In New Orleans, 2025 began with a terrorist attack and jailbreak, and is about to end with a National Guard execution. But at least the hurricane was avoided.
New Orleans endured a tough year in 2025. Trevor Hughes explains why
Trevor Hughes details why 2025 was such a tough year for New Orleans and how residents feel about the future.
NEW ORLEANS – At first glance, Bourbon Street is just as it used to be. Tourists clutch cocktails as they totter along uneven sidewalks in high heels. Shoe shiners tell bad dad jokes. Brass bands draw crowds with cell phone cameras in hand. The beignets are still piping hot and the frozen margaritas are still frozen.
But in a quiet area, things are rather quiet. On a cool December night with raindrops staining the sidewalk, longtime street performer Onunze Ubaka, 72, belted out Motown classics on a mostly empty corner on the edge of Jackson Square in the usually bustling French Quarter. There were very few tourists passing by. Even fewer people stopped to drop dollar bills into his white tip bucket.
“You can feel the change,” Ubaka said between songs by Lou Rawls and the Temptations. Inside his tip bucket was a small pile of dollars, barely enough to cover the 15-pound dumbbells he had started putting in after a young man tried to run away with them.
Ubaka said there was an overall economic slowdown, especially a decline in international tourists.
He said the city’s broader struggles, from the devastating terrorist attack on Bourbon Street on Jan. 1 to the embarrassing escape of 10 Orleans Parish Justice Center inmates in May, to the subsequent indictment of the mayor on federal corruption charges and an unexpected city budget shortfall, haven’t helped either.
And now, federal immigration agents are roaming the outskirts of the city in the high-profile Operation Catahoula Crunch.
“I think a lot of that is contributing to the economic slowdown. It kind of puts a damper on things,” Ubaka said of the city’s woes in 2025.
Tourists have moved away
While city leaders are working to diversify the local economy, New Orleans relies heavily on tourism, and the year got off to a tragic start with the shocking attack on Bourbon Street on January 1 that left 14 people dead. In the attack, Texas Army veteran Shamsud Din Jabbar drove a rented pickup truck down Bourbon Street, which was packed with New Year’s revelers.
A New Orleans police officer shot and killed Jabbar after he crashed into a truck, and city officials reopened the street for a party the next day.
Experts and locals alike say reports of the attack have slowed tourism to the city just as it was starting to regain momentum after the coronavirus pandemic. Tourism experts say superstar performer Taylor Swift’s three-night Elas Tour appearance at the iconic Caesars Superdome in late 2024 will provide a $500 million boost to the local economy.
New Orleans attracts more than 18 million tourists a year, dwarfed by the approximately 364,000 visitors who call the city home. And these visitors are typically about twice as wealthy as locals, according to a 2021 study commissioned by state officials. In addition to solo travelers, tens of thousands of convention attendees pump $2 billion into the economy each year.
In an effort to reassure its most important visitors, especially those coming to watch the Super Bowl on Feb. 9, city officials have flooded the streets with police, installed new security fencing and installed new cameras in downtown areas. Although the match went off without a hitch, there was a significant budget shortfall due to overtime by the police and a snowstorm in late January.
The city ultimately had to borrow $125 million to cover the cost, and cut about $150 million from next year’s budget to make up the difference. City officials are also struggling to pay for ongoing road repairs related to Hurricane Katrina, which are still needed two decades after the storm devastated much of the low-lying city.
City leaders say part of the problem may stem from Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s indictment on federal corruption charges in August.
Cantrell did not run for re-election following the indictment, and will be replaced in January by Councilwoman Helena Moreno, a Mexican-born Democrat and former television journalist.
The local sheriff also lost his job after the May jailbreak. It took authorities five months and hundreds of thousands of dollars to recapture all the fugitives.
Even local sports teams are having terrible seasons. The New Orleans Saints have one of the worst records in the NFL at 3-10, and the New Orleans Pelicans are last in the NBA conference at 4-22.
“This year has been a year of transition and a difficult year,” said Marc Morial, a former mayor and current president of the National League of Cities. “I think the city is feeling more optimistic now that we have a new mayor, but there is still a lot of uncertainty.”
Morial said he’s concerned about further budget cuts, given President Donald Trump’s recent criticism of New Orleans as “pretty bad,” and the dramatic expansion of immigration enforcement that has coincided with overall cuts in federal spending for social programs and road repairs. Mr. Morial served as mayor from 1994 to 2002.
Morial also said he is concerned that the immigration enforcement movement in the New Orleans area is scaring off the workers needed to keep the city’s hotels and restaurants thriving. In December, immigrant rights groups organized several small protests in downtown New Orleans, holding signs criticizing the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign.
Tough times for the local economy
On Royal Street in the city’s storied French Quarter, longtime business owner Benny Nagy said he is having one of the worst years in memory. Nagy, who has run Mardi Gras Zone for 25 years, said customers aren’t buying, employees are quitting and the prices of international goods he imports are rising.
But standing in the warehouse-like store surrounded by beaded necklaces, sequined dresses and trinkets adorned with the city’s signature fleur-de-lis, Nagy said she remained optimistic.
Nagy said that while the city has struggled recently, he believes President Trump’s approach to international trade and tariffs, U.S. manufacturing and immigration enforcement will ultimately boost the nation’s overall economy.
“I honestly believe this is America’s golden age, and people won’t realize it until 10 years from now,” Nagy said. He was born in Iran when his Jewish family was still a child before being safely evacuated to Israel. They later immigrated to the United States.
Nagy, 59, said he can’t find anyone to pick apples on his farm 30 miles south of the city because of a pizza shop employee who quit after he raised an Israeli flag to commemorate the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, and a new immigration crackdown.
“You may feel squeamish, but there are multiple reasons for that,” he says. “We are experiencing great change in this country, and change creates uncertainty.”
Like Nagy, French Quarter tarot card reader Marie “Betty Boo” Ware also dismisses concerns about corruption in the city. She said all the port cities she’s worked in have had similar characteristics. And while New Orleans is suffering this year, she said many other Americans feel the same way.
Mr. Ware, 58, greets passing fortune tellers, musicians and homeless people by name from a folding table in Jackson Square, overlooking a memorial to the 14 people killed in the Jan. 1 terrorist attack.
With her new puppy, Lilybell, sitting by her side in a wheeled cart, Ware said she has been kicked out of the French Quarter for the past 20 years and now lives on the other side of the Mississippi River. She was thankful that Mother Nature spared the area from hurricanes this year, but worried the city couldn’t afford to have enough police officers on the streets to make tourists feel safe.
She said her conversations with clients throughout the year revealed deep economic insecurity among the population, to the point where she wondered aloud whether to quit her decades-long job as a tarot card reader or at least find another source of income.
In 2026, Mardi Gras will be held in mid-February, relatively early after the holidays, but Ware said he is concerned that people who are struggling to make ends meet at Christmas may not be willing to spend more to celebrate.
“When you get into an environment where everyone is financially insecure, you have to start thinking about whether you should really take on a part-time job,” she said. “All we can do is keep trying to put our best face on tourism.”
Big Easy remains optimistic
Tourists aren’t necessarily aware of the city’s challenges, but United Way officials on the front lines say they’re hopeful 2026 will start on a positive note. Michael Williamson, president and CEO of United Way of Southeast Louisiana, said he’s hearing a sense of optimism throughout the region.
The number of people seeking help through United Way nearly doubled from 2023-2024 to 2024-2025, and the organization rolled out “Prosperity Centers” to help local residents pay taxes, qualify for government programs, and even make a down payment on a home or car.
“I think people here are very proud that this is their home, and they come together every day to make it better. The way the community shows up for each other… it makes people optimistic when they see others leading the way,” Williamson said. “Who in New Orleans isn’t excited about Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest and all the people who want to come here?”
That’s the attitude Michelle Gollner feels every time she visits her hometown. Gollner, 44, a native of New Orleans, moved to Baton Rouge several years ago and was visiting with friends after recently getting married.
She said she had never considered encouraging wedding guests to visit the Big Easy, despite all the challenges.
“One of the things people often say about New Orleans is that we are resilient,” Gollner said. “Not even Katrina could take us out. We’re here to stay.”
