Retiring from Military where to live in South Louisiana?
 

Hello all,

Long time lurker first time poster. I am currently just shy over 20 years service active duty Air Force and will be retiring in the next couple of years.

We spent almost 10 years at Barksdale in Bossier, and while that area is nice, we really fell in love with South Louisiana. We spent a lot of time in the Lake Charles Big Lake Area (Cameron, Hackberry, Prien) but also visited and loved areas like Lafitte, LaPlace, Metarie, Mandeville and Madisonville. As you can tell we much preferred the out lying/smaller areas over big towns/cities.

We will be extremly flexible and obviously will go where the work is. Wife is in
financial/insurance business and I am a E-8(will retire as E-9) Petroleum Specialist with a Leadership/Organzational Managment BA degree and will more than likely be looking to hire on with an Oil Company in some form or fashion, but consider myself pretty marketable in a number of different enterprises.

We will have have school age children by then (High School/Jr High and elementary) so obviosly education quality is a factor. Additionally, with 2 professional incomes and a military pension we will be fairly financially comfortable.

The baseline that we are looking for is as follows.

- South Louisiana Small town/Outskirts preferred (willing to commute)
- Good Schools
- Good People/culture
- Close to good fishing/hunting(definetly entertaining living on the water, but will be on the hunt for land)

Please feel free to let me know if I have missed anything.

I want to thank anyone who puts in there two cents in advance and am genuinly looking foward to here some opinions.

Neil

I,live in Lake Arthur and think it's great. Not sure what other people think of it. LOL. I work for ExxonMobil and I know we hire lots of military guys. Good Luck.

Well I lived in Lake Charles for 18 years, childhood and college, and I intend on moving back. The economy is growing over there, but I wouldnt say the public schools are the best. All of my siblings and I went to Barbe, except my youngest Sister. My parents were not happy with where the school was going, so she is in private school.

I now live in prairieville. Have been here for 7 months now, and I've got to say, I love it. Small town (not even incorporated, I hunt in my front yard). Great schools, Ascension has one of the Top 10 school districts in the State. Think its Top 5 actually. Bayous all over the place. You're an hour or so from the Basin. An hour from Pontchartrain. Depending on what kind of hunting you want to do, there are good opportunities around. Only thing that doesn't seem to be as good as LC is the duck hunting opportunities.

As for work, obviously there is oil industry work in both areas. Growing in both areas, although I think it's growing a little more rapidly in LC.

I heard Mayor Randy Roach (LC) say once that Lake Charles was truely a sportsman's Paradise because you could hunt or fish for anything you want within an hour and a half. I think Prairieville is very much the same.

There is also Zachary as well. #1 school district in the state.

I would say Carlyss (sulphur has a good school), Moss Bluff / Gillis, Iowa/ Lebleu Settlement, lacassine, welsh, Jennings, etc. all good schools around here

Hackberry great place to live!!

Great stuff all!!!! Thank you!!!

Look at Houma. Close to cocodrie and dularge. Great fishing, Great opurtunities for you both. Good schools. And also Nichols state college is close.

I can use a good neighbor. Bring your people on down to Judice right outside of Lafayette. The fridge on the porch stays stocked with beer!

Carlyss America

Anywhere but the lake Charles area

Moss bluff I live in sulphur so it's not a bias

A few years back Lake Arthur was selected as the best small town in Louisiana to raise a family.

Mandeville/madisonville is prolly the nicest of everything you named with closest access to what all louisiana has to offer but still can be in the country type setting. However it's probably the most pricey of everything listed. If stay away from New Orleans or anything on that side of the ponchartrain. Just my opinion

What's wrong with the Lake Charles area?
I don't know about living here, but I think Lafayette is a pretty nice place.

If you look at cost of living analyses, Lafayette is actually more expensive than Baton Rouge. It is a nice place though, if you can live with all those USL fans. :p

I live in Meaux near Abbeville in Vermilion Parish. I think its great here. an hour and a half from Lake Charles. A little over 2 hours to cocodrie and dularge. 3 and a half from Grand Isle. 45 min from Vermilion bay/Freshwater city/Pecan Island

My children interact a lot with children from several top notch schools in Baton Rouge: Baton Rouge Magnet, St. Josephs Academy, and Christian Life Academy. But our workaround for the sub-optimal Louisiana public schools is homeschooling. After several bad experiences with public schools, I just can't recommend going that route.

But if you can figure out the education thing, SW Louisiana has a lot of petroleum industry and the best fishing on the Gulf Coast with the possible exceptions of Grand Isle and Venice, which aren't really right for raising children. The cultural feel of Grand Isle is like a suburb of New Orleans. My children and I love to visit and go fishing, though.

Picking a spot in the LC area depends on your preferences. I like Hackberry a lot, but I wouldn't recommend buying a home south of the intracoastal waterway. I could see our family moving there though and renting a home if we could work out other details. Carlyss is very nice too. Headed north out of Lake Charles toward Deridder, there are some nice communities along Hwy 171 and 190 if you prefer more wooded and cow pasture like surroundings, being closer to fresh water fishing, and driving further for salt water fishing.

Some of the peeps on here might differ, but the fishing in VBay and the other salt water options between Big Lake and Terrebonne Bay (Cocodrie) are not nearly as promising as Big Lake and Terebonne, Timbalier, and Barataria. Houma and Thibodeaux are therefore much higher on my list than Lafayette. I like the friendly feel of those small towns (along with the smaller towns around Lake Charles) much more than Lafayette, Baton Rouge, and points east. To me, the towns in St Tammany seem too much like New Orleans now, as does Baton Rouge. There are some nice places to live in Livingston Parish, but I expect these will get squeezed in as Baton Rouge sprawls from the west and New Orleans metro sprawls from the southeast. Livingston parish would be great for a five year stint, but I think most would regret a 20 year settlement. In contrast, I doubt that Cameron or Beauregard parishes will see crowding in the next 20 years.

I'm often tempted to find a bit of ground at Holly Beach or Rutherford Beach (Cameron Parish) and plant a mobile home or trailer or some such when it's time to retire (or sooner). Maintain a good evacuation plan and be prepared to replace the mobile structure if you can't get it out when a hurricane is on the way, and it would be an awesome place to live if you don't mind the drive into town for gas and groceries.

More great stuff Gents!!! MathGeek thank you especially for that very detailed breakout.

there is no such thing as a simple answer when it comes to Mathgeek

Lol! I have always enjoyed MGs post... :-)

Lafayette is a nice place to live however the cost of living/housing is pretty much out of control. Broussard/youngsville are the major "suburbs." Broussard has a very strong oil/gas industry. You can look into some of the other areas surrounding Lafayette. Anything the area referred to as Acadiana is great. Interesting culture, great folks, and great outdoor sportsman type oppurtunities.

Laffy a nice place to rise a family, but the traffic is getting out of control. Too much growth for the road infrastructure that exits,

Yep LAF is a nice place BUT if it continues to be ran by LCG LAF will be known as lil Russia. It's getting so bad that the property owner has no control over what he/she can do with thier own home & property. It's almost to where you have to get their permission to replace a burnt light bulb ONLY with one that meets their approval. Only to justify someone making a dollar to justify their place & the existence of LGC. It's getting very bad!


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I would say Lake Charles area...some of the best hunting an fishing in the state close by....Im sure there is something in LC in your wifes profession and you have all the plants close by, also oil industry close enough in either direction. East/West/or the gulf.


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I would stay out of Laf!! It's juat too big city for my tastes. Look south out Laff Maurice,Meaux, and Leroy are nice little towns. Country setting but close enough to everything if you need to run to town to get something. The schools are very good as well in the area.

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Agree with this statement 100% i live in scott which is in the outskirts next town over and its still effecting my area too.

Yep BP... We rite in the middle of LAF, VER & ACADIA parishes & it is plum F**k'n RIDICULOUS what LAF is turning out to be!!!


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Yea there is no doubt about that and forgot to mention good hunting and fishing isn't far from any of the small little towns mentioned above

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Lafayette is just too big and still growing. Houma and Thibodaux and similarly situated towns (south of I-10) are far enough from I-10 and close enough to hurricane zones that I don't expect the growth to get out of control in my lifetime. They are closer to great fishing too.

Thibodaux also has Nicholls State U. Having a State U in a small town often raises the local school systems because a lot of faculty spouses teach in the local system and faculty children are in the system, so the influences tend to improve the local schools for all the residents. It doesn't really show up in the system wide ACT scores though.

See: https://www.louisianabelieves.com/do...2.pdf?sfvrsn=2

We look hard for nearby employment that would have facilitated our children attending Nicholls State. It is much higher quality than a community college, with reasonable costs, and far fewer of the common distractions as LSU.

Prairieville.

I live in madisonville and love it. I can launch my boat then decide if I want to fish trout and reds or bass and sacalait. Head south for one north the other. Great people, festivals constantly along the TchfunctA river, I'll though I don't utilize them, the public schools are very good in St. Tammany

What about Slidell? There is an awesome neighborhood right there on lake Ponch called Eden Isles. All the houses have canals that go out to the lake and ultimately the ocean, could be fun?

Hmmm....I have serveral friends that moved to Lafayette to attend UL and say they will never move back because of the way that the city changed following the relocation of so many LA citizens afyer Katrina.

Even the news has shown that the drug and crime problem has gotten very bad recently.

Disclaimor: I do not know this from first hand experience. Only what I have been told by natives.

I agree...and I don't live there. The St. Tammany Parish School System has long been rated in the top 3 in the state. And, it's also one of the fastest-growing communities in Louisiana. But, like Warren mentioned....it also has areas that are off the beaten path. Lake Pontchartrain is right there. Good job opportunities and, unfortunately, you can drive a half-hour and visit "Chocolate City". If I were lookin' to uproot.....that'd be my choice.

Slidell is far from being overrun with crime. But, I promise you that it's not exactly the same place as it was pre-Katrina. Nothing over this way is and never will be.

Eden Isles isn't exactly a short ride to the Gulf, either. :rolleyes:

Lafayette IS growing, which reflects how healthy the economy is here in Acadiana.
"Too Big?" Not so sure I agree with that one. The traffic here does suck at times (just like every other city with a population above 75k), but if you avoid Ambassador and Pinhook at rush hour times it really isn't bad at all. No where near as bad as the traffic in Refineryville, errrrr I mean Baton Rouge.

I would not choose to live in central Lafayette bc of some of the reasons that Math Geek mentions above, but there are a wide variety of smaller towns right outside of the city to choose from. All of these towns allow you to experience the richest, most unique culture in the South while still being right square in the middle of Sportsman's Paradise.
1-1/2 hours to the West is Big Lake and its rich fishery.
30 minutes to the East you will find the Atchafalaya Basin and all of the fresh water fishing that you could ask for.
Vermillion Bay will keep you busy a few months out of the year and you can have your boat in the water in less than 1 hour from almost anywhere if Lafayette.
Cocodrie is approximately 2 hours to the Southwest, although that trip requires you to pull your boat down Hwy 90 (one of the worst roads in the state).
Of course Grand Isle and Venice are not too far to make a weekend trip (3-4 hours).

Some of the smaller towns towns that come to mind are Duson, Scott, and Maurice.
My choice would be Milton. One of the top elementary/middle schools in the state. I grew up here and plan to build a house on family land to raise our children and retire in, so I guess you could call me biased.
All of these areas allow you to live in the country on a plot of land as big as you see fit while still enjoying the rich Cajun Culture that makes the Acadiana area the best place to live in Louisiana.

My second choice would be Houma.

My preferred limits would be Crowley to the west, Ville Platte to the north, and New Orleans to the east. Lafayette is just the right size and has plenty of stuff to do. Baton Rouge has more stuff but also more traffic and less culture. New Orleans has culture out the wazoo. If you lived in one of the towns within an hour of New Orleans you could make day trips there as often as you wanted.

With ACT score averages of 21.9, St. Tammany's ACT scores are the highest in the state, and they consistently rank in the top three by other measures. St. Tammany is also very close to good freshwater and good saltwater fishing.

My main dig on St. Tammany is that the proximity to New Orleans will probably lead to unbridled growth and increasing crime in the next 20 years.

The closest state universities are Southeastern in Hammond and UNO in New Orleans. With the various programs for high school students to take college courses (on the state's nickel), it's a 40 minute drive from Mandeville to Southeastern. I'm not sure I'd want my teenagers driving to UNO for college classes.

If being close to NO is attractive, then St. Tammany is a great choice.

Yes they are all great schools; of course I am rather bias.
Cajunduckman...aka Principal Gillis Elementary School:)

Morgan City

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Houma is growing and has its growing problems, I wouldn't want to live in Houma with the traffic. I work on the East Side of town and commute to Raceland everyday (25 Minutes) The fishing around here is excellent though. As far as schools If I were to move here I would move into the Bourg School District. Specifically the Country Drive Area, Bart, Jeff or Pellegrin Street. High Ground with nice size Lots.


Terrebonne/LaFourche all have not so great public school systems and the private elementary schools arent much better. We pulled our kids from Private and put them in Public and they seem to be learning a lot more.



To the OP, Are your kids involved in Sports ?

If so which ones?

LC,Sulpur,Grand Lake,Moss Bluff, Gillis are all great communities to live,work and play in. Public schools are what the kids put into them for the most part, Gifted programs are very good as is most of the sports programs. Rec complex is second to none in Sulphur, Barbe has better academics than any public or private school in the parish as does Grand Lake (Cameron parish). From office to boat launch in 30 min or less most days, road ways are being enlarged prior to boom unlike Laffy which waited until after the boom. Insurance rates and housing is very reasonable currently and cost of living is less than most that have been mentioned east of Jennings.
With your resume, the headhunters will be busting down your door, good luck.

With both resumes, Lake Charles area the place to be. There are 3 refineries, several chemical plants, 3 LNG facilities, and there are plans for next several years of several billion dollars of expansions and new builds. Educational schools for kids are second to none in all La, McNeese State College ranks very good in engineering, nursing, and other curriculums. 2 hr drive to Houston/Baton Rouge & 3 hours to NO if your interested in large cities. Also since hasn't been mentioned, plenty churches to worship.

Guys,

I cannot thank y'all enough for the great opinions and observations. They have truly gave me a greater perspective and a ton of viable, great information.

Swamp Snorkler: My kids are involved in sports. They two older kids play football, baseball, softball (girl) and basketball. The baby is 4 and just starting Tball and soccer but is showing the athletic ability of his siblings.

As I side note since I have left the great state of Louisiana and moved to North Dakota for the Air Force, Salty Cajun has been my daily dose of home since we arrived this past summer. I am not originally from Louisiana by birth but have fallen head over heals with the Souther Louisiana culture and literally am counting down the days until we return
permanently.

Grateful thanks to everyone.

x2

Right on Danny!

Thanks again all! I do not have the words to say how much i appreciate it!!