New Orleans: Why, as a proud Brooklynite, would you ever want to move there? It’s not even the sixth borough! But even before Solange Knowles, there’s been a slow and steady trickle of New Yorkers who’ve found themselves relocating down to NOLA. And in an effort to determine what madness may have motivated the move, this author visited the Crescent City and sat down with a few Brooklyn expats. There are the obvious benefits, like cheaper housing and all-night drinking that rivals the city that never sleeps; but there are also a lot of provincial behaviors, lack of business savvy and plenty of crime that is causing some people to second guess their move. Here’s what they had to say.
The Big Easy vs. the Big Hard
In the ’70s, when New York started to bandy about its old nickname, the Big Apple, New Orleans decided it needed an epithet to describe itself in contrast to the giant, cold metropolises of the North. It settled on “The Big Easy.”
Turns out they were onto something. Vivian, 25, a computer programmer and self-described “young snowbird,” calls Brooklyn home but decided to spend her winter months in New Orleans. Sitting down with her for brunch al fresco on a day when friends back home were text-whining about sub-zero temperatures up North, Vivian regaled me with tales of how she kept extending her stay, because “chill” suddenly became a word to describe demeanor, and not the weather.
“Everything in New Orleans is just chill. In New York you’re way more stressed out; even just walking on the sidewalk, you have to be on your A-game. I guess it’s because it’s more crowded,” she said on a post-brunch stroll through sleepy side streets.
Vivian admitted that while she likes the Big Apple, she rejects the masochism of New York, deeming it a city that takes itself far too seriously and revels in its own difficulty.
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“Things don’t have to be so hard,” she said plainly.
There are also the obvious arguments around cost of living. Georgia, a 20-something transplant in the nonprofit sector, pays $625/month to live with two roommates in a cavernous two-story house right off the Mardi Gras parade route in the Lower Garden District — perhaps the New Orleans equivalent of Carroll Gardens. Rachel, 30-something transplant of a year with a burgeoning New Orleans-based interior design business, claims that for what she paid in New York, “I have, like, a house. Instead of, you know, a 350 square-foot studio.”
Even the street harassment in New York is markedly worse than in New Orleans.
“You can’t go walking around with a smile on. It’s like inviting a rapist to dinner,” said Rachel about the streets of New York. She remembers a stranger in New York yelling, “I’mma eat your [redacted],” at her before turning a corner and retreating into the crowd.
“It was really uncomfortable, to the point that I wouldn’t leave my house.”
In New Orleans on the other hand, Rachel has observed that men and women alike are referred to as “baby” by strangers as a means of establishing familiarity.
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The psychological terror of street life in New York may, however, be countered by the threat of random acts of physical violence in New Orleans, a town with a long tradition of street justice rooted in Napoleonic Code.
“Horrendous things happen here and it’s like, ‘We tryin’ to find ’em,'” says Rachel, citing the slow response times of the New Orleans Police Department and their perceived lackadaisical attitude in the apprehension of criminals.
Her friend Chris, a 30-something NOLA-based tech entrepreneur born and raised in Louisiana, added, “There aren’t many drawbacks [to living in New Orleans], but crime is [one of them.]”
New Orleans might actually party harder than New York
One night, on a dive bar crawl of the Bywater (which some give the cringeworthy title “the Bushwick of New Orleans”), legal to-go cup of bar-supplied whiskey in hand, I was approached by a New Orleans lifer. While borrowing my lighter to get his cigar going, he professed his love for his city:
“When Katrina came, I took my FEMA money to get back to New Orleans,” he said. “You know why? New Orleans is where the party is.”
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I thought New York was a boozy town that went hard, but the Big Easy gives it a run for its money. I walked by bars still serving when it was pushing five in the morning. Also, I thought New York could be weird, but people really like to dress up in New Orleans. I saw a dude costumed as a gondolier on a bicycle he’d hacked to make it look like a pretty convincing boat. (I gave him mad props. If I had a hat, I’d have tipped it.) I also ran into several people whose idea of a birthday was to get gussied up in carnival attire and get dollar bills pinned to them (a New Orleans birthday tradition).
“They’re not dressing up as something,” Rachel explained. “They’re embellishing themselves.”
My arrival in New Orleans was admittedly coincident with Mardi Gras, and I made a point of staying longer so I could see what the city was like after the party died down. But it never really did. The following Sunday — not even a week later — an unofficial second line street parade was in full effect in Mid-City, far away from the oh-so-touristy French Quarter, replete with brass bands, costumes, and of course, the open sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages underneath God’s blue sky.
It’s more than just a song and dance, as it turns out. All the costumes and merrymaking and easygoing attitude are an integral part of what makes New Orleans New Orleans.
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Ambition will get you… somewhere
On the other side of the expat spectrum is Mary, a 30-something freelance composer who cries foul on New Orleans’ purported perpetual bliss. A veteran of both Brooklyn and NOLA, she lived in the former for 12 years and moved to the latter five years ago on a whim. New York was getting expensive, she found the jazz scene of the Big Easy appealing, and she had a job that allowed her to work remotely. So she hinged her decision on the outcome of a football game (yes, I said she moved on a whim), and decided to move. She fell in love instantly: with the city, with her future husband (found him two weeks into living in New Orleans), with life, and with everything, really.
Half a decade later, the honeymoon’s over — literally. She’s getting a divorce, and she’s on the fence about whether to keep her adopted city. When asked what she missed about New York, Mary mentioned the Indian food, the work ethic, and the city government, of all things.
“You can’t eat healthily here,” she said, claiming to have gained 30 pounds in her five years in New Orleans. In reference to the hustle, she added, “If you do have a work ethic, you’re ostracized.”
She also claimed the working world in NOLA suffers from a nepotism that runs as deeply as connections made in high school. “It’s all about who you know, not what you know,” Mary said. New Orleanians, she said, have “no business acumen.”
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Chris was in agreement.
“All of the good developers are spoken for, play musical chairs between the same three to four NOLA startups, and don’t change jobs very often.”
Mary told us that the city also feels frustratingly provincial, explaining that you could whistle a jazz tune from an area musician on the street and someone else would likely complete the melody, but that same someone else might never have heard of Alicia Keys.
As for getting things done at a municipal level, Chris shared a similar gripe. “It’s a shadow government.”
Mary added, in kind, that New Orleans’ skepticism of outsiders can make it difficult to work with them, and lack of access to talent and (venture) capital can make it hard to get things off the ground. She went so far as to dub New Orleans “the most modern third-world country,” adding that “no matter what, it’s always gonna be as fucked up as it always is,” and that, “it cannot be changed.”
Chris was, on the whole, more optimistic. He pointed out that the live-and-let-live attitude of the Big Easy can work to your advantage.
“Just coming in, doing your thing, being yourself, focusing on the work, being as authentic as possible in the context of everything you do, that’s New Orleans,” he said. “Above all else here, people here appreciate authenticity.”
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Failure isn’t punishing
The low cost of living certainly doesn’t hurt, either. The French Quarter is a mecca for gutter punks and transients of all sorts who can score enough cash to eke out an existence by busking for the constant stream of tourists. Trying hard in a city that prides itself on taking things easy makes you “stick out as someone who doesn’t do things The Way They Are Usually Done,” but then again, trying something hard in a city where failure isn’t as punishing makes it easier to pick up the pieces and try again. That, and it’s nice to know that even if you get totally absorbed in your work, there’s always the readily accessible escape to restore your sanity offered by New Orleans.
“I would work 24 hours a day, seven days a week if I had to and frequently do,” Chris told me. “Things like Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, Fringe Fest, Halloween, 12th Night, all of these unique cultural experiences that you don’t get in any other city, they act as a beacon for me and force me to get out of my stupid entrepreneur zone and go and live life for a few days. The experience is rejuvenating. The fact that it reminds you that you are a human, and forces you to pause your relentless march of ambition, is a lifesaver.”
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Okay, so should you move?
If you like to take it easy, and you don’t put much stock in the New York pressure-cooker, and you maybe know a guy who knows a guy who heads up a cool company in New Orleans, then by all means do it. NOLA’s a festive town steeped in cultural heritage and, like many American cities, is going through a lot of (largely positive) changes. On the other hand, if you’re really career-driven and you don’t have a good gig lined up before you make the move, you may be disappointed.
As for me, I’m currently unemployed in the most expensive major city in America and I don’t subscribe to New York exceptionalism; I know there are plenty of other great places to live. And I wholeheartedly believe in the work-life balance that seems to be oh-so-elusive in New York. I found New Orleans’ emphasis on enjoying life to be a breath of fresh air. By any measure, I should be an ideal candidate for transplantation.
But I’m stubbornly staying here. As a transplant to Brooklyn of just two and half years, it seems too soon to give up on a place I was just getting to know. I might, however, have lived here just long enough to have been Stockholmed into loving it despite its shortcomings. If New York can be trying, I’ll just have to try harder.
Of course, get back to me in a year and see if I’ve decided to take it easy. You’ll know where to find me.
View Comments (120)
I am and always have been from New Orleans, everyone except the British, have forced their way into this city, and it never changes... they will totally fuck-up the place. Bullshit! New Orleans is more likely to change those who arrive than anything else, that and we are not talking the Cuban exit after Castro, who also fled to New Orleans too... as with most influxes into N.O. it's not big enough... that's why there is Houston, to keep all the plastic functionaries elsewhere!
I don't hate this article, and I find the criticism it levels at New Orleans to be things I've actually said myself, as a native raised in New Orleans who has moved away several times now. I love my city but it is not perfect, and having lived in New York, our "work ethic" is laughable by comparison. But that's the point! We help others and ourselves enjoy life, and that is just as important as work, and that means some parts of life work differently than they do in other places like NY.
But! The first time I knew our city had changed was when I passed two hipster-looking guys on the street and they ignored me. I knew something was different. They seemed cold! We ALWAYS say hi, to everyone we pass or see. Now even I've lost some of that, because it seems like no one is doing that anymore. That's sad to me.
Otherwise, the crime sucks, but I've literally never in my life been a victim of a random act of violence or theft on the streets of New Orleans having lived there a combined total of 25 years.
And finally, you can't fake soul. New Orleans and her people have that, and it can't be codified or contained. You just know it when you see it. That's something that the article and the many others like it try to hit on but always miss.
I am 61, in 1976, 1977, 1978, 1978, 1980, I lived in Washington DC and had a relationship with a person living in Brooklyn. Being from New Orleans, as it is, some how, I felt prepared for Brooklyn, not intimidated by all the sadness that was around all that was exciting about the place.
I love New Orleans with all it's blemishes. Brooklyn was fun.
But like most places there is the good and there is the bad. New Orleans: Do you know what it means http://bundlr.com/u/jbkeenanjr , or if you want to be like Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera, New Orleans: A Vast Urban Wasteland.
Cannot dispute it. Both versions of New Orleans are there. NOLA is not for everyone. I love it. Come see us sometime when it is not Mardi Gras.
John Keenan
I moved to New Orleans from Brooklyn 14 years ago (before anyone outside of Brooklyn even heard of Williamsburg which had all of 2 bars). Before, during and after Katrina loyal to my funky new city and becoming a PART of it. And now recently I have left because all of these YOUNG HIPSTER BROOKLYN types have ruined it! Pushing up rent, then PAYING it (absurd amounts), taking up all of the (low paying start up bs type jobs) and generally changing the vernacular and culture. How many artisan coffee shops from 20-30 somethings from Oklahoma in $3000 a month (now) space do we need? When is the last time you heard someone say "Banquette" for sidewalk? I know what it means to miss New Orleans because it is gone. And now so am I.
Catch you later bruh. Oh - be sure to let us know which outpost you plan to colonize next. Maybe we'll join you while the gettin's good before all the other colonizers arrive and ruin everything. Seriously - you must be joking.
It's disgusting how territorial and possessive people are of New Orleans, even of their own neighborhoods to other New Orleanians. The people complaining that transplants are ruining their city are probably the same people that call Trump a racist for wanting to build a wall and discriminate against Muslims. Anyone who wants to move down here can chose to do so without feeling intimidated. I can tell by the grammar of these posts that these people are not products of Orleans Parish public schools and most likely moved here themselves within the past few years. There's a lot of narcissistic behavior here and it makes me sick. Your art isn't special, your friend's band isn't special, YOU'RE not special, and most importantly, youre not ENTITLED to shit. Don't blame anyone else besides yourself that your rent is unaffordable. There is a myth that there are no well paying jobs here and that is not true, they just aren't handed out. They require skills and talents that aren't found behind a bar or in a kitchen. I'm sorry a lot of you folded the middle class hand life dealt you and decide to work hard hours for low pay, however it's no one's fault that your rent is too high. This is not any one person's city or culture. Get over yourselves. Anyone from San Francisco to New York and anywhere in between, don't let these people make you think you're not welcome. Please just be nicer and more considerate than them.
Well, high rents anywhere usually lead to very specific people or groups being responsible for that. Rents are not just a piece of a natural landscape, out of control or comprehension. They happen because specific people pass laws to control what can be done with land. It can be a complex, convoluted layered effort to stop people from building more houses and apartments in specific locales, but there's nothing normal or natural about it. The lovely, adult reactions we see above, specifically about fear of high rents, goes to show exactly how it happens - those who wanted this outcome divide and conquer any effective opposition by letting you think it's the fault of people fleeing one place to move to the area. That's bullshit of the highest order. Worse, it's lazy bullshit.
The rent is too damn high in lots of places. It's not because they're not growing fast enough out of the ground, or we poisoned the soil. Or that we forgot how to build them. There will be a law, or a zoning code, that describes what can be built in a particular spot of ground. It will either apply to everyone, or just to people who happen not to be extremely well connected and well capitalized developers who hate competition. It will say you need two parking spaces per bedroom, which doesn't seem like it's talking about housing restrictions, but it definitely puts the land into a price point/cost of construction ratio that most certainly does restrict housing. They will count windows, and charge a higher tax. They will require the building be 50' feet from the curb, and no 15'. They will tell you that you cannot build an agnostic storefront on the first floor, so developers with lower capital access can't count on the commercial rent in their financial planning. All this contributes to controlling what can and cannot be built. Some people may forget why a certain rule is in place, but it is never an accident that they are. The local government will withhold a cert of occupancy, or city services; they will fine you; they will demolish the property.
No, high rents are never a standalone consequence having to do with new people wanting to move to a neighborhood.
"They happen because specific people pass laws to control what can be done with land."
Not so much in New Orleans. Unfortunately, alliances are sold to the highest bidder and cronyism and graft rule the day here, especially when it comes to horrible developers and our civic administration. It'd be much more appropriate to speak of lack of enforcement and a laissez faire attitude towards housing as a human right.
Also, you can't absolve the different classes that come in and take available housing stock from poor people (See: the 5,000 unit whole home short-term rental units in New Orleans, nearly 3% of the available housing stock) and claim that it has no effect on rental and cost of living increases. The housing market does not exist in a vacuum. Causality is a real thing.
Stop talking out of your ass, lazy. Calling others lazy while you conjecture and project assumptions about a highly localized and place-specific issue you seem to know very little about seems lazy on your part, to be quite honest. And it's not cool to call an entire group of impassioned people facing a very real housing crisis names because you disagree. People are hurting, and if the(admittedly contrived) market for this place (New Orleans) did not exist, their displacement would not be as intense. Your objective of "not blaming" those who move in would be like saying, "Oh hey native americans, don't blame the people who came in and homesteaded your land because they had more power and privilege, it's not their fault!"
While it may not be specifically their fault, technically, they're definitely complicit in the process and the end result.
A bientot!
mitchandmarlin: I want to make sure I read your comment correctly. You wrote; "The people complaining that transplants are ruining their city are probably the same people that call Trump a racist for wanting to build a wall and discriminate against Muslims."
Are you actually claiming that Trump is NOT a racist for wanting to build a wall and discriminate against Muslims? Are you also claiming that those who support Trump are the good guys?
Nooooooooooo. Get out of Brooklyn!!! Get out of New Orleans and GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM. Wtf is NOLA. Stop it. You've ruined Harlem, South Bronx, all of Brooklyn. Go to Staten island. Oh wait they don't want you either.
Totally agree with you, JR. I'm was born and raised in Brooklyn, left 25 years ago for work, but visit family and friends in the area often. Not sure about all of Brooklyn, but yes, entire swaths -- from the borough's northeast to the mid-southwest part -- are hipster wastelands feeding of the tit of Manhattan's financial terrorists. Thankfully, other sections, specifically my old neighborhood, haven't been "discovered" yet (though they've experienced a huge influx of Chinese and Russians).
The venom on these threads is - I don't have the word. It trashes freedom of speech. What could be happening is dialogue to find the best of both cities, to preserve unique cultures, honor heritages, and simply find out what people like and don't like about living in each place. Instead, we get words of disrespect that jump off the page with forceful rage. I was born and grew up in New Orleans. I have lived elsewhere and found attributes of other cities that I think would enhance New Orleans. I love New Orleans. My parents grew up here; my grandparents immigrated here. New Orleans is home to me and for me. It hurts to read about horrific crime, weaknesses in public education, failings of the infrastructure, government inefficiencies, political grind ... We are not making anything better for New Orleans by trashing each other.
Of course the article would misinterpreted. I don't the think the writer was trying to put NO down but in terms of succeeding, it's described as "tough". For the so called NO natives on this post, I totally understand that keeping the authenticity of NO is the most important thing but why not want better for your city? Why do people equate wanting more job opportunities, better pay, better school systems with being hipster? That's so freaking sad. There is nothing wrong with wanting to better your community. This is why people do relocate for a better job opportunity and for their kids. I understand everyone wants to blame the hipsters but honestly it's bigger than them.
There is a greater financial shift that is occurring in America with many rich international investors buying whatever properties they can get their hands on and flipping them. On top of that, they increase all these rents and yes, it attracts a certain caliber type of people. But with this comes other expectations: people want to feel "safe" in a neighborhood which they are paying mad money for along with the other materialistic elements that are associated (nightlife, restaurants, better educational system, social life, etc).
But why blame people for wanting better, I mean who doesn't? The same people on here stating they will take NO in it's current state are full of shit.
These people are so rude!!! lol, I was born and raised in New Orleans, and I welcome all the transplants :) I have to say, I am a bible believing christian, and i am sick of these pagan traditions and catholic roots that are ingrained in the city's culture... I love New Orleans, but i hate a lot of the traditions and things it is known for. I have to say, I love the architecture in certain areas, i love the nature, trees, and how there are many palm trees, citrus trees, papaya trees, and the colorful houses giving this place a tropical caribbean feel, plus we have the river, and the New Orleans Sea (Lake Pontchartrain), this place is really like a tropical island without ideal beautiful water and swimming, but i guess the history makes up for it...you know, its beautiful, and even suburbs like metairie and kenner are amazingly beautiful in certain areas when it comes to nature and development, i love it...i am just sick of the pagan traditions and the "nepotism" as mentioned in this article. because as a local, i can say, it is true. Racism exists here. Let me tell you, i find it very disturbing that private schools are 90% white and public schools are 90% black. Its unfair. Though in general, there are still lots of nice people who arent racist...but i feel there are still lowkey undertones of it...but it will hopefully change.
Happiness, music, food and family. It is what everyone seeks. No matter where they are. We are all people. Some stupid some cool. NY is a plague everywhere, poor things don’t know it until they leave. Some will grow and shed the filth, others won’t and won’t last. Regardless maybe the issue is more in how we treat one another. Respect is what it is. But shit, I don’t know what I’m talking about. But after sitting here and reading all the hate, man it just makes me feel dirty. Share some goodness today.
My god most of you people are ignorant as fuck. I'll tell you what south Louisiana is about; food, family, friends. You can't expect someone from an industrial city like NYC to move to New Orleans and love it like we do. Yes most of our food is fattening, but its damn good. It has a history. We actually use seasoning. I'm sorry people i know don't want your shitty diet lettuce wraps. We don't hate people from different places, hell most of the time we welcome them. It's when you come here and talk shit about our culture that gets us pissed. New Orleans has crime, yes. Lock your doors, don't step into a shit show and don't go out at night by yourself. People here like to have fun. I'm not arguing over the fact our government in the past few years has been absolute shit. Best advice I can give is don't move to New Orleans itself, move to the outer cities- Meterie, Kenner, ones like that. Crime isn't as bad but you'll probably want a car because honestly no one I know here uses public transportation if you can afford not to. As far as jobs, be authentic and know your shit. Its easier knowing people I'm not gonna lie, but no one says you have to go into an interview and just be buisness. We're laid back here.