In 1996, the New Orleans Police Department implemented the COMSTAT management and accountability style of policing. Within three years of that implementation, murder was cut by over fifty percent and violent crime fell by nearly the same amount; overall crime was cut by over one-third compared to just three years ago. This dissertation seeks to explore the reasons crime declined so rapidly in New Orleans post-COMSTAT implementation, compared to crime in the rest of the country. Drawing on political and criminological theories of policing as well as sociological theories, variables unique to each set of theories were identified and tested alone and against competing explanations. Utilizing higher-ordered time series methodology, two analyses were conducted. The first utilized interrupted time-series analysis to identify the nature of COMSTAT's impact on New Orleans' crime trends, measured as changes in the current quarter compared to the same quarter of the preceding year. The results show that while COMSTAT had a significant impact on the crime trends, the effects were short-lived. The second analysis utilized traditional time series methodology to examine the impacts of the individual variables on the overall crime trends. The results show that while policing variables and sociological variables have little effect on the overall crime trends both individually and when tested together, the findings indicate policing variables play a larger role than sociological variables when included together. As another independent test of the effects of crime, public opinion data obtained via the University of New Orleans' Survey Research Center from 1986-2004 show that the public was very positive towards the NOPD's efforts in dramatically reducing crime and fear of crime in New Orleans during this period. The overall results for policy makers then indicates that reductions in crime resonate positively with city residents and future policy decisions should be made with that goal in mind.

The United States Weather Bureau had published Technical Paper No. 40 (TP-40) in 1961 which provides a rainfall atlas for the United States. These rainfall frequencies have been used by engineers throughout the United States including Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. Rainfall from Audubon and the New Orleans International Airport rain gauge stations were used with the Log Pearson Method to provide rainfall frequency for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. The results from the frequency rainfall that were developed for this research along with the current Jefferson Parish design storm rainfall were applied to a typical urban development to evaluate the extent of flooding.

Troupers: Essays in Three Rings is a collection of fourteen essays focused mainly on variety entertainers (including the author). It leads the reader through a menagerie of the author's own enthusiasms--from clowning and circus elephants, to hot jazz and the ukulele. While the primary occupation of the "troupers"spotlighted here has always been to delight audiences, many of them--both human and animal--could not escape the hardscrabble, the sundered relations, the violence of everyday life. The author tells the stories of these "troupers" here, stories that reveal both their suffering and their refusal to suffer.

The Vieux Carré in New Orleans is the second oldest locally designated historic district and serves as a prominent example of local historic preservation efforts; however, the Vieux Carré has a high vacancy rate. This thesis examines the effects of land use policy, including the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance and the design review process in the Vieux Carré, on attempts to return vacant buildings to commerce. The author examines three cases of redevelopment attempts of vacant properties in the Vieux Carré. In two of the three cases, constrictions from the Zoning Ordinance not the design review process held up the redevelopment process. The other case identified owner negligence as the cause for failure in the redevelopment attempt.

Hip Hop graffiti has been marking our urban landscapes for decades. However street art, a much less researched topic, has claimed notoriety in recent years. Much of the existing research groups hip-hop graffiti, gang graffiti and street art together and calls for a uniform response from communities, city officials and law enforcement. While street artists have made their mark in the urban landscapes of the United States as well as internationally, it is important to define the terms "street art"and "graffiti" and where they deviate from one another in order for cities to begin to address these expressions with any level of success. As municipalities grapple with visual public expression--street art and graffiti--a framework must be established taking into consideration legal parameters for both cities and artists.

This paper will examine the hidden history of the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum and investigate the claims regarding the first licensed pharmacist in the United States. Drawing from legislative, church, medical, legal and institutional records, this study argues that colonial control, such as regulations governing medical practice and licensing requirements, established by continental powers in their overseas colonies, tended to recreate traditions and laws found in the home countries. For instance, the more rigorous licensing requirements for medical professionals, as practiced in France and Spain, were also the custom in Louisiana. However, when Louisiana became part of the Unites States, these regulations were relaxed, reflecting the laissez-faire policy of English laws and custom. This work challenges the bias often found in the presentation of American historical experience that makes claims for English colonial traditions informing the entire American experience.

At the turn of the twentieth century, City Beautiful principles manifested themselves in the historic core of New Orleans: the Vieux Carre. City and state officials determined that the Cabildo and Presbytere were no longer suitable sites for the Louisiana Supreme Courts, and set about erecting a monumental, Beaux Arts-style courthouse amid the dense, vernacular built environment of the French Quarter. Two hundred fifty-one individuals were displaced as a result of the expropriation and demolition of forty-one structures occupying the square bounded Royal, Chartres, Conti and St. Louis streets. While significant scholarly research has interpreted the motives and visions of Progressive-era urban reformers, few studies have addressed issues of power in shaping these narratives and in silencing the past. Through its analysis of the planning processes surrounding the Louisiana Supreme Court Building, this thesis acknowledges these silences and raises questions about those most impacted: the displaced.

This essay will use the views of two African American newspaper columnists, E. Belfield Spriggins of the Louisiana Weekly and Dave Peyton of the Chicago Defender, to argue that though New Orleans and Chicago both occupied a primary place in the history of jazz, in many ways jazz was initially met with ambivalence and suspicion. The struggle between the desire to highlight black achievement in music and the effort to adhere to tenets of middle class respectability play out in their columns. Despite historiographical writings to the contrary, these issues of the influence of jazz music on society were not limited to the white community. Tracing these columnists through the years of 1925-1929, a critical point in the popularity of jazz, reveals how considerations of black innovation and economic autonomy helped alter their opinions from criticism to ownership.

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) in downtown areas is a distinct form of new development, creating walkable districts and 24-hour neighborhoods. A new streetcar on Loyola Avenue in the New Orleans Central Business District was planned to encourage new development in the area. By analyzing the current land uses and values, projections of future change predict over $500 million in added value. For this development to become a successful TOD, policies must encourage uses that generate ridership and increase walkability. Although the Loyola corridor has many historic attributes of a transit-oriented downtown, it currently lacks neighborhood identity. The new development associated with the Loyola streetcar has the potential to become a downtown TOD.

Why would a relatively normal eighteen year-old boy from New Orleans decide to dedicate his life to God as a Jesuit priest at the tail-end of the twentieth century? What obstacles would he meet along the way? What would sustain him in religious life? Why would he leave after seven years? Can one be sexually and emotionally healthy as a celibate? Is celibacy different for homosexuals than it is for heterosexuals? What is essential in the spiritual life?