NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin’s approval ratings have sunk to their lowest levels since he took office in 2002, but residents’ overall satisfaction with the city has matched pre-Hurricane Katrina levels, according to a poll released Mond
NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin’s approval ratings have sunk to their lowest levels since he took office in 2002, but residents’ overall satisfaction with the city has matched pre-Hurricane Katrina levels, according to a poll released Monday. Twenty-four percent of voters surveyed last month by the University of New Orleans Survey Research Center said they approve or strongly approve of Nagin’s performance, down from 31 percent in 2008. His average approval rating during his first term was 60 percent, but it dropped to 29 percent for his second term, which started in 2007 and ends next year. The poll results released Monday also found that the City Council’s approval ratings dropped from 70 percent in 2008 to 48 percent this year. UNO’s study cites the council’s "sour relations" with the mayor and "internal problems" as possible reasons for the steep drop in its approval ratings. The results are based on a telephone survey of 602 registered voters in Orleans and Jefferson parishes during the last week of March. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percent. The poll also found stark racial divisions in how voters evaluated city officials’ performance. Only five percent of white voters said they approve or strongly approve of Nagin’s performance, compared with 36 percent of black voters. The poll also found that 73 percent of whites said they approve or strongly approve of the New Orleans City Council, compared to 36 percent of blacks. Four of the council’s seven members are white. About one-third of the New Orleans voters surveyed said crime was the city’s biggest problem, but 78 percent of residents said they feel safe around their home during the night. Fifty-nine percent of residents said they were satisfied or very satisfied with life in New Orleans, the highest level recorded by the UNO survey since the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane devastated the city. Only six percent of people surveyed said "slow Katrina recovery" was the city’s biggest problem. In contrast, 93 percent of Jefferson Parish residents said they were satisfied or very satisfied with life in the suburban New Orleans parish. Last year, 19 percent of Jefferson Parish residents said vulnerability to flooding was the parish’s biggest problem, but only nine percent identified that as the biggest problem this year. ______ Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
