Fannie Chiasson
Collège Laflèche student
4870 long street app. 12, G9T 2B2
Thursday, October 12th 2017
Mitch Landrieu,
Mayor of New Orleans
199 Rich Street West, New Orleans, W6R 1W2
Subject: Making New Orleans a more sustainable city
Dear Mr. Landrieu,
After studding the sustainability of your city, I have come with my own opinion about it. New Orleans is a very beautiful city which attracts about 10 million tourists every year. Tourism is one of the major industries that generates about $7 billion every year. This big amount of money contribute to the city’s economy and it could be invested in order to make your city more sustainable and a better place to live for the residents. I know that your city has been recovering from hurricane Katrina during the past 12 years. There are a lot of things that have improved since 2005 but there is still some progress that can be done.
I have noticed that New Orleans offers a lot of public transportation (cable cars, buses, taxis) but most of these means of transport do not use green energy. I think that switching to renewable energy such as electric cable cars and taxis would be a major step in order to preserve the environment. New Orleans is known for it’s big touristic potential but is also infamous for it’s poor quality of life. An article from Fortune Magazine says that residents of New Orleans don’t have great job opportunities and lots of the jobs are paid below the average wage. This problem contributes to high poverty levels and results in a big gap between rich and poor people. In most cities, high poverty levels goes along with high criminality. In addition, iconic Bourbon Street is a place that mostly attracts tourists but it can also be very loud and obnoxious. Lots of tourists and locals go there to party and have fun but most of the time, they mis-behave and are disrespectful of the environment and other people.
Regardless, I still think that New Orleans is a city full of potential. I found out that you have developed the GreeNOLA plan, which is a strategy for a sustainable New Orleans. Making the city greener is a big step forward but other types of problems such as economy, crimes and disgracious tourists should not be forgotten.
Regards,
Fannie Chiasson
Student at College Laflèche