Harvey, LA 502 Apartments for Rent

Game on! Where a lack of windows makes it easy to forget if your next meal is lunch, breakfast or dinner, the mammoth Boomtown Casino in Harvey, LA offers gamers slots, buffets and table games with the chance to win big or go home to play another day.

Ask a New Orleans resident about Harvey and they'll probably tell you that's where they go to play slots. However, life-long residents -- of both New Orleans and the West Bank -- know Harvey is much like the slot machines: there's a treasure trove of riches to be found, if only you know where to look. While Harvey is technically a census-designated place along the West Bank in Jefferson Parish, the population of slightly more than 20,000 is more than some places that call themselves towns.

Moving to Harvey

Keep in mind that as a New Orleans "suburb," Harvey has in common its mother-city's penchant for putting mega mansions beside boarded up homes. Judging a neighborhood is next to impossible without actually driving through and experiencing it first hand. There's also a saying in NOLA that there's "beauty in entropy," meaning that New Orleanians -- and Harveyites as well -- appreciate the beauty that comes when things no longer look as shiny and spiffy as they once did. If you need your home, street or apartment complex to practically sparkle with manicured lawns and shiny new stainless steel appliances, you may find that your search will go on for quite awhile, although you will certainly find what you're looking for eventually. You just may find yourself on a waiting list or having to put the best spin on your rental history to beat out other applicants.

Harvey is a narrow town, with Marrero to the west and Gretna to the east, so be open to looking for properties slightly beyond Harvey's boundaries. The beauty in this area is that you have your choice of a wide range of communities, so whether you're looking for a quaint older home or a newer upscale subdivision, you'll find it. They may even be just a street or two away from each other!

Harvey Neighborhoods

Sandwiched between Marrero and Gretna, Harvey is dissected lengthwise by the Harvey Canal and into a North and South section by major thoroughfare Lapalco Boulevard. The West Bank Expressway (US 90) runs through the northern sections of town.

Northwest: A short stretch of the river is located along the northern border, but it's mostly industrial, so riverfront properties aren't really an option. The Harvey Canal runs along the eastern boundary, with the West Bank Expressway cutting through the middle of the neighborhood. A mix of renters and homeowners, this area of town is also where you'll find many older homes built before 1940, as well as many from the 70's, although you won't find a lot of newer construction. Rental houses and pet-friendly apartments are abundant here.

Northeast: Smaller homes and apartment buildings can be found in this section of town closer to the river. Lots of apartments and even rental condos are located along the canal, with a wide range of rental prices found throughout this section of town. Lots of shopping and restaurants are offered where Manhattan Boulevard and West Bank Expressway meet. This is also where you're more likely to find apartments in Harvey with individual landlords in lieu of larger apartment complexes. The closer you get to the eastern end (in Harvey) of Lapalco Boulevard, the larger the homes.

Southwest: The area around Woodmere Park in the northern part of this neighborhood is mostly owner occupied, so start your rental search a little to the south. The area around Destrehan Avenue, while still filled with mostly homeowners, does have a condo for rent or two.

Southeast: Woodland West Park in the northern part of this section is a popular local park, and the area immediately surrounding it is a nicely established neighborhood. You can certainly find house rentals here or larger three- or four-bedroom apartments.

Living in Harvey

You could spend all your time at Boomtown Casino or across the river in NOLA, but then you'd be missing all that Harvey has to offer. Try crawfish at Perino's Boiling Pot or have a meal at My Thai Cuisine. Bubble tea's all the rage, even in Louisiana, and Frosty's Caffe makes some of the best.

The West Bank area, like much of NOLA, is compact, so getting from point A to point B doesn't take much time in theory, although traffic congestion often extends the trip much longer. If you do plan on driving into New Orleans -- and why wouldn't you? -- keep in mind that there are only a few ways across the river. The closest way is to take the Crescent City Connection Bridge, but this toll road can become quite congested at times. If you travel west, you can cross the Huey P. Long Bridge, but this will add many more miles to your trip, and depending on how you feel about bridges -- it's a suspension bridge that loves to swing -- it might not be your best option. If you've got time to kill and want to be transported to the heart of it all, drive over to Algiers and take the ferry over to the French Quarter.

And what about the weather? Yeah, it gets hot. Really hot! But you knew that. What not many people realize is how unpredictable the weather can be. Don't be surprised if one year you're stringing up Christmas lights in shorts and flip flops and shivering in a down jacket watching the daytime Mardi Gras parades in February, only for it to switch the next year. The only thing you can predict about the weather in this part of Louisiana is that it's either raining, about to rain, or just stopped raining. Everything else is much like trying your luck at Boomtown--it's a crapshoot!