re: Lafayette ranked in the top 10 small cities that could become next powerhouses

Louisiana as a state is not tax friendly enough to businesses or consumers for any kind of major movement by the tech industry. Doesn't matter how great Lafayette is.

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Just look at the success of the Waitr App based out of Lake Charles as an example.

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big difference, broseph

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I've always wondered about this. Seems like the biggest city I've ever seen that really has no semblance of a downtown skyline at all. Why is that?

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Because for the past 40 years, Lafayette has relied almost solely on O&G and all of those offices are outside the city limits because they have large equipment that cant fit in a downtown high rise

Gulfport is 4th on that list. I've lived a block away from that place for most of my life and still visit my mom down there frequently.

I have no idea where they took the picture that they are using on that website.

They may have the superficial qualities needed to become a boomtown but I don’t see an industry that would fuel such a boom.

Oil may be successful but the per barrel prices are low for now between fracking, tar sands, and an OPEC production glut.

I also don’t see the area serving as an incubator for any technologies that could grow and take the city with it, which the tech sector did with Austin, Silicon Valley, etc.


At best, I see it as a place where a business may start but not where it stays, such as Delta Airlines beginning in Monroe before moving to Atlanta.

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Recently, there's been a spike in new jobs here, many in the tech sector—about 60,000 in the past five years alone. That's an impressive feat for a city, about two hours west of New Orleans, best known for its Cajun cuisine. Unusual for this area, Lafayette has a plethora of recently built homes. While new home construction languished nationally from 2010 to 2013, after the financial crisis, Lafayette was putting up new places at more than double the national average pace—and it's only accelerated from there. The attractions of this city, which rose out of the fabled Atchafalaya Swamp, the largest in the country, aren’t limited to king cake, zydeco music, and crawfish. (Although, seriously, try the crawfish.) It was named the happiest city in the U.S. by the National Bureau of Economic Research in 2014.

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I’m not sure wtf they got this 60,000 tech jobs figure. That is definitely not the case.

And unfortunately the “happiest city” and great economy thing was probably true in 2014, but the local economy has been on the downturn since early 2015 when the price of oil went to shite

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Actually I would not pooh pooh the Gulf Coast from BStL to Ocean Springs

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i will actually agree. i have spent a little time there recently b/c my gf is from there

Ocean Springs has fewer people than LC by a wide margin but lots more restaurant and has a cool little Austin vibe going on. i was thinking that region may boom at some point. the have the air force base, casinos, tourism, and O/G, as main industries.

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Ocean Springs

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Is a really nice small town. I could easily live there.

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The problem is that they are still in LA and have to deal with the ineptitude of our state government.

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ding ding ding

Lafayette could have been the epicenter for energy instead of Houston if the politicians weren't so corrupt.