Marc Morial

He said, I'm going to find some guys who grew up in the Desire Public Housing development, and I'm going to let them patrol there.

He says, you can't put guys, officers, men and women in these neighborhoods and they're all, none of them have lived in these neighborhoods.

Yes, sir.

You got to pick some folks and they're going to be known and they're going to be comfortable and they're going to understand the rhythm of the place.

So they don't go in there like they're a bunch of outsiders.

Police officers are not the military.

You know, they're there to protect and to serve, right?

Yes, sir.

Militaries had to protect and defend.

It's a different mission.

So it was tremendously successful.

Also, it was very aggressive about Black business and minority business and women-owned businesses having an opportunity, doing business with the city and doing business on major projects.

And I had opposition from people in that regard.

And I knew it was just people protecting their own economic turf.

You know, I had to break that up to the extent that I could.

We had a very successful run.

I left office with the highest approval ratings of any mayor in modern New Orleans history.

I won two elections, both by significant margins.

And we just worked every single day.

I had open door policy at City Hall.