re: shreveport vs. lafayette business climate

On a side note, Lafayette has made strides to make their economy more diverse. It's an emerging medical city; every hospital in the area has expanded and many specialty hospitals have moved into the area. Oil will stay in Lafayette for a long while, one reason, Lafayette has developed itself as a manufacturing hub for many service companies including Baker and Halliburton and has an extremely skilled workforce in that field. Also, due to mergers and acquisitions, three of the fastest growing banks in the state are based in the city making moves into Houston, Dallas and New Orleans. And technically, Lafayette only counts two parishes in it's MSA but neighboring parishes that count on the city for services number over 600,000. Oil is still head and shoulders the king of the city but it is a lot different than the eighties.