Adjusting to Shreveport LA (New Orleans, Bossier City: high school, camping, living)

[ahzzie]

I think there are rednecks everywhere. I even read a story about some guy in Los Angeles who tied a bunch of helium balloons to a lawn chair complete with a cooler full of beer. He floated right over LAX. If that doesn't qualify as redneck then I don't know what would.

[SBCmetroguy]

Originally Posted by ahzzie

I think there are rednecks everywhere. I even read a story about some guy in Los Angeles who tied a bunch of helium balloons to a lawn chair complete with a cooler full of beer. He floated right over LAX. If that doesn't qualify as redneck then I don't know what would.

Seriously? I would have to agree that he would qualify as a redneck.

[hank0604]

Originally Posted by hdwell

Oh, come now, North1 ! I see mixes of people all the time around here. I really don't know of any segragated neighborhoods.

Really? There is not an integrated neighborhood in the Shreveport/Bossier area. How many black people do you know in Southern Trace, Long Lake, Spring Lake, University Court, Ellerbe Estates area... And how many white people live in Cedar Grove, Hyde Park, Cherokee Park, Queensborough, etc...

I'm not trying to knock Shreveport. I grew up there, so I know there are some good things about it. Its good to have casinos in your backyard, the downtown nightlife is improving, and the golf/bass fishing cannot be beat. LSUS and Centenary are also great colleges, and many of the public schools in the area (Magnet, Shreve, Airline) are great high schools.

But you also have to recognize the faults as well. Most other schools are terrible and there are not many entertainment options for minors, which contributes a lot to crime. Also, very little effort is being made to revitalize existing areas, instead development is just spreading out, leading to an inevitable glut of available housing/retail space.

[SBCmetroguy]

Originally Posted by hank0604

Really? There is not an integrated neighborhood in the Shreveport/Bossier area. How many black people do you know in Southern Trace, Long Lake, Spring Lake, University Court, Ellerbe Estates area... And how many white people live in Cedar Grove, Hyde Park, Cherokee Park, Queensborough, etc...

I'm not trying to knock Shreveport. I grew up there, so I know there are some good things about it. Its good to have casinos in your backyard, the downtown nightlife is improving, and the golf/bass fishing cannot be beat. LSUS and Centenary are also great colleges, and many of the public schools in the area (Magnet, Shreve, Airline) are great high schools.

But you also have to recognize the faults as well. Most other schools are terrible and there are not many entertainment options for minors, which contributes a lot to crime. Also, very little effort is being made to revitalize existing areas, instead development is just spreading out, leading to an inevitable glut of available housing/retail space.

Come on now... all Shreveport-Bossier neighborhoods are integrated. There is no more segregation. How MUCH integration is another thing in itself. There are black people in many high-end neighborhoods throughout Shreveport-Bossier, but they are professional black people who make enough money to live there. The problem is, most of the black population in Shreveport-Bossier doesn't fall into that demographic, so they tend to live in poorer areas. It's not because "whitey" doesn't want them in his neighborhood. Whitey doesn't have that kind of power in the south of today, thank goodness.

And the reason there aren't many white people in Cedar Grove is due to the high crime rate brought on by the angry black youth living there. And don't call me a racist for saying that, it's a well-known fact that most of today's black youth fall into that "angry" category, and many black politicians and preachers even admit that fact. Believe me, there are plenty of "ghetto" areas around here that have a lot of white people in them, as well as Hispanics now. Driving down Shed Road from downtown Bossier toward the mall, I used to see mostly black people walking that stretch of road, but now I see more Hispanics than anything. Even the rough neighborhood I grew up in, which had during the 90s become mostly black, is now about 1/3 white, 1/3 black, and 1/3 Hispanic.

I agree with your post overall, but I just wanted to point out that the lack of mass integration in certain areas isn't because of racial tension, it's because of an imbalance in this community of white people vs. black people who have the means to live in nicer communities. It's a classic case of the "haves" vs. the "have-nots". It's not because of race, it's because of the rate of poor, uneducated people having children, which is far more common in the rougher areas of town, which tend to be mostly (note I said "mostly", not "all") black.

[hdwell]

Originally Posted by hank0604

Really? There is not an integrated neighborhood in the Shreveport/Bossier area. How many black people do you know in Southern Trace, Long Lake, Spring Lake, University Court, Ellerbe Estates area... And how many white people live in Cedar Grove, Hyde Park, Cherokee Park, Queensborough, etc...

I'm not trying to knock Shreveport. I grew up there, so I know there are some good things about it. Its good to have casinos in your backyard, the downtown nightlife is improving, and the golf/bass fishing cannot be beat. LSUS and Centenary are also great colleges, and many of the public schools in the area (Magnet, Shreve, Airline) are great high schools.

But you also have to recognize the faults as well. Most other schools are terrible and there are not many entertainment options for minors, which contributes a lot to crime. Also, very little effort is being made to revitalize existing areas, instead development is just spreading out, leading to an inevitable glut of available housing/retail space.

There are not any that I know of. Ok not every hood is 50/50 for sure, but those richer neighborhoods you spoke of do indeed have some black families in them. Not many, but a few. And Cedar Grove, Queensborough, etc., still have some whites and other minorities in them. I'm telling you the truth. I'm here everyday in this city, not having lived here once and left and have a vague memory of it.

My neighborhood consists of several black families, some asians, and a hispanic family as well as whites. Its in Bossier City, south Bossier to be exact. (Tara) Ever been to Golden Meadows? Very mixed. Same for Shady Grove. Old Bossier and Coleman Park: white black hispanic. Don't say things like there are no integrated neighborhoods around here because it isn't true. People that want to be in an all white area usually go to Keithville and even thats not all white.

Now I think Shreveport is far from a progressive city, but it is probably on the right track. Mayor Cedric Glover, city's first black mayor, curbside recycling. He's trying to do what's right. I like him better than some of the more recent white mayors.

[hank0604]

Believe me, I know the neighborhoods in Shreveport. I worked in property management in Shreveport for over 3 years, with houses from Haughton to Keithville. Sure, there probably isn't any neighborhood anywhere that is purely one race, but at most I'd say one neighborhood would be 75/25. And this disparity is not strictly related to the price of homes in neighborhoods. Areas of western Shreveport, the Huntington Park area for example, have great home values, some as high as 200k, with very few white residents. Just like there are plenty of trailer parks that are mostly white.

But don't get me wrong, that's not something that only Shreveport experiences. I now live in a pretty high end neighborhood on the north side of Chicago, and I could probably knock on fifty doors before coming across a non-white resident. So it shouldn't surprise anyone that the last capital of the Confederacy is the same way.

[hindsight2020]

I think the point that we're all trying to make is that the notion of a consolidated black upper middle class of enough numerical relevance is a mythical unicorn left for the token suburbs of Atlanta and other similar enclaves of the Midwest and the West Coast. As to Shreveport, it just doesn't exist, which is why the presence of black people among the most desirable neighborhoods is, at best, a token presence in Sheveport/Bossier.

Furthermore, in spite of this economically-driven fact, I would venture to say most residents of said neighborhoods consider their place of dwelling desirable for racial reasons, not economic reasons, which unfortunately debunks the idea that all people see is the color green. Granted, these folks wouldn't like the idea of rednecks living next door either, but if you think they would be impartial to skin color if they had to choose a poor neighbor you've hit your head. "Money racism" is endemic of New England, not the South, I'm sorry to say. Now, this does in no way imply anybody in this thread is trying to make the argument that there exists legal apartheid in Shreveport, that's just preposterous and a waste of bandwith, but to suggest that all the people in ellerbe would still choose to live in ellerbe if there was the existence of a black upper class conglomerate with the same access to ellerbe is, well, disingenuous. For this reason, which most certainly goes beyond socio-economics, Shreveport will never be more racially integrated. Just calling it as it is. It really is semantics at that point though, people can always make the argument that it's lack of money that keeps things the way they are, but that's but the vehicle for the behavior, not the motivation behind the behavior, which is still race in the South.

All that said, I haven't witnessed any more confrontational race relations in shreveport/Bossier than I've seen in other parts of the country where I've lived. This is to say, Shreveport is by far not the most progressive place I've lived but I've certainly seen worse; among those there were places with a much smaller black population at that (the Midwest, biggest regional closet racists I've ever seen). So if I was a professional or even high-income earning black person, Shreveport/Bossier wouldn't be a bad place to settle in all honesty....

[edesign]

Originally Posted by North1

I moved to Shreveport from CA after having grown up in the Midwest. How long does it take to adjust to the area? Right now I'm pretty much in shock and ready to move out of the south but my husband's job will have us here for several years. Any suggestions for adjusting faster? What has shocked me is the segregation/racism, the sexism, homophobia and ultra religious conservatism. I guess I became a liberal somewhere along the way!

Ha, good luck...I've lived here for ten years (Lafayette, about 3 hours south of Shreveport) and have yet to adjust to any of the stuff you mentioned above. I'm not a liberal nor am I a conservative, I don't know anyone who is strictly one or the other. I, along with everyone else I've ever spoken to, have tendencies towards both depending on the subject. One size does not fit all

Some of it you just block out eventually but some (namely the homophobia and religious conservatism)you can't since it pervades everything from the local hang-out groups to state politics. Segregation is still very much alive for various reasons (money, ideology, etc) but when they start bussing kids in to and out of various schools that aren't in their zone just so they can show that the schools have mixes of black and white that's going a bit far imho.

Oh...and then there's the political corruption all the way from the town/city level up through the state level. Louisiana is not famous for this for nothing Sure, other states have corruption too but Louisiana seems to be fairly blatant about it. So that's another thing you can look forward to reading/hearing about, it would be entertaining were it not for the fact that the end result is usually screwing the regular people.

[linicx]

I'm a Yankee. I've visited Sherveport many times and I love it. It's a beautriful town that is one the progressive side. I idn't meet anyone who was bigoted or ugly, but I've met a few that didn't have the patience of a fly. Pick up the Shreverport magazine that tells who is doing what, I found mine at a motel. The writing is excellent; so is the newspaper. The book stores and malls and grocery stores are always a good place to observe people. Maybe you misjudges some wonderful people by using some that were not as nice as a measure. You are sure to love the American Rose Garden west of Shreveport on Greenwood Road. Exit North. Its only a few short miles.

It is as much a shock to move from the North to the South as it is for a New Yorker to move to Missouri. Mostly it is because there is so much to learn, and new jobs to adjust to, as well as being a little firghtend and hoemsick. This too will pass. Adjusting is a bit like grief. Everyone has their own schedule. Look for the good in your new neighbors you won't be diappointed.

Some of the kindest hearted people I met in Shereveport are of color.

[SBCmetroguy]

Originally Posted by linicx

I'm a Yankee. I've visited Sherveport many times and I love it. It's a beautriful town that is one the progressive side. I idn't meet anyone who was bigoted or ugly, but I've met a few that didn't have the patience of a fly. Pick up the Shreverport magazine that tells who is doing what, I found mine at a motel. The writing is excellent; so is the newspaper. The book stores and malls and grocery stores are always a good place to observe people. Maybe you misjudges some wonderful people by using some that were not as nice as a measure. You are sure to love the American Rose Garden west of Shreveport on Greenwood Road. Exit North. Its only a few short miles.

It is as much a shock to move from the North to the South as it is for a New Yorker to move to Missouri. Mostly it is because there is so much to learn, and new jobs to adjust to, as well as being a little firghtend and hoemsick. This too will pass. Adjusting is a bit like grief. Everyone has their own schedule. Look for the good in your new neighbors you won't be diappointed.

Some of the kindest hearted people I met in Shereveport are of color.

Likewise, my father-in-law lives in your neck of the woods (Peoria) and I always enjoy visiting there. Thanks for the kind words.