Prior to New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno’s inauguration, city infrastructure was the main focus of her campaign. At a recent talk at Loyola, she continued to drive that point forward.
On Feb. 28 Helena Moreno and her council expressed their current and future progress towards fixing city infrastructure with community faith leaders and students at Loyola. At Loyola’s “Faith and City Leadership: Building a Shared Future” Moreno brought up the issue, addressing it as one of the city government’s “emergent priorities.”
During this part of the talk, Moreno continued to push the importance of progression in New Orleans.
“We are really leaning in because we’ve waited too long for improved basic services. So this means lighting repairs, sidewalk repairs, traffic lights working,” Moreno said. “Of course, public safety is a basic service and we have been improving public safety as well.”
One of the improvements she mentioned, lighting, has been a prevalent safety issue in New Orleans, specifically along the I-10 service road. Moreno’s solution was the initiative “Lights On.”
According to Moreno, the city has repaired over 1000 lights in six weeks.
In an interview with Moreno after the event, she accredited the city’s rapid progress to in-house crews which are a part of the newly instated Infrastructure Coordinating Council, put in place by Moreno with the intention of “Super Bowl” progress. These crews were meant to make improvements to the city with the same speed and efficiency of those made in preparation for the 2025 Super Bowl in New Orleans.
“To have these in-house crews they’re just deploying everyday, they’re just out there working. They’re out there repaving, they’re fixing the sidewalks. So, that’s just a whole shift in model,” Moreno said.
District A Councilmember Aimee McCarron expanded upon the “shift in model” regarding the in house crews during an interview after the event stating,
“I’ve never seen any type of thing where there was this focus on in-house staff, and I think they’re a big part of it. We’re moving fast on it because it’s never been done in a really long time. This is how we’re going to work towards getting our street lights, fixing our streets, those are the things we heard during the campaign,” said McCarron.
McCarron adds onto the intention of bettering the city for more than just the residents of New Orleans, but also to make it better for the students attending the universities in New Orleans.
“Hopefully, you know, if we’re working, our basic services are working, then you guys, many of you are not from New Orleans, and we want you to stay here after college. We want you to have a job. We want you to be able to say, ‘No I want to live in New Orleans because I can call 311 and my street will actually be fixed.’ That’s what the city government is for,” said McCarron.
The current city government plans to continue their progress in New Orleans’ infrastructure and public safety with Moreno heading the efforts towards making New Orleans an “extraordinary city”
“It’s just that constant pushing the ball forward and honestly I think that is what the people of this city really want and they deserve,” Moreno said. “They want a leader that is everyday going to be working for them.”
