re: Life in Louisiana - Considering moving home

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You are slave to your job with long commutes to work.

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While I have no problem putting in the hours, even some extra ones to help me advance, adding a bitch of a commute gets to me sometimes. Some people have pointed out well move closer to your job, but my company has a few different locations. Main ones are downtown and in the energy corridor. Right now I'm downtown, but when I have to commute to EC closer to Katy, my drive time going home is anywhere from an hour and a half to 2+ hours, not counting the hour in the morning.

Seems like TOPS would be a huge draw for families with high school aged children. Especially those that can't afford to pay for college out of pocket.

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It's just the first leg of a planned city-wide network of walking trails that will connect nearly every BREC property from Santa Maria to the LSU Lakes to downtown to independence park to the Zoo. It's a pretty ambitious plan and the downtown greenway is just the very first part.

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Read this and started looking for info, but can't find any. Links? Regardless of moving back or not, that would be a nice thing to add to BR.

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Seems like TOPS would be a huge draw for families with high school aged children. Especially those that can't afford to pay for college out of pocket.

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I think it would be a huge draw as well for parents that CAN afford college but have smart kids. I would love to pocket college tuition saved for my kids and roll over into my retirement.

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But shouldn't you put YOUR (immediate) family above others? It almost seems selfish to sacrifice YOUR (immediate) family for the company of other friends and relatives. Besides, Houston is only a 4 hour straight shot from Baton Rouge.

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The benefit of moving back to be closer to family, close friends etc., is not for their benefit but that of my kids, wife, and myself. My daughter begs to go to her grandparents houses in "swana" cause it's her favorite place and cries when it's time to leave. The draw for that is her and my son getting to have grandparents and aunt's and uncle's come to more events like games, recitals, etc. and getting to hang out more with the kids of our friends who we know share our parenting style, generally speaking. None of that matters much though if you don't have a job, which H-town offers more options and stability.

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I think it would be a huge draw as well for parents that CAN afford college but have smart kids. I would love to pocket college tuition saved for my kids and roll over into my retirement.

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Smart kids are going to get scholarships anywhere. TOPS will get your average kid a free ride

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Can you do anything else besides O&G,

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I got into it because I worked offshore during college. I do design work for new offshore facilities, so it was a natural transition. I'm certainly not opposed to other facets of engineering, and assuming I passed the PE last month, I would have more options.

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Does it have to Baton Rouge?

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95% of our friends live here. Family is an hour away as opposed to 4. I like Mandeville. Wife has some family there. I just prefer BR.

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Doesn't matter if you live off Highland by CCLA or near Gardere. Also no place you can feel comfortable taking a run after dark.

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I grew up in BR. Moved away for college, came back for grad school, before getting a job in Austin. My folks live in Old Goodwood and I've never felt unsafe in that area of town. I'm not saying that there isn't crime; just that I've never had any problems.

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Between the two we pay about 9K. If we were still in Katy, my oldest would be in public school, and my youngest would be in pre-school at a cost of about 8K. So right now, it's only 1K more. By comparison, when we lived in Katy, we were paying about 16K for the two of them. However, in a couple of years, my youngest would be able to go to public school also, and at that time, we would be paying 0 in Katy, and we are paying 9K now.

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At least the mid-city and downtown BR area is light years better than even 5 years ago. Tons of great restaurants, new library, great neighborhoods, etc. I moved back 7 years ago and started a family and like it here for the most part. having family here helps, but really feel like the career prospects have picked up. To me this is the number one thing that brought me here and is keeping me here.

Definitely have to factor in commuting as well. 1-2hrs of traffic per day = cost of gas, maintenance, lost time with family, health, etc. This can easily amount to putting one kid into a good private school in BR. I live 5 minutes from work and my son's school. My advice to anyone moving back would be to make sure you live and work north or south of i10/i12 if you can help it. Stay off and away from the interstate system in this town if at all possible.

Also, lots of kids are opting for the magnet schools once they finish 8th grade because they are very well funded in BR (see BR high and the new LEE high) and comparable if not better than private.