re: What can honestly be done to fix New Orleans in terms of crime & mismanagement?

You have to start with families first. you repair the family and you can then repair education.

The best thing to do is make it hard to get gov benefits. You increase the tax incentive to not have kids out of wedlock.

Once you get the family structure back to normal, then you can go after fixing the schools.

You also need to fix the justice system. You go hard as frick on all crime for a bit locking problems up for a long time. Then you slowly back off the lower level stuff by offering an out. You offer something like huge community service with the attachment that they have to learn some kind of work training skill.

Of course you also would need to start by attracting better police. The problem here is money and working conditions.