Help, Please. Need a No BS Assessment of NOLA

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DogBonz

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Well the wifey will to apply to med schools soon, and one of the ones that was recommended by her advisor as a “shoe-in” was Tulane in New Orleans. Can any one give me a good assessment of the area? How are the gun laws? How hard or easy is a carry permit? Is this a “good” area, meaning how safe is it?

Needless to say, getting out of the PRNJ will be great, but our other alternatives are looking like either staying in NJ, or moving to PA (which would be easy), or AZ (which I wouldn’t mind). I am kind of hoping for PA because friends and family would not be far, and I don’t really like heat and humidity.
 
Hope your firearms are stainless or given some coating technology. Gurgle gurgle. . .;)
 
I live about 2hrs West of N.O. I don't really care to travel there. I didn't care to before the hurricanes, I especially don't now. If I do go there, I don't go without a pistol.

You can sign up for a class and get a CCW, should be no issues there. There are really no limits or laws about buying regular (ie. non Class III weapons) firearms. Buy as many as you want in as small of a timeframe as you want. Instant checks, so no waiting periods. It's a very gun, hunter, sportshooter, etc friendly area (Louisiana in general, I cannot speak specifically about cities that I don't live in, N.O. being one of them).

The weather here is HOT and HUMID, and unless anyone is from S. Alabama or S. Mississippi, they don't really know how bad it can get here during the summer. Expect over 100* during the summer with 60-100% humidity (when it gets over 70% humidity, it gets very uncomfortable). We have 2 seasons, summer and fall (and fall is just barely cooler than summer LOL), you will not see winters like what you're used to up North (if it gets down to or below freezing here, then that's abnormal and usually short lived). There are a lot of heavy rains/thunderstorms here, which people tend to think "yeah right" until a rain drop the size of a golf ball hits your windshield and you can't see out past halfway on the hood because it's raining so hard.
 
I remember landing at the NOLA airport one time. We pulled up to the gate, a mosquito landed next to us and a fuel truck pulled up to it, thinking it was a 727.
 
Not RKBA-related, but a close family friend finished her pre-med studies (biophysical engineering) at Tulane last year. She was accepted into the Tulane med school for this year (as well as 2 others, including Univ. of Cincinnati). She loves NOLA and would really like to continue living there. A good friend who is a Tulane professor warned her not to accept Tulane's offer because so many of their top teaching staff and docs had not returned after Katrina, causing the school not to live up to its prior (academic) reputation. She chose UC instead for this reason alone.

Granted this is second hand, but a legitimate question to ask the school before accepting (if she has other options).
 
I live in Baton Rouge and go to Nawlins at least once a month for business and/or pleasure. I would have considered it in the past but there is absolutely no way I would live in N.O. in the foreseeable future. Crime is definitely an issue for the city and they still have NG soldiers patrolling in certain areas. In general, the city has lost a lot of its appeal to me since Katrina.

Louisiana gun laws are tolerable but you are not allowed to carry on college campuses (public or private). LA is an open carry state but you will most likely get harassed in and around New Orleans if you try.
 
I live in the NOLA metro area. Louisiana is a pretty firearm friendly state. IIRC the Brady campaign gave it a D. New Orleans is a pretty fun town, lots to do. There's a nice range nearby, in Pearl River. There are plenty of good areas in New Orleans and in the outerlying parishes like Jefferson, St. Tammany, and St. Charles. Like everywhere else, New Orleans has its bad spots. New Orleans' bad spots just happen to be super bad, like Mogadishu bad. Local politics are a joke, and the public school system in New Orleans is fubar, so if you are considering a permanant move, plan on sending the kids to private schools. Real estate prices are leveling off and deals on fixer upper houses can be found in nice neighborhoods. The problem is aquiring homeowners insurance. None of the big named companies are writting new policies in southern La.; and you'll be forced to sign on with Louisiana Fair Plan. Its expensive. Expect your insurance to be up to 40 % of your house note. Any more questions, just ask.
 
Thanks for all of the info so far

Like I said, I'm pulling for PA. I like the 4 season thing. I guess that we will see where she gets into, and go from there. If anyone else has any other info, please throw it out there.

Mr.Bowman, thank you for that point. I will bring that up.
 
I don’t really like heat and humidity.
Click to expand...

Well that makes this easy for me, NO!

I'm in the same boat as you here. My fiance is graduating with a bachelors this August. She was accepted to medical school in New Orleans, as well as two others. New Orleans keeps us in the state but I feel it is too much of a risk right now (I love the city but advise against it until things cool off). She refuses to move more than two hundred miles from the family, so she opted to put off medical school for a couple of years while she works with a doctor she knows to get more experience. I have a feeling she'll give in and we'll move for her to go to medical school sooner, though.
 
Don't knock the Houston Med Center for med school. Baylor College of Medicine and University of Texas Health Science Center are very highly regarded as teaching centers.

We have the same problems with heat and humidity that NOLA does, but the crime is considerably less. Yes, we did get a large influx of Katrina/Rita evacs, but for the most part, the bad ones have either been caught, killed, or runoff. There is a strong housing market and our gun laws are the envy of others. CHL with generous reciprocity elsewhere, Class III is legal (as long as you can wade through the red tape), and we are a very gun-friendly state with gun-friendly states around us. Might be worth a look.
 
Thanks every one

She is looking at a lot of schools all over the place. Texas did come up, as did VA, and OH. I already put my foot down and said no Kilifornia and no NYC, and she has ruled out Chicago (phew…)

The places that I mentioned earlier were the “safety schools”, but I am sure that she will get into others.

That said, How is VA?
 
from south mississippi, close to NOLA. if you don't like hot and humid, you probably would not care much for south ms, south la. regularly hits the 100 degree mark in the summer, and very humid. heat indexes of like 115 if i remember that correctly. i'm certainly no metoerologist though. it gets wet hot. i have not spent a whole lot of time in NOLA, but i know that it is a pretty rough town. like all towns it has a few places that are okay, but it has way more of its share of bad places it seems like to me. just from the little bit i have seen. no expert on the place, just been there enough to know that i don't want to go back.
 
oh, University of Mississippi Med School is a pretty good school. it doesn't quite have the rep that Tulane does, but it is very good. still hot and humid, but Ms got rated as an F by the Brady folks. We have pretty relaxed gun laws compared to alot of states.
 
Has she looked into UAMS? Sorry, that's Univ. of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. In Little Rock. We actually have seasons here, tho fall & spring sometimes get squeezed a little short by summer. Heat/humidity can occasionally get as bad as south La, but not as consistently. And you have cold mountain rivers & lakes about 2 hrs away or less to escape to. Very gun/hunting friendy, shall-issue CCW including restaurants w/alcohol. No open carry, tho. LR has its share of bad areas, but there's really no reason to go to/through the worst of them (unless you have to, like me:(). Decent night life, but nothing like NOLA's. Nice indoor & outdoor shooting ranges in the area, as well as several gunstores.
 
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