top ten reasons to leave this city

OK, I might have to say already - TAMI WAS RIGHT.

1. My car insurance more than DOUBLED to $1700/year for not even driving. EVERYTHING is expensive here (except gas, which is slightly cheaper than SoCal - but again, I don't really drive) - including food basics.
2. Cockroaches. Sandals at night are at your own peril.
3. Garbage everywhere because people haven't figured out how to put it in cans and set it out the day before pick-up. I'm not even talking about gutting debris - I'm talking pizza boxes and beer cans that get dragged all over by animals (have I mentioned the rats?) and weather because people don't use trash cans.
4. West Nile virus - now 161 reported cases in the state.
5. At least a murder a night in a town of less than 200,000 people.
6. We're still surrounded by devastated ungutted houses - 14 months after Katrina!
7. Entergy (gas & electric) rates may even triple - they're already the highest in the nation. (Former roommate says her new place just got a bill for $900; Harry Anderson of Night Court fame is leaving NOLA because of $17,000 electric bill for a storage area.)
8. Potholes the size of some Northeastern states.
9. The corruption of the politics here rivals collapsing states across time and space. Nagin (mayor) just endorsed Jefferson (Representative who's been busted with all sorts of unethical violations) just because Jefferson endorsed him.
10. I know people all across the country think their school system is the worst - but New Orleans wins hands down. There are all these charter schools without real supervision that just opened, and the regular schools were all taken over by the state who can't even hire teachers or provide toilet paper, and parents don't know where to enroll their students, and schools don't open on time, and there's been a string of student attacks on security of late (and probably vice-versa).

but the winner HAS to be today the headline:
Man kills, dismembers, and cooks girlfriend.

So, does the local culture of music and food and NOT box stores make up for this? Am I just complaining because I want to live in a protected seal-packed world?

I love my First Choice Law School and the little world I've started to create here. First Choice Law School has all the classes I want and all the connections I need to get a great career start, and New Orleans is under my skin in mostly a good way. But I need to really consider if this is the best place to bring children. Yeah, I know, they're in refugee camps now - but maybe I need to look at other law schools to transfer to. Or, maybe I can stick it out another 2.5 years. That just sounds really long when I have to keep dodging stray drive-by bullets and flying cockroaches.