New Orleans was built on a dream—and on a swamp. And in 2025, that dream is collapsing under the weight of cracked asphalt, sunken sewer lines, and a city government that keeps digging holes deeper than it knows how to fill.
At the center of it all: an $800 million budget shortfall that has stalled more than 90 road construction projects across the city. Streets sit half-torn, pipes lie exposed, and residents are once again being asked to live with the consequences of short-sighted planning layered on top of centuries of environmental hubris.
A City Built to Sink
Let’s start with the geography. New Orleans was not designed to thrive—it was engineered to defy nature. Most of the city sits below sea level, carved out of swampland, with massive levee systems and drainage canals working overtime just to keep the ground dry.
That same dry ground is deceptive. Drainage efforts in the 20th century permanently altered the water table, causing the city’s organic-rich soil to dehydrate, compact, and sink—a process known as subsidence. That sinking ground doesn’t just buckle sidewalks and break sewer lines. It devours entire blocks and demands constant, expensive repairs that are never truly finished.
So when people ask, “Why are the roads so bad?” The answer is simple: Because the land they’re built on is unstable—and the system we built to tame it is both underfunded and outdated.
The $800 Million Hole We’re In
In a City Council meeting earlier this year, it was revealed that New Orleans is $800 million short of what it needs to complete already-planned infrastructure projects. These aren’t hypothetical plans. These are roads torn up, pipes removed, and neighborhoods left stranded in dust and debris.
According to WWL-TV, multiple FEMA-funded street repair projects have been halted due to poor management, incomplete designs, and ballooning costs. Residents who once celebrated long-overdue repairs are now dodging potholes the size of bathtubs in areas that were supposed to be finished years ago.
The Sewerage & Water Board’s Warning Shot
The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans (SWBNO) is ringing its own alarm bells. In a 10-year outlook released this year, the agency reported it needs $939 million just to upgrade the city’s drainage system—and has secured only 7% of that funding so far.
This is the same agency that’s still under federal consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency. The same agency where power outages and water main breaks have become so routine that residents barely flinch anymore.
And in case that wasn’t enough, the SWBNO is currently executing a $600 million rehabilitation push under its long-running Sewer System Evaluation and Rehabilitation Program (SSERP), which began under a federal consent decree in 1998. The initiative targets hundreds of miles of decaying sewer lines — many dating back to the 19th century — that leak untreated waste into the ground and pose serious public health risks.
FEMA Gave Us $2 Billion—So Why Are We Still Here?
After Hurricane Katrina, FEMA gave the city nearly $2 billion to rebuild streets, sewer lines, and water systems. But according to a damning report from The Lens, the funding came with rigid restrictions. The money could only be used to replace infrastructure exactly as it was—not to improve it or make it climate-resilient.
So instead of investing in modern solutions like green infrastructure, permeable pavement, or restored wetlands, the city rebuilt a 20th-century system in a 21st-century crisis. It’s like replacing a rusty engine with a slightly shinier version of the same broken one—and expecting it to win the race.
Leadership Has Been Silent—And That’s the Problem
City officials have made little effort to explain the magnitude of the crisis. There’s no plan, no public-facing map of paused projects, and no timeline for how this will be addressed. Meanwhile, residents pay the price—literally—with higher utility bills, skyrocketing car maintenance costs, and lost wages from impassable streets and flooded blocks.
But at least one member of the City Council isn’t staying quiet. Councilmember Joseph Giarrusso, who chairs the City Council’s Budget Committee, has been among the few voices demanding answers.
“We have the stuff on a slide, fine,” Giarrusso said in a public meeting. “The truthful answer is the projects that are ready to go are at the front of the line, the projects that are most ready to go are second, and the projects that aren’t ready to go are at the end, and they’re not going to be funded.”
His comments speak to the chaos and opacity of a process that has sidelined dozens of neighborhoods without warning or consultation. Over 60 projects have reportedly been paused. And the council—many of whom represent the communities now left in limbo—weren’t even brought to the table when the decisions were made.
This isn’t just bad infrastructure. It’s environmental injustice. And it always hits the same neighborhoods first: Gentilly, New Orleans East, Hollygrove, Broadmoor. Communities that are already underserved are being asked to wait longer, pay more, and accept less.
A City That Can’t Keep Patching the Past
New Orleans cannot afford to keep building patchwork solutions on a sinking foundation. If we are serious about surviving climate change, stopping displacement, and preserving the city’s future, we must reimagine infrastructure as more than roads and pipes.
We must treat it as a moral imperative.
Because when water floods your house every time it rains, when your street collapses under your tires, when sewage backs up into your bathtub—that’s not just a public works failure. That’s political violence.
And it’s time we held those responsible accountable.
