Moving to Louisiana (New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Shreveport: home, living, restaurants)

[tweetybird80]

Trying to find a place in La. where its not too terribly humid, cost of living not to high, not too big a city, gay friendly. Any replies would be helpful. Looking to move in April or May 2007. Thank you very much.

[BRMan]

Originally Posted by tweetybird80

Trying to find a place in La. where its not too terribly humid, cost of living not to high, not too big a city, gay friendly. Any replies would be helpful. Looking to move in April or May 2007. Thank you very much.

Don't know if there's ONE city which will meet your criteria. Plus, it's all relative. So here goes:

Not too humid - most of the state is pretty humid. It's REALLY humid in the south
Cost of living -New Orleans is really bad, because of the housing situation
"Big city" Metro NO is after Katrina is about 1 million, metro BR is about 700K. Metro Shreveport about 350. Metro Lafayette/Lake Charles about 200K
Gay friendly New Orleans and to a lesser extent Baton Rouge

[Sozo]

Originally Posted by tweetybird80

Trying to find a place in La. where its not too terribly humid, cost of living not to high, not too big a city, gay friendly. Any replies would be helpful. Looking to move in April or May 2007. Thank you very much.

I grew up in Shreveport, LA. It is a bustling area with a booming economy. Shreveport sits on the Red River with Bossier City on the other side. Essentially, you travel back and forth between both cities. It is a large are that is very, very spread out.

I hate to break it to you, but there is NO place in Louisiana that is not humid. NW Louisiana where Shreveport is located is right in the corner of Arkansas and Texas. It is due east from Dallas/Ft. Worth.

I'm not gay, but do know that there is a large gay community in Shreveport. You won't be harrassed there if that's what you're concerned about. There are more *hip* towns so to speak, but they are further south and the closer you get to the gulf coast the more stifling the humity becomes.

I love Louisiana for many reasons......food, music, attitudes and well, it was my home for over 40 years. But I couldn't bear the heat and humidity. I know live in the Midwest and would never go back there.

[SBCmetroguy]

Originally Posted by Sozo

I grew up in Shreveport, LA. It is a bustling area with a booming economy. Shreveport sits on the Red River with Bossier City on the other side. Essentially, you travel back and forth between both cities. It is a large are that is very, very spread out.

I hate to break it to you, but there is NO place in Louisiana that is not humid. NW Louisiana where Shreveport is located is right in the corner of Arkansas and Texas. It is due east from Dallas/Ft. Worth.

I'm not gay, but do know that there is a large gay community in Shreveport. You won't be harrassed there if that's what you're concerned about. There are more *hip* towns so to speak, but they are further south and the closer you get to the gulf coast the more stifling the humity becomes.

I love Louisiana for many reasons......food, music, attitudes and well, it was my home for over 40 years. But I couldn't bear the heat and humidity. I know live in the Midwest and would never go back there.

Thanks for posting this, as I was about to post basically the same thing.

I've noticed over the last 10 years that Shreveport-Bossier has developed a very large homosexual population. Heck, I saw two very seemingly happy gay couples in one store tonight. They were freely enjoying their shopping time without any fear of harassment. One was a man-man couple and the other a woman-woman couple, and both seemed just fine. I haven't heard of any instances of gay bashing around here, and I really don't expect to.

We have a transsexual community and a couple of gay clubs. We also have at least two churches that I can think of where homosexuals are openly accepted, one of which being a U.U. church.

Just one correction to the above by BRMan (not that his information was incorrect intentionally, I know it was just a guess,) the official 2000 population of Shreveport-Bossier was just about 385,000. Still, it's not a huge population but is large enough to have a ton of things to do and great restaurants at which to dine.

Shreveport is also expected, in 2007, to become the smallest city in the nation, and the only city in Louisiana, to be home to a Capital Grille Restaurant.

I will say that Bossier City is an extremely diverse city, dare I say even more diverse than Shreveport. Shreveport has a city population of about 200,000 and seems to have a higher homosexual population; but Bossier City, at 60,000 people, has a very racially diverse population.

Sozo - too bad you can't handle the heat and humidity! You seem to have a deep affinity for Shreveport-Bossier, and we really need that down here, buddy!

[JROC676]

Lafayette, Baton Rouge, or New Orleans if you want to avoid the whole redneck, Mathew Sheppard thing that goes on in southern Arkansas- or Shreveport/Bossier as "the" call it. True La. where the culture is truly accepting is in these three cities.