Pineville area/another relocater (Alexandria, Boyce: renting, insurance, crime rate)

[Kstn415]

My family will be relocating to pineville from northeast PA. I have read some bad things about pineville/alexandria. We are not exactly sure where we will be living yet but my husband will be commuting to Pollock. My daughter is in 2nd grade and my son is in preschool so i'm really concerned about crime/drugs and schools obviously. Could anyone give me suggestions on nice areas to live and good schools. Also, I am a physical therapist and will be looking for work as well. Another concern is that the schools down there seem to start earlier than up here, and i'm worried about the transition with them missing a couple of weeks. I am considering private schools too but not sure of the cost and if it will be affordable for us. Any help is really appreciated.

[ral31]

Pineville, for the most part, is decent and Alexandria has both good areas and bad areas. Louisiana schools in general aren't great, but Rapides Parish, which includes Alexandria and Pineville is one of the better districts. Some good public elementary schools in Alexandria include Cherokee, Nachman, and Phoenix Magnet. I don't know much about the schools in Pineville but they are mostly decent.

[asimplegirl]

I live in Pineville, and there is barely any crime here. Now, Alexandria.. whew hooo.. that's a different story in the bad downtown. Pineville has some good schools, and is VERY family oriented. There are tons of new restaurants and such right in Pineville, so you don't even really have to leave, and alot of those have "family nights" where families get discounts and kids eat free certain days of the week.

Since living here, I have only ever seen 1 car pulled over here, and have never heard of any violence or drug activity around where I live.

I grew up by Pollock, and that's a good area, too, but you should definitely stay near Pineville if you ever want to have ANYTHING to do. lol.

Hope that helps. Email me at inkelywinkely@gmail and I can give you more info about our area.(pineville)

[tbayle]

well now you got me worried! We can't do Pineville, becuase it's too far from Ft. Polk. We chose a neighborhood called Shadow wood out by the lake. But, what about when we go to restaurants, shopping and movies? Do we have to drive to Pville to be in a good area to do all that?

[ral31]

You don't have to drive to Pineville for shopping, restaurants, etc. Alexandria does have a high crime rate in many areas, but there's no need to be afraid to shop or eat out in Alexandria. Alexandria has much more to do than Pineville, but Pineville is growing and the number of amenities in Pineville is steadily increasing.

[Kstn415]

Hey, thanks for the info, anything else is appreciated. A couple more questions, were any areas of pineville affected by gustav or ike?? Are there any areas prone to flooding that we should stay away from? we will be moving in december to a hotel in the area and hopefully finding a house a.s.a.p. How are taxes and flood insurance prices?

thanks again!

[ral31]

Originally Posted by Kstn415

Hey, thanks for the info, anything else is appreciated. A couple more questions, were any areas of pineville affected by gustav or ike?? Are there any areas prone to flooding that we should stay away from? we will be moving in december to a hotel in the area and hopefully finding a house a.s.a.p. How are taxes and flood insurance prices?

thanks again!

Ike didn't cause much trouble in Pineville/Alexandria. Gustav, however, caused considerable damage. Most flooding occured in several low-lying neighborhoods in Alexandria. Houses in these areas took in several feet of water. Flooding isn't as big of a problem in Pineville because Pineville has rolling hills. However, the entire area had downed trees, power outages, and occasional roof damage.

[TexasMama]

We are finally moving to the Alexandria area this weekend! Though I prefer to live outside the city so we are renting a house in Boyce for the time being. My husband works in Alexandria near the mall and we've gone out many times and never felt "threatened". There are some bad areas though, as we found out by making a wrong turn onto Lee St.

We were not impressed by most schools test scores so we are homeschooling our first grader until we can get her into one of the magnet schools. We had considered private school, and it wasn't really too expensive. I don't remember which one we were looking at but I think it was around $6k a year. Another thing is the schools in Alexandria seemed to be a bit behind her school in Texas, so missing a few weeks might not be a huge deal.