If you can handle some ridiculous summer heat, you should check out NOLA. Our really hot months are June-September. There is also the hurricane issue June-Nov with the peak in September. Occasionally one is going to hit us, many times they are going to near-miss. Katrina-like storms come along every 30 years or so. The entire USA has not had a landfall of such a storm since Katrina and Rita hit weeks apart in 2005. Generally hurricanes give plenty of warning so you can prepare or leave.

NOLA has always been very easy to get around on a bicycle just by accident. Over the past few years they have actually been trying A LOT to accomodate cyclists and attract young talent to move to the area. This effort has awakened neighboring suburbs to start taking action as well.

As far as crime goes, most is criminal on criminal and drug related or revenge. But if you enjoy night life, NOLA never closes so you could be caught out when the knuckleheads are prowling. Most of the attempts on me were due to taking short cuts through sketchy areas out of laziness. We don't put our poor people in ghettos. The city is sort of a patchwork quilt of rich, middle class, and poor all stitched together. The patches are relatively small, so it is possible to get lazy and just take the shortest distance between two points. Even then, most poor people here are honest, hard working people. There are no neighborhoods where everyone is a scumbag. But there are neighborhoods where the scumbags feel comfortable acting on their scumbagness. This is how I get in trouble now and then. But all the time on a bike and places I go amount to a statistical zero of trouble. Been cycling in NOLA since 1973 and Jefferson Parish as well. I find it very easy to access about 85 percent of area north of the Mississippi River and south of Lake Pontchartrain. A few places are challenging due to freeway crossings but most freeways in the actual city are elevated, so you just go under them.

Lastly - TONS of people here ride bikes. There is a huge cycling presence in many parts of New Orleans.

So you should put us on your recon list for sure.

Bring all of your sweat glands.

Cheers.