re: Would you rather live in New Orleans or Memphis?

I've lived in both and economically and cost of living wise, Memphis is superior. I can buy a 4 bedroom house in North Mississippi or Collierville for about 75% -80% of what it cosst me for a smaller home in terms of square footage even in the Mandeville/Covington area.

However, Memphis is boring as frick and Beale Steet is a scary place after dark.....much worse than Bourbon....and it's not that big, maybe 4 blocks of anything worthwhile, the rest of Memphis has very little to recommend it in that regard. Memphis in May has one good weekend when the guys who played the first week of Jazz Fest go there the weekend after

Economically, Memphis is a little better than NOLA. Yeah they have Fed Ex, but unless you are in high demand tech , most of the jobs there are in the 35-60K range. However, if you are logistic guy, Memphis has a few opportunities at some of the distribution centers not named Fed Ex.

There are as many problems in Memphis as there are in NOLA and the lack of a Tennessee state income tax is not overall a justification in my mind for electing to move there.....Nashville maybe but certainly not Memphis, however what you trade off on the state income tax, the state will get you back in other fees and their take on your property tax, because Nashville gets its cut along with other fees. Nola has lots of issues mainly that the costof living keeps far exceeding the median income in the area's ability to pay especially in housing stock, auto and home insurance and believe it or not food....you pay about 15% more in Louisiana for a grocery run as opposed to the Memphis area