Baton Rouge, LA

[isign]

DH's company is going to open several offices in Baton Rouge, and he is considering transferring there. Can anyone tell me about the city & cost of living?

[ginastorm]

I have a friend that lives there and he's told me that ever since Hurricane Katrina that the city has more than doubled in size. New houses are selling like crazy and apartment rents have increased. I also know that the surrounding areas like Denham Springs are also experiencing a rapid growth. He's also told me of traffic headaches as well.

That being said (I didn't mean to tell you only bad things!), it is a fun city with a ton of things to do. There are also a lot of great restaurants, both local places and chains. The shopping is pretty good there too!

[Kelly's Girl]

I live in BR and can answer specific questions if you'd like. It is a great town to live in- a college town (twice over!) with loads of good restaurants and bars (not for you, Isign, since you're PG! But maybe to celebrate later!). The downtown area is really being revitalized and has a lot to offer.

The cost of living is reasonable, and comparable to Gulfport, I would think. Houses in my area (I live in the LSU lakes part of town) were going for about $100/sq. foot before the storm. The market boomed after Katrina but has levelled out again. It is no longer a "seller's market" and you can find lots of houses in all price ranges again. I can point you in the right direction if need be, but as a rule, don't live on a street named after a State or President- not safe here. Like a lot of older cities, BR has great neighborhoods bordered by pockets of undesirable areas but overall, it is very safe.

Gina is right that the population has blown up and traffic, always bad, is truly a nightmare now. I work for the State and can tell you that a lot of the rumors going around about crime and how bad BR was after the storm were really just rumors- it is overal a nice, friendly place to live and work.

The public schools are pretty terrible, however, and day care (especially downtown) is quite competitive. As a non-Catholic (rare here!) I will probably still send DS to a parochial school because they are the best.

Does that help at all? I would be glad to answer anything else I can.

Congrats on DH's prospective job!

[isign]

Thanks that helps alot. I love Gpt, and grew up here, but it's changing so much. I know housing would be more, we bought our house, post Katrina, pre price increase for 113K and know the value has gone way up. I would really like to spend about 150K on a house, not sure if it's possible or not. The big thing we are looking for is a nice area to live, and good schools. We aren't catholic either, but I want a good school. DH said he saw a big Baptist school which really interested him. Everything is up in the air right now, and we're waiting for it all to come down. I'm not working at the moment, and am waiting to see what happens before I try to find something. I know that I could always substitue (probably private schools only) teach if I couldn't find anything else.

[craftgenius]

Isign - WOW! Somebody actually posted something on CC about Baton Rouge! I have lived in the Baton Rouge area for 12 years. Two and half years ago my husband and I moved outside of the city to the surrounding town of Zachary. We absolutely love it here. The price of housing has gone up since Katrina. But it's much better than many parts of the country. The price of houses right now are running roughly between $110 - $125 per square foot for new construction. It all depends on what area you are moving to. Zachary has grown A LOT in the past few years...there is a lot of new construction going on. Regarding schools...Zachary's schools are also doing WAY better than Baton Rouge schools. Zachary separated from the East Baton Rouge school district some years ago, and they are doing GREAT. Zachary schools were ranked #1 in the state last year. But also, the schools in surrounding areas like Ascension Parish and Livingston Parish are also ranked at the top. Baton Rouge is a really nice place to live. I wouldn't say that the city's population has doubled since Katrina. There are more people, but things have calmed down significantly...it was a mad house right after Katrina! Traffic is a pain, but I'm sure it's no worse than any larger city.

Kelly's Girl - I work for the state and in the downtown area also. I'm in Galvez.

[isign]

It's funny that the more south you go, the less CCers there are. I'd have a fit if someone from here posted. :)

DH is kind of interested in Denium Springs. Everything's up in the air right now with the opening of the new offices, so we probably wouldn't be doing any moving till after the baby's born, which makes me happy. Dh keeps dropping little hints about how nice it would be to live in a bigger place, which I'm open to. We'll just have to see how things play out.

[Aimee]

I have a love-hate relationship with BR. I have such fond memories of my college days at LSU, but, it's not a place I'd ever want to live full time. It's a lot different than the metro New Orleans area. It used to blow my mind how different things get, just 60 miles up the road. It's definitely a different way of life.

BR is definitely more traditionally "southern" than New Orleans. It'd venture to guess it's pretty similar to G'port, actually. BR is much more "Bible Belt" than NOLA. It's very conservative, to the point of having restrictions on alcohol sales on Sunday!

I've only been back a few times post-K, but the traffic was a nightmare. It was bad before the hurricane, but it's horrible now. The I-12 corridor is just awful. Denham Springs is just a few miles out of town, but could easily be a 30-45+ minute commute if traffic is really bad. To put things in perspective, I used to commute Mandeville to BR and could make it from my house to LSU in an hour.

If you're looking at suburbs, I'd recommend Zachary over Dehnam Springs. Denham is...well, it's not the nicest of places. Zachary is newer and nicer and I think has a better educated population.

[craftgenius]

People tend to joke about people in Denham Springs and overall Livingston Parish...to put it mildly and be politically correct, like Aimee said, people call them "uneducated". But the culture of the town has changed some over the last 5 years since they started having lots of new development in the area. Lots of new subdivisions are coming up in the area. And despite people calling them "hicks", their schools are doing really well.

Isign, if you want to get an idea about the cost of housing in the greater Baton Rouge area, check out this website... www.fsbobr.com Denham Springs is in Area 8, Zachary is in Area 1 and the Praireville area is Area 9. The rest of the areas are mostly Baton Rouge. The website has lots of great pictures of homes.