Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans during his State of the City address Wednesday night. (Mylan Cannon/NYT Institute)

From the beginning of his final State of the City address, Mayor C. Ray Nagin made it clear that he wanted to “set the record straight.”

He painted a picture of a New Orleans that is on a steady track toward recovery four years after Hurricane Katrina, while denouncing the assertion that recovery efforts are moving too slow.

“We have the infrastructure development to support a world-class city,” Nagin said. “Our hurricane protection system is the best it’s ever been, and we’re getting better every day.”

Nagin delivered his speech on Wednesday night in the renovated Mahalia Jackson Theatre, which he called a symbol for the city’s future.

When he delivered his State of the City address in 2008, Nagin didn’t have the backdrop of the nation’s poor economy to worry about. Still, he appeared confident that New Orleans is on track to financial stability.

“We have more than $20 billion in construction that is driving an economic boom,” he said.

Nagin, who will leave office next May after eight years, announced that the city has signed a letter of intent to pay $7.3 million for the Chevron building, which would house the new “green” City Hall.

Redeveloping neighborhoods and housing was also on the mayor’s agenda. According to Nagin, after Katrina the city invested $20 million in housing and that investment has resulted in $200 million in developments and programs.

Recently, 300 elderly and disabled residents were awarded forgivable home-repair loans of up to $35,000. Nagin announced that $10 million has been allocated for the next phase of that initiative.

The mayor also announced that the Housing Authority of New Orleans and the federal Housing and Urban Development department are working together to turn the Iberville housing project, the only project without a modernization plan, into a mixed-income development.

Two gospel groups perform as video of Mayor C. Ray Nagin is projected in the background. (Mylan Cannon/NYT Institute)

He said that construction on the Saint Bernard and C.J. Peete housing projects has begun. Nagin also said that construction on the Lafitte housing project will begin in June or July.

The city continues to confront safety issues, and Nagin said that despite violent incidents , there have been improvements.

According to Nagin, the number of arrests has decreased, from 134,000 in 2004 to 84,000 last year. The number of violent crimes also fell, from 12,000 in 1994 to 3,000 in 2008.

However, he said he still recognizes that there are problems to combat.

“Just a week ago two young boys, barely teenagers, one 13 and the other 14, were unable to resolve a conflict and the tragic result left one dead,” Nagin said.

He used this example to paint a bigger picture of boys who witnessed the horrors of Katrina and grew to believe that no one cared for them. One result, he said, would be violence.

“We have three very combustible collisions colliding: post-Katrina stress, the re-establishment of the drug culture and too many of our youth wanting to be the next American gangster instead of pursuing the American Dream.”

Nagin made an appeal to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, asking him not to shut down the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital. He said that part of the violence in New Orleans can be attributed to mental health issues and that shutting down the hospital will increase violent crimes and suicides.

Nagin also spoke at length about race, an issue he said he believes has torn the city apart.

After Hurricane Katrina, there was controversy over displaced residents who were excluded from the voting process.

“We fought each other, blamed each other, vilified certain leaders, targeted and defamed some, and have come to the point where trust in this city is at a very low level,” Nagin said. “Sorry, but this is the naked truth.”

Although he used the term “naked truth” throughout his address, he chose not to discuss controversial issues facing the city’s government. The mayor did not mention the recent allegations that he received funding for trips from a company linked to former technology chief Greg Meffert. He also didn’t address the controversy that arose after it was discovered that e-mails he sent and received had been deleted by City Hall employees.