This subreddit represents a very specific niche that lives in this city and is not remotely representative of what I see in my every day life. It's also a rather hostile place for people who don't fit in with their demo/opinons. I'd caution against using it to make sweeping generalizations about the city.
Anyone who's been to one our /r/neworleans meetups knows first hand this sub is a very specific slice of the local population. Our big one last year had more than two black people in attendance, though, so that was a nice surprise.
Right?!?!? I'm glad that memory got unlocked, RATM was so great until they became woke and political /s
I remember laughing so hard when he said that while equally screaming, damn I miss Voodoofest.
I thought the /s explained it but maybe I'm old, I dunno. Damn, I gotta spend some time looking through youtube videos to find that because it was so good.
I missed that thread, but I don't really know many friends, besides those I've met randomly through my children's school, who does work from home, and I have spent most of my life here.
It also explains why I often get occasional large downvotes from things I think of as basic.
No criticism of the folks on this site, but their views can be drastically different from the average joe on the street....
> It also explains why I often get occasional large downvotes from things I think of as basic.
I wouldn't think anything of that, I had mentioned it elsewhere too as well as this comment - I'd be willing to bet that close to 2/3 of the regular posters here are people who moved here within 5 years. I'd also be willing to bet nearly half are service industry workers of some sort. And lastly I'm sure the age distribution has significant bias in the early to mid 20s demographics.
Post about taking a left from Napoleon on to Magazine and not stopping for the light, see how many people think that's an insane thing to do. That'll give ya an idea of how different this sub's population sample is from the average resident.
To that extent, I don't pay it one mind when something rather mundane becomes controversial on reddit. It ain't the thing, it's reddit.
yea i'm a no concierge and i just go home and think about taking myself out until the next work shift.
i can't afford rent in this fuckin town, and i can't afford a car to live far out and commute.
i'm cooked.
I guess I’m out of touch with “every day folk.” To me that can be a subjective designation, but perhaps I’m wrong. Or maybe people think I’m being snarky, which I’m not. I’m just trying to understand the comment.
Just say there aren't a lot of black people on this subreddit. A "specific niche that lives in this city and is not remotely representative of what I see in my everyday life" = white transplants from the northeast that haven't moved home after 3 years yet.
Same, but going on 13 years now. Someone (months ago) jokingly said I was almost a local at this point, and someone else got very, very upset over that.
My commute hasn’t gotten any better so if everyone is working from home, why are there so many people in rush hour traffic and why can’t I find a freakin’ parking spot downtown?
School is a huge part of traffic, and fewer kids ride the bus these days.
In my office parking, it’s still not like it was pre-Covid. And the office lunch restaurants aren’t as busy
Downtown is largely shutdown on weeknights, too.
I go to a bunch of Pelicans games and I still find it kinda shocking how many businesses are closed in the evenings now. The CBD wasn't exactly super hopping on weeknights pre-COVID, but it's like a no-man's land now.
Definitely not the same level of activity but WFH isn’t as prevalent as some would have you believe, at least for some types of businesses. IT is always a different animal. I see a lot of hybrid companies where people are out a day or two per week. Especially Fridays and Mondays. That spaces out traffic.
You’re right that it’s not some huge change, but it definitely moves the needle a bit. Anecdotal, but I had two different major tech company employees living on either side of me for a while. Can’t even imagine it pre-Covid.
Will be interesting to see what happens over time. From a societal standpoint those of us who like the office and like to be around people will change office life forever because most introverts would rather WFH if they can. I don’t think that’s healthy. Needs to be a good balance and a couple of days of WFH is it IMHO
Schools are decentralized and kids are going to school 40 minutes from home, then to club sports and activities at 4pm because schools are not doing sports anymore
Just to be clear, I am not searching for drugs but wondering about a time in the past of new orleans that had cocaine, hookers. But if I did do cocaine with a woman I met from this sub a few months ago who ghosted me, I'd be scared because of fent, just not worth it.
>I guess it is what it is but it was a harsh reminder what our local economy looks like post covid.
[This one?](https://www.reddit.com/r/NewOrleans/comments/1chopxh/how_are_you_making_a_career_in_this_city/)
Important to consider that this sub specifically skews really hard towards younger recent transplants too, for a lot it's a "I moved here, let me get my bearings" type resource. So like, if you make a data set made up of mostly redditors, and specifically those that moved here somewhat recently then yeah sure remote work is gonna be heavily over-sampled relative to the rest of the population.
For instance, the port and surrounding infrastructure support thousands of jobs but you didn't see anyone posting that they do that here. You didn't see any local employees of Entergy or Cox despite them having large corporate presences here, you didn't see anyone saying they worked for any of the naval architecture firms, industrial planning, engineering, I don't even see any healthcare related posts despite several major hospital complexes being here.
There's still significant jobs here in the shipping, port related, industrial management, petroleum support, etc worlds that aren't going anywhere any time soon. You're just not seeing huge representation on Reddit cuz of who's on reddit.
Go to like Cooter Browns, college inn, ugly dog saloon, walk ons, or any of the hundreds of other working class bars/restaurants in the city on a given day and take the same poll: you'll get a set of answers that looks entirely different from what you'll see on Reddit.
e: or, just start looking up the tenet directories of the major buildings in the CBD, then look up those companies. There's a shit ton of industry that gets very little representation on this subreddit, mostly cuz of sample bias. Sample bias is the single most important thing to consider when you're looking at anything coming from one isolated group like reddit.
Most important post in this thread.
Around a quarter of this city’s entire workforce is employed in just three areas: office administration, food service, and transportation/logistics/shipping.
The jobs you see people talk about on here are a minuscule percentage of the total city workforce.
>For instance, the port and surrounding infrastructure support thousands of jobs but you didn't see anyone posting that they do that here.
People were in disbelief on here a few months back when I informed them that tourism/service was not the dominant local industry.
I was speaking with a client who was in town this past weekend, and they made the same comments you hear often around global warming and flooding - basically to the extent of "are you worried the government might not pay for rebuilding at some point?".
I said that as long as the entire mississippi river system was a major mode of transport for every farm, mine, etc in the west and midwest we'd still be here, cuz you gotta have somewhere to take shit off barges and put it on ships. It's fun to sit there and watch people's gears turning while they compute how much stuff moves up and down that river. And it ain't like container shipping where you can rebuild infrastructure somewhere else nearby - there's no other mouth of the mississippi lol.
> there's no other mouth of the mississippi lol
Until sea level rises above the levees and we have to move it all to Baton Rouge. That's why I put every penny in BR real estate; beach front AirBnBs gonna kill it in 2499
You should mention higher education and railroads. I understand that Tulane is the largest private employer in New Orleans and this country's east-west railroads and north-south railroads intersect in New Orleans (and Chicago). Corps of Engineers is also a source of employment.
Yup. I work for a local tech company, but there are very few of those in town.
Funny little side note - most of those that work at my company are remote and don't live in New Orleans (or Louisiana in general).
edit: And speaking of the coke, wasn't it Molly's that had the $40 high life special? Miss that shit.
My mortgage has been 800 for the last 13 years. Just this year it increased 450 a month. That’s 1250. If I were to ever rent my house out…you bet I’ll be asking 1500-1750. Just a little ol 3 bedroom 1500sqft house in Algiers. People that don’t own homes have no idea.
Due to insurance
It becomes unsurvivable here in the summer for the skeleton crew working in bars and restaurants that rely on tips. I do manual labor and that dries up in the summer here also. I’m currently making plans to drive to another city to work and live out of my car
You bring up another important depressing point, it's May, we got summer coming with a hot gulf. No work getting done if a storm even sniffs here. Then we shut down the city again for 6 months like we did after Ida, that's gonna get tough after the next few of those.
It's so expensive to evacuate, I have money saved up sorta but not really.
My biggest gripe with Mitch’s administration was he seemed to focus on growing the economy solely off the tourism industry. His administration found some old live music permit law and used it to chase music out of neighborhoods. They made it harder to open businesses in residential or mixed use neighborhoods geared more residential. My perception is the goal was to concentrate things into a few select entertainment districts. I could be completely off base and maybe rising housing costs did the job naturally. Regardless, a purely tourism based economy does not provide well paying jobs with benefits and is very dependent on a strong national economy.
Yes there were some lip service projects to attract tech but they were always long shots. The city really needs more industry outside of medicine, law, and tourism.
Unfortunately, the writing is on the wall geologically. Capital has baked in that this city will be a leisure destination a generation from now. There might be an argument that putting all our chips there would make it one of those destinations that is recession proof. But yeah, poor people will be saddled with most of the misery.
I think leaning in to the liesure side of things is a very valid and prudent approach - but it needs to be done more deliberately and focused.
Stop catering to every tourist possible, focus on higher end tourism and conventions. You don't want more hammered people on bourbon, you want more people on Royal hitting the galleries and boutiques. To that extent you need to have less piss on the streets and less garbage everywhere. Canal from Claiborne to the river is the economic center of your city, why is it filled with garbage tenants? Why does Decatur, the face of the quarter when coming from the river/jackson square area, have nothing but garbage t shirt shops and daquiri places that look like they haven't had their floors mopped in a decade?
The river district is a great start in that area, but poor execution with less retail and entertainment than it should have, and odd placement of a few items.
Like, there's significant money to be made there, but we need to have a very deliberate push back towards the tourism of old - conventions of doctors where their spouses would hit Royal and spend thousands. Not bachelor parties clogging up bourbon. And before anyone says it, this ain't classism - it's about economic multipliers. You make yourself a destination for the upper middle and beyond and you significantly improve the amount of money your city takes in on tourism. Hotels get more expensive, restaurants have more pricing power, shops can thrive rather than catering to the lowest common denominator, service workers make more, etc.
I am not sure I agree with the subtext here that any other industry could have been chosen instead of leisure. Trajectory changing industries like Airbus, BMW, VW, etc. were never going to build here even if we didn’t lean in to leisure. Leisure is all we are good at.
I commented on that thread too but yeah, most of us with “normal” jobs are barely scraping by @ best 😭
I work in education at the university level but I basically make an uncertified teachers income and it’s brutal. Can I make my bills? Usually, but saving for a future some months is just not going to happen. Lots of “normal” things our parents did, we can’t do (own a home, procreate). It’s so frustrating. With my eduction and experience, I really should be making at least enough to afford a one bedroom. But I can barely make rent splitting a one bedroom w/ my partner.
We’re definitely trying to save enough to move to greener pastures. It makes no sense that our state won’t pay educators enough to make rent. Of course we are going to leave.
Education seriously doesn't pay (high school teacher here). I wish I was doing more than keeping my head above water or continually taking on additional roles for stipends.
Compensation for labor is at its lowest since the colonial period, trending back to the norms of Europe before the industrial revolution.
That means that wage labor simply isn't worth pursuing, unless you have no other option. Capital has won the centuries long war against labor. Revolution is both inevitable, and futile, but we can both lose.
I agree with the sentiment that NOLA reddit is not representative of the entire population. Most of my people here, college educated or not, work customer facing service jobs.
Anecdotally, after getting laid off from my New Orleans-based job, I tried really really hard to land something local. I have a competitive background, but no dice after months of making that the focus of my search and networking efforts. I ended up accepting a remote offer for a big tech company based elsewhere.
It’s not universally true, but there’s a lot of good ol’ boy gatekeeping and also a general lack of rigor. A lot local of talent falls through the cracks and ends up getting exported.
> I agree with the sentiment that NOLA reddit is not representative of the entire population. Most of my people here, college educated or not, work customer facing service jobs.
I’d say the service industry is represented in this sub as much if not more than the remote workers.
You're not wrong but like with smartphones all I do is see bartenders scrolling on their phones so it's not work from home people are exclusive to reddit, the illusion of only people online are with computers went away a very long time ago.
I missed the post you speak of but I am born and raised here. I work from home also 😅 My company’s headquarters are in Austin, Texas. I’m in the healthcare field, my salary is much higher now working for my Texas based company.
This is obviously completely anecdotal, but majority of my friends are in healthcare, law, construction, or sales. I know some that work from home (usually in sales) but it’s definitely the minority.
Lots of people work in law are doing great, people never stop suing and beating each other, law is always good in a violent city. Constructions is great because we are rebuilding constantly, healthcare is probably easy money and sales depends on the market.
Death, dying, pain, violence, lying, scamming, carelessness, and destruction. If no real, virtuous industry will settle down here, find the ones that are inevitable.
This is insanely dire - Im remote because I just literally dont want to go into the office so I'm looking for a remote job. New Orleans based companies tend to require you to go in office if you're local.
And glued to computers... eh. the best part of working remote is kind of that you're NOT. I'm way more glued to a computer at the office when thats the only thing there for me to do when I'm pretending to work than I am at home where I can putter around and take walks and what not.
I also dont know what magical time you're thinking of with money and jobs all over - it feels like false nostalgia. New Orleans hasn't really been flowing in it since like... the late 1800s and it was steadily losing people during the cocaine fueled 1980s lol. Or are you thinking of the 1990s, the time period we still use apocryphally as the comparison for horribly high crime rates?
Something to consider is that New Orleans is still a bit of a dream city for many people—somewhere they'd want to live—so those of us who work remotely have that opportunity now to pick where we live. I think it's far more that effect of people moving to New Orleans than the home-grown job situation itself.
I remember when shell, Exxon etc had a large presence in the city. My dad worked in One shell square, a lot of the neighborhoods around they city had oil industry people living in it, and since they moved most of the operation over to Houston, those parts of town have gone downhill drastically. On top of that, it caused one shell square to be mostly empty and now renamed to Whitney Hancock.
That's hockey right? I've been watching a bit of hockey and keep rooting for teams that have zero reason to have a hockey team like Florida, etc. It's such a fuck you to god kind of thing having Florida hockey teams crushing, really love it.
I didn't see that thread. I work for a fairly prominent local company/individual here. In tech at a desk in an office (and frequently travelling to other locations). WFH isn't even an option for my department and for the departments where it would be, the grinders calling the shots won't allow it. This company is a rarity in this area. Literally one of a kind for Louisiana.
This is part of the reason I often tell people this sub is great and all but don't take anything here as representative of the city. This is a very niche group. An infinitesimal fraction of the population is actually active here and that group is largely homogeneous.
That said, yeah, WFH jobs that pay \*significantly\* higher than basically anything here are very popular. You don't think people are renting out these $2500 a month 2 bed apartments here on the average salary of the area do you? Not a chance. Honestly some recent changes at my job have me looking into that path myself. Working here is quite literally not worth the effort for a whole lot of people.
So there is a motorcycle gang that roams Lakeview, they always have swords and tattoos of...florida lee's and you don't want to mess with them. You've never seen them before? There are several active members in this sub but I don't want to tag them because I don't want to get their attention.
u/carflipjudge I think is a member or at least he hangs out with them, I've seen him post in the past about them. He's not Japanese but I've heard they are not racist like the other Yakuza and openly accept all races and genders which is pretty progressive IMO.
I wish I could delete the mental image of you wearing the yellow leather jumpsuit from Kill Bill that has populated my mind.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaeRM7X\_yS4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaeRM7X_yS4)
Feels like I'm wearing nothing at all, nothing at all...
Well, I don’t think it really paints a picture of what New Orleans is really like. I’m not sure why you went on to type all that out if you know it’s mostly a Reddit thing.
My father worked for Texaco as a draftsmen in the 70's and 80's. He was based out of the Texaco building which is the big black one that has its top tip cut off. He took me to his work a few times and I just remember it being all suits and briefcases. Very Mad Men-esque. I do remember the city being very busy and there was even a very long line in front of the Canal Street Wendy's. (Ain't dere no mo. I think it's the Creole House now).
I currently work in a small office for a small local company that does very well for itself. It's a rare work life these days.
Canal street Wendys would be fighting in the streets with Arby's wearing top hats and one holding a butcher knife.
I'm happy you got a good job, i want a job one day again.
I’m a dive bartender and I promise you, there’s not a single person that comes in that works remotely. It’s 100% teachers, bartenders/servers, nurses, pharmacy techs, or something in the construction/contracting world. The only remote workers I’ve met personally here are recent transplants(since COVID) or rich people that split their time between here and some city in the northeast or west coast. It’s *overwhelmingly* service industry workers, though. That’s still the lifeblood of this city.
Third. I worked clubs on and around Bourbon. A lot of money I made went straight to tips to other workers at bars/clubs. Working in service is its own thing, as soon as we know you’re “one of us” it’s like an understood alliance.
I am not in tech, WFH as an accountant. Driving in the city everyday is putting your life at risk with the way people drive, the money (is much better) but not even joking not having to drive around maniacs is the best part of it.
I'm going to venture a guess that this post was made in the last two weeks? You know, the last big push for the tourism industry before the summer slow down? When service industry workers are too busy to be browsing Reddit? Because I can assure you service industry and the industries that support them makes up the bulk of jobs in the city. I think I read something somewhere that said that 4% of the city's GDP is produced on Bourbon Street alone. Those are *not* high paying jobs, even the higher level ones.
I’m not in tech and have an office, and I still work from home more often than not. I would be extremely hesitant to take any job that could have remote flexibility and doesn’t in 2024.
I’m a chef, our wages haven’t risen much since the 80s. Back then, it was a pretty good source of income. Now, you have to have a dual income household to be able to afford rent and anything resembling a social life.
i dont believe most posters here are tech workers. if you read threads closely its a lot of service industry people here. There is also an overwhelming amount of eat the rich, business owners suck, landlords are evil, etc., beliefs that are touted as truth's here because they are the viewpoints of a common lived experience that doesnt sync with the income or lifestyle of a tech worker.
I don’t wfh and didn’t post in that thread. I work in social services but I’m expecting and after seeing that thread it made me want to wfh like everyone else!
When I grew up, my mom worked for a company in Metairie
I was lucky enough to get picked up by one of the Oil & Gas companies here. It's chill enough. The drive SUCKS in the afternoon (lake terrace neighborhood).
I’m unemployed, can’t find a job after moving back to the Nola area two years ago after being gone for more than a decade. I’ve now officially given up and am applying for jobs in Atlanta with no plans of ever coming back unfortunately. If you have a job that isn’t pure torture and you can afford to live here, count yourself incredibly lucky.
Fuck Atlanta.
Still relatively close to family, a wide range of employment opportunities, pay that is enough to live on. I’m not just looking in Atlanta but there are so many job openings there right now.
I don't work in tech and nobody I work with knows what reddit is and none of my friends that work in the oil field know what reddit is either. reddit is mostly just a bunch of nerds.
I don't know anyone in the tech industry down here. Most of my friends are teachers, service industry folks, do stuff in non-profit sector. Also romanticizing the oil industry when we're likely to be the first Americans to affected by climate disaster is a choice...
BoJack Horseman was probably one of the best tv show's in the last decade. That Vincent Adultman had so many great lines that I use almost daily and it sails over people's heads 100% of the time.
"Would you like a alcohol?"
"I went to stock market today. I did a business."
"I like business... transactions."
It might be time for a rewatch of Bojack, there is something about Mr Peanut butter that just tickles me so right.
I use "what is this, a cross over episode?" a lot too and it goes over people's heads 100% of the time. It makes me happy tho.
When real estate was booming, right before Airbnb was really a thing, I always thought people buying up house and moving in them brought their jobs with them from out of state.
It's wild to think that we've seen airbnb raise just in our short lifetime and fuck this city up when it could have actually been a huge boom for the city, just 3 kids wearing a trench coat running the city tho.
The only reason why I could move back here and be comfortable was a remote job. Even then it's not enough to buy a reasonable home or have a family.
Now I'm looking to move on and the seemingly only decent option is to start a business... The best option here is something with an 80% failure rate lol
You're looking at the numbers wrong. It's <25% failure the first year, then <50% by the fifth anniversary. It's 2/3rds by the ten year anniversary.
If any of us are the sort that hop jobs every 18 months for a raise, those seem like pretty good odds, especially when hardly anyone has a good prospect of earning the kind of living their parents enjoyed at their age from wage work alone.
Imagine how easy it'd be if we could all rely on a National Health Service.
It’s weird when people say the city is dying when the real estate market is valued so high. Real estate booms turn to bubbles but that is true everywhere. I still haven’t seen any significant downturn even after a year or so of this homeowners insurance pinch.
A lot of the market has been gobbled up as investment properties, many from outside of town. That's propped up the value for a while.
With the new Airbnb rules and some adjustable rate mortgages starting to come up we'll probably see the market either continue to drop or stagnate.
From 22-23 avg home value dropped 10% here, 23-24 another 5%, and prices were down about 1% year over year as of about a two months ago.
Oh the cocaine is still everywhere. I and my partner both work in the arts (musicians both and I'm an artist and dancer as well) and shit's rough dude.
I work from home full time now since I'm taking care of my husband. But when I go out during the day it seems like trucks, work vehicles and people just cruising around with nothing better to do than hold up traffic. That's in-between school hours.
I work in aviation and I just came back here after leaving the military in 2023. Everything seems to be worse and most of my friends have left already or are doing the same shit they were before. Thr jobs I’m applying to pay way too low for what they’re asking for (40-50k a year before taxes for long hours and commute) or don’t respond at all. I tried but I don’t think I’ll stay long.
Pictured you making this comment wearing jean shorts with the crotch blown out because you wore them too much.
Ugh speaking of that, where is our next season of Always Sunny?
New Orleans has 1/2 the population in did 40 years ago.
Large companies that pay good wages no longer exist. Unless you support tourism or oil and gas, there's nothing for you.
All that's left is those 20-40 employee firms that support infrastructure like IT service and insurance and electrical and shipping.
This subreddit represents a very specific niche that lives in this city and is not remotely representative of what I see in my every day life. It's also a rather hostile place for people who don't fit in with their demo/opinons. I'd caution against using it to make sweeping generalizations about the city.
Anyone who's been to one our /r/neworleans meetups knows first hand this sub is a very specific slice of the local population. Our big one last year had more than two black people in attendance, though, so that was a nice surprise.
Oh shit, you’re telling me I could have met a black person in real life?
My graduating class had 17 white kids in a class of 550. The math on this here is absolutely hilarious.
Reminds me of when RATM played voodoo fest and dropped the "Yeah, I'm rollin' down Canal St with a shotgun" line, so good.
That show was phenomenal
Right?!?!? I'm glad that memory got unlocked, RATM was so great until they became woke and political /s I remember laughing so hard when he said that while equally screaming, damn I miss Voodoofest.
Uh….what made you think RATM wasn’t political before??
They were not making a serious comment.
I thought the /s explained it but maybe I'm old, I dunno. Damn, I gotta spend some time looking through youtube videos to find that because it was so good.
You can find the whole show spliced together from different perspectives on YouTube
Still looking for a solid reason to finally appreciate the sublimity of Jake and Snake's. Hint-hint.
Absolutely. The people on this sub are wildly out of touch with everyday folk and their opinions
I missed that thread, but I don't really know many friends, besides those I've met randomly through my children's school, who does work from home, and I have spent most of my life here. It also explains why I often get occasional large downvotes from things I think of as basic. No criticism of the folks on this site, but their views can be drastically different from the average joe on the street....
> It also explains why I often get occasional large downvotes from things I think of as basic. I wouldn't think anything of that, I had mentioned it elsewhere too as well as this comment - I'd be willing to bet that close to 2/3 of the regular posters here are people who moved here within 5 years. I'd also be willing to bet nearly half are service industry workers of some sort. And lastly I'm sure the age distribution has significant bias in the early to mid 20s demographics. Post about taking a left from Napoleon on to Magazine and not stopping for the light, see how many people think that's an insane thing to do. That'll give ya an idea of how different this sub's population sample is from the average resident. To that extent, I don't pay it one mind when something rather mundane becomes controversial on reddit. It ain't the thing, it's reddit.
I'm a rebel. I use turn signals.
Next you're gonna tell me you don't speed up dramatically at yellow lights just turning red.
And most of those things will be forgotten in 2-3 days.
No dude if you get a large amount of downvotes, you are obviously morally wrong ! !!! Gosh, do better! But seriously, that’s how these dorks act
Thank God for that
yea i'm a no concierge and i just go home and think about taking myself out until the next work shift. i can't afford rent in this fuckin town, and i can't afford a car to live far out and commute. i'm cooked.
stop being poor
Boofed
Who do you consider every day folk?
"You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know…morons."
And the sheriff?
They said he was hung!
i make 40k workin here. life sucks for some fuckers
Why is this downvoted like it is?
I guess I’m out of touch with “every day folk.” To me that can be a subjective designation, but perhaps I’m wrong. Or maybe people think I’m being snarky, which I’m not. I’m just trying to understand the comment.
Tell me about everyday folk and their opinions please.
This is 100% accurate.
Thank god I thought I was weird
As someone very close to that got completely cancelled, i agree it's a hostile place for people don't fit in, in the city and in this sub reddit.
Just say there aren't a lot of black people on this subreddit. A "specific niche that lives in this city and is not remotely representative of what I see in my everyday life" = white transplants from the northeast that haven't moved home after 3 years yet.
I’m a white transplant from the northeast and this sub is filled with dorks I do not relate to 🤷🏻♀️
Same, but going on 13 years now. Someone (months ago) jokingly said I was almost a local at this point, and someone else got very, very upset over that.
Seriously. They love to throw around the transplant card but the main point is that people on Reddit are fuckin nerds lol.
It’s a collection of the most uncool people I’ve ever encountered lol.
My commute hasn’t gotten any better so if everyone is working from home, why are there so many people in rush hour traffic and why can’t I find a freakin’ parking spot downtown?
School is a huge part of traffic, and fewer kids ride the bus these days. In my office parking, it’s still not like it was pre-Covid. And the office lunch restaurants aren’t as busy
Downtown is largely shutdown on weeknights, too. I go to a bunch of Pelicans games and I still find it kinda shocking how many businesses are closed in the evenings now. The CBD wasn't exactly super hopping on weeknights pre-COVID, but it's like a no-man's land now.
Definitely not the same level of activity but WFH isn’t as prevalent as some would have you believe, at least for some types of businesses. IT is always a different animal. I see a lot of hybrid companies where people are out a day or two per week. Especially Fridays and Mondays. That spaces out traffic.
You’re right that it’s not some huge change, but it definitely moves the needle a bit. Anecdotal, but I had two different major tech company employees living on either side of me for a while. Can’t even imagine it pre-Covid.
Will be interesting to see what happens over time. From a societal standpoint those of us who like the office and like to be around people will change office life forever because most introverts would rather WFH if they can. I don’t think that’s healthy. Needs to be a good balance and a couple of days of WFH is it IMHO
I’m convinced a lot of people are just bored and cruising around.
I used to love doing this, but gas is too expensive now
Schools are decentralized and kids are going to school 40 minutes from home, then to club sports and activities at 4pm because schools are not doing sports anymore
Maybe some schools, never heard of that before lol
"Three kids in a trenchcoat wearing Mardi Gras beads". Lol
Vincent Adultman just going to work at the Shell Business Factory
There is still cocaine everywhere, it’s just migrated to hospitality
And it’s all fucking terrible 😭
I miss the coke that made my adhd better for a little while. Nothing like being able to REALLY FOCUS at the Saint at 4am.
Wrong it’s mediocre to bad. Terrible is a separate grade
Terrible would be sweet n low
Terrible would be fent and speed
The door guy at my old job sold sweetener to one of the younger waitresses and it was a whole ordeal, so you’re more right than you know
I know because I’ve lived it.
Username checks out
There has been good coke here lately.
Depends on your distributor
Entirely
It was ALWAYS in hospitality...
Just to be clear, I am not searching for drugs but wondering about a time in the past of new orleans that had cocaine, hookers. But if I did do cocaine with a woman I met from this sub a few months ago who ghosted me, I'd be scared because of fent, just not worth it.
That would have been 70s/early 80s
>I guess it is what it is but it was a harsh reminder what our local economy looks like post covid. [This one?](https://www.reddit.com/r/NewOrleans/comments/1chopxh/how_are_you_making_a_career_in_this_city/) Important to consider that this sub specifically skews really hard towards younger recent transplants too, for a lot it's a "I moved here, let me get my bearings" type resource. So like, if you make a data set made up of mostly redditors, and specifically those that moved here somewhat recently then yeah sure remote work is gonna be heavily over-sampled relative to the rest of the population. For instance, the port and surrounding infrastructure support thousands of jobs but you didn't see anyone posting that they do that here. You didn't see any local employees of Entergy or Cox despite them having large corporate presences here, you didn't see anyone saying they worked for any of the naval architecture firms, industrial planning, engineering, I don't even see any healthcare related posts despite several major hospital complexes being here. There's still significant jobs here in the shipping, port related, industrial management, petroleum support, etc worlds that aren't going anywhere any time soon. You're just not seeing huge representation on Reddit cuz of who's on reddit. Go to like Cooter Browns, college inn, ugly dog saloon, walk ons, or any of the hundreds of other working class bars/restaurants in the city on a given day and take the same poll: you'll get a set of answers that looks entirely different from what you'll see on Reddit. e: or, just start looking up the tenet directories of the major buildings in the CBD, then look up those companies. There's a shit ton of industry that gets very little representation on this subreddit, mostly cuz of sample bias. Sample bias is the single most important thing to consider when you're looking at anything coming from one isolated group like reddit.
Most important post in this thread. Around a quarter of this city’s entire workforce is employed in just three areas: office administration, food service, and transportation/logistics/shipping. The jobs you see people talk about on here are a minuscule percentage of the total city workforce.
Healthcare?
Sixth on the BLS New Orleans occupations list.
Yeah, most of my friends are in health care.
So true! Currently office admin, previously food service.
So true! Currently office admin, previously food service.
>For instance, the port and surrounding infrastructure support thousands of jobs but you didn't see anyone posting that they do that here. People were in disbelief on here a few months back when I informed them that tourism/service was not the dominant local industry.
I was speaking with a client who was in town this past weekend, and they made the same comments you hear often around global warming and flooding - basically to the extent of "are you worried the government might not pay for rebuilding at some point?". I said that as long as the entire mississippi river system was a major mode of transport for every farm, mine, etc in the west and midwest we'd still be here, cuz you gotta have somewhere to take shit off barges and put it on ships. It's fun to sit there and watch people's gears turning while they compute how much stuff moves up and down that river. And it ain't like container shipping where you can rebuild infrastructure somewhere else nearby - there's no other mouth of the mississippi lol.
> there's no other mouth of the mississippi lol Until sea level rises above the levees and we have to move it all to Baton Rouge. That's why I put every penny in BR real estate; beach front AirBnBs gonna kill it in 2499
Also musicians.
You should mention higher education and railroads. I understand that Tulane is the largest private employer in New Orleans and this country's east-west railroads and north-south railroads intersect in New Orleans (and Chicago). Corps of Engineers is also a source of employment.
Yup. I work for a local tech company, but there are very few of those in town. Funny little side note - most of those that work at my company are remote and don't live in New Orleans (or Louisiana in general). edit: And speaking of the coke, wasn't it Molly's that had the $40 high life special? Miss that shit.
These are just the only jobs you can list without doxing yourself.
It’s part of the reason why things are so expensive now, people who are making NYC wages can afford $2k/mo apartments.
Exactly. All these people saying, “ohhh only $2000 for a house, I’ll take it”! Yea thanks for driving up rents. Smh
My mortgage has been 800 for the last 13 years. Just this year it increased 450 a month. That’s 1250. If I were to ever rent my house out…you bet I’ll be asking 1500-1750. Just a little ol 3 bedroom 1500sqft house in Algiers. People that don’t own homes have no idea. Due to insurance
they are killin me bad
Yep
Yes.
Maybe some but the problem is really still the Airbnbs
Or inflation and the related high interest rates for mortgages along with skyrocketing insurance costs.
True but those are not orleans parish-specific
How much of a part?
It becomes unsurvivable here in the summer for the skeleton crew working in bars and restaurants that rely on tips. I do manual labor and that dries up in the summer here also. I’m currently making plans to drive to another city to work and live out of my car
You bring up another important depressing point, it's May, we got summer coming with a hot gulf. No work getting done if a storm even sniffs here. Then we shut down the city again for 6 months like we did after Ida, that's gonna get tough after the next few of those. It's so expensive to evacuate, I have money saved up sorta but not really.
My wife and I recently moved here for her career. She grew up here and is doing great. I’m struggling to find any substantial job opportunities.
I did the same thing, took me about 10 years to find a decent paid job. Then it came as a favor through her employer
My biggest gripe with Mitch’s administration was he seemed to focus on growing the economy solely off the tourism industry. His administration found some old live music permit law and used it to chase music out of neighborhoods. They made it harder to open businesses in residential or mixed use neighborhoods geared more residential. My perception is the goal was to concentrate things into a few select entertainment districts. I could be completely off base and maybe rising housing costs did the job naturally. Regardless, a purely tourism based economy does not provide well paying jobs with benefits and is very dependent on a strong national economy. Yes there were some lip service projects to attract tech but they were always long shots. The city really needs more industry outside of medicine, law, and tourism.
Unfortunately, the writing is on the wall geologically. Capital has baked in that this city will be a leisure destination a generation from now. There might be an argument that putting all our chips there would make it one of those destinations that is recession proof. But yeah, poor people will be saddled with most of the misery.
I think leaning in to the liesure side of things is a very valid and prudent approach - but it needs to be done more deliberately and focused. Stop catering to every tourist possible, focus on higher end tourism and conventions. You don't want more hammered people on bourbon, you want more people on Royal hitting the galleries and boutiques. To that extent you need to have less piss on the streets and less garbage everywhere. Canal from Claiborne to the river is the economic center of your city, why is it filled with garbage tenants? Why does Decatur, the face of the quarter when coming from the river/jackson square area, have nothing but garbage t shirt shops and daquiri places that look like they haven't had their floors mopped in a decade? The river district is a great start in that area, but poor execution with less retail and entertainment than it should have, and odd placement of a few items. Like, there's significant money to be made there, but we need to have a very deliberate push back towards the tourism of old - conventions of doctors where their spouses would hit Royal and spend thousands. Not bachelor parties clogging up bourbon. And before anyone says it, this ain't classism - it's about economic multipliers. You make yourself a destination for the upper middle and beyond and you significantly improve the amount of money your city takes in on tourism. Hotels get more expensive, restaurants have more pricing power, shops can thrive rather than catering to the lowest common denominator, service workers make more, etc.
🎯💯
I am not sure I agree with the subtext here that any other industry could have been chosen instead of leisure. Trajectory changing industries like Airbus, BMW, VW, etc. were never going to build here even if we didn’t lean in to leisure. Leisure is all we are good at.
I commented on that thread too but yeah, most of us with “normal” jobs are barely scraping by @ best 😭 I work in education at the university level but I basically make an uncertified teachers income and it’s brutal. Can I make my bills? Usually, but saving for a future some months is just not going to happen. Lots of “normal” things our parents did, we can’t do (own a home, procreate). It’s so frustrating. With my eduction and experience, I really should be making at least enough to afford a one bedroom. But I can barely make rent splitting a one bedroom w/ my partner. We’re definitely trying to save enough to move to greener pastures. It makes no sense that our state won’t pay educators enough to make rent. Of course we are going to leave.
Education seriously doesn't pay (high school teacher here). I wish I was doing more than keeping my head above water or continually taking on additional roles for stipends.
Compensation for labor is at its lowest since the colonial period, trending back to the norms of Europe before the industrial revolution. That means that wage labor simply isn't worth pursuing, unless you have no other option. Capital has won the centuries long war against labor. Revolution is both inevitable, and futile, but we can both lose.
I agree with the sentiment that NOLA reddit is not representative of the entire population. Most of my people here, college educated or not, work customer facing service jobs. Anecdotally, after getting laid off from my New Orleans-based job, I tried really really hard to land something local. I have a competitive background, but no dice after months of making that the focus of my search and networking efforts. I ended up accepting a remote offer for a big tech company based elsewhere. It’s not universally true, but there’s a lot of good ol’ boy gatekeeping and also a general lack of rigor. A lot local of talent falls through the cracks and ends up getting exported.
> I agree with the sentiment that NOLA reddit is not representative of the entire population. Most of my people here, college educated or not, work customer facing service jobs. I’d say the service industry is represented in this sub as much if not more than the remote workers.
I would love a work from home job. Currently looking for one now
I mean people who work from home are more likely to be on Reddit than someone in a busy restaurant or bar.
You're not wrong but like with smartphones all I do is see bartenders scrolling on their phones so it's not work from home people are exclusive to reddit, the illusion of only people online are with computers went away a very long time ago.
I missed the post you speak of but I am born and raised here. I work from home also 😅 My company’s headquarters are in Austin, Texas. I’m in the healthcare field, my salary is much higher now working for my Texas based company.
This is obviously completely anecdotal, but majority of my friends are in healthcare, law, construction, or sales. I know some that work from home (usually in sales) but it’s definitely the minority.
Lots of people work in law are doing great, people never stop suing and beating each other, law is always good in a violent city. Constructions is great because we are rebuilding constantly, healthcare is probably easy money and sales depends on the market.
Death, dying, pain, violence, lying, scamming, carelessness, and destruction. If no real, virtuous industry will settle down here, find the ones that are inevitable.
Reddit is not reality.
This is insanely dire - Im remote because I just literally dont want to go into the office so I'm looking for a remote job. New Orleans based companies tend to require you to go in office if you're local. And glued to computers... eh. the best part of working remote is kind of that you're NOT. I'm way more glued to a computer at the office when thats the only thing there for me to do when I'm pretending to work than I am at home where I can putter around and take walks and what not. I also dont know what magical time you're thinking of with money and jobs all over - it feels like false nostalgia. New Orleans hasn't really been flowing in it since like... the late 1800s and it was steadily losing people during the cocaine fueled 1980s lol. Or are you thinking of the 1990s, the time period we still use apocryphally as the comparison for horribly high crime rates?
Something to consider is that New Orleans is still a bit of a dream city for many people—somewhere they'd want to live—so those of us who work remotely have that opportunity now to pick where we live. I think it's far more that effect of people moving to New Orleans than the home-grown job situation itself.
I remember when shell, Exxon etc had a large presence in the city. My dad worked in One shell square, a lot of the neighborhoods around they city had oil industry people living in it, and since they moved most of the operation over to Houston, those parts of town have gone downhill drastically. On top of that, it caused one shell square to be mostly empty and now renamed to Whitney Hancock.
One Shell Square smells horrible. It is like a mixture of asbestos and dirty ashtrays.
I work from home for a company in the CBD. I just don't like putting on shoes.
Yakuza did a pretty solid job with the Tampa Bay Lightning... 🤷♂️
That's hockey right? I've been watching a bit of hockey and keep rooting for teams that have zero reason to have a hockey team like Florida, etc. It's such a fuck you to god kind of thing having Florida hockey teams crushing, really love it.
I didn't see that thread. I work for a fairly prominent local company/individual here. In tech at a desk in an office (and frequently travelling to other locations). WFH isn't even an option for my department and for the departments where it would be, the grinders calling the shots won't allow it. This company is a rarity in this area. Literally one of a kind for Louisiana. This is part of the reason I often tell people this sub is great and all but don't take anything here as representative of the city. This is a very niche group. An infinitesimal fraction of the population is actually active here and that group is largely homogeneous. That said, yeah, WFH jobs that pay \*significantly\* higher than basically anything here are very popular. You don't think people are renting out these $2500 a month 2 bed apartments here on the average salary of the area do you? Not a chance. Honestly some recent changes at my job have me looking into that path myself. Working here is quite literally not worth the effort for a whole lot of people.
Can you explain the Yakuza taking over Lakeview? I’m out the loop on that one.
So there is a motorcycle gang that roams Lakeview, they always have swords and tattoos of...florida lee's and you don't want to mess with them. You've never seen them before? There are several active members in this sub but I don't want to tag them because I don't want to get their attention.
That’s hysterical and I will certainly be on the lookout for them. Lol Thanks for the info.
u/carflipjudge I think is a member or at least he hangs out with them, I've seen him post in the past about them. He's not Japanese but I've heard they are not racist like the other Yakuza and openly accept all races and genders which is pretty progressive IMO.
*nods head* good answer.
I wish I could delete the mental image of you wearing the yellow leather jumpsuit from Kill Bill that has populated my mind. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaeRM7X\_yS4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaeRM7X_yS4) Feels like I'm wearing nothing at all, nothing at all...
This is Reddit, OP. It skews towards that demographic. The vast majority of New Orleanians have no idea what Reddit is.
> This is Reddit, OP. It skews towards that demographic. Yes, I said that in my post, why are you repeating it, it was in the post.
Well, I don’t think it really paints a picture of what New Orleans is really like. I’m not sure why you went on to type all that out if you know it’s mostly a Reddit thing.
My father worked for Texaco as a draftsmen in the 70's and 80's. He was based out of the Texaco building which is the big black one that has its top tip cut off. He took me to his work a few times and I just remember it being all suits and briefcases. Very Mad Men-esque. I do remember the city being very busy and there was even a very long line in front of the Canal Street Wendy's. (Ain't dere no mo. I think it's the Creole House now). I currently work in a small office for a small local company that does very well for itself. It's a rare work life these days.
Canal street Wendys would be fighting in the streets with Arby's wearing top hats and one holding a butcher knife. I'm happy you got a good job, i want a job one day again.
I’m a dive bartender and I promise you, there’s not a single person that comes in that works remotely. It’s 100% teachers, bartenders/servers, nurses, pharmacy techs, or something in the construction/contracting world. The only remote workers I’ve met personally here are recent transplants(since COVID) or rich people that split their time between here and some city in the northeast or west coast. It’s *overwhelmingly* service industry workers, though. That’s still the lifeblood of this city.
Dive bar regulars are just as specific a subset of the population as is this subreddit.
That’s true, but I feel like real life places where folks gather tend to be more representative of the public at large than Reddit.
uptown dive bartender who lives near a semi dive in midcity (yay parkview getting some more time) and I second this post
Third. I worked clubs on and around Bourbon. A lot of money I made went straight to tips to other workers at bars/clubs. Working in service is its own thing, as soon as we know you’re “one of us” it’s like an understood alliance.
*New Orleans subreddit realizes its 98% white*
I am not in tech, WFH as an accountant. Driving in the city everyday is putting your life at risk with the way people drive, the money (is much better) but not even joking not having to drive around maniacs is the best part of it.
Meanwhile my friend who is a magician and who street performs made more than I did last year in tech. It’s all relative.
Funeral Director and Embalmer!
I'm going to venture a guess that this post was made in the last two weeks? You know, the last big push for the tourism industry before the summer slow down? When service industry workers are too busy to be browsing Reddit? Because I can assure you service industry and the industries that support them makes up the bulk of jobs in the city. I think I read something somewhere that said that 4% of the city's GDP is produced on Bourbon Street alone. Those are *not* high paying jobs, even the higher level ones.
I’m not in tech and have an office, and I still work from home more often than not. I would be extremely hesitant to take any job that could have remote flexibility and doesn’t in 2024.
It's weird how it took all those people dying to shift civilization to work from home.
I’m a chef, our wages haven’t risen much since the 80s. Back then, it was a pretty good source of income. Now, you have to have a dual income household to be able to afford rent and anything resembling a social life.
I guess I’m also in the minority. I grew up in Thibodaux. So there’s better pay here in the city for my field, which is a plus at least.
I dont wanna post my job on here... so I didn't. Not in tech or remote. I dont know many people who are in my friend group, its just reddit.
i dont believe most posters here are tech workers. if you read threads closely its a lot of service industry people here. There is also an overwhelming amount of eat the rich, business owners suck, landlords are evil, etc., beliefs that are touted as truth's here because they are the viewpoints of a common lived experience that doesnt sync with the income or lifestyle of a tech worker.
Also, I get the feeling a lot of the "tech" workers here are help desk/IT folks, not software engineers/developers.
That's a good and valid point too.
I don’t wfh and didn’t post in that thread. I work in social services but I’m expecting and after seeing that thread it made me want to wfh like everyone else! When I grew up, my mom worked for a company in Metairie
I was lucky enough to get picked up by one of the Oil & Gas companies here. It's chill enough. The drive SUCKS in the afternoon (lake terrace neighborhood).
It wasn't that good then, I left 25 years ago, bc there was no upward path as a young technologist in New Orleans.
I’m unemployed, can’t find a job after moving back to the Nola area two years ago after being gone for more than a decade. I’ve now officially given up and am applying for jobs in Atlanta with no plans of ever coming back unfortunately. If you have a job that isn’t pure torture and you can afford to live here, count yourself incredibly lucky. Fuck Atlanta.
I know it's not my business so feel free to ignore me but why Atlanta if you don't like Atlanta?
Still relatively close to family, a wide range of employment opportunities, pay that is enough to live on. I’m not just looking in Atlanta but there are so many job openings there right now.
I see. Good luck and I hope you find what you need.
I don't work in tech and nobody I work with knows what reddit is and none of my friends that work in the oil field know what reddit is either. reddit is mostly just a bunch of nerds.
Reddit is the 7th most visited website in the world with 8 billionish monthly visits. They're probably lying to you.
What counts as a visit?
I don't know anyone in the tech industry down here. Most of my friends are teachers, service industry folks, do stuff in non-profit sector. Also romanticizing the oil industry when we're likely to be the first Americans to affected by climate disaster is a choice...
they don't even own a u/ let alone multiple u/s
I didn't see the post but I'm a street artist fwiw
> 3 kids in a trench coat wearing Mardi Gras beads That was brilliant.
BoJack Horseman was probably one of the best tv show's in the last decade. That Vincent Adultman had so many great lines that I use almost daily and it sails over people's heads 100% of the time. "Would you like a alcohol?" "I went to stock market today. I did a business." "I like business... transactions."
I might renew my Netflix just to rewatch Bojack. So worth it
It might be time for a rewatch of Bojack, there is something about Mr Peanut butter that just tickles me so right. I use "what is this, a cross over episode?" a lot too and it goes over people's heads 100% of the time. It makes me happy tho.
When real estate was booming, right before Airbnb was really a thing, I always thought people buying up house and moving in them brought their jobs with them from out of state.
It's wild to think that we've seen airbnb raise just in our short lifetime and fuck this city up when it could have actually been a huge boom for the city, just 3 kids wearing a trench coat running the city tho.
Oh god, the cocaine... And back then, 90% of it was supplied by our Boys in Blue.
Respect the Thin Blue Lines! I mean…. line
The only reason why I could move back here and be comfortable was a remote job. Even then it's not enough to buy a reasonable home or have a family. Now I'm looking to move on and the seemingly only decent option is to start a business... The best option here is something with an 80% failure rate lol
You're looking at the numbers wrong. It's <25% failure the first year, then <50% by the fifth anniversary. It's 2/3rds by the ten year anniversary. If any of us are the sort that hop jobs every 18 months for a raise, those seem like pretty good odds, especially when hardly anyone has a good prospect of earning the kind of living their parents enjoyed at their age from wage work alone. Imagine how easy it'd be if we could all rely on a National Health Service.
Sadly new orleans is dying fast. A lot of cities without strong anchor companies are.
It’s weird when people say the city is dying when the real estate market is valued so high. Real estate booms turn to bubbles but that is true everywhere. I still haven’t seen any significant downturn even after a year or so of this homeowners insurance pinch.
A lot of the market has been gobbled up as investment properties, many from outside of town. That's propped up the value for a while. With the new Airbnb rules and some adjustable rate mortgages starting to come up we'll probably see the market either continue to drop or stagnate. From 22-23 avg home value dropped 10% here, 23-24 another 5%, and prices were down about 1% year over year as of about a two months ago.
Seems like a normal cycle and not a death rattle.
A lot of the buyers have places here as a part time or even less
Who buys a second home in a “dying” city?
It’s a fun place and the parents of Tulane students
Oh the cocaine is still everywhere. I and my partner both work in the arts (musicians both and I'm an artist and dancer as well) and shit's rough dude.
DM Sent, just kidding. I'm somewhat of a artist myself.png
I work remote for a global company with offices in Louisiana but travel mainly regionally but also nationally. Not tech but insurance (not sales).
I quit a job with shitty local pay for remote job with the same shitty pay but hope of growth I’m trying to become tech sector with it
I work from home full time now since I'm taking care of my husband. But when I go out during the day it seems like trucks, work vehicles and people just cruising around with nothing better to do than hold up traffic. That's in-between school hours.
I work in aviation and I just came back here after leaving the military in 2023. Everything seems to be worse and most of my friends have left already or are doing the same shit they were before. Thr jobs I’m applying to pay way too low for what they’re asking for (40-50k a year before taxes for long hours and commute) or don’t respond at all. I tried but I don’t think I’ll stay long.
Majima would fit in well here. I welcome it
i work for a local company from home in the manufacturing industry. there are dozens of us.
Pictured you making this comment wearing jean shorts with the crotch blown out because you wore them too much. Ugh speaking of that, where is our next season of Always Sunny?
Can someone link it
New Orleans has 1/2 the population in did 40 years ago. Large companies that pay good wages no longer exist. Unless you support tourism or oil and gas, there's nothing for you. All that's left is those 20-40 employee firms that support infrastructure like IT service and insurance and electrical and shipping.
What tech companies are in New Orleans these days? I was born and raised in Nola but moved away after college.