Teenagers and twenty-somethings constantly complain there's 'nothing to do' in Gonzales after 9 p.m., while older residents say a quiet, family-focused town is exactly the point. Who's right?
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Add your commentThe Jambalaya Festival is once a year Gerald. ONCE. A YEAR. That is not a nightlife scene lmao
Born and raised in Gonzales, 54 years old, and I'll tell you what — when I was 19 I said the same exact thing. 'Nothing to do, nothing to do.' You know what I did? I drove to Baton Rouge. Problem solved. It's 20 minutes away. Y'all have cars and GPS now, what exactly is the issue here?
The framing of this question is condescending and I refuse to accept it. 'Just young people who need to grow up?' Really? Economic vitality requires RETAINING young residents. If every 23-year-old with ambition leaves for New Orleans or Baton Rouge because they're bored on weekends, you don't have a 'quiet family town,' you have a retirement community that's slowly hollowing out. Ask the Tanger Outlets if foot traffic from young locals matters. I think they'd have thoughts.
Someone tell me what 'family-focused entertainment' means exactly, because every time I ask an older resident they describe things that close at 8pm. Families have teenagers too. Teenagers are part of families. The argument doesn't actually hold together when you poke at it.
ok but like... not everyone has a car or money for gas every single weekend. and yes baton rouge exists but thats not gonzales having something. the question is about THIS town. i'm 22 and i genuinely love it here but pretending there's stuff to do at night is just lying to yourself
I grew up here in the 90s and honestly the nostalgia goggles on some of these older comments are something else. There was NOTHING to do then either. We used to literally just drive the loop on Burnside Avenue for hours. That wasn't charming small-town character, that was boredom with a steering wheel. At least be honest about it.
My family moved here from Jefferson Parish about three years ago specifically BECAUSE it's quieter. We have two kids under ten. The 'problem' these teenagers are describing is literally the feature we paid for. I'm not apologizing for that.
Counterpoint nobody wants to hear: Gonzales has the Jambalaya Festival, the Civic Center does events, there's bowling, there's restaurants open late on weekends. The nightlife isn't zero, it's just not a bar district. Those are two different things and people keep conflating them like they're the same complaint.
I actually looked this up and Gonzales is the fastest-growing city in Louisiana, so clearly whatever we're doing isn't scaring people away. People move HERE from Baton Rouge now, not the other way around. Maybe the lack of nightlife is genuinely not the crisis some folks want it to be? Just a thought before we all panic.
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