
Ask HN: What's it like to live and work in New Orleans? - uncletaco
My fiance is applying to grad programs and a professor she&#x27;d like to work with is at Tulane. We think she has a good chance of getting into this program so I&#x27;ve been reading up on what its like to work there as a software developer.<p>I know a decent bit about the history of the place but I&#x27;d love to hear some testimonials if you have any. Please be honest.
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sjs382
I work as a developer within an ad agency context, so please keep that in
mind.

I moved from Pittsburgh to New Orleans in 2011-ish and I love it here. I
currently live on the North Shore, but I lived in Orleans Parish for a while.

The developer community is small, but it depends on where you're coming from,
I guess. A lot of people here see the region as being on the forefront of
things, but when I was in Pittsburgh everyone had the same idea. I figure that
most regions have this opinion of themselves, but I feel like it was more true
in the case of Pittsburgh. Maybe I see it less because I'm outside of the city
now? _shrug_

Where are you coming from?

Are you looking for more info on the job market? Companies to work for?
Meetups? Or something else?

Feel free to drop me a line via email—it's in my HN profile.

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flippant
Your personal website is down.

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>Error establishing a database connection

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sjs382
Thanks for the heads up. Fixed!

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evancordell
I work as a developer in Baton Rouge but I live in New Orleans. (I commute and
work remotely)

I'm not really active in the New Orleans "dev scene" but there is a small one
as I understand it. There's a group that meets in the CBD for a weekly hack
night - I went years ago and found it not to my tastes (mostly frontend
javascript/css at the time) but I've been meaning to go back and check it out.
There's also a NoFun (Nola functional programming) group I've been meaning to
stop by, but they don't meet as frequently from what I can tell.

New Orleans is a really cool city that has a unique vibe. The food is
excellent and varied, and there're some great bars and music. A lot of times
it feels deceptively like a small town, and it's easy to forget that it's not
the safest city.

Tulane is a beautiful campus and in a very nice part of uptown. (My wife and I
both went there)

To sum up: City - Awesome, Dev Scene - Not as awesome, but I might just not be
trying hard enough!

Something that I find interesting that not many people know about greater New
Orleans is that there is a very large asian (especially Vietnamese)
population. I go to the asian market across the river almost weekly, and you
can get some of the best Bahn Mi in New Orleans. (This is largely because of
the Catholic church aiding refugees during the Vietnam war - New Orleans has
an interesting history!)

Happy to see some New Orleanians on HN!

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Mz
I hesitated to respond, because I haven't lived in New Orleans per se, but I
did grow up in the Deep South (in Georgia) and will suggest that if you are
from a very different climate, the heat plus humidity can be a real challenge
for some people to cope with.

