A new survey of adults in New Orleans finds strong support for Mayor LaToya Cantrell and Police Chief Shaun Ferguson. No other officials or agencies got majority support.
The poll for the New Orleans Crime Coalition found Cantrell with 62% approval. It did not specifically survey voters.
Ferguson's approval was 56%.
Approval was 50% for the city council and increasingly less for the sheriff and D.A.
Fewer than a third approved of the city's judges.
The Sewerage and Water Board had 75% disapproval.
A majority of respondents ranked the biggest concern that have as crime.
The survey found 56% of city residents pick crime and public safety as the most important issue.
Drainage and flooding is a distant second, at 14%.
That’s followed by street repair and maintenance (10%) and affordable housing (8%).
Findings by race:
▪Blacks and Whites pick crime and public safety as the top issue, each at 56%.
▪More Whites than Blacks pick drainage and flooding as the most important issue (20% vs. 11%).
▪Slightly more Whites than Blacks pick street repair and maintenance as the most important issue (10% vs. 9%).
▪More Blacks than Whites pick affordable housing as the most important issue (9% vs. 6%).
Pollster Ronald A. Faucheux, Ph.D. conducted the research.
He listed other key survey takeaways:
▪Blacks and Whites both pick crime and public safety as the first priority for spending new city revenues (44% by the former and 47% by the latter).
▪More Whites than Blacks pick improving the drainage system as the first spending priority (27% vs. 22%).
▪More Blacks than Whites pick creating a city-run affordable housing program as the first spending priority (17% vs. 7%).
▪More Whites than Blacks pick improving streets and sidewalks as the first spending priority (16% vs. 11%).
▪More Blacks than Whites pick expanding city-run social services as the first spending priority (5% vs. 3%).
