re: Living in New Orleans and maybe Louisiana in general is a hard way of life.

I lived in Chicago for years and its the same crap (give and take some issues) as New Orleans.

NOLA somehow has worse roads despite only Chicago having frost heaves. Both have utterly incompetent government and rampant crime that is getting way worse. Chicago's traffic is far worse. Every time I have a long drive down Saint Charles and I get stuck in slow traffic, I just think of the long slog to O'hare at rush hour on Friday.

Long story short I'm at the point in my life where a clean mid-size city is sounding very appealing. I'm not a single kid anymore, I don't go out 2-3 days a week with my friends, I like focusing on family and work.