re: Having a hard time justifying remaining here..

If you have the opportunity to move from Louisiana, take it. I’m out in Nevada now. Moved here without knowing a soul but it’s what you make it, and now I have a nice network. Aside from blazing hot summers, we have good weather 9 months out of the year. No state income tax. Roads are new and construction gets done.

It is mind boggling to me how the city of NOLA lets their streets get so physically run down. Take for example Magazine street, a very busy thoroughfare that has almost paralyzing potholes. I’ve always thought that this is a street that probably sees a good amount of tourists. Shouldn’t the city be putting together a better foot forward? Sadly, these types of things are not on the leadership’s radar.

I was back in NOLA in May and couldn’t leave fast enough. My parents (who have also moved out of state) said the same thing on one of their recent trips. I will go back to visit family only.

Bolt if you can. There’s always an airplane to bring you back to visit.

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I could have told you back in April of this year how old tornadoes get in the Birmingham area after several “high risk” bouts in a row for example.

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Grew up in South Louisiana, family has been there since Le Grand Derangement. Between environment and schools, could not justify raising my family there. In Birmingham area for job—it has snowed once in seven years and the kids loved it. We did have a F2 roll through town in March, but you could go 50 feet in either direction and get food, water, and cel service. No fatalities and most of the houses that got hit are fixed already b/c the scale did not overwhelm the local contractor/building supply capacity.
Six straight years with a MAJOR disaster somewhere on the northern Gulf Coast. Last five years were the hottest years on record. Cousin in Lake Charles is STILL in a rent house. I miss the food and the people, but we have three spots in town that have good boiled crawfish, and can be back in five hours if we want to. Some people love it and will never leave, and I get that. But it’s usually good to leave emotion out of financial decisions.

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And this obviously extends beyond New Orleans to all of south LA and the rest of the gulf coast.

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Texas is a great option, despite popular opinion on OT, Poli, TD.

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Florida and Tennessee are your best eastern options. Texas to the west.

Please stay put if you’re a Democrat.

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People need to stay the frick out of Tennessee. I'm in a rural area outside Chattanooga and we have 3 new neighbors in our neighborhood from California and New York.

How the frick did they find us?

Flower Mound is where we want to move to if we stay in area.

Just moving to Jefferson Parish was good enough for me. No potholes and very little crime. shite gets fixed fast. Watch how quick they get power back

My girl Cynthia Lee is gonna get it done.

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If you have the opportunity to move from Louisiana, take it. I’m out in Nevada now. Moved here without knowing a soul but it’s what you make it, and now I have a nice network. Aside from blazing hot summers, we have good weather 9 months out of the year. No state income tax. Roads are new and construction gets done.

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I left Louisiana after graduating from UNO in 1999 and haven’t looked back. I turned down two excellent job offers (one in NOLA and the other in Lafayette) in the energy sector because it felt like energy and tourism were the only two choices for employment in the state at the time and that seemed too risky long-term.

Add to that the shitty weather, the crime, and the overall brain drain in the area and it was an easy decision for me at the time since I didn’t have a wife or kids.

I landed in Northern California and couldn’t be happier. The economy is diverse, the people are better than expected, and when the sierras aren’t on fire like they are right now, the region is beautiful.

I often think about how shitty my life would probably be had I stayed in the New Orleans area and thank my younger self for having the balls to GTFO. When I return to visit family and friends (and go to Tiger Stadium), I enjoy it, but am super thankful each time I’m on the plane on the way back to what is now home for me.

I’m in my early 40’s now and am a multi-millionaire with a $5M net worth (much of it liquid). I’m only mentioning this to motivate others to leave because I am 100% certain I wouldn’t have been this fortunate in life had I stayed in Louisiana.

I'm not originally from LA. I ended up at LSU and then stuck around in BR after I graduated because jobs were hard to come by in 2008. I worked for a few years in BR, then at first chance I made the move to New Orleans. After a few years of New Orleans, my wife and I decided we wanted a family, but we did not want to raise a family in Louisiana. Just too much bullshite to deal with. We moved back to Nashville, where I'm from. I was worried my wife would get homesick as she's from BR, but she says it was the best decision she's ever made and she would never even think of moving back.

I love going back down there and hanging out in BR or New Orleans for a few days and seeing old friends and family, but after a few days I'm reminded of why we left. It's going nowhere. I'm sure we could have made a happy life down there, but not as happy as we have now.

Anyways, just an outsider's perspective. Feel free to disagree. Everyone is different, and some may find more meaning down there than I did.

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Just moving to Jefferson Parish was good enough for me. No potholes and very little crime. shite gets fixed fast. Watch how quick they get power back

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Its funny you say that because anytime my mother flies into DFW and we are driving back to Plano she thinks this is Utopia.

She has lived on the Westbank for longer than I have been alive.