 2007 Crime Map as detailed as possible with data from as many sources as possible. I'm also breaking down crimes into categories.


.KMZ File Hosted on Rapidshare

2007 Murder Totals (-8PM Jan 8th):
Orleans: 10 Murders
Jefferson: 2 Murders

Here's what the City's Public Crime Map looks like. Notice the last time it was updated.

And here's Houston's.

2006 Crime Map

This is about all I can do. I've gone through the archives of a bunch of sources, but there's too many crimes for me to get them all. I've got a nice sample, though.

I'm now concentrating all my efforts on 2007. I'm pumping as many sources as possible and hope to have the best possible crime mapping for 2007.

.KMZ File Hosted on Rapidshare

2007 Murders Map 2

Well, I didn't think I'd be updating this one so soon, but I guess I have to. There are now 8 murders in Orleans Parish on the year, plus one in Jefferson Parish.

Now, the question is what are we going to do about it? This Sunday, there will be a meeting of the Marigny Community Group at 2700 Charters Street starting at 1 PM. Even if you don't live in the Marigny, PLEASE show your support and show up.

Next up will be a march on City Hall next Thursday. Now, I've heard some people already dissing the idea and calling it a waste, but I strongly disagree and here's why:

In the mid-90's, New Orleans was experiencing a crime wave as bad as this city has ever seen. The coup de grace was a horrific murder at the Louisiana Pizza Kitchen. It was the last straw for the citizens of New Orleans. Citizens, both black and white, marched on City Hall. Morial, under severe pressure, gave Pennington Carte Blanche to clean up the NOPD. Officers were given substantial raises. He also instituted CompStat (which I'm trying to replicate in my own improvisational way). Morale amongst the street cops rose. Crime plummeted. Other factors were involved, but the results are undeniable. In 1999, there were only 158 murders. That's fewer than last year with more than double the population.

That's why it's wrong to say it isn't fixable. IT'S BEEN DONE ONCE BEFORE. WE CAN DO IT AGAIN. APATHY TOWARDS CRIME WILL KILL THIS CITY AS SURELY AS THE THUGS RUNNING AROUND WITH AK'S.

City Council Bans Outbursts

Some civility and a little less shouting is a welcome change. The reaction on Mama D's face when she's asked, "well, do you think your outbursts have been disruptive?" is PRICELESS. In case you forgot what a charming presence she is, she's the one that drove Shelly Midura to tears.

2007 Murders Map

In case you haven't heard, there have been 6 murders in 2004 thus far and it's only January 4th.

I put together another Google map from news reports. This one has a color overlay of neighborhoods. There's a problem, though. When going through the news reports, I came up with 7 murders. I'm think the report at Josephine is either "just" a shooting (no murder) or is related to the murder 3 blocks away on LaSalle. Anyone know for sure? I don't want to scream conspiracy, but did people just sort of miss one?

Shortly after 12:30 a.m., officers responded to calls of shots being fired in the 2100 block of Josephine Street. They found an unidentified man lying in an alleyway with a handgun nearby. He’d been shot several times and was pronounced dead at the scene.


UPDATE: Yep, it's 7 murders on the year. At this rate, approximately 1 out of every 300 New Orleanians will be murdered by the end of the year. Wow, that really drives it home. 1 out of every 300. It's almost impossible for the killing to continue at that rate for an entire year, but it shows you how bad the crime has gotten. Oh yeah, and don't forget that the summer months are always the most violent.

New Orleans, Repeating Old Mistakes

MSNBC Article

The often quoted definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

At the end of the article, they talk about how people are rebuilding on the lowest lying areas of the city without raising their homes and "just praying it doesn't happen again."

Wonderful.

Nola Crime Mapping - Update 1

(Left, Crime Overview)

I'm working up a complete, independent set of crime statistics for the New Orleans area. I think I got almost every major crime from August 2006 to the end of the year. I got a few before that, but there's just so many, it's hard to keep up. I'm already starting on 2007, so I'll keep that up from the get go.

Google Earth File Hosted on Rapidshare.com

If you have Google Earth, you can download the above file to have a complete description of every major crime. The plain red crosses are major crimes. The crosses with the red circles behind them are murders. The houses yellow and white houses are residence robberies. The yellow post it notes are reports of criminal activity posted on NolaAgainstCrime.com. It's really an amazing tool.

Below are zoomed in screenshots of the most dangerous areas of New Orleans (Orleans and Jefferson Parish):


(Central City - Click to Enlarge)


(6th Ward {aka- Treme} and 7th Ward)


(Jefferson City - Jefferson Parish)


(Kenner - Jefferson Parish)


(West Bank)


Here's some of what I've learned thus far:
* Different crimes happen in different areas. Muggings tend to occur in the Quarter, CBD, and near Broadway (Uptown). Residence robberies tended to occur Uptown and Mid-City. Murders tended to occur in Central City, Treme, 7th Ward, Kenner, and the West Bank. Jefferson City was extremely violent, which surprised the hell out of me.
* The most dangerous street in New Orleans is Clara Street between Washington and downtown.
* There's usually a cluster of murders at the beginning of each month. I've been told by others that this is generally accredited to payday.
* Holidays are extremely dangerous (look no further than 3 murders on New Year's Eve).
* "Jack frost is the best policeman" bears some truth. Crime was almost non-existent during the past few cold snaps (or at least the more severe ones).
* The safe areas of the city include Metairie, most of Uptown and the Garden District, Algiers Point, and Lakeview. There are a lot of other areas that aren't as dangerous as you think, but I wouldn't term them as "safe."

Lost? Not sure about what neighborhood is what? Check this link out to learn about the neighborhoods of New Orleans, including their borders.

----------------------------

This is a continuous effort. I hope to make this a regular contribution. If you want to help out, let me know. The more people we have working on this, the better.

NY Times Slideshow

New Orleans Public Housing from the perspective of an architect.

Interesting and well put together, though I don't necessarily agree with everything he says.

First post of 2007

How do you know your new QB sucks?

You lose every game he starts.

His name is Aaron Brooks.