Moving to New Orleans! Neighborhood question! (Lafayette, Chalmette: rentals, crime, townhouse) - Louisiana (LA) -New Orleans - Metairie - Kenner metro area - City-Data Forum

msbab · 12-05-2010, 01:13 PM

I will be moving to New Orleans because of employment. I found a townhouse for rent. It is supposedly in the Uptown area, but being that I am not from there, I don't really know. The complex is on the corner of S. Robertson and Louisiana Avenue. I do know pre-Katrina it was the Magnolia or C.J. Peete housing development. However, I don't know if the area is considered safe post-Katrina being that a lot of the housing projects have been torn down and "re-vitalized". Any help on this area would be greatly appreciated.

mnr3 · 12-05-2010, 09:35 PM

I haven't been out that way lately, but it was fairly sketchy in the day. my advice would be to do a site inspection of anywhere you plan on living BEFORE you sign anything. if you go through old threads with similar questions, you'll find that in NO, it goes from rags to riches and back in a matter of blocks. also, somewhere buried in the nola.com site there is the police report of crimes in an area. worth the search

aab7855 · 12-06-2010, 01:23 AM

Don't do it. At least speaking as a local to someone unfamiliar with the city, don't do it. The buildings they've put up seem nice enough, but the area surrounding it is still very very raw. They did something like this to another complex and ended up calling it River Garden, and that seems to be in an area with more "come up" potential and professionals have moved in, yet at the same time I know people who live there who are terrified of their surroundings because it's still a work in progress. So I would steer clear of it.. I consider myself a person with a good bit of street smarts, and I did live in the ghetto in Lafayette, but I wouldn't chance it over there. If you insist on visiting, drive 5 blocks away from the complex in any direction, you might just drive on and not look back after.

doowapp · 12-06-2010, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mnr3

i haven't been out that way lately, but it was fairly sketchy in the day. My advice would be to do a site inspection of anywhere you plan on living before you sign anything. If you go through old threads with similar questions, you'll find that in no, it goes from rags to riches and back in a matter of blocks. Also, somewhere buried in the nola.com site there is the police report of crimes in an area. Worth the search

Quote:

Originally Posted by aab7855

don't do it. At least speaking as a local to someone unfamiliar with the city, don't do it. The buildings they've put up seem nice enough, but the area surrounding it is still very very raw. They did something like this to another complex and ended up calling it river garden, and that seems to be in an area with more "come up" potential and professionals have moved in, yet at the same time i know people who live there who are terrified of their surroundings because it's still a work in progress. So i would steer clear of it.. I consider myself a person with a good bit of street smarts, and i did live in the ghetto in lafayette, but i wouldn't chance it over there. If you insist on visiting, drive 5 blocks away from the complex in any direction, you might just drive on and not look back after.

+1

Drouzin · 12-06-2010, 10:28 AM

Don't walk away; run.

msbab · 12-08-2010, 07:20 AM

Thanks to all of you who have posted a reply. I have made my decision to not move there. I will continue to look elsewhere. From reading other posts, I will most likely begin to look in the Metaire area, although I hate the fact that I will have to cross the CCC everyday. But, there is not much to offer on the Westbank, being that I will be working in the Belle Chasse area, or maybe I just don't know where to look. Thanks again to all!

SouthernBelleInUtah · 12-08-2010, 08:35 AM

Old Algiers is nice. There used to be a ferry to cross over to Belle Chasse from the Westbank, not sure if there still is.

mnr3 · 12-08-2010, 08:41 AM

don't do metairie if you are working in belle chasse. better to find something on the west bank and then only have to deal with the bridge when you want to go into town. if you're in metairie, you'll fight traffic just to get to the bridge, then still have bridge to deal with. and it's not like metairie is so nice that it's worth the hassle.

You could try to find something that will give you a very short term lease so you can explore other options, but my advice would be to either find sth. on the west bank or down around the lower garden district so you can jump on the bridge on the Tchoupitoulas ramp.

mnr3 · 12-08-2010, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SouthernBelleInUtah

Old Algiers is nice. There used to be a ferry to cross over to Belle Chasse from the Westbank, not sure if there still is.

the belle chasse ferry is WAY down river, like 10-15 miles down from Chalmette. not really a viable option

Drouzin · 12-08-2010, 10:12 AM

Oh wow were you going to be way off living Uptown making a commute to Belle Chase. You would do better living on the West Bank, (I'm not overly familiar with the WB, but the area around Holy Cross College is nice, between the river and General De Gaulle. If you are looking to stay on the East Bank, I would recommend, either living close to the CCC, or, and I know I'm going to get some flack over this, St. Bernard Parish.

I'm going to start out by saying that St. Bernard was completely flooded by Katrina, but then again so was 80% of New Orleans, so unless you want to live in Bywater, the Marigny, the Quarter, Esplanade Ridge, the West Bank and parts of Uptown, you are going to be stuck with somewhere that was flooded. The reason I suggest St. Bernard is because there are two ferries, one that takes you to the Holy Cross College neighborhood , which would take you to De Gaulle which takes you to Woodland Hwy. which is a straight shot to Belle Chasse, the other ferry is the Belle Chasse ferry which of course, takes you to Belle Chasse. Rentals in St. Bernard are plentiful, and for what you pay in the city, you can pay to get a full sized house with backyard and all. Crime wise, it is the safest place in the area to live. I went for an overnight trip and left the front door open, as in about 14in wide open, and came back to find all my stuff intact and a whole lot of mosquitoes had taken up residence. It is sort of redneck, but in general the people are very nice. So yeah, it was destroyed by Katrina, but it has recovered to the extent that it has shopping, lots of restaurants, banks, a movie theater, a community college, funeral home, etc.

I will warn you that you cannot always rely on a ferry, they shut down if there is bad fog, etc., and you have to head over to the CCC. You also must be on time because they run anywhere from every 15-30min. and if you miss one, you can be stuck sitting there for a while. Anyways, like I said earlier, you would be better off being on the WB rather than on the EB.