Oh boy, I am moving to the south. God help me. I have some questions.
Why is everything closed on Sunday?
Do you really have a state-owned utility company?
Do you really have a state-owned cable company?
Why isn’t gay marriage legal there? Do you think it will ever be? What about medical marijuana? Do you think it’ll ever be? If so, give me an approximate time frame.
If you had a choice between living in Lafayette, Lake Charles, or Baton Rouge which one would you choose and why? What are some “must-see” things to do in those areas?
How are racial relations down there?
Why are your sales taxes so damn high? The 4% state tax is OK but how in the world can the parish put another 4-5% tax on top of that. That’s crazy.
Why is your income tax so damn high? 6%! Really?
Tell me about the politics of the area.
Should I tell people that “I am from Chicago” or should I say “I am from the north”. What sounds better to a southerner? I don’t want to come off elitist or anything.
(bonus) 11. Is it true you can drink outside with a open container in New Orleans?
Note: I live in Georgia, not Louisiana. That’s a different beast and I’m only speaking to the ones I know of. 1. Why is everything closed on Sunday?
Blue laws. It’s only been a year since we were able to buy beer on Sunday in Georgia. I still love my Sunday Beer options.
2. Do you really have a state-owned utility company?
huh what?
3. Do you really have a state-owned cable company?
Huh what?
4. Why isn’t gay marriage legal there? Do you think it will ever be? What about medical marijuana? Do you think it’ll ever be? If so, give me an approximate time frame.
HAHAHAHAHA. No. Though I’d suspect that Louisiana has a better chance of either of these than Georgia. At least a decade for the first, maybe 5 years for the second.
5. If you had a choice between living in Lafayette, Lake Charles, or Baton Rouge which one would you choose and why? What are some “must-see” things to do in those areas?
I have actually been to all three of these places. Baton Rouge, hands down. Lafayette, despite being central, is just a nothing town and Lake Charles is too close to Texas for my liking (yes, I have issues with Texas. I’m working on them.)
**6. How are racial relations down there? **
IMO better than in some of the places I’ve lived in more northerly states and far better than when I lived in Arizona. That’s not to say it’s perfect, by any means.
**
7. Why are your sales taxes so damn high? The 4% state tax is OK but how in the world can the parish put another 4-5% tax on top of that. That’s crazy. **
Because they can.
8. Why is your income tax so damn high? 6%! Really?
Ugh. Tell me about it. If you do go with Lake Charles, can you live over the state line in Texas and avoid income tax (see above, re: working on my texas issues)? I don’t know if this is possible at all, FWIW. Consult an accountant.
9. Tell me about the politics of the area.
Can’t help you there.
10. Should I tell people that “I am from Chicago” or should I say “I am from the north”. What sounds better to a southerner? I don’t want to come off elitist or anything.
When someone asks where you’re from, say Chicago. “from the north” sounds evasive and is only going to lead to people saying “but where”. Also, don’t compare everything to Chicago (out loud. You can do it in your head all you want). That’s how you’ll get people to say “well then go back”.
**
(bonus) 11. Is it true you can drink outside with a open container in New Orleans? **
I’m actually not sure on this one. I’ve heard it, but can’t speak to the truthfulness.
I grew up in/around New Orleans and attended LSU in Baton Rouge for college, though I have not lived in Louisiana for about a decade, so this is all from memory and there may be errors.
IIRC, this depends on the parish – in New Orleans, bars and restaurants don’t close on Sundays and you can buy liquor anywhere (including gas stations and supermarkets and the famous “drive-thru daquiri shops”) and at any time. I think Baton Rouge may have had no-buying-liquor-on-Sunday laws, if my memory serves. Otherwise, most things were open on Sunday from what I recall.
Don’t recall anything with regards to these questions.
I expect both will eventually be legal – if it stays by state, then gay marriage will probably take a few decades because LA is more religious and conservative than the rest of the country. Medical marijuana or even recreational marijuana might come sooner, maybe within a few years.
I’ve only lived in Baton Rouge but I’ve been to all three – Lake Charles would be my bottom choice. Baton Rouge is crowded, dirty, but growing (or was ten years ago), with lots of fun things to do and good food to eat. Lafayette was a cool place to visit – I recall a fun trip to Evangeline Downs (horse track). If the Blues bars in downtown BR still exist, then those are fun… definitely see an LSU football game at Tiger Stadium… eat po-boys and great creole/cajun food just about anywhere (my favorite is fried oysters)… go on a swamp tour and feed marshmallows to the alligators… go to New Orleans to eat/have fun as often as you can afford.
In my experience, quite different than the rest of the country and even the rest of the south – New Orleans has a sort of unique racial dynamic. There are tons of black people, but it’s rather segregated in many places. But despite the segregation, just about every white Louisianan (including the racist ones, which unfortunately abound) knows and associates with lots of black people. You’ll have weird old white guys who fly confederate flags, decry miscegenation, and have barbecues and drink beer with old black guys that they grew up with. It can be really weird.
Not so familiar with taxes in LA… I never made any money while I lived there!
LA has (or had) unique run-off rules – no primaries in statewide elections, and if no one gets a majority, the top two vote-getters have a run-off, even if they’re in the same party. The larger cities (especially New Orleans) are rather Democratic-leaning, mostly due to high proportions of black people, while the state as a whole is Republican-leaning. The weird run-off rules (and the unfortunate proportion of open racist white people) meant David Duke was almost elected governor in 1988 – I remember distinctly my mother desperately campaigning for his opponent, the convicted felon Edwin Edwards, because she was (rightly!) so terrified that Duke might win. Luckily, Duke lost in the general election.
I’d say you’re from Chicago – New Orleans and Chicago have a lot of mutual respect due to their great culture of food and music. Just don’t say you’re a Bears fan!
Not everywhere, IIRC, but in the French Quarter and most of downtown New Orleans you can.
Lsura, I assume you missed the plan for medical marijuana in Georgia that was outlined by our republican Governor and considered by the general assembly? That was after the bill was introduced in the legislature in March. It’s going to happen here sooner than later.
Atlanta makes Georgia a much more socially liberal state than Louisiana.
To answer the OP, I don’t think everything is closed on Sunday in the South, but some places wait until after 11 or 12 to open.
I didn’t miss that bill at all - I just don’t think it has a chance in passing anytime soon, at least not in a format that’s actually helpful to anyone. IIRC, with that bill you could possess it for medical purposes, but you couldn’t import it into the state or grow it. I could be misremembering that point, but I’m heading to a meeting so I’m not looking up a citation on that right now. After work, if I have time, I will.
I lived in Lafayette 35 years ago. I’d far prefer it to the other two places. Lake Charles seemed in the middle of nowhere, and Baton Rouge was too big and didn’t have much of a personality.
I don’t remember paying the state for utilities, and I don’t remember things being closed on Sunday. This was before cable. We got the Baton Rouge paper instead of the local rag (the Advertiser) since it was more civilized. And they had home delivery.
We’re from the north. I found Cajuns were pretty tolerant. The year I lived there before we got married my hair was quite long, and I never got hassled. You do get some “you’re not from around here” but it isn’t a problem. Cajuns, remember, fled from oppression and it seems to have stuck.
As for racism back then it was accepted. When we moved to NJ we were immediately struck by how much more diverse restaurants were in terms of clientele.
As for food, still good. We visited a few years ago. If you want crawfish try Richard’s down the road in Abbeville. We went frequently 35 years ago and it is just as good today. Prejeans is an upstart - we went there on our last visit but it wasn’t around when we lived there. There are plenty of other places (like Pat’s) which have been around forever and which are really authentic. Real Cajun food has nothing to do with blackening and random collections of spices.
As for north versus south, Justin Wilson said “everyone north of Bunkie is a damn Yankee to us Cajuns.” I’ve been in Shreveport and that is a lot more normal South than South Louisiana is.
My Google-Fu tells me that at least Lafayette, Louisiana has some publicly owned utilities for electric, water, and wastewater. They also have a related publicly owned utility to provide fiber based internet, cable and phone services.
Maybe its not state-wide, but perhaps some other cities offer such an option?
Everything isn’t closed on Sundays. In the smaller population centers, a lot of people either go to church or want people to think they go to church. Missing church in order to make money doesn’t go over well in those places. However, rural southern Louisiana, albeit highly Catholic, isn’t as bad about that as many other places.
Lafayette, Pop. 120,000
Lake Charles Pop. 73,000
Baton Rouge, Pop. 225,000
If you like the big city and the crime, noise, and crowds don’t bother you, then Baton Rouge is probably for you. If you consider three cars behind a red light heavy traffic, you might want to look at Lake Charles. If you want to be able to go to Chain Stores by major retailers, but don’t like the crowdedness of Baton Rouge, consider Lafayette. The best food I’ve ever had in my life has been in Lafayette.
Above all, remember it is The South. Manners matter. If you demand respect from someone only because of who you are and don’t show respect, you will have a hard time. The “I’ll show you respect once you’ve shown me respect” attitude doesn’t work. The “I’ll respect you regardless of how you treat me” works like a charm. Double on Sundays. And, it works the same for blacks as it does for whites (or Hispanics).
The Creole culture is, by definition, a mixed culture; mixed races, mixed politics, mixed religious beliefs. Being black is not a bad thing. Being confrontational, comparing everything (anything, actually) to Chicago (or even, up North) is. The people who live in southern Louisiana like things the way they are. You want to have a homosexual relationship with a willing partner and smoke pot in your house, they probably won’t care. Want them to endorse your lifestyle while doing such things, and you may find trouble. They don’t mind people who are different, but they also don’t like being told they are doing it wrong.
Instead of the cultural issues you seem to fear, I think it is the climate that you will have the biggest problem with. Humidity. Insects. The lack of seasons (you generally have muggy and cold (40 F) winter or muggy and hot (90F) summer. Don’t expect lows in the 60’s (or below) from June to October. Oh, and the hurricanes.
You ( OP ) did not ask but if a local invites you to “suck heads” don’t do it. They are referring to consumption of the contents in the head of a local crustacean known as a crayfish. It is cooked and presumably safe to eat, but is a salty, green gelatinous mush. The other end of the crayfish is quite tasty so stick with that.
For the past few years many of our national employees have been sent to Louisiana to get engineering or earth science degrees. The first few that arrived reported having been unable to rent apartments. Others said that the locals gave them a wide berth in bars and restaurants. After some investigation it turned out that when asked where they were from, they would respond “Angola” and watch as the people quickly moved away. Evidently Angola is a large state prison. Everything is fine now but I hope when you tell people “I am from Chicago” that you get a better response.
Not a fan of Lake Charles. As has been said, it’s just too close to Texas for me to think of it in Southern Louisiana terms.
As far as race relations go, I was thinking of this earlier in the ‘do you believe you can tell if someone is black or white over the phone?’ thread. You can’t always tell around here. We have intermingled for so long that you’re more likely to identify where someone grew up than their ‘color’ because our culture is about locale and not race. Not that there isn’t racism and stereotyping down here, but it’s my experience that socially people intermix more than other places I’ve lived in the South.
I don’t know your age, orientation, or interests, but Baton Rouge is more versatile. And you’re close enough to NOLA that your entertainment options aren’t limited to BR.
Politics is a funny business here. A lot of people vote Democrat locally and Republican nationally.
The only place around here closed on Sunday is a Hobby Lobby, but you can’t buy alcohol from 2am to 5 or 6 am. I’m not sure as it’s been a long time since I needed beer at 5 am.
Our cable company is Charter, and it’s the only cable company in the parish AFAIK. I think they have Cox across the lake and I don’t know about BR. My kid in Texas gets to choose her electricity provider, which I’ve never heard of here. We have more than one provider here, but they don’t share coverage areas.
I don’t know if gay marriage will ever be supported in Louisiana. North Louisiana and South Louisiana are two different animals. Up north there’s still a lot of OMG teh gayz!
If you choose Baton Rouge, you don’t have to live in the middle of the city.
Also, of course you will suck the heads. After popping the head off the tail, you pinch it closed with a finger and thumb. Looking inside the head isn’t necessary, but you wouldn’t see yucky green stuff if you did. All you’re sucking out is the spicy water the crawfish boiled in. I don’t suck the heads because the heads are 10x spicier than the tails. I do scoop the fat out of the heads, though.
Well, I ended up moving to Lafayette. It’s OK but I am missing Chicago - a lot. Having no friends in a new place sucks. The food is very good aside for the crawfish. I didn’t really care for the crawfish but I did find the etouffe (or however its spelled) pretty good. I told a new coworker about me not being impressed with crawfish and she’s going to take me to Dwights this Friday so we can eat them by the barrel (or however its eaten). I am looking forward to it. I bought a Daiquiri at a drive-through and felt like criminal after I took a sip of it at the red light. I still can’t believe that’s legal.
I am impressed at the people here. The people here are very, very nice. Like Stepford Wife nice (“No Sir,” “Yes, Ma’m”, “Good morning”, etc etc) I keep thinking something bad is going to happen but everything is going very well. The roads (from what I’ve seen) are excellent and much better than in Chicago. The I-10 (I think) that runs from New Orleans to Lafayette is made out of concrete (rather than cheap black pavement) with not many pot holes. I am shocked. The freeway going through the Henderson Swamp is just crazy awesome because you can look outside and see people fishing and stuff. Made me think t hat there should be a freeway that intersects from Chicago to Michigan via a freeway that goes across Lake Michigan (yeah it would be expensive, but totally worth it).
Lots and lots of police officers on the freeway; so I cannot help but to assume there very little actionable crime in the State. I got pulled over when driving from Lafayette to Baton Rouge. Apparently, in Louisiana, it’s illegal to have a license plate decal (an alumni decal to be specific). My plates are from Illinois. He said the decal was obscuring the “Illinois” lettering of the plate. I told him I had a front license plate that was not covered but he wasn’t impressed. I was let off with a warning. Grr. I’m going to wait to get pulled over one more time before I remove my decal. That can’t be right. Can’t it?
As for politics, I am sad that they hate that Landreu woman so much. I’ve never seen so many billboards attacking a woman just because she’s pro-abortion. So the hell what? I am seriously considering switching my ID down here so I can vote for her (but doing so will increase my insurance premiums w/ State Farm).Why don’t they attack Bobby Jindal who wanted to abolish their income tax and increase their sales tax? I don’t get it. Anyway, lots of Jesus billboards but not a lot of churches (from what I’ve seen). I don’t get that, either.
EDIT: OH! Tell me about Louisiana tax holiday. One day it was 4% tax and then ever since it’s 8%. Why don’t people complain about the parish (county) tax? 4% is pretty high! That’s higher than Cook County tax.
We have a tournament in Lafayette once a year. Prejean’s is our post-tournament destination. We tried the Blue Dog and it was okay. My only objection to Prejean’s is the live “music”, which sounds much like a cat being dismembered with barbed wire.
The most common ettouffee has crawfish in it. Crawfish can be served multiple ways; however, when you say you are eating crawfish that usually means you are going to have boiled crawfish. Sort of like this.
This is funny to me. I think of Louisiana in general of having terrible quality roads. Crossing the border from Texas to Louisiana is usually a pretty stark difference in quality.
Well, obviously Mark Landrieu is not that hated since she has not only been elected senator, but also re-elected twice. Realize though that she comes from a very politically connected family in a state known to be extremely corrupt, which fosters some hate for politicians in general. As far as reputations go, think of Louisiana politics as having a similar reputation to Chicago. Mary Landrieu’s father was former mayor of New Orleans, amongst other positions, and her brother is current mayor of New Orleans. What politician in this country isn’t hated by a high percentage of the population?
