Possible Bossier City relocation from NYC. Where to work and what to do? (Shreveport: real estate market)

[dalooosh]

Greetings. We are entertaining a relocation from NY, (roughly 30 miles north of the city) to the Bossier City area.
My wife's son, his wife and their new born live there, so we are familar with the area, but only for the typical "weekly visit" twice a year. We aren't that familar with the daily bump and grind of the area. We are in our early 40's ...

I'm in sales, and my wife is an RN in the O.R.....I would go with a private school for my 13 year old son, probably Loyola, after doing some research. Bossier would be where we would settle, but wondering what the job opportunities are like in the area. Also, what does one do in North Louisiana for entertainment? With NYC so close, we are kinda spoiled for entertainment, even if it's only on a monthly basis. Are there community styled events? Any detaqiled info would be appriciated.

-dalooosh

[SBCmetroguy]

Originally Posted by dalooosh

Greetings. We are entertaining a relocation from NY, (roughly 30 miles north of the city) to the Bossier City area.
My wife's son, his wife and their new born live there, so we are familar with the area, but only for the typical "weekly visit" twice a year. We aren't that familar with the daily bump and grind of the area. We are in our early 40's ...

I'm in sales, and my wife is an RN in the O.R.....I would go with a private school for my 13 year old son, probably Loyola, after doing some research. Bossier would be where we would settle, but wondering what the job opportunities are like in the area. Also, what does one do in North Louisiana for entertainment? With NYC so close, we are kinda spoiled for entertainment, even if it's only on a monthly basis. Are there community styled events? Any detaqiled info would be appriciated.

-dalooosh

If you enjoy the opera, symphony, and events like that (being from NYC I can see this being something you would love) then we do have a symphony orchestra, opera, and metropolitan ballet. We also have museums and galleries (though not on the scale of NYC obviously,) casinos, horse racing, car racing, baseball, football, women's professional football, hockey, rugby... you name it you can really find it. You just have to know where to look! Most people who say this area has nothing to do clearly just don't know where to look.

Anyway, what are you interested in? I'm sure you can either find it or a replacement for it here.

You will love it here, and we're only 3 hours from Dallas and 4 hours from Houston if you ever get in one of those moods where you absolutely miss the large cities and want to take a weekend trip over.

I don't believe students in Bossier City can attend Loyola... though I could be wrong. They could possibly attend Evangel but you'd have to look into that.

[dalooosh]

Thanks SBCmetroguy . We are into the "broadway thing", so shows would be important. We also like concerts, but not much into country music(although we enjoy Carrie Underwood); any activity really. She likes to do the "cornfield thing around halloween(I know, hard to believe we have that just outside the city). Pretty much anything. She hates to sit still. Just worried there wil be "nothing to do". Also work is a concern for me. I here the pay scale is incredibly different. I don't know if I can handle earning a quarter of my curent salary.

[SBCmetroguy]

Originally Posted by dalooosh

Thanks SBCmetroguy . We are into the "broadway thing", so shows would be important. We also like concerts, but not much into country music(although we enjoy Carrie Underwood); any activity really. She likes to do the "cornfield thing around halloween(I know, hard to believe we have that just outside the city). Pretty much anything. She hates to sit still. Just worried there wil be "nothing to do". Also work is a concern for me. I here the pay scale is incredibly different. I don't know if I can handle earning a quarter of my curent salary.

Funny you would mention the cornfield thing. :P We have one here, about 15 miles north of Shreveport. I've been the past 2 weekends in a row. It's a lot of fun, really.

We do have a lot of Broadway touring shows that come to The Strand Theater as well as the opera, ballet, symphony like I mentioned previously. These types of things don't have major followings here but the more people who move here and embrace these cultural activities, the more they will continue to be part of this area.

There is also a theater under construction downtown which will finally bring international, independant, classic, and art films to this area... something we've been lacking for many years. The Robinson Film Center should open sometime next year... construction is well underway now.

Since your son is 13 he might still be interested in science museums? Not sure, but if he is Sci-Port is a cool place in downtown Shreveport. It's an interactive museum with exhibits, an IMAX dome theater, and a space center with a laser planetarium.

The CenturyTel Center in Bossier brings awesome entertainment to the area... upcoming is the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert which comes back every year around Christmas. It's the same enormous "lights and music" show they have in Chicago, NYC, Los Angeles, and everywhere else. It's AMAZING and if you've never experienced it you will have to check it out sometime. We do have the country concerts since we're in the south, but in the last 5 years CenturyTel Center has also hosted The Eagles, Elton John, Aerosmith, KISS, Kid Rock, Cher, Nickelback, Rod Stewart, Motley Crue, and so on. It's a nice venue, seating about 15,000. It's also the home of our hockey team and our arena football team. If you remember Quincy Carter from the Dallas Cowboys, he is currently the quarterback for our arena football team... though he was recently arrested here for marijuana possession.

Anyway, depending on your current salary and your job, that COULD be an issue. First, finding a job in whatever field and then finding the salary you desire. However you must also consider the cost of living, which I would have to assume is much lower here. That's just an assumption, though.

If you're involved in Information Technology, in 2009 the Cyber Innovation Center will open in Bossier City which will be a high-security civilian research park to support the coming of the United States Air Force Cyber Command, which will most likely be located permanently at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City.

Hey anything you want to know, just ask. I'd like to see you make this area your home and say you love it. But we all know it's not a perfect world and things might not be able to work out. That's understandable. But consider... $300,000 around here buys a LOT of house, which it might not in NYC. Shop the real estate market here online for a good idea of what you're looking at. Gas is relatively cheap since the refineries are all in this area of the country and commute times are very short (I work 24 miles from home and commute only about 30-40 minutes on average.)