Advertisement I-Team: Crime stats reveal most dangerous neighborhood in New Orleans Share Shares Copy Link Copy

In any city there are dangerous parts of town – New Orleans is no different. But what is different is how the crime is distributed across the city. WDSU crunched the numbers to find which neighborhoods are the most dangerous in the Crescent City.Watch reportIn order to pull the numbers, WDSU looked at a three-month period between March and June of 2014.After pulling the numbers on rapes, robberies and assaults, WDSU added that up for about 70 different neighborhoods in New Orleans using the map established by New Orleans’ City Planning Commission.Sherry Rigaud has lived in the Little Woods neighborhood since 1987. She has raised her children and her garden in the same neighborhood for 27 years – but not for much longer.“The culture, the history -- it was something I always fell in love with the first time I came here,” she said. “Since the storm we have a totally different culture here, it’s not the same.”The city’s planning commission puts the borders of Little Woods by the Lakefront, Paris Road, Interstate 10, Morrison and Downman roads. It lies within New Orleans East.Crime map statistics for the neighborhood show that 136 violent crimes happened in three months.Southern University of New Orleans criminologist John Penny, Ph.D., said he was surprised Little Woods was No. 1 on the list, but not surprised it was in the top three.“It’s woefully unsafe,” he said. “It became an area sort of infested by burglaries, theft, drugs, overgrown weeds in the park -- so that's a recipe for disaster.”Penny said the problems all boil down to historical city planning.Less opportunities for employment and education have led to economic woes.The area is not just where crime happens, but also where criminals go.In May 2013 the accused Mother’s Day second line shooter Akein Scott was captured at a home in Little Woods.“People can believe that they're going to be discovered, that they're not just going to target those neighborhoods and get away with it,” Penny said.However, Penny said there is another aspect.According to the Metropolitan Crime Commission, the New Orleans Police Department man force dropped below 1,200 officers last year for the first time in decades.“I’m not saying that more police will solve those problems totally, but certainly the criminals know that we are understaffed and undermanned out there,” Penny said.WDSU requested an interview with the commander of the NOPD’s Seventh District, which covers New Orleans East, but didn’t hear back.Rigaud, meanwhile, is enjoying the last of the time in her garden, preparing to move to Jacksonville to get away from the crime.“I hate to see this city turn into that type of community. It used to be a city where ‘love thy neighbor, I am my brother’s keeper,’” she said.No. 2 on the list is Central City with 122 violent crimes in a three-month period. No. 3 on the list is the French Quarter with 96 crimes in a three-month period. Most of the crimes in the French Quarter were assaults; there were not any homicides during that time period.LINK: Crime statistic numbers for all New Orleans neighborhoodsThe numbers investigated in this article do not include the recent shooting on Bourbon Street.