Moving to New Orleans (Marrero, Harvey: crime, hotels, neighborhood)

[gammie]

My husband and I will be relocating to the New Orleans area this summer, 2008. He is Active Duty marine and will be stationed at the NAS Belle Chase. I need to make a hotel reservation for this month. Can you tell me of hotels in the surrounding areas that we make check out prior to moving there. Thanks.

[Vampgrrl]

You going to live in New Orleans itself or in Belle Chasse?

[gammie]

Well, Belle Chasse is closer to the base itself, right? We where thinking no further than a 30 minute commute.

[Vampgrrl]

Well if I were you...

I'd either live in Belle Chasse itself (if you want to be really close) or Uptown New Orleans.

Parts of Algiers or Gretna might be ok but I'm not a westbank fan, and it's fairly crime ridden in many areas.

I don't know about a hotel in Belle Chasse I've only been there once for the Air show at the base. If you want to stay in New orleans, I'd recommend the Prytania park Hotel
Prytania Park Hotel: comfort, convenience and personal service in New Orleans, Louisiana., last place I stayed before I moved down. It's in the Lower Garden District between Prytania Street and St. Charles Ave.

[rgreenkrb]

Areas of the West Bank experienced an increase in crime since Katrina, but the entire West Bank is not bad. I don’t think Belle Chasse got it as bad as portions of Jefferson Parish. Anyway, the Lower Garden District is a beautiful historic area of New Orleans, but the commute to Belle Chase could be more than a 30 minutes with traffic. There are several business class hotels in Gretna and Harvey on the West Bank that would put you closer to the base.

[Vampgrrl]

Harvey has a good bit of crime (and its kinda dumpy)

[Timmo]

OOHRAHHH! One Shot, One Kill!

Hi Gammie,

Send the above message to your husband. I too was stationed in New Orleans, mainly at MARFORRES (Algiers/Bywater). I've been to the 4th Air Wing a few times. Your husband must work with flyers or a mechanical MOS.

The above recommendations are pretty good. You'd probably want to live near Belle Chasse, the commute from Uptown could be a pain in the . . . . The West Bank isn't too bad, it has its good and bad areas, do your homework. If you were single, I'd say go Uptown. For a family - better near Belle Chasse. Good Luck! Luckily I got the Hell out and avoided losing some limbs. War is NO joke!

[Vampgrrl]

That's my point. Either go for a good spot in New Orleans Uptown, or just stay in Belle Chasse for a tiny commute.
I would not personally recommend Harvey, Westwego, Marrero to anyone new to the area. They are overall ugly areas and might leave a bad taste in the mouth of someone new. I'm more comfortable with them now (especially going to the westbank for Vietnamese food, yum yum) but if I moved there from the get go, I'd be begging to get out.

[Drouzin]

There's a really nice neighborhood right next to Holy Cross College. Lots of nice oak trees, nice middle class neighborhood and near to shopping. I don't remember the name of the subdivision off hand, but I always thought it would be a nice place to live and it's not too far from Belle Chase.

[rgreenkrb]

Yeah, I was suggesting a hotel in Harvey or Gretna only because of the distance to the base and the national chain hotels located there. I wasn’t recommending buying property or moving there.