Westbank near New Orleans

[Jobelorocks]

Well, I moved to the Westbank area recently and I am originally from Cali. I have encountered some people that hate the Westbank or automatically don't like us because we live there. What is the deal? Is it because of that bridge toll? It just seems a little ridiculous. I have even had a couple interested in getting together with us until they found out we lived there and now they aren't interested just because we live there.

[Realist]

Who knows? Maybe a bad experience, rumors, etc, etc. (I suspect unfounded rumors may be the biggest culprit)

Years ago, I lived In Louisville, Ky. Great city, great people.....as a rule. But, many of them would have nothing to do with you, if you lived in the west end.

I lived on 2nd street, just one block west of Broadway. People would say, "Oh, shit, you live in the West End!!" They didn't know me, at all!

Weird!

[Jobelorocks]

Ya, I don't get it. Our apartment complex is nice, clean, and quiet, same with our neighborhood. The people we have met in our area are nice and friendly. There is really good Vietnamese food in the area, a good asian market, a south american market, and I have only had good experiences.

[Prince of Thieves]

This still is true about Louisville. Recently, my nephew was having a birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese. For some reason, my sister-in-law, with my sister, had to stand in a long line for something. Well, some chick wanders up to the front of the line. My sister-in-law says something and bickering ensues. Everything nearly comes to blows, when my sister-in-law points to her left and smart aleck-ly says, "West End is that way." I never understood it either. There are decent places in that part of town.

[cannibal4]

The crime rate on the westbank is really high, compared to the other parishes. I worked there a good while. Even the the sheriff told me there were more killings on the westbank then all the others combined. Hell they still practice voo doo there.

[Jobelorocks]

Voodoo doesn't bother me. It is just another religion. When you actually read up on what their beliefs really are, you realize that they aren't at all what pop. culture has made them out to be. Check out this site to learn what some of their beliefs are: http://www.erzulies.com/site/articles/view/5 . My area doesn't seem to be full of crime. We live in a gated community with some fancy big homes in our area. Maybe some areas in the West Bank area are bad, but certainly not ours.

[Gearbox]

It may have been a lot worse before you moved there, and bad names stick.
Same for a town here. It WAS a pretty bad town full of drugs, fighting etc. and same thing would happen if you said you lived there.
But when I went there (visiting) it had been given a makeover, and the people were ALL really nice & welcoming.
It takes a lot longer to live a bad name down than it does to turn good.

[LeeNorCal]

Well, I moved to the Westbank area recently and I am originally from Cali. I have encountered some people that hate the Westbank or automatically don't like us because we live there. What is the deal? Is it because of that bridge toll? It just seems a little ridiculous. I have even had a couple interested in getting together with us until they found out we lived there and now they aren't interested just because we live there.

Jo, you're finding out that NOLA residents are some of the most "neighborhood snobbish" people in the country (if not the world.) When I lived there in the 60's and 70's, the only area "outwarders" visited was the Quarter. While a lot of this had to do with racism, it was also a fear that was pounded into our heads by businesses and government. I can remember a time when nobody, except those who lived there, would dare cross N. Rampart St. into Treme or Iberville (a lot of tourist books still advise never to do that after dark.) Hell, that's where the "real 'nawlins" is at, and why I moved to Treme all those years ago.

By the way, welcome to the greatest place to live in the world! Enjoy!

[Jobelorocks]

Ya, I never understood why people are neighborhood snobs. Nice good people can be anywhere, in poorer areas, in unsafe areas, whatever. Can't judge someone by where they live.

[Delilah]

I use to live there. Crime is incredibly high. The area is no good. You can dress it all up with fancy gates, gangs still have that side marked. I've been to a lot of the voodoo rituals. Now those are some down home friendly people who will do anything to help you out. Voodoo maybe another religion but it is more to it than meets the eye. I respect those people very highly.

[LeeNorCal]

I use to live there. Crime is incredibly high. The area is no good. You can dress it all up with fancy gates, gangs still have that side marked.@Delilah, they say the same thing about Oakland. But somehow, I feel safer in East Oakland, with the gangs, than I do downtown. The really scary gangs are the banks and corporations downtown that commit the vast majority of crimes in the area.

[DuckiesDarling]

Hugs, Jobelo and for the question.... it happens, in every city there is an area that has a bad rap and people go more and more by hearsay than by the empirical. And oh yeah, Realist, Louisville is still the same way and for a lot of good reasons. There are some parts you just don't go in if you are not the right color or gender and there are no cops around.

[Jobelorocks]

I use to live there. Crime is incredibly high. The area is no good. You can dress it all up with fancy gates, gangs still have that side marked. I've been to a lot of the voodoo rituals. Now those are some down home friendly people who will do anything to help you out. Voodoo maybe another religion but it is more to it than meets the eye. I respect those people very highly.

Well, my area seems to be nice. Although my complex is gated, most aren't. There are really large fancy homes with really well groomed lawns and such in my area. I would say that some areas are bad, but not all. I have seen no tagging or anything of the sort in my area or areas where it has been painted over. I have lived in areas where there are gangs, I am from Los Angeles, and you could tell their areas, because at least some of the buildings have been tagged. Now my area is all newer buildings and homes, so maybe that is why my area isn't so bad. The Westbank is a very large area, with some better and worse neighborhoods. I don't think it is fair to say that the whole area is bad.

[gen11]

Most groups of people have a need to look down on some other group, in order to think -- or pretend -- that they are "better." Whites/blacks; English/Irish; Boars/native South Africans; Shiites/Sunnis (or is it the other way around?); the right side of the tracks/the wrong side of the tracks; etc. Maybe the West Bank is the designated scapegoat for other New Orleans regions.

[cannibal4]

Yep, you may be in a nice area but the whole westbank gets the wrap. Just south of Morero, <sp> a little west of Harvey, there are some nice areas but still they take the wrap for the entire westbank. Btw, Voo doo is a religion, but like Delilah said, more to it than what meets the eye, I too have been to a ritual.

[Doggie_Wood]

Ya, I don't get it. Our apartment complex is nice, clean, and quiet, same with our neighborhood. The people we have met in our area are nice and friendly. There is really good Vietnamese food in the area, a good asian market, a south american market, and I have only had good experiences.


If you can find a Vietnamese market in the area that prepares their own cooked chicken - yum yum - it smells bad, kindof stinks, but is it ever so delicious!

Try it - you'll like it.

Doggie :doggie:

[voltaire]

I happen to live on the East Bank and I am sorry that some people gave you difficulty about living on the West Bank but honestly that part of the city is considered pretty uninteresting and there has been a history of crime on the West Bank (or "the occupied territories" as I like to call them) for many years. And very much like Manhattan, New Orleans is a city of neighborhoods and fierce sectarian loyalty. Some of my friends in the French Quarter feel that going to the Riverbend or Mid-City area is too much of an imposition. Are you near Algiers or are you in the dreaded Jefferson Parish? (Joke here. Please do not send angry cards and letters)

So, it's not the bridge toll and it's not voodoo, which makes me laugh out loud as the vast majority of real New Orleanians do not participate in voodoo. Most so called voodoo "experts" I have met turn out to be kids from the suburbs of New Jersey who came to study sociology at Tulane and get high. They never leave but stay here and run scam "ghost tours, vampire tours and voodoo tours." But enough of that digression. Welcome to New Orleans and I hope that you settle in and enjoy living here. Cross the bridge to New Orleans and have some fun.

[Delilah]

LMAO! That was awesome response :-D I'll have to agree with you...LOL



@Delilah, they say the same thing about Oakland. But somehow, I feel safer in East Oakland, with the gangs, than I do downtown. The really scary gangs are the banks and corporations downtown that commit the vast majority of crimes in the area.

[Delilah]

I think you're right. I'm going to back track what I said.
I just got through talking to a friend of mine who we rescued when Katrina hit. Well actually not rescued. She was in Las Vegas doing a show and I gave her hell for not letting everyone knows she was ok. But her home was destroyed and she's back in NO. She said it's a lot better AFTER the disaster. Any ways, we stay in contact and she said ride it out. It will be ok, gangs are gone. Katrina flooded those bitches! HAHAHAHA! But seriously she said local people always look down on West Bank but in time it will change. At the mean time, if you and your partner get a snub. Tell them go suck Papa Legbah's dick. HAHAAHAHA!



Well, my area seems to be nice. Although my complex is gated, most aren't. There are really large fancy homes with really well groomed lawns and such in my area. I would say that some areas are bad, but not all. I have seen no tagging or anything of the sort in my area or areas where it has been painted over. I have lived in areas where there are gangs, I am from Los Angeles, and you could tell their areas, because at least some of the buildings have been tagged. Now my area is all newer buildings and homes, so maybe that is why my area isn't so bad. The Westbank is a very large area, with some better and worse neighborhoods. I don't think it is fair to say that the whole area is bad.

[chub-bi]

Years ago I would watch people snicker when I said I lived in Brooklyn. Now people from around the world are dying to live in Brooklyn.

Go Figure!