Where to live - Baton Rouge or New Orleans?
I am moving to Louisiana and taking a job at LSU, where I need to be in the office 2-4 days per week with flexibility about what time I get in and leave. My initial reaction is that NOLA is more my style - my husband and I like art, activity in the streets, nightlife, etc. My husband works at home. I've never had a commute more than 30 minutes, and fear I would hate it! Do you think living in NOLA would be worth the commute? And what would the commute be like?
New Orleans - 9 Answers
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1 :
You would be looking at a commute of an hour or more, depending on which part of New Orleans you lived and the traffic. You would do better to find a place in Baton Rouge. If you didn't wand to be in the city,you could head toward Gonzales or LaPlace. They are between NO and BR. You would have easy access to both. You could look in the area called the River Parishes.
2 :
if you really hate commuting that drive will get old quick. Baton Rouge is pretty quiet except around LSU football time then it explodes. I'd suggest you live in Metairie/Harahan/River Ridge. you can find affordable housing and it's just a short drive to the City of NO.
3 :
I'd suggest Baton Rouge.Nola is too much crime and stuff like that.There's alot of clubs and stuff in BR too,and you can make trips to New Orleans sometimes.
4 :
NOLA! i live there and i love it! every one here is so friendly! trust me you will love it. as for the comute...im not sure you will love that so much...people say that the crime rate in nola is a problem (which it is) but it is mostly among gangs and with drug dealers whatnot. if you stay away from that kinda stuff it will be fine. any way nola is so much more fun. i went to BR wen i evacuated 4 katrina 4 a bit and i hated it! nola is a much better place!
5 :
Hard decision. If it was me and my schedule was more often two days/week then I would live in New Orleans. Commuting four or more days a week will get old + expensive fast. The commute from downtown NOLA to the LSU campus is actually about 90 minutes each way - assuming no traffic problems. It is also about 75 miles each way, which means you will be putting a lot of miles on your car. The good news is the commute is almost all via Interstate, and the traffic (between BR & NOLA) is usually only really heavy during the usual AM/PM rush hours. It won't be too bad if you can flex your schedule to avoid those times. You could try living in New Orleans for a set period (ex. rent somewhere to live for 6 months) and move to BR if it doesn't work out. That will also give you time to decide if you like living in New Orleans. Note that living in one of the communities between BR and NOLA (ex. Gonzales) may be the worst of both worlds. You will have to drive everywhere and it won't be convenient to either city. Even living in the suburbs of New Orleans (ex. Metairie, Kenner) means a 20 to 30 minute drive to get downtown.
6 :
II grew up in BR and now I live in NOLA. Baton Rouge is a cultural vacuum and personally I find it incredibly depressing. I guess for you though the question is, are you more of a homebody or a going out and doing stuff kind of person? If you spend most nights at home then live in BR. If you like to go out more often, live in NOLA. If you want to spend a lot of time in the Sleazy anyway, I guess you're really asking yourself-- would I rather commute to the fun stuf,f or commute to work? I will say though that that is quite a commute especially during rush hour. From 4-6, getting east through Kenner and Metairie is gridlock hell. You're looking at an hour minimum although I've been known to make it in 45 minutes at 2 am.
7 :
Baton Rouge traffic sucks and so does NOLA's. Your commute is going to get very old very fast. Live near BR, new orleans is still close enough to spend plenty of time there and BR has some fun stuff too. Trust me on the commute, I tried it for a semester at LSU and I spent more time in my car than anywhere else and it was exhausting
8 :
I also would not really advise living in New Orleans if you're going to commute to Baton Rouge so many times during the week and you're scared you'll get tired of it. It takes an hour to get to the outlying cities of New Orleans and another half hour to actually get to NOLA. A portion of the time during the commute, you're on causeway bridges over swamps and/or bayous. The length of the drive and the scenery gets old fast. Like everyone else said, the traffic is extremely bad from around Kenner to all the way downtown NOLA. If you're looking for a big city, I would not suggest a city like Gonzales. It's not as urban as NOLA or BR at all. But if you would like the convenience, I'd say LaPlace. About a 30 minute drive, give or take, to both BR and NOLA. If you really,really want to live in a fun city with nightlife, I'd say New Orleans, because Baton Rouge pales in comparison to NOLA in that respect. It's big and has 250,000 people and has been growing because of the influx of people after Katrina (the pop. doubled) but it's not really like the other big, major cities in the region like New Orleans or Houston. It's almost like it's kind of a big small town with perks of a larger city like high-end/big brand name clothing stores and companies (Our mall has a Coach store, we have a Sephora and a J. Crew)
9 :
I'm a student at Southern University in Baton Rouge, like right down the interstate from LSU, who lives in New Orleans. Thankfully, my class schedule is only for Tuesdays and Thursdays, but even with that I HATE having to commute from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, especially so early in the morning! [The morning traffic around 6-7am is horrible! People going to work, school buses taking kids to school! It can be frustrating!] I mean, it's not "that" far, but going just about 140 miles round trip for two days adds up, especially on gas and milage on my car. Thank God the price of gas went down because if it had not, I would not be able to afford to live off campus. As for you, if you really want to live in New Orleans, which it seems like you do, and that's where your heart is longing, I say move there. Personally, I love New Orleans and even with all of the commuting, I say it's worth it. If your work schedule requires you to work more than two days, look into finding a place close to Baton Rouge. It can still be in New Orleans, but somewhere on the East Bank, going west of the city. Check out Metairie or Kenner. LaPlace too. Safe suburbs with quick I-10E access to downtown New Orleans.
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