re: Downtown Lafayette getting ZERO new high rise towers

quote:

---

Baw you're upset about losing the old Don's? I get it now, you're over 65 aren't you?


Sorry to hear about your friend, that's tragic, but you should give downtown another shot, its different from even a few years ago. I lived in Freetown up until about 9 months ago and never had any issue aside from the occasional bum downtown trying to ask for money, that's pretty much any city. We'd walk/ride bikes to Downtown Alive, Festival, etc. go have drinks in the afternoon, dinner in the evening, then more drinks, and walk home to Freetown without a single incident over 10 years. I miss being that close.

---

Late 30s but I'm basically a boomer.

Yeah frick it, I'll go more often. I really like the vibe out there, but I find that I can easily just chainsmoke outside cottage on campus and hang with the old hippies and get drunk.

And no bums if I go about it that way.

What keeps me going downtown still is the food though. And reve.

The crime in downtown Laffy is nothing like areas of NOLA or BR…. The worst part of Laffy is From 90 north around University..

quote:

---

dukke v

---

What up peej, how ya doing today.

Some things never change do they, little man?

quote:

---

A Smoke Break

---

quote:

---

I find that I can easily just chainsmoke outside

---

Name checks out

I feel like downtown falls somewhere between where Cajunhawk81 sees it and Epic Cajun sees it.

quote:

---

Unless you completely eliminate the garbage of north lafayette, downtown isn't going to develop past it's stage that it's already at.

---

It’s gotten worse in just the last 5 years. We used to get tore up in 2012 at Marley’s Power Hour Wednesdays. Nowadays by midnight, it’s just a crowded street with no way to move and lurkers everywhere too broke to get in the bars. It’s one argument away from a mass shooting. The particular demographic that loiters the street follows a spray and pray methodology to problem resolution.

Probably.

quote:

---

I like downtown Lafayette (and the whole city really), but they need to open a few hotels and condo buildings. Having more people living/staying down there will help squeeze some of that out.

---

This seems to be the push. They've recently opened the Vermillionville Lofts, they're currently renovating the old federal courthouse for a residential complex, and, if it actually happens, these two buildings will add additional residential space.

It's part of the reason I expect some of this residential development to spill over into Freetown. It seems like only a matter of time before people start scooping up all those 1200sq ft cottages, renovating them, and putting them back on the market similar to a bunch of the houses in the Saint Streets.

Freetown isn't too terrible between Jefferson & University, its the little area from Jefferson to the Thruway that's a bit sketchy. Most of what's from Jefferson it University is rent houses and college students.

ETA: Buchanan Lofts also all look really nice but are pretty high priced at around $200k for a 2/1 under 1000sq ft. Buchanan Heights just opened up downtown as well.

quote:

---

Freetown isn't too terrible between Jefferson & University, its the little area from Jefferson to the Thruway that's a bit sketchy.

---

Not sure that will improve. They are about to build an elevated freeway on their doorstep (the alignment is between the railroad tracks and Evangeline).

At least whenever they finally build the I-49 corridor.