Opinions on New Orleans? How is it living there?

30 mpw is considered high mileage due to the heat and high dewpoints. Portland and Seattle fairies don't fare well here.

It is an acquired taste. I live on the Gulf Coast, not in NO. I am originally from the east. When I first saw a bowl of etouffe, I thought it looked like baby spit up. Now I eat etouffee at least once a week.

If you really dive into the culture, it can be a pretty amazing place to live. Get a little house in the lower Garden District, go to jazz clubs, eat at lots of great restaurants, etc. Running is a challenge in the summer. You either have to go run before the sun comes out or late in the afternoon when the sun is setting.

The negatives are that NO is a tourist town and the Bourbon St./French Quarter scene is pretty awful. The recovery from Katrina has been great in the nice areas. There are even more great restaurants than before as many businesses that went bust after getting flooded left behind a big renters market that allowed local chefs to flourish. But for the have nots, the recovery has been very uneven. Many with flood insurance rebuilt, but many did not and are still suffering the effects. So you have very odd neighborhoods where there are lots of good looking new houses, lots of vacant lots and few run down flood survivor houses filled with crack heads.

You would either love it or hate it. I live here and could not be happier; really could not live elsewhere. Very laid back with TONS of stuff to do every day. People are amazing and very tolerant. If music, art, culture, night scene, festivals, parties etc. are your scene you will thrive. If you are more an introvert who is career focused it can rub you the wrong way- people here want to play and enjoy life NOW. Good running scene but yes, hot in the summer. Must get your runs in early.

If you like dirty, run down cities that smell like piss, you will love New Orleans.

I elected to live in New Orleans after completing grad school in a STEM field. I'm paid less than I would be in many other markets, but it is worth it to me.

Disregard the previous poster complaining about running here. If you accept that from late-May/early-June until mid-September that you are resigned to easy mileage, you'll be fine. There are several two mile races over the summer if you feel the need to get in speedwork. The running community here is outstanding (unless you're a sub-31:30 10k type guy).

Only a boring person could get bored here--festivals, concerts, museums, restaurants are all great.

New Orleans is great. Just steer clear of Bourbon Street--has nothing to do with the real New Orleans.

large thing wrote:

If you accept that from late-May/early-June until mid-September that you are resigned to easy mileage, you'll be fine. There are several two mile races over the summer if you feel the need to get in speedwork.

Here's what to do over the summer in New Orleans to prepare for fall races: hard hill workouts at lafeniere or hard fartlek workouts 2x a week (unless a 2 mile race is available) AND agilities with LA football players twice a week throughout the summer! To avoid the heat, substitute easy runs with 5 minute running warmup in a gym then do swimming for 30 minutes. If you feel the need to run easy or long, complete your runs starting at either 7:30 when it's almost 90 degrees already OR at 6:00 PM when it is 95 degrees!

Good luck!

Are you black?

I lived near NO for 4 years. The summer is OPPRESSIVE. You will not do any quality workouts or long runs from about May until October. I grew up in the Northeast and I looked at it the same way I looked at winter there- just get through it.

Despite the heat, New Orleans is my favorite city in the country. It's vibrant, unique, tolerant, and has a lot of character that you won't find anywhere else. The people who live there are passionate about their city. Mardi Gras is awesome. St. Patrick's day is awesome. Jazz Fest is awesome. There is some festival going on almost every weekend.

Downside- NO is getting more dangerous by the day. It's dirty. It smells in the summer. Leave the city and people are backwards. The unofficial state motto of LA is "Live hard, die young." The food will kill you. There are the ultra rich people out on St. Charles and the ultra poor in most of the rest of the city.

All this being said, if I got the chance to live there for a few years, I'd take it in a heartbeat. I don't know if it's a place I'd want to live the rest of my life but it is a great place to experience for a while.

You're going to gain 20lbs because of the food and not being able to run in the summer. But you'll have a wild time.

I like New Orleans but it is the most overrated food city in the country.

The OP asked this back in 2016, but I can't resist answering anyway.

I'm one of those who hates New Orleans. Have lived here for a number of years and moved from a cooler climate. It would be a cool place to live if you're single and could rent a room downtown or in the Garden District. But it's a terrible place to raise a family. Absolutely terrible. I want to get my family out of here ASAP. If you don't want to pay $10k/year per kid for private school, you can enter a lottery to get them into a public or charter school. You may or may not get into a good school that way. The bad schools are BAD, and even the few good schools are a mixed bag compared to other parts of the country.

Crime is out of control. I can deal with the chance of getting my car broken into or my house robbed when I'm away. But New Orleans goes beyond that. The violent crime rates are off the charts. Armed robbery, armed car jackings, sexual assault, and shootings occur on a weekly basis within a small radius of my home. Oh you think I just live in a bad neighborhood? No, that's just the way all of New Orleans is. Draw a 3-mile radius circle in any part of the city and you'll find the same.

Racism is alive and well. For all the talk of New Orleans being open and accepting, there is a deep counterculture of racism. It rears its head in many ways. Just look at what happened when the city took down the Civil War monuments. And it goes the other way. If you're a white guy moving into a black neighborhood, you can expect vandalism and theft of your property, if not worse. Hispanics are treated poorly by whites and blacks alike.

That just scratches the surface. I'll be celebrating like mad the day I move out.

Cajun Crawler wrote:

Are you black?

I'm what most people call an Oreo: black on the outside, white on the inside.

A city to visit only.

Uncico C. wrote:

Cajun Crawler wrote:

Are you black?

I'm what most people call an Oreo: black on the outside, white on the inside.

No oreo means something completely different.

I live in Louisiana and i've never set foot in the Chocolate City, i hope the next hurricane sinks that cesspool

Oreo is a term used by children in middle school. You are a Tom.