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re: When did Tigerland start to fall apart?
Posted on 10/19/26 at 10:41 am to BU Bear In BR
Posted on 10/19/26 at 10:41 am to BU Bear In BR
quote:
It's crazy to think that area was ever considered a good living area at one point in time
It's only a recent change in society where living in college wasn't supposed to be living poor, for the most part. That was part of the charm.
Posted on 10/19/26 at 10:44 am to I-59 Tiger
i had great friends who lived right smack in the middle of it...great times...not sure when cancer killed it, but they kill everthing they touch
Posted on 10/19/26 at 10:47 am to I-59 Tiger
I lived around campus from 2004 to 2010 and a few of those years was off Brightside. Recall a few people I knew living in Tiger Plaza around 2004-2005, but really no one living there after that. Sharlo lasted a bit longer with some friends living there until I moved away.
It was not nice by any stretch of the imagination, and you could tell it was less and less college students. But we'd still walk back to Brightside after a night out. By the time I left, that was considered very risky.
It was not nice by any stretch of the imagination, and you could tell it was less and less college students. But we'd still walk back to Brightside after a night out. By the time I left, that was considered very risky.
Posted on 10/19/26 at 10:49 am to Texas Tea 123
quote:
Late 90s?
About right. I lived there from 1997-1999 and it was on its way down, but still probably 80% college students
Posted on 10/19/26 at 10:51 am to I-59 Tiger
People forget there were some events in the 1980’s that changed the area. The oil & petrochemical recession in the mid 80’s drove Louisiana into a downward spiral. State employment, population, and eventually enrollment at LSU fell. There were large areas of newly built neighborhoods and apartments that were not doing well. The savings and loan crisis also hurt real estate.
Into the 90’s and early 2000’s the older units were converting to subsidized housing. If people are serious about LSU being successful and Baton Rouge doing well, then there needs to be a concrete plan to redevelop this area.
Tigerland is mentioned far too often in conversations about why parents want their kids going elsewhere.
Into the 90’s and early 2000’s the older units were converting to subsidized housing. If people are serious about LSU being successful and Baton Rouge doing well, then there needs to be a concrete plan to redevelop this area.
Tigerland is mentioned far too often in conversations about why parents want their kids going elsewhere.
Posted on 10/19/26 at 10:52 am to SlowFlowPro
quote:
recent change in society where living in college wasn't supposed to be living poor
This is insane to me. When I drive through LSU and see BMW's, Mercedes and Porsches parked next to $85,000 Z-71's my mind is blown.
I loved living as a poor college student. It makes what I have now all the more enjoyable. I can't imagine where you go once you have had a new car and your own custom condo apartment in college. The rest of your life would seem like a let down.
Posted on 10/19/26 at 11:01 am to I-59 Tiger
I was a regular from 87-92, and there were nights where gunshots could be heard….. fights outside of (back then) SPORTS and FRED’S at least every 2-3 nights.
The apartments were “ok”, but not hood holes ….. yet
The apartments were “ok”, but not hood holes ….. yet
Posted on 10/19/26 at 11:07 am to jbgleason
quote:
Tigerland was mixed students and ghetto mid-1980’s. That was when Section 8 really became a thing and Gardere went completely sideways.
By 1990, the conversion was complete and anywhere past Sports was a No-Go. The Circle K across from Sports was the DMZ where drunk students, hoodrat gangsters and BRPD all stood around the parking lot looking at each other while eating microwave burritos.
nailed it - 1990-95 here
the townhouses further down off Alvin Dark towards Brightside Drive were still nice back then but the apartments off YA Tittle and the houses right behind The Tiger Bar etc were absolute scenes in the early 90s. The best area to live was Brightside View back then
Posted on 10/19/26 at 11:07 am to Jon A thon
I lived at Tiger Plaza for 1 year in 2007. It wasn't great, but we survived. I remember a little further into Tigerland was definitely dark at that point.
Posted on 10/19/26 at 11:10 am to jbgleason
quote:
igerland was mixed students and ghetto mid-1980’s.
Exactly. The new apartments by 1985 were Brightside and Gardere Lane. Tiger Land was already getting shabby.
Posted on 10/19/26 at 11:15 am to SlowFlowPro
quote:
I mean Sharlo survived a serial killer but couldn't survive legislative tax advantages for initial depreciation amounts
damn son
Posted on 10/19/26 at 11:22 am to I-59 Tiger
It was already headed down in the late 80s (same with Gardere). But after the 1986 Tax Reform got rid of a lot of the tax shelters that built and maintained them. Apartments quickly got sold off as Section 8 and the houses off Gardere flipped to "affordable housing"
Posted on 10/19/26 at 11:23 am to supatigah
My 7 years at LSU were interesting 
Posted on 10/19/26 at 11:23 am to I-59 Tiger
Savings and Loan crisis. Lots of properties were sold for a song and they went Sec 8. The surrounding apartments and 4 plexes slowly died and went Sec 8 as well.
This post was edited on 10/19/26 at 11:24 am
Posted on 10/19/26 at 11:25 am to I-59 Tiger
It wasn't great in the early 2000s, but it had really started to turn to shite by 2010. Derek Todd Lee feels like a point when it really changed. Katrina certainly didn't help.
Around that same time, there was an explosion of new apartment complexes that drew students away from the older Tigerland area.
Around that same time, there was an explosion of new apartment complexes that drew students away from the older Tigerland area.
This post was edited on 10/19/26 at 11:29 am
Posted on 10/19/26 at 11:25 am to I-59 Tiger
Tigerland was dumpy but still safe to walk through in the late 90s and early 00s. Coming from Nola, it didn’t seem ghetto at all.
But section 8 did what section does, and now normal people must avoid. It’s an embarrassment that our leaders allowed lsu to be bracketed by absolute garbage. LSU is the crown jewel of Louisiana and the state just allowed it to be surrounded by trash.
But section 8 did what section does, and now normal people must avoid. It’s an embarrassment that our leaders allowed lsu to be bracketed by absolute garbage. LSU is the crown jewel of Louisiana and the state just allowed it to be surrounded by trash.
Posted on 10/19/26 at 11:29 am to SlowFlowPro
quote:
The real change happened after Katrina with the Go Zone legislation. This allowed the major expansion of apartment buildings immediately, which led to students leaving Sharlo and Tigerland, and it went Section 8. By the time I graduated law school in 2008 it was unrecognizable.
I lived in Azalea Point (Looks like it renamed to Retreat at Brightside) in 05-06. They were not very nice, but it wasn't unsafe. No chance i'd ever choose to live there again today
Posted on 10/19/26 at 11:30 am to TBoy
quote:
The new apartments by 1985 were Brightside and Gardere Lane.
State Street area and anything north of campus was long gone and claimed by the hood by the early 90s. I remember I went back for a game late 90s and saw someone had built the townhouses behind the Chimes and I was thinking that was a bad idea but they seem to still be pretty nice and safe now.
of course there is gated entrance.
Gardere was pretty spotty house to house back then but still somewhat ok across the board. That changed for the worse pretty quickly in the Mid-90s
Plantation Trace was still relatively high end but the nicest spot was the new Apartments across from the Senior Living Facility on Lee near Highland and Lee. I cant remember the name of them now.
I knew a lot of people that lived in rent houses in Cherrydale/Hollydale area off of Acadian and I loved that part of town. Now those cottages and bungalows go for $500+K
Posted on 10/19/26 at 11:31 am to jbgleason
It was fine in the early and mid 90's.
When TOPS came around in the late 90's, the new, expensive apartments started popping up. Older apartments went downhill.
Parents who were spending on tuition shifted their spending dollars to better housing.
Posted on 10/19/26 at 12:00 pm to TheFonz
quote:
It happened whenever Tiger Plaza decided to go with section 8 instead of students.
I came here to say this.
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