In news that should come as little surprise to anyone, The Advocate reports that a new study says 65 percent of New Orleans’ roads are in "poor" or worse condition.
The study, conducted by the consulting firm Stantec, evaluated "every block of every street in New Orleans over the past two years" and rated them using a letter grade system. Nearly two-thirds of New Orleans’ streets received "D" or "F" grades. Only 14 percent of the city's streets considered to be in "good" or "excellent" condition.
The neighborhoods with the best streets were City Park, B.W. Cooper, Desire, the Central Business District, and West Lake Forest—and those neighborhoods just received "fair" ratings.
The neighborhood with the worst streets? That honor goes to the Plum Orchard section of New Orleans East, but Garden District, Uptown, East Carrollton, and East Riverside were close behind. Audubon and the Lower 9th Ward received "F" grades. New Orleans may have terrible streets, but it seems the problem isn’t restricted to poorer neighborhoods.
The report estimates the city would need to spend $3.6 billion to get the streets to "fair" level over the next 10 years. There have been recent efforts to improve New Orleans’ streets, but things have been slow to take off.