To ask such a question, is beyond me! How far up in the air is your nose? To ask such a question on AB, you can only get a response like mine! Ok, legit, if ya want to find out the best part of any town, ring up any insurance company and ask where the lowest claims within areas come from. Ask the local pigs, which has the lowest crime rates, they will tell ya. Well that is, from past history anyway, don't really know what is brewing there later today or morrow. The local council must as far as I know, let you know about flooded areas. Schools, we the USA ain't got a good record with schools at all, I would seriously, consider hhome schooling. At least ya know, ya kid ain't going to be stuffed with like in the school system.

my family is from river ridge and liked it there, everyone went to private school tho. (louisiana has a merit system, straight As in high buys you a free ride to any state college or university, As and Bs buys a partial ride.)

As far as I know the Garden District, the French Quarter and the Uptown area are all up and running and are fairly good choices in all the basic areas you are concerned with except for schools. There really aren't any good schools in the New Orleans area unless you send your kids to a private or parochial school. The school system there is failing compared to other Louisiana schools and that's saying a lot. Also Jefferson Parish is still in good shape as well as the West Bank area and north of the Lake. The worst areas are the lower and upper Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish and south to the Gulf. Call the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce and they can give you detailed info on each area. You may even get large signing bonuses and home allowances if you are moving in from another area. They are having trouble getting people to move there and a lot of people are moving out. Here is their Web site. http://www.neworleanschamber.org/ I'm am very excited about what will happen to our state if we elect Bobby Jindal as our next governor, he has some awesome plans for the state that he can and will do. Here is his site if you're interested. http://www.bobbyjindal.com/ If you do decide to move to New Orleans then I hope you're happy there and that all goes well for you and your family.

I'd buy something on or near Canal Street. Still relatively affordable, although quite a bit of damage to the houses but a lot of investors already went in there and did the work to rehab the houses and they're still affordable but given that I live in California, ANYWHERE else is affordable. Good luck.