When did New Orleans get such a large hippie population? (Baton Rouge: transplants, home)

[Foamposite]

So earlier this year I went to New Orleans (which I LOVED by the way, it is one of my favorite cities now) and noticed that I saw a ton of stereotypical looking hippie people. I mean like tye dye shirts, white people with dreadlocks, birkenstocks, etc.

Has that always been a thing or did a lot of hippies move to NO in recent years

[aab7855]

Were you in the French Quarter and other really touristy areas? I´ve noticed that in the last 10 years or so New Orleans has racked up a large population of drifterish young people, usually with dogs in tow and dressed the way you describe. They´re definitely not locals, but they like the anything goes lifestyle.

In places like the Bywater and other historically black areas, in the last 10 years there has been a MASSIVE influx of not hippies, but hipsters who have kind of turned those areas to Brooklyn South. I´ll bite my tongue on how I feel about that.

[Foamposite]

Originally Posted by aab7855

Were you in the French Quarter and other really touristy areas? I´ve noticed that in the last 10 years or so New Orleans has racked up a large population of drifterish young people, usually with dogs in tow and dressed the way you describe. They´re definitely not locals, but they like the anything goes lifestyle.

In places like the Bywater and other historically black areas, in the last 10 years there has been a MASSIVE influx of not hippies, but hipsters who have kind of turned those areas to Brooklyn South. I´ll bite my tongue on how I feel about that.

I actually traveled throughout the city, and while I did see more in the touristy areas, I saw some in the residential neighborhoods too. And I didn't write off the hippies I saw in French Quarter or Frenchmen Street because I figured that not everyone was a tourist there, especially if they have a dog. In New York (where I'm from), a large chunk of people you see in comparable areas are not tourists.

[annie_himself]

New Orleans has always had that population but there's more now for sure, but you see those everywhere. Baton Rouge has them too.

[waitingtundra]

Yep, and also note many aren't exactly peace-loving hippies, but rather obnoxious aggressive panhandlers. Just because your a meth head don't make the mistake that I'm a typical tourist that will put up w/aggressive behavior just because you need more dope. Understand as a dopehead punk that you realize police protection is hours away, that runs both ways. Best to be nice rather than stupid. Most locals understand where this attitude comes from.

[waitingtundra]

In other words don't confuse a hippie with a gutter punk, to the untrained eye they may look the same.

[kttam186290]

Originally Posted by waitingtundra

Yep, and also note many aren't exactly peace-loving hippies, but rather obnoxious aggressive panhandlers. Just because your a meth head don't make the mistake that I'm a typical tourist that will put up w/aggressive behavior just because you need more dope. Understand as a dopehead punk that you realize police protection is hours away, that runs both ways. Best to be nice rather than stupid. Most locals understand where this attitude comes from.

Meth heads can afford Birkenstocks?

[VA All Day]

Yea, the crusties have been coming through New Orleans for awhile, especially during the winter months. Though I don't doubt there's far more hipster transplants than there used to be as well.

[brownbagg]

about twenty years ago they started the new orleans concerts that lasted the whole weeks

[benzadmiral]

Originally Posted by annie_himself

New Orleans has always had that population but there's more now for sure, but you see those everywhere. Baton Rouge has them too.

I have a unique perspective. I grew up in the French Quarter!

Yes, really -- Bourbon Street, no less. Yes, the street was wild at night, but it was still a business and residential area -- cars and buses traveled it at all times; it wasn't restricted to pedestrians. There were Mom and Pop groceries and service businesses: a locksmith, an A & P, a car dealer or two, service stations, and Canal was *the* shopping district. I don't recall hippies (or beats, though they must have been there) when I was young, but about the time I started high school, after the infamous "Summer of Love" in San Francisco, we started seeing the influx. My mother, who had lived in the city since 1934 or so, said they ruined the Quarter.

The annoying thing is aggressive panhandlers in the Quarter and in the Central Business District. That, and having live parking meters (and not cheap ones) on Saturdays now. Those are two big reasons I go elsewhere for my shopping.

For me, going down to the Quarter now is . . . weird. It's as if Andy Taylor comes back home to Mayberry, but Disney has turned it into a theme park, there's a To-Go Daiquiri shop where Floyd's Barber Shop used to be, and Emeril has opened up a ritzy restaurant in the building that held the jail.