Relocating to Shreveport/Bossier City...some heads-up? (Lafayette, Haughton: sales, HOA)

[Daisy8]

Just based on the friendly responses, I hope that you are getting a good feeling about Shreveport / Bossier in general.

I have not lived there in 10+ years, but grew up there and lived there until I was 20. I go back and visit as often as I can and cry when I leave. After living in many other areas, there is no place like it.

Yes, it will likely take a little getting used to, but whatever type of lifestyle you have (ESPECIALLY military) there is a little piece of heaven there for you.

Most of the crime I hear about (and I read the Shreveport Times every week) is in bad areas and drug / gang related type crime. Learn the bad areas and stay away from them.

Many military people come and go, but MANY come back when the time comes for them to leave or retire from the service. THAT says a lot.

I hope you fall in love with it as much as I do. I can't wait for the day that I can move back to the best home I've ever had.

For those of you who are bad-mouthing the area, go live somewhere else for awhile. I think you too will see what I mean. I never appreciated the charm of the area while I lived there, and now I can't get enough when I come back to visit.

Good luck!

[MRAggie18]

We built in S.E. S'port 6 1/2 years ago and the value of my home has increased significantly. New home construction is booming but majority of houses are not "cookie-cutter", other than a few of the new subdivisions. Has definitely been a good investment, only complaint is with all the new building the water system is not keeping up and water pressure is not great.

Originally Posted by geauxtigers9

moving to shreveport, i was looking at homes around ellerbe road (long lake - southern trace) and wondered what peoples opinions were on this area. It seems nice but everything has built up so fast and I have to wonder how stable the area is in terms of property values in the long term. Many of the homes are very nice but some are VERY cookie-cutter and all are so recently built. Interested on what you guys think.

[MRAggie18]

I used to feel the same way as you about the area -- nice, pretty landscape and lakes, etc. Had always planned on never leaving as it's home and the cost of living is very reasonable. The majority of the crime is in the "bad" areas of town, but it's getting worse each day and it's rare to go into the bigger stores and fast food chains and receive good, friendly service. Most of what you receive is attitude and the impression that they are there to gain a paycheck only, not provide friendly customer service. I am an Army brat and have lived in more places than the majority of people and I can honestly say that the minute my husband retires from his job we are moving, most likely to Austin. I've always loved the area, but that is changing, unfortunately, but I do appreciate your love for the area.

Originally Posted by Daisy8

Just based on the friendly responses, I hope that you are getting a good feeling about Shreveport / Bossier in general.

I have not lived there in 10+ years, but grew up there and lived there until I was 20. I go back and visit as often as I can and cry when I leave. After living in many other areas, there is no place like it.

Yes, it will likely take a little getting used to, but whatever type of lifestyle you have (ESPECIALLY military) there is a little piece of heaven there for you.

Most of the crime I hear about (and I read the Shreveport Times every week) is in bad areas and drug / gang related type crime. Learn the bad areas and stay away from them.

Many military people come and go, but MANY come back when the time comes for them to leave or retire from the service. THAT says a lot.

I hope you fall in love with it as much as I do. I can't wait for the day that I can move back to the best home I've ever had.

For those of you who are bad-mouthing the area, go live somewhere else for awhile. I think you too will see what I mean. I never appreciated the charm of the area while I lived there, and now I can't get enough when I come back to visit.

Good luck!

[SBCmetroguy]

Originally Posted by MRAggie18

I used to feel the same way as you about the area -- nice, pretty landscape and lakes, etc. Had always planned on never leaving as it's home and the cost of living is very reasonable. The majority of the crime is in the "bad" areas of town, but it's getting worse each day and it's rare to go into the bigger stores and fast food chains and receive good, friendly service. Most of what you receive is attitude and the impression that they are there to gain a paycheck only, not provide friendly customer service. I am an Army brat and have lived in more places than the majority of people and I can honestly say that the minute my husband retires from his job we are moving, most likely to Austin. I've always loved the area, but that is changing, unfortunately, but I do appreciate your love for the area.

The whole "just there for a paycheck" attitude, unfortunately, is taking hold in many places... not just here. I'm not denying your statement, nor standing up for the area on that, I'm just pointing out that I've seen this in many other places lately. I find myself losing my temper on a weekly basis with these types of people, and they simply do not care. Why? Because they know if the manager fires them, they can find another minimum wage job somewhere else. It's amazing the crap that managers are putting up with today. It boggles the mind...

Best of luck in Austin! It's a great place from what I've heard (still haven't visited yet.)

[hindsight2020]

I do agree there is an overt demeanor of discontent from employees in any kind of service establishment in Shreveport/Bossier, and I do agree with SBC that it is not unique to this town. I too have traveled with the Air Force, for a short period, and my observations have been similar to what I've seen here, a general dragging of the feet attitude and general lack of enthusiasm for the job, and many do not feel like putting the extra effort in hiding it from the customer.

I'll play devil's advocate a little and say this. There has been a pardigm shift in our society in terms of expectations and opportunities. We have been sold a bill of goods where people were told that it was OK for us to lose our manufacturing base, that a service economy was suitable to sustain the quality of life we have previously enjoyed. This was certainly the mother of all fallacies, and the product of such shift is starting to become visible by what has been alluded to on this thread. When I was a grad student I took a job at a department store's catalog department. The reason was to supplement my joke of a stipend so I could actually have some savings. But I could have done it to pay tuition, or for beer money, it all depends on how much you are being subsidized by your parents. At any rate, everybody knew that was a thankless job, and nobody in college wanted to make that part-time job a full-time career. So most college students who work look at it as a nuisance for some extra smash. And in that respect one shouldn't have a poor attitude publicly about the job, as the option was seen as "voluntary" for a reward. Now, when that is the job you're trying to put food on the table with, all that goes out the window. We called them lifers, folks who would work the service job full-time with no indications that they were going to change work venues. When all you can get in town is two department store jobs for the price of what one could previously hold at a factory for the same education, I sure don't expect them to have a nice attitude about their line of work. I also don't put on them the rationale that "well, change careers if you don't like it" because I know that life is not that simple and even though I have a graduate education I haven't drawn a single cent of return out of that extra degree to date, so if I hadn't gone through a work/study arrangement for the grad degree I would probably be working at Best Buy part-time to pay my student loan and guess what, I could easily replace that part-time job on command, and therefore not have to like working it. My degrees are in engineering, but a degree in political science does you no good in places like Shreveport/Bossier, and technically you're a college graduate.

Look, I've been to Austin, it's a town that benefits from a HUGE college population. Of all the places I've lived, the college towns (I've lived in three, all in different states) are the ones with the least "bad attitude" influence by virtue of a young disconnected college crowd that has the ability to forego working crappy service jobs to begin with if they decide not to drink one week. Those towns are GREAT for service jobs. Non-college towns like Shreveport, not so much. So, as to the benefit of having a supercomplex "city within a city" college like UT-Austin, one is probably able to fill many of the service jobs with transient college students who for the most part won't care much for the job but won't have the distate lifers have for it, and therefore you may get a smaller perception of "bad attitude" than what may be seen in Shreveport. But don't believe for one second that it will be substantially different than here, because it isn't.

Not everybody can afford living on south ellerbe, and that's the way scarcity and capitalism works, but when you pawn off your middle class to china you can't expect to live in your comfortable neighborhoods while everybody else in town has to make due with service jobs and expect them to have a pleasant attitude about it. In essence, it is not that they have a bad attitude about their job, it's more that they can't afford to live on ellerbe because service jobs pay squat yet cover the landscape of town, but by proxy of that surplus of crappy jobs, CAN AFFORD to have a bad attitude and not care how it displeases you.

It is not their fault they are able to easily replace their service job for another service job, everybody knows you can't make a living wage working most service jobs, hence why there's a surplus of unfilled jobs of this nature in town. I remember reading an article in the bossier paper a couple months back that had a headline of "recession? what recession?", where it talked about the plethora of unfilled jobs in bossier. Then my eyeballs almost turned red in comtempt when they showcase the list of jobs and place a picture of a taco bell hiring billboard on the page. Are they out of their minds?!? Yeah, there's a surplus of crappy jobs you can't pay the bills with, but not jobs worth your time if you are trying to capitalize and move out of the poor house. Underemployment is unemployment in my book (don't tell the government that of course...). So that has more to do with your discontent with customer service than individuals' attitudes, if anything I call that rational behavior, they after all don't owe you and me anything. It's an unpleasant trend indeed, but I choose to blame up the ladder than down the ladder. It's class warfare in it's core really.
Just some tempering commentary to balance out the argument.

[SBCmetroguy]

^ Very well said. You put a lot of thought into that post and it's appreciated. I run through these forums so fast and rarely say more than just a couple of sentences myself, so this was a nice read. And very, very true.

And while I know it doesn't change anything and there's no use complaining, I just wanted to mention this: last evening on the way home from work, my wife stopped through Popeye's to pick us up something quick and simple for dinner. I got three strips with potatoes & gravy and two biscuits. The potatoes were so old they had formed a hard shell over them and they just poured the gravy over it. The biscuits were so hard that I literally hurt my teeth trying to eat them. I was disgusted and couldn't even stomach the potatoes (I ate the biscuits despite the pain because I was hungry.) Since I know there is always a manager on duty in that restaurant, I think this goes to show that the quality of management isn't even up to par in this type of employment situation.

[KingJ]

i heard yall talkin about how customer service stuff here sucks like it does in many places because they just want a paycheck. of course they just want a paycheck, we dont really want to be working because were still in school and we have others things we want to do, but we either need the money or our parents force us to get a job. we want to hang out with our friends and stuff like we should in school, but work gets in the way and we dont like it

[fishlips]

Hello Everyone!
We are moving back home to settle near the grandparents and I could use some input. We left the area +10 years ago as a young married couple...now we are a family of five!! So my priorities have change.

I am trying to familiarize myself with the area and the area schools...w/ no more than a 25 minute commute.

Being from LA, I know the public schools in S'port suck however a few did catch my eye. We are too late to test for the magnet schools (my first choice of course), so we are looking into Riverside Elementary, Stockwell Elementary , Blanchard Ele. and Benton schools. Anyone send their kiddos to those area schools? Private? We have also consider First Baptist Church School, but I am a bit weary of their extracurricular activites...we will tour soon. Any input would be greatly appreciated...I can only research soo much online.

The catch is we prefer to live on a good bit of acreage, so I was thinking school wise Benton maybe an option. Yes, I realize the infrastructure is horrible on that side of S'port and will continue to worsen over the years...but I am at a loss! What about S. Bossier? Cross lake area? Blanchard? Is it possible to live rural in that area with decent schools? I am thinking I will have to drive my kiddos every morning.

We prefer to rent for the first year to get an idea of the area. There were a lot of rental houses in Broadmoor...what is that area like now? I can't remember the neighborhood ,environment,etc.

We are using the Times, and craigslist for some rentals, but could definitely use a GOOD realtor! Any suggestions?

We are headed to that area next week to look for housing for July. I have read through this thread (a good deal of info!!), but if anyone could give us some advice/input it would be GREATLY appreciated!
Thanks!

[SBCmetroguy]

Originally Posted by fishlips

Hello Everyone!
We are moving back home to settle near the grandparents and I could use some input. We left the area +10 years ago as a young married couple...now we are a family of five!! So my priorities have change.

I am trying to familiarize myself with the area and the area schools...w/ no more than a 25 minute commute.

Being from LA, I know the public schools in S'port suck however a few did catch my eye. We are too late to test for the magnet schools (my first choice of course), so we are looking into Riverside Elementary, Stockwell Elementary , Blanchard Ele. and Benton schools. Anyone send their kiddos to those area schools? Private? We have also consider First Baptist Church School, but I am a bit weary of their extracurricular activites...we will tour soon. Any input would be greatly appreciated...I can only research soo much online.

The catch is we prefer to live on a good bit of acreage, so I was thinking school wise Benton maybe an option. Yes, I realize the infrastructure is horrible on that side of S'port and will continue to worsen over the years...but I am at a loss! What about S. Bossier? Cross lake area? Blanchard? Is it possible to live rural in that area with decent schools? I am thinking I will have to drive my kiddos every morning.

We prefer to rent for the first year to get an idea of the area. There were a lot of rental houses in Broadmoor...what is that area like now? I can't remember the neighborhood ,environment,etc.

We are using the Times, and craigslist for some rentals, but could definitely use a GOOD realtor! Any suggestions?

We are headed to that area next week to look for housing for July. I have read through this thread (a good deal of info!!), but if anyone could give us some advice/input it would be GREATLY appreciated!
Thanks!

If you're wanting to live on multiple acres, and keep that land for quite a few years to come, the LAST places I would buy would be anywhere in Bossier City (north, south, or east) and Benton. None of the vacant land in these areas will be vacant in a few years, especially with all the things currently in the planning stages. I hear Blanchard is nice, and I really don't see a major growth spurt for that area anytime soon, unless it comes out that much of the land there is in the Haynesville Shale. If that's the case, buckle up and enjoy the wild growth that is bound to occur.

One piece of advice I will give you, if you purchase land anywhere in Caddo, Bossier, DeSoto, or any other neighboring parish (including Natchitoches and Red River).... be sure to make absolutely sure that you get full mineral rights. Then when Petrohawk or Chesapeake or any of these other gas drilling companies comes knocking on your door to offer you $10,000+ an acre to lease rights from you, you can accept their offer with a HUGE smile on your face. Because the Haynesville Shale is undoubtedly going to make a lot of people live a LOT more comfortably just for being landowners in this region.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just Google Haynesville Shale. This is going to be huge.

[fishlips]

Yeah, we have family on both sides ..some with property to sell and others in the business. They closer to DeSoto Parish.

Is Haughton a safe area?
If we do choose to live on the Bossier side, we would eventually sale the land in smaller tracts later on...right now, I am trying to find a safe place to raise my small children with good schools....Shreveport doesn't look like an option at this point.

Do you know any realtors in Caddo/Bossier with rentals? That is how we found our last rental.

Thanks sooooo much for the info!!!!!!!!!!