Good living areas around New Orleans for a family? (Metairie: apartments, rent)

[tangal]

I am not sure if this is the correct area to post.

Like others, we have a possible Job Offer in New Orleans. We would like some other ideas on good living areas around NO. Is this pssible for a family? Some of the posts on this board really discourage me.

Concerns:

Family friendly area
Teen in High School
Safety
Home that we can buy, with room for lots of pets (dogs cats) - would love a bit of acerage , is that possible?
Resonable commute to work.

So far I have seen the following Suggestions- can anyone narrow down a bit?

North Shore of Lake Ponchitrain
Mandervill
Covington
Slidell
Pineville
Madesonville
Kenner
Gretna
Algears
Harvey
Merrero
La Place
Harvey
Westego

No sure on how close most of these are to NO, or the schools, or community size.

Can anyone help narrow it down a bit?

Currently we live in a town of 30, 000 - would like larger, but don't need hugh big city life either.

Help please?

[BRMan]

Originally Posted by tangal

I am not sure if this is the correct area to post.

Like others, we have a possible Job Offer in New Orleans. We would like some other ideas on good living areas around NO. Is this pssible for a family? Some of the posts on this board really discourage me.

Concerns:

Family friendly area
Teen in High School
Safety
Home that we can buy, with room for lots of pets (dogs cats) - would love a bit of acerage , is that possible?
Resonable commute to work.

So far I have seen the following Suggestions- can anyone narrow down a bit?

North Shore of Lake Ponchitrain
Mandervill
Covington
Slidell
Pineville
Madesonville
Kenner
Gretna
Algears
Harvey
Merrero
La Place
Harvey
Westego

No sure on how close most of these are to NO, or the schools, or community size.

Can anyone help narrow it down a bit?

Currently we live in a town of 30, 000 - would like larger, but don't need hugh big city life either.

Help please?

I'd be uncomfortable moving to the Westbank (the area west of the Mississippi River which is lower income and "rough." Plus, with housing at a shortage in NO, I think the Westbank is going to receive a lot of Katrina refugees. So that means the following cities

Gretna
Algears
Harvey
Merrero
Westwego

are not worth exploring. Pineville is in another part of the state and has a paper mill there. LaPlace has newer houses, but it seems there is a black influx into the area. Which I heard was because the housing was relatively cheap.

Kenner is a mixed bag. South of Esplanade I'd avoid. Between Esplanade and the Lake are the nicer houses. The remaining areas

North Shore of Lake Ponchitrain
Mandervill
Covington
Slidell
Madesonville

are growing and more family oriented, with a couple of caveats: (1) housing prices are going through the roof, (2) Slidell got hit with the storm surge.

Since we're now looking at suburbs 20-30 (or more) miles away from downtown NO, there are a few other possiblilities

Pontchatoula (Tangipahoa Parish)
Sorrento (Ascension Parish)
St. Charles Parish

[tangal]

Thankyou this helps alot!

[toyomatrix]

Crossing that lake is 25 miles alone. From my research the cities provided by BRman to NO is about 50 miles one way.

[BRMan]

Originally Posted by toyomatrix

Crossing that lake is 25 miles alone. From my research the cities provided by BRman to NO is about 50 miles one way.

Yes. Unfortunately, thanks to NO's unique geography (surrounded by lake and swamp), Katrina destruction, and current demographic settlement patterns, those "far away" areas are about the only areas I'd be comfortable with.

I'm personlly not crazy about the Northshore, Mandeville, Covington, Slidell, and Madisonville because of the distance across the lake, explosive growth, nasty traffic, and storm flooding (in Slidell, anyway). Which is why I threw in Pontchatoula, Sorrento, and St. Charles parish. Those areas are farther out, but accessible by the Interstate.

[alon504]

Life is grand Uptown. I love it. It's the most pricey of all of metro New Orleans, but, we have wonderful neighborhoods and culture in Uptown New Orleans.

[toyomatrix]

I don't live in a great city myself San Francisco, CA but I can deal with it. What's a okay city near NO that I can stay and not have to worry about getting rob/beat up/hearing gun shooting? I'm Chinese and love to have home cooked style food from time to time.

[Xcaped NOLA]

I applaud your effort for wanting to move to NOLA, but even with a job offer, I would not move back there and I'm a native. I'm not trying to discourage you but ...the rent is costly, the cost of living has risen, crime rampant (although most crimes are committed by people that know one another and not to everyday citizens), the infrastucture is still lacking(schools, stores, mail, etc) and realistically it will take about 10 years for the city to recover. I guess, unless this job is REALLY going to pay you in relation to the housing and cost of living, then I think it would be something to think about. But since I left NOLA, my pay got better and the cost of living lower.

[cassarina]

To Tangal: If I were going to move back home to Louisiana with my two high school children and the other two ages 12 months and 11 years and had to work in New Orleans I would move to Metairie in the district where my kids could go to Grace King High School which is an awesome school. Crime is really not much worse that it was before Katrina. Most of it is drug dealer against drug dealer. If you live in house you will be safer. There are some criminal elements moving to apartments on the westbank. The City of Gretna is the safest place on the westbank.

[Timmo]

I agree with some of the last posts. I live here in New Orleans, stayed here after the storm because my stuff was basically saved, and came back to protect my stuff from looters. After waiting a year and a half, I'm seriously considering moving elsewhere, possibly back to the Northeast. Like the others said, unless it's a GREAT offer, I wouldn't make the move. The media really hyped up this recovery, and a lot of the problems from before remain with us.
At least in pre-Katrina times, there were more cultural activities and more metropolitan amenities. Now, it's just another small deep-Southern town. Sorry to sound discouraging.