Baton Rouge v. Shreveport (New Orleans, Haughton: tax, place to live, vs.)

[BRMan]

Originally Posted by SBCmetroguy

Very true, BRMan. Actually it's what all of Louisiana needs. Metro Baton Rouge is on a roll, but it's mostly suburban. The inner-city needs more. There are quite a few new construction projects slated for downtown Baton Rouge, and those few cranes down there are just the beginning. RiverPlace is a disappointment, though, if it never gets built. They keep pushing the date back and I hope it does end up being like what they have announced. Even scaled down to 30 stories, it's better than what was originally proposed at ... I think it was 19 stories? And then 34, and now 30.

I think you'd be pleasantly surprised with downtown. When they relocated the state office buildings/consolidated them, you created a large group of people who needed someplace to go at lunch and after work. Accordingly, restaurants popped up, as well as buildings like the Shaw Center and the YMCA. So there's some life there now whereas before it was a ghost town.

Another place to watch for in our fair city is Perkins Rowe. The wife and I visited it the other day, and even though it's only 25% done, it's an awesome concept - restaurants, movie theaters, retail, and a grocery store in the same physical location as condos/lofts/

[SBCmetroguy]

Originally Posted by BRMan

I think you'd be pleasantly surprised with downtown. When they relocated the state office buildings/consolidated them, you created a large group of people who needed someplace to go at lunch and after work. Accordingly, restaurants popped up, as well as buildings like the Shaw Center and the YMCA. So there's some life there now whereas before it was a ghost town.

Another place to watch for in our fair city is Perkins Rowe. The wife and I visited it the other day, and even though it's only 25% done, it's an awesome concept - restaurants, movie theaters, retail, and a grocery store in the same physical location as condos/lofts/

I watch the progress of downtown and Perkins Rowe everyday through other urban forums. The folks on those forums love to post pictures of both of those areas and I'm quite impressed. I'm impressed with Perkins Rowe even though it's pretty much suburban, but I'm also impressed by those new state office buildings downtown.

Perkins Rowe is going to be unique in Baton Rouge and I highly doubt you'll see anything else built there that will rival it. There will be other things built, but Perkins Rowe has all the essential components: dining, theater, shopping, living, office, and even medical. Bally's, CVS, Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, a "town square" ... there are just a lot of components to Perkins Rowe. There's even a gelato store in the lineup, not sure if it's open yet or not. I also like the 'smokestack' sign. As much as I hate to say it, it's going to blow our Boardwalk away.

And who knows, if we end up with our rumored Dave & Buster's up here in Shreveport, I'd expect to see one down there as well... and the best place for one would be Perkins Rowe.

[Rock9396]

I have never lived in the Shreveport area, but we do visit it frequently. I am from the outskirts of Baton Rouge and I have to say I really like both areas (alot). They have their similarities and their differences. My husband grew up in the Shreveport area but moved to the Baton Rouge area in the early 90's because (and I quote) "the job market dried up in Shreveport". We love to go visit as we have family & friends there, but my husband has said many times that he could not have done as well for himself financially in Shreveport as he has in the BR area (he is in the petrochemical field). As far as things to do, family-wise, I think they are both about the same. My post probably doesn't help much and might even sound lame compared to the other "passionate" ones posted...but I think both good and bad can be found in both areas, it's just how you choose to look at it.

[Rock9396]

Originally Posted by CkPhoto

Baton Rouge is a fine city.. but for a city that size it has the weakest skyline.. Shreveport is half the size and it's skyline looks so much better imo.

I love both places, but definitely agree with you on that one. I find the Shreveport/Bossier skyline to be much more attractive than ours here in Baton Rouge.

[Rock9396]

Oh I have to agree 100% on the road/freeway comment! I tell my husband everytime we go to Shreveport how much nicer/convenient the roads are in Shreveport compared to Baton Rouge. I have lived in BR all my life and can tell you from experience, BR traffic is horrible!

[BRMan]

Originally Posted by Rock9396

Oh I have to agree 100% on the road/freeway comment! I tell my husband everytime we go to Shreveport how much nicer/convenient the roads are in Shreveport compared to Baton Rouge. I have lived in BR all my life and can tell you from experience, BR traffic is horrible!

We're a metro area of 700K. But there are almost always ways around the traffic.

[SBCmetroguy]

That's actually what I was thinking... the metro size is basically double ours. Little Rock is very similar. They've widened I-30 all the way to Benton, AR which is a good 20-30 miles west of the city. Little Rock is very similar to Baton Rouge in a few ways: it's a capital city with a 200,000ish city population and 700,000ish metro pop, and traffic swells a lot of the day on the freeways. The biggest thing with Little Rock is that they have a REALLY nice freeway system... even nicer and more elaborate than ours here in Shreveport, yet they have traffic issues like Baton Rouge.

Even at 400,000 with all the people who come in for the attractions and to work from outside the metro area, I'm surprised traffic isn't worse here than it is. It is at rush hour, but outside of that it's normally a cakewalk. We have I-20, I-49, and I-220 and in the distant future will have I-69 and another loop. By then we might need all those extra roads, but for now we're fine.

I predict that within 10 years we will begin to see bigger traffic issues, and I hope our freeway system can keep pace with it as the National Cyber Research Park comes on board and as more people come in to work in the natural gas industry. The natural gas industry here is going to be like the oil industry is in the Lafayette area and like the oil industry was here back in the 70s and early 80s. It's about to blow wide open and these companies who have invested billions into their exploration of the Haynesville Shale are going to have to move more people in to man their equipment.

Let's just hope as our population swells over the next 10 years that our roads can keep up!

[BRMan]

Originally Posted by SBCmetroguy

That's actually what I was thinking... the metro size is basically double ours. Little Rock is very similar. They've widened I-30 all the way to Benton, AR which is a good 20-30 miles west of the city. Little Rock is very similar to Baton Rouge in a few ways: it's a capital city with a 200,000ish city population and 700,000ish metro pop, and traffic swells a lot of the day on the freeways. The biggest thing with Little Rock is that they have a REALLY nice freeway system... even nicer and more elaborate than ours here in Shreveport, yet they have traffic issues like Baton Rouge.

Even at 400,000 with all the people who come in for the attractions and to work from outside the metro area, I'm surprised traffic isn't worse here than it is. It is at rush hour, but outside of that it's normally a cakewalk. We have I-20, I-49, and I-220 and in the distant future will have I-69 and another loop. By then we might need all those extra roads, but for now we're fine.

I predict that within 10 years we will begin to see bigger traffic issues, and I hope our freeway system can keep pace with it as the National Cyber Research Park comes on board and as more people come in to work in the natural gas industry. The natural gas industry here is going to be like the oil industry is in the Lafayette area and like the oil industry was here back in the 70s and early 80s. It's about to blow wide open and these companies who have invested billions into their exploration of the Haynesville Shale are going to have to move more people in to man their equipment.

Let's just hope as our population swells over the next 10 years that our roads can keep up!

Have they done any work on I-49 north ? It's kind of embarassing to have it stop at the Arkansas line.

[SBCmetroguy]

Originally Posted by BRMan

Have they done any work on I-49 north ? It's kind of embarassing to have it stop at the Arkansas line.

Yep, they've been working on it for a while and when I passed through north Caddo Parish a few weeks ago I saw even more work being done. They were clearing more of the path and you can now see where they're going to build an overpass over Highway 71.

Despite this, it's still VERY slow and as you said, embarrassing. I hate when my friends from Texas and Arkansas mention how slowly the progress is coming along. But to be honest it doesn't affect me like it once did. Though my wife has family in Arkansas and most of our friends live in Texarkana, we don't go up there very often. I use the inner-city I-49 freeway stretch every day and I'm glad to have that. BUT it will make a difference in many ways once the freeway finally extends northward out of the state.

[BRMan]

Originally Posted by SBCmetroguy

Yep, they've been working on it for a while and when I passed through north Caddo Parish a few weeks ago I saw even more work being done. They were clearing more of the path and you can now see where they're going to build an overpass over Highway 71.

Despite this, it's still VERY slow and as you said, embarrassing. I hate when my friends from Texas and Arkansas mention how slowly the progress is coming along. But to be honest it doesn't affect me like it once did. Though my wife has family in Arkansas and most of our friends live in Texarkana, we don't go up there very often. I use the inner-city I-49 freeway stretch every day and I'm glad to have that. BUT it will make a difference in many ways once the freeway finally extends northward out of the state.

And the reality is, an interstate expansion that is tucked away in the corner of the state is VERY unsexy, unless you look at the bigger picture: the Miss River valley of our country does NOT have a good north south route through Louisiana. To the east, I-55 takes you to Chicago, while to the west of us, I-35 takes you from Mexico to Duluth. Here in Louisiana, you're condemned to non interstate highways and speed trap towns if you want to get to Kansas City and points north/south of that from south Louisiana.

...and from a selfish standpoint, I have relatives in southern Arkansas and SE Oklahoma, so a completed I-49N would be VERY nice. Nothing personal about your neck of the woods, but the drive on US 71 north of Shreveport to Texarkana was seriously annoying until they built I-49 south to Doddridge.....