re: Gambit article: "Is NOLA Worth It?"

This thread got totally hijacked...

But as someone born uptown and have lived in Nola for my entire 28 years, outside of my stint at LSU, I find myself scratching my head and looking at opportunities outside the state. The biggest thing holding me back here is family/roots. A lot of my college friends that moved to Nola after school have moved away. I am comfortable with the job opportunities here in my line of work, but the cost of living versus what you get in return is driving me crazy lately.

SFP said it earlier, but it's true: New Orleans' charm is its apathetic attitude and resistance to change/evolution.

There's a lot that needs to be done to turn this city around, and it probably belongs in a different thread. Each person who lives here has a different answer for "Is nola worth it," but right now for me, it isn't worth it.

quote:

---

I get New Orleans, as I said previously it's my favorite city in the world. It still isn't worth it to live there, and I wasn't going to move to the suburbs of New Orleans.

---

This is how I feel

quote:

---

quote:

quote:

---

name a place in La that's better to live than Nola

---

Mandeville, Lafayette


In terms of raising a family and not being completely in the middle of nowhere

---

Agreed. If I did not plan on having a family, I would have stayed in New Orleans, though.

quote:

---

Lafayette metro passed up Shreveport metro baw

---

Which is why I said Shreveport is the 3rd biggest city in the state. Because it is

quote:

---

Yep Lakeview and Mid City is completely affordable

---

Calling lakeview and mid city affordable is somewhat of a joke

quote:

---

There's a gap between <100k and 250k, which is fairly easy to be in, if you marry someone who is educated.

Also, you don't have to have a 2500 sq ft house

You can also close with a lot less than 140k on hand.

---

Me and my wife do well for 30. A nurse and a CPA

Lakeview and Mid city are absolutely not affordable for us.

quote:

---

If you could clean up New Orleans crime, education, and infrastructure, you'd have companies flocking to locate themselves here I'd expect.

---

That chance was squandered 12 years ago. Of course, you could also argue that event reinforced the notion that the city could never really be a major business player again, regardless of what it did in recovery.

quote:

---

talking about a perceived lack of career opportunities, compensation they say hasn't kept pace with the rest of the country

---

Big problems facing NOLA and SoLa as a whole.

I think the high speed rail and better transit between BR and NO will put people in both cities within easy reach of two job markets, making the whole region more viable and competitive.

We seem to attract manufacturing and chemical companies but we can't retain or attract a lot of white collar jobs. New Orleans is actually an especially bad market for its size when it comes to that.

I am hoping that Brown and Root eventually becomes Shaw Part 2.
I'd like to see a discount airline use MSY as a hub too.

quote:

---

New Orleans had already lost its stature compared to Houston and Atlanta in the early to mid 1900s

---

After WWII is when it began.

I had looked at Jefferson parish budget vs Orleans. $600M vs $1.04B for 2017. Where does that much money go every year?

If I could make one change, it would be that all city spending over a certain (say $100k) amount gets published to the public in a very transparent way. The public doesn't get to vote on each piece of spending, but the city is required to notify residents on where the money goes. That way people are more informed when it comes to election time.

All of this information is available, but you have to dig for it or request it, and nobody has time or desire to actively seek it out. If it was presented to us on a frequent basis, I bet people would be storming city hall with pitchforks