I Hate Shreveport! (New Orleans, Natchitoches, Haughton: neighborhood, income, quality of life)

[Chilly Gentilly]

Originally Posted by BeenThereDunThat

Our number 1 export is young people.

LOL...love this guy

[imaterry78259]

New Orleans, Dallas, Houston, LA and Atlanta beacons. Do you know that Shreveport/Bossier was about the same size of Austin in the 60's

[BeenThereDunThat]

I do know this: according to local demographer Elliot Stonecipher; Louisiana has more people leaving than coming in on a daily basis. The people coming in are mostly older and looking to retire, whereas the folks leaving are mostly younger who are seeking either better educational or work & lifestyle opportunities. Long-story short: Louisiana is losing the next generation of would-be families to other states. Young folks get married, have families, pursue careers and add more money to the tax base than retirees who live on fixed income and require more social services that are supported by tax dollars. In a nutshell, this means that Louisiana gets a double-whammy when young people leave and retirees move in.

We might fill up retirement communities, assisted-living centers and nursing homes but we're not increasing the median wage as our better educated workforce leaves the state. Growth in Bossier is from people leaving Caddo or relocating from other parishes mostly so that's a good thing but it comes at the overall expense to the state. And nothing is really being done to address it. The next cuts and tax adjustment proposals from Baton Rouge are really going to add fuel to the fire of outmigration. And yet no one seems to grasp this concept for some weird reason.

[annie_himself]

Louisiana was in the position to be what Texas is with our geographic location and logitics of Dallas/Shreveport and the port and energy industries of Houston/New Orleans.

[Chilly Gentilly]

Originally Posted by Wardendresden

SHV, I'm probably outside the mark here as I only read the first two pages of posts and maybe your business requires a huge city like SF or ATL, but if I were going to take a chance on living in California (given it's high taxes, high gas prices, still expensive housing (compared to other areas of the country), and the possibility that the state might go bankrupt, I'd chose San Luis Obispo to live in. It's beautiful there, close to the coast and to wine country. Has a 35,000 student university that provides plenty of college athletics and cultural activities, too. During the summer, I think it's every Thursday night, they close off six city blocks for an enhanced farmer's market, that includes hot food being sold, jams and jellies, cakes and pies, all sorts of fresh vegetables--and the night we were there the place was packed.
Not sure how an entrepeneur goes about getting a spot, but all of them were having a lot of traffic the night we were there.

SLO is a different kind of small city. There are fast food restaurants, but no drive through windows on any of them as they are prohibited by a municipal code, I believe.

I was only there once, but lived in Vacaville and San Diego both for a short while when I was much younger. Nothing I had ever seen in California compared to what I saw in SLO when my wife was interviewing for a position with the hospital there. Ultimately we chose Dallas because of the huge cost differential. But in terms of sheer beauty and variety in that beauty, SLO has a lot of places whipped easily.

Anyway, if you are able to move and are set on either Georgia or California, here is another pebble in the puddle.

Good luck to you.

And, by the way, my grandparents lived in Denham Springs and my father grew up holding onto a plow drawn by a mule somewhere south of New Orleans where he was born. We spent lots of vacations in DS.

SLO sounds like the perfect representation of all thats great about California! It just doesnt have the proximity to other cities that Sac has. SLO is 3 hours away from anything else...

[BeenThereDunThat]

Oh big time.... this area is ideal as a distribution center and commerce interchange. But it's never really done too much to enhance that aspect really. Shreveport's major growth seems to always come from outside influence and not from local initiatives although that's what the local / regional EconDev & CofC folks would like you to believe. Shreveport has finally caught up to the mid-1990's as far as what it could've been back then. I think the O&G bust of mid-to-late 1980's really had a long term impact on the local leadership here. I recall talking to friends on the phone back then when I was working out west and they said NW La. was U-Haul's best market but was having trouble supplying trucks & trailers fast enough as people were lining up to leave in droves. Guess a lot of those folks didn't come back which hurt the local economy and civic mindset.

A friend asked me if I was interested in attending a forum on local economic development in the digital media industry but after I saw all the same old names on the panel, I passed. These folks won't offer anything new, always waiting for some big whale to drop money in the development of the local biz. NW La. doesn't have a shortage of cheerleaders but we do have a shortage of developers and do'ers... the dreamers show up to talk and get their picture on TV and in the newspapers. Nothing really changes here.

[gayblacksoutherner]

I'm black and gay, and I've lived in Shreveport for the past 10 years with very few complaints. People are entitled to their opinions and the haters have every right to harbor such seething hatred toward this area if they wish. I'm just going to lay it out from my perspective.

Sure, I've had problems at times, but I'm very happy here. I live with my partner, and we're an openly gay AND INTERRACIAL couple (oh the horror!!) Everyone we work with knows this, all our neighbors know this, and no one seems to give a rat's behind. And everyone knows I'm black, there's no hiding that fact. And I wouldn't want to... I'm proud of who I am.

I'm also an old fart, probably older than most people here at age 68. I've lived in Atlanta at three different points in my life. I lived there during all the civil rights happenings, when white people would spit in the faces of myself and every other black person around. And if we dared do anything about it, we would be thrown in jail. Atlanta is a "new" big town. It's nothing more than an over-grown small town, and if not for all the civil rights happenings that occurred over there, I doubt that city would be where it is today. And it's still not perfect.

I lived there most recently just over 10 years ago, and while it had changed a lot, it still had its problems. Yes, I would live there again if I were offered a good opportunity that I couldn't get here. But, do I believe it's vastly superior to Shreveport? NO! It doesn't matter where I go, I'm still an "n-word", to put it nicely. I've also lived in Chicago, which is the third largest city in the country, and I honestly had more race and sexuality problems than anywhere I've lived. And Chicago has a lot of black people and a lot of gayborhoods. But outside of those gayborhoods, I was looked at by most people as an "n-word" and a "f@ggot".

So all I'm trying to say is, no place is perfect. And like I said, people have every right to have their own feelings about the place. If people are moving here, let them make up their own minds. Atlanta definitely wouldn't be the city it is today if not for new people moving into that area to add to the diversity. The same thing is happening here, albeit slowly. I think it happened in Atlanta more quickly because Atlanta was in the heart of the civil rights movement, and still is today. I lived in Shreveport for a while during the 50s and I admit I was afraid to move back here 10 years ago, but to be entirely honest it's come a long way. So anyone who thinks it's bad now should have been here back then.

Take care, young bloods. I'm not looking to argue, but I don't mind an honest, clean debate. I'm just calling it like I see it.

[hdwell]

Good post gayblacksoutherner. And I dare say anyone can get along in Shreveport with little hassle.

[Chilly Gentilly]

Originally Posted by gayblacksoutherner

I'm black and gay, and I've lived in Shreveport for the past 10 years with very few complaints. People are entitled to their opinions and the haters have every right to harbor such seething hatred toward this area if they wish. I'm just going to lay it out from my perspective.

Sure, I've had problems at times, but I'm very happy here. I live with my partner, and we're an openly gay AND INTERRACIAL couple (oh the horror!!) Everyone we work with knows this, all our neighbors know this, and no one seems to give a rat's behind. And everyone knows I'm black, there's no hiding that fact. And I wouldn't want to... I'm proud of who I am.

I'm also an old fart, probably older than most people here at age 68. I've lived in Atlanta at three different points in my life. I lived there during all the civil rights happenings, when white people would spit in the faces of myself and every other black person around. And if we dared do anything about it, we would be thrown in jail. Atlanta is a "new" big town. It's nothing more than an over-grown small town, and if not for all the civil rights happenings that occurred over there, I doubt that city would be where it is today. And it's still not perfect.

I lived there most recently just over 10 years ago, and while it had changed a lot, it still had its problems. Yes, I would live there again if I were offered a good opportunity that I couldn't get here. But, do I believe it's vastly superior to Shreveport? NO! It doesn't matter where I go, I'm still an "n-word", to put it nicely. I've also lived in Chicago, which is the third largest city in the country, and I honestly had more race and sexuality problems than anywhere I've lived. And Chicago has a lot of black people and a lot of gayborhoods. But outside of those gayborhoods, I was looked at by most people as an "n-word" and a "f@ggot".

So all I'm trying to say is, no place is perfect. And like I said, people have every right to have their own feelings about the place. If people are moving here, let them make up their own minds. Atlanta definitely wouldn't be the city it is today if not for new people moving into that area to add to the diversity. The same thing is happening here, albeit slowly. I think it happened in Atlanta more quickly because Atlanta was in the heart of the civil rights movement, and still is today. I lived in Shreveport for a while during the 50s and I admit I was afraid to move back here 10 years ago, but to be entirely honest it's come a long way. So anyone who thinks it's bad now should have been here back then.

Take care, young bloods. I'm not looking to argue, but I don't mind an honest, clean debate. I'm just calling it like I see it.

Really good post. And great perspective! I won't shy away from the obvious that I have personal issues with Shreveport and that after so long I'm just tired of the "psuedo-progress". While I can appreciate your experience in other cities, especially one that we're seriously considering (ATL), I was heavily apart of the new "Progressive Shreveport" at one point. After so long you just get tired of people saying the same thing and nothing ever really happening.

The only thing Shreveport can tout as "progress" is the now-dwindling film industry here. Hurricane Katrina helped move some of that work here, but now people are going back to New Orleans or Atlanta to film. This is mainly because Shreveport offers little to no character as a city. Half the city is impoverished ghetto. Half is chain restaurants and cookie-cutter houses. This is just the truth! I will even ask you; What does Shreveport represent? What is the Shreveport style of flavor? What is indelibly Shreveport???

One of my main business partners is well traveled, like yourself, and is now in Shreveport. He also vouches for this city, but my argument remains constant that after experiencing such great cities, Shreveport offers the slow mediocrity that people enjoy once they're older. I mean absolutely no disrespect by that comment.

I love the fact that you're an openly gay man in Shreveport, as I am a HUGE supporter of Gay equality. But how many homosexual couples do you and your partner fellowship with here that are openly Gay? I doubt very many. You blew my mind about Chicago, though.

[annie_himself]

Shreveport is like a city in Texas, without the prosperity of being a city in Texas.