New Orleans ‘most deadly city’

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NEW ORLEANS — Calling New Orleans “the most deadly city in the United States,” Foreignpolicy.com, a Washington-based Web site, has listed the Big Easy among “five cities that stand in a class all their own when it comes to brutal, homicidal violence.”

The mayor’s public information office did not respond to an e-mail requesting comment, but Orleans Parish Coroner Frank Minyard said the city’s portrayal in Foreignpolicy.com, a Web site for Foreign Policy, a Washington-based magazine, says “nothing new” about New Orleans.

“The city is making progress in the areas it can make progress in,” said Minyard, the city’s elected coroner since 1974. He cited several reform initiatives such as a $1 million police recruiting campaign.

However, social ills — such as teen pregnancy, poverty and drug abuse — continue to fuel the city’s chronically high homicide rate.

Foreignpolicy.com listed New Orleans as one of five “murder capitals” around the world. Others include: Caracas, Venezuela; Cape Town, South Africa; Moscow, Russia; and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

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