New Orleans' homicide rates have even made Detroit's look good. In the" crack wars" of the early 1990s, New Orlean's homicide rate topped out at about 87 per hundred thousand, more than eight times the national average. Despite sharp declines at the end of the 1990s, New Orleans' rate is similar to Detroit's and more than four times higher than New York City's. Compare sunbelt Houston to New Orleans. Do you think Houston more resembles New Orleans or New York City?