Claiborne Parish is dead. (Clinton: property taxes, living, zoned)

[Rosinante]

Originally Posted by Innotech

its well worth visiting.
This is probably the best Lafayette has ever looked and been. The city has a much more modern feel to it, but still retains a lot of the charm of being in the center of cajun country.

How is this even possible?

I'd have to add that I'd take Lafayette's traffic to what we have to endure here in Baton Rouge any day.

As for the several comments on grocery stores in general and Wal-Mart Superstores in particular, my overall impression is that their inventories show how provincial their shoppers are. Beyond that, the buy-what's-cheapest mentality that pervades most has reduced choices to just a few brands. I've read that Wal-Mart will eventually offer as few national brands of common stock goods as possible, and replace them with their own "Best Value" generics to boost their margins.

Thanks to whomever it was who rated my earlier post in this thread positively. I'll add to that comment about living out in the country by citing a scene from an old movie staring Robert Redford entitled, "Jeremiah Johnson." In the scene, Redford is telling Will Geer of the hardships he has had to endure out in the mountain wilderness. Geer suggests that maybe he needs to move back to a town to which Redford replies profoundly, "I've been to a town."

Me, I'd love to see conditions similar to those the poster from South Dakota. From what I've seen of some of the areas described, driving 100 miles in Wyoming to get to a Wal-Mart seems just like the kind of serenity I'd love to have.

[Innotech]

Originally Posted by Rosinante

How is this even possible?

I'd have to add that I'd take Lafayette's traffic to what we have to endure here in Baton Rouge any day.

As for the several comments on grocery stores in general and Wal-Mart Superstores in particular, my overall impression is that their inventories show how provincial their shoppers are. Beyond that, the buy-what's-cheapest mentality that pervades most has reduced choices to just a few brands. I've read that Wal-Mart will eventually offer as few national brands of common stock goods as possible, and replace them with their own "Best Value" generics to boost their margins.

Thanks to whomever it was who rated my earlier post in this thread positively. I'll add to that comment about living out in the country by citing a scene from an old movie staring Robert Redford entitled, "Jeremiah Johnson." In the scene, Redford is telling Will Geer of the hardships he has had to endure out in the mountain wilderness. Geer suggests that maybe he needs to move back to a town to which Redford replies profoundly, "I've been to a town."

Me, I'd love to see conditions similar to those the poster from South Dakota. From what I've seen of some of the areas described, driving 100 miles in Wyoming to get to a Wal-Mart seems just like the kind of serenity I'd love to have.

its possible because for example, the river ranch is a ctting edge urban lifestyle development, yet retains the look and feel of a historic Louisiana town and the entire city still celebrates the traditional festivals and activities that it grew up with. Also Acadian Village and Vermillionville still live on inside its borders. The city has not forgotten where it came from but is taking great strides to become high tech and modern as well. Its a great balance.

[tempratt]

Well, you DO have Port au Prince but catfish gets old after a while.

[selogic]

Clinton Louisiana has a Walmart Neighborhood Market . Better than nothing ...

[tempratt]

Originally Posted by LSU Tiger Z71

I know where you're talking about. That is pretty bad. Maybe I just come through at good times of the day?

My family used to own some chicken houses in the Sterlington area (union parish still) They suck.

My wife's parents lived in Lillie and had chicken houses. As the SIL I picked up many a dead chicken.
It was character building.

[ashpelham]

Sounds like a lot of Alabama, honestly. We have interstate highways without exits for 12-15-18 miles at a stretch. Now, I would expect that in W. Texas, extreme rural areas of Arizona in the desert, but east of the Mississippi, seems strange.

[Phil75230]

Originally Posted by Rainbow Island

I live in Claiborne Parish in north Louisiana. It's quite a large parish as far as square mileage. There is absolutely nothing here. No wal-Mart, Lowes, Home Depot. Nowhere to eat except McDonalds, Sonic, Pizza Hut, KFC. Thats all I can think of. I'm not complaining, just wondering how many other parishes in Louisiana have this problem. Homer is the parish seat and it has nothing. There was a very small Wal-Mart there but for what ever reason, it folded. Tell me if there is another Parish seat that don't have a Wal-Mart in Louisiana. There may be, I'm asking. Now, this is probably good for the small places that we have. Piggly Wiggly, Freds, Faimly Dollar. The Piggly Wiggly {grocery store} is so high on everything. We usually only buy the things we run out of there til we can get to Minden, Shreveport, or Magnolia, Arkansas. I would love to know how your area compares to Claiborne Parish.

NO N. La parishes along the Mississippi River (East Carroll, Madison, Tensas) have a Wal-Mart. East Carroll has a Subway and a Sonic. Madison, being on the interstate, has a McD's and Wendy's. Tensas has nothing that I'm aware of either. There are WalMarts in each of the next tier of parishes west, though. I have to say the "Delta Parishes" (EC, Mad, & Tensas) has many strikes against them: very low population and population density (calling this "a wet West Texas" would not be too far off the mark), very remote location (not quite as bad as the more remote W. TX locales, but still pretty isolated), and some of the highest poverty rates in the nation and certainly the most impoverished area of Louisiana.

Along US 65 (the main 'drag' through the area) there is not a WalMart for about 140 miles: from Ferriday to Lake Village AR, about 25 miles north of the LA line. Basically it's basically one big soybean and corn field.

[Mwahfromtheheart]

Originally Posted by ashpelham

Sounds like a lot of Alabama, honestly. We have interstate highways without exits for 12-15-18 miles at a stretch. Now, I would expect that in W. Texas, extreme rural areas of Arizona in the desert, but east of the Mississippi, seems strange.

Louisiana has some of the longest bridges in the world, and many of them are interstate highways in SELA. There are stretches where you will go just as long without an exit because it's physically impossible to build one due to the swamp. There are a lot of spots in Louisiana which are virtually impossible to develop - it makes for very interesting growth patterns considering those areas are in the most populated quadrant of the state.

[Chance and Change]

Reading the comments about all the Open spaces and available options for potential business creation, it would appear these are ideal locations for "immigrants to populate", as many immigrants from many places are very enterprising individuals.
Often times in homeland and the culture of many foreign places seems to promotes individual entrepreneurship goals more than it promote seek a job from a big company type of lifestyles.

I found in some foreign places, there are vendors of every type with carts to small shops to mobile like merchants stands, they have night markets which goes on for blocks after block, and this is how a great many people earn a living. Some go on to set up fixed facility shops as their profits increase.

We have all this land, UN-used, maybe these Parishes should look at developing "Sister City Agreements" with some of the nations, especially from the Asian Pacific region and other Asian places where this type of business thrives.

Even during the crash of 2008, it was noted that India did not suffer in the ways that many places did, because of the high volume of independent small merchants who do business which serve the community needs, from food cars, commodities of various sorts and their various open air market places which catered to independent merchants who "knew" what types of things the community would buy as basic necessity and convenience items.

American cities once grew and thrived because of the 'independent merchants and small shop keepers', why have we lost the desire for this type of business. The competition pushed people to sell good products, natural grown produce and many other things made and sold that did not have corporate chemicals saturated within it.
Small towns can do well in these ways, as long as they know how to manage keeping the Wal-marts out and other big box stores to a minimum.

I plan to open a "Soup Place", with good vegetables, good meat stock, and simple made products - which can serve community wants and needs.

I've never been a big fan of shopping malls and the routine of Saturday Shopping Mall obsessions, I did however like the California style "Swap Meets", as they were Open Air Markets with 100's of vendors.

As long as people don't have biases against other cultures or ethnicity, these empty space towns and small cities with small populations could thrive if they open their minds and areas to immigrant populations who are enterprising people.

[rgathrights]

Originally Posted by Chance and Change

...

I plan to open a "Soup Place", with good vegetables, good meat stock, and simple made products - which can serve community wants and needs.

I hope you pay your fair share of IRS wage tax, property taxes, retail taxes, inventory taxes and city taxes at this market to allow the community a chance to satisfy it's wants and needs with your sales.