General advice on Houma, LA

[avantgarder]

I don't see how you can defend Nicholls. It has an 85% admissions rate, which is practically open admissions. And it was open admissions until 2005. Moreover, the SAT scores are the lowest I've seen, and the football team is on NCAA probation because the coaches did the homework of the students. That doesn't sound very ethical to me. And from the spelling and grammar on this thread, I do have to question the quality of the education of this region.

You do need to be concerend about politics. You were drinking and using contaminated water for a full week after Gustav. Students at Nicholls had to use bottled water to wash their hands and take showers--after using contaminated water for a FULL week--because no one thought to check the water quality after Gustav!

It sounds like you haven't lived anywhere else. I wish you a broadened horizen.

[avantgarder]

Originally Posted by Sam I Am

Anyone happen to notice that post is 2 months old and the poster hasn't been back? Speaks for itself, doesn't it?

I found a better job; I didn't want to live in Houma and give money to a community I didn't respect. Take a look at the way you approach criticism; it says a lot about your character. I chose not to attack anyone personally; rather, I offered an outsider's view on an undesirable (from my perspective) region.

You have to understand that highly educated people who have lived elsewhere are going to be disppointed. If they have money, they'll move. If they value their child's education, they'll move.

Let me ask you pointedly: Have you lived more than a 1,000 miles away? Do you make more than 6 figures in salary? Are you accustomed to accepting diversity in terms of race (which I say you should improve from my time there), gender (also needs some improvement), sexual orientation (lots of improvement), class, and geographical/cultural differences? I think that our socio-economic and educational/cultural differences are too extreme for us to have a reasonable dialogue.

Take care. I sincerely hope (and I'm not being sarcastic) that you didn't suffer much from Gustav and Ike.

[Sam I Am]

To whom are you speaking, avantgarder? As a poster, I hope not to me. As a moderator, I will remind you that you are here to debate ideas and not particular posters. Since you didn't get the gist of my comment, I'll lay it out for you - my comment was intended to stop others from feeling attacked by your post when it appeared you had left the area, which you obviously did after making the post. No one was attacking you - why do you feel the need to come back and dredge all this up again? And why you feel my income is any of your business is quite beyond me, but let me answer "yes" to every question you've posed so we can put that to rest.

You've made it abundantly clear on numerous occasions that you don't like Houma. Fine, but what is to be accomplished by continuing to lambast the area?

[Depechekin]

I was born and lived in Houma almost my entire life (i'm 32 and lived in MS for 7 years and Austin,TX for 2..the rest of the time i lived in Houma).

I have a love/hate relationship with Houma.

Houma is different, it's not your average town. There is water everywhere, there's a different mindset, way of life, and culture that is not typical anywhere else in Louisiana..or the US for that matter.

Houma is fastly becoming more and more open and accepting to new ideas, you'll see yoga places and sushi restaurants sprouting up like blades of grass now. The food in Houma is delicious! Co-repondingly, Terrebonne Parish has the lowest health score and is probably one of the fattest places in the world. But this has created one of the best hearth health clinics in the world at TGMC.

There are lots of jobs, but not much diversity in them. Basically you'll end up working in a restaraunt, retail, commercial fishing, or some offshore oil company or some company catering to that company. Don't expect hi-tech manufacturing, office jobs, or call center jobs to run rampid like they do in most other larger cities. If you can do the dirty work, you'll be paid well.

Houma is in the midst of an identity crisis: The people there want to progress and for their town to become more modern but at the same time do not want to let go of ages old cultural heritage, so there is a strange fusion going on because of this. Houma is also in the middle of urban sprawl that isn't causing anything really positive for the economy, there are lots and lots of chain stores and eateries sprouting up on MLK, not giving local shops much of a chance anymore. However, it's a great place to develop land if you're an investor.

I hated Houma so much when I lived there, and wasn't really able to find a job that was for me, I went almost 2 years without a job because I'm not physically capable of working offshore or at a restaraunt or retail where I have to stand up all day. I was annoyed and frustrated at the fact that I felt "stuck", so when I the chance came , i moved to Austin. It took me 3 days to get 4 job offers here. So i'm not really buying it when people are talking about great how many jobs there are in Houma...maybe they're just crappy low-paying jobs? that's all Houma needs.

Here in Austin, TX I live in a 2 BR Luxury Apartment, it is gated and is on a greenbelt, has 2 pools, 2 jaccuzis, a playground, a clubhouse, 2 tennis courts, and a movie theature, it's also beautifully landscaped, and I pay about $900/month for it. Now if Austin, TX has this and the cost of living is so much higher here, why are there those crappy generic Highland Apartments, The Pavillion, and The Landing Apartments costing $1,200 for a 2 BR? WHO IN HOUMA CAN AFFORD THESE? They all are gated, but just seem more boring to me. So please, tell me who in houma can afford these?

I left Houma over 2 years ago to live in Austin, Tx. I love Austin, this is the best place I've ever lived and I don't want to live anywhere else, however I still miss Houma. I smile when I think about it and I can't wait to go back to see my friends and family.

So, as another poster said, it's hard to get assimilated when you're not from here, but if you're from Houma, it seems to have a gravitational pull on you. You try to get away from it, but when you're away, you miss it. I would never move back, but I do miss it. If I ever had enough money to own several houses, I would buy one there. It just feels like "home" once you've lived there, even though you know it's not good for you

[halfiepint]

Good luck finding a job around here if you're female and not from this area. "Sure, we're hiring, send HIM on in..." I walk in... "Um, we don't have any openings."

[MetroBTR]

^^Maybe it has something to do with your personality. Most places actually look for outgoing, all-around-attractive women to work for their companies--particularly in the positions where they will have to deal with customers. As an older man who owns a company where I am constantly looking for new customers, I would acually prefer to have an intelligent, outgoing, woman to sell them on my company. It is consumer psychology. Just like grocery stores stock the impulse buys (soft drinks, potato chips, magazines, etc) near the checkout lane, if I know the customer I am looking at is a man of about my age, I know he is more likely to be convinced by an impressive young woman (bonus points if she can talk sports) than some smart-alec young man (like I used to be, LOL). Call it sexist, but that's business.