 |
| Low crime and good street lighting were among the priorities of New Orleans residents that resulted from a survey project led by Tom Farley, director of the Prevention Research Center at Tulane University |
As New Orleans residents gather this month to finalize plans for rebuilding, the Prevention Research Center at Tulane University is releasing data from a survey of residents' priorities for their neighborhoods. Chief among those priorities are low crime and good street lighting.
Other priorities are features of neighborhoods that make it more pleasant to walk or be outdoors, specifically sidewalks and crosswalks, neighborhood grocery stores, neighborhood parks and playgrounds, trees and other greenery, and a lack of litter, noise and car traffic. Residents also placed a high value on affordable housing and good neighborhood schools.
"Low crime is a priority across the city," said Tom Farley, director of the center and chair of the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. "Of course, crime can't be entirely removed by planning, but crime rates can be reduced by building in certain features, such as well-lit streets. Criminals act when and where they can't be seen."
Farley added, "Other features that may reduce crime rates are designs that bring responsible adults onto the street, such as sidewalks, or that bring them into eye contact with the street, such as placing transit stops in front of busy retail stores. We hope this data will result in rebuilding plans that address these issues."
Researchers interviewed by phone, over the Internet and in person 1,073 New Orleanians who have returned, plan to return or are still undecided about returning to the area. They were asked to rate the importance of 24 neighborhood characteristics.
The report includes the top priorities for the city as a whole and for each of the planning districts. According to Farley, responses were similar in the different planning districts, but did vary a bit. For example, residents of the Lower 9th Ward (District 8) rated the presence of neighborhood health clinics as very important.
The project, funded by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, focuses on the opportunity to rebuild flood-damaged neighborhoods in ways that promote health for families and children. The Prevention Research Center at Tulane University is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is part of a network of centers that conducts applied research in disease prevention.
