Reviews & Comments
Shreveport, LA
READ BEFORE MOVING TO SBC!! -
2/1/2017Shreveport/Bossier City is not only the worst place I have ever lived, it is the worst place I have ever visited. Here are some factors contributing to this conclusion:
- Smoking is allowed in every bar/pub/casino. All of them. It is almost encouraged. Spend more than 30 seconds in one and your clothes will smell so bad you will have to tie them in a plastic bag when you get home. The three breweries don't allow smoking, but per local laws must close at 9PM, even on weekends. No other large city in Louisiana allows smoking in bars, which represents how behind Shreveport is by comparison.
- If you are a single non-smoker, good luck. The dating pool is ankle-deep and your only options for mingling are a chain restaurant waiting area or the Louisiana Boardwalk which is an outdoor mall where 30% of the stores are closed-down, even though is was recently built. Open up Tinder and your phone will laugh at you. (Unless you are into big girls with gold teeth who are bending over in their picture to highlight their massive assets.)
- Crime is rampant and you must live in a $1,000+ /month gated community to avoid it. This is where cost of living numbers are deceiving as there exists only extreme ghetto and isolated suburbs/gated areas with no in-between. EVERY public park is is considered potentially dangerous and the locals (even police) will warn you to stay out after dusk. The same applies to both malls.
- ZERO culture. ZERO civic pride. In the first month of my time in Shreveport, I had 20+ people say something to the effect of "You moved here? On purpose? I've been trying to get out my whole life!" There is no culture to speak of outside of "the boats", which are the smoke-filled casinos mostly populated by sad-eyed locals and weekend visitors from Texas. Downtown?! There are 5 buildings downtown with rentable apartments and 4 of them require that you make less than $24K per year. It's like the city is trying to keep it from experiencing revitalization.
- EVERYTHING is slow. Servers. Construction. Drive-thrus. ANYTHING government or customer service related. It is a constant frustration.
As the locals often say: "The only people who hate Shreveport are the people who live here. Everyone else doesn't know about it, or 'hits the boats' and leaves." No joke, I have heard this from 10+ different locals.
To be fair to the people in the area: most locals are very friendly. It is not their fault that this city has such a poor economic/social climate. The main factor is this...Shreveport/Bossier is one of the most populated areas in the country located over 90 miles away from a large (D1) university. This is a big deal as colleges and universities are feeder-systems for economic progress and growth. There are millions of smart people in the South; but this area (aka: the Ark-La-Tex) has unfortunately been left behind by universities major industries. The opposite of universities in on the socioeconomic scale? Casinos. The mentality of "going to the boats" where the house always wins has created a culture of decline. For the sake of the people here, I hope the casinos are shut down and LSU-Shreveport is given a huge grant to change Shreveport/Bossier's toxic atmosphere.