Baton Rouge v. Shreveport

[SBCmetroguy]

Originally Posted by BRMan

And the reality is, an interstate expansion that is tucked away in the corner of the state is VERY unsexy, unless you look at the bigger picture: the Miss River valley of our country does NOT have a good north south route through Louisiana. To the east, I-55 takes you to Chicago, while to the west of us, I-35 takes you from Mexico to Duluth. Here in Louisiana, you're condemned to non interstate highways and speed trap towns if you want to get to Kansas City and points north/south of that from south Louisiana.

...and from a selfish standpoint, I have relatives in southern Arkansas and SE Oklahoma, so a completed I-49N would be VERY nice. Nothing personal about your neck of the woods, but the drive on US 71 north of Shreveport to Texarkana was seriously annoying until they built I-49 south to Doddridge.....

Who you tellin? lol A few years ago I lived in Texarkana and worked in Shreveport... yeah... seriously. Talk about a pain in the butt drive early in the mornings and late in the evenings. And to think, today I complain about my 30-minute commute from south Shreveport to Haughton, which is east of Bossier.

I agree I-49 will be nice, I just mean that I won't use it as often as I once would have. I-69 now... that's the one I really want. I hate the constant switching of roads that you do between Shreveport and Houston, and the drive from Shreveport to Chicago is a real pain in the butt. I-69 would be a direct link to Houston, and would at least get me directly to Memphis on the way to Chicago without having to drive north to I-30 first. BUT I also am realistic and know that while I-69 will eventually happen, at this point it's decades away. By the time it's complete I'll probably be able to teleport myself to Chicago at the drop of a hat anyway.

[nubianbrotha]

Originally Posted by solytaire

If you think Shreveport resembles Tyler, you should take a trip to Beaumont and see how much Baton Rouge resembles that small, sleepy, South-East Texas Petro-centric town. South-East Texas in general, stretching all the way to Houston, feels and moves nearly identical to the Cajun beat of Southern LA. I cant believe you failed to take this into account as you extoll the virtues of BR. I have no sayso one way or the other in the matter of Shreveport vs. BR. But I just had to mention that I have never been around such a saturation of Cajun Culture outside of Southern LA until I reached SE Texas.

I agree, SE TX, and more like FAR SW LA...PARTS OF HOUSTON REMIND ME OF NOLA AND BR. And Try Going to Houston and not meeting anyone with DEEP LA ties, they are everywhere.

[Shane C]

I feel most of the responses to this thread are biased because of sentimental attachments to both Baton Rouge and Shreveport. Someone who is born and raised and still has family in Baton Rouge will naturally feel Baton Rouge is the better of the two and vice versa.I live in Texarkana. I've been to Baton Rouge and Shreveport numerous times with my job. So I'm very familiar with both cities. While both cities have a population of about 200,000 people, Baton Rouge has a metroplex of about 750,000 people compared to a Shreveport metroplex of about 360,000 people. 750,000 people are about twice as many people as 360,000 people. Common sense would tell you that Baton Rouge would have about twice as many places to go and see as Shreveport. Common sense would also tell you that the traffic would be about twice as bad in Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge will always be bigger than Shreveport because it’s the capital.There’s no hard and fast answer regarding which city is the better place to live. It’s an individual choice which depends on many variables such as proximity to friends and family, availability of jobs in someone’s career field, etc.