Where to live in Baton Rouge? (Hammond, Jefferson: for sale, apartment, to rent)

[cmcnutt1]

My fiance and I are moving to Baton Rouge within the next month and we don't have much time to visit and figure out where the fun, safe parts of town are to live. He will be working in Port Hudson (Zachary area), but we are both young and would probably like to live in the city. I won't be working and would like to be in an area where it will be easy to meet people and make friends. We'd like to live in an area of town where most essentials are within walking distance (grocery, some retail and some good bars for happy hour). My biggest concern is safety. We currently live in Knoxville, TN... so not much crime here! If you can point us to some good safe, but still fun and cultured parts of town we'd really appreciate it! Thanks

[BRMan]

Originally Posted by cmcnutt1

My fiance and I are moving to Baton Rouge within the next month and we don't have much time to visit and figure out where the fun, safe parts of town are to live. He will be working in Port Hudson (Zachary area), but we are both young and would probably like to live in the city. I won't be working and would like to be in an area where it will be easy to meet people and make friends. We'd like to live in an area of town where most essentials are within walking distance (grocery, some retail and some good bars for happy hour). My biggest concern is safety. We currently live in Knoxville, TN... so not much crime here! If you can point us to some good safe, but still fun and cultured parts of town we'd really appreciate it! Thanks

Given what you're looking for, you'll want to move to South Baton Rouge. In general, the bad parts of town are as follows: (1) North of Florida Blvd, (2) North of LSU between the Miss River and the lakes (City Park Lake/University Lake), (3) Blvd De Province, (4) Gardere/Burbank/GSRI.

Depending on how much money you want to spend, there are three "lifestyle center" areas that may be worth your time (1) Citiplace (Corporate a few blocks away from College), (2) Perkins Rowe (NE corner of Perkins at Bluebonnet), (3) Town Centre/Cedar Lodge (roughly the NW corner of Jefferson and Corporate/Old Hammond, and down the road from Citiplace). These areas will easily involve a 30-45 minute commute, but it's got more of what you're looking for.

[gcupid]

Nothing is within walking distance in Baton Rouge. This is not a city for walkers. You must have a car to have fun. There is no good public transportation. The best part of baton rouge is siegen lane, perkins road, bluebonnet area, and that's only if you can tolerate traffic.

[MetroBTR]

You should take a look at Spanish Town. It's a revitalized downtown neighborhood that is pretty much the most forward-thinking neighborhood in BTR. It's a melting pot. However the only grocery store within walking distance is Capital Grocery, and it's not a big place. You can walk to the riverfront and to the downtown bars and to the casinos. It's the most walkable neighborhood in the city. It would also be the safest "easy" commute to Port Hudson.

You'd likely have to rent, however. Properties don't come up for sale often and when they do, they are expensive. I do know of a large, newly renovated one bedroom apartment there for $650.