SHOP & ENTERTAIN The spots to eat, meet and shop. This slide show picks up where the magazine leaves off. MORE >> PLAY BREC gives the area two cozy places to play, Industriplex and Jefferson Terrace parks. MORE>> LIVE Live real estate, sales, features & more: Inniswold Estates & Jefferson Terrace, Jefferson Highlands & Lakeshore Gardens LEARN What you need to know about the East Baton Rouge Parish public schools servicing the area. MORE >> InHOUSE (real estate listings courtesy of Burns & Co., updated in real time) Inniswold Estates Jefferson Highlands Jefferson Terrace Lakeshore Gardens

Just how can you get any closer to convenience? Lap around this part of town and just about everything you need or want is right at your fingertips, or at least within an arm's reach.

Take I-10, take I-12 or just head down Jefferson or Airline, you'll come across this area and all it brings soon enough. Quick eats, places to help make you beautiful, a dealership that helps you zip around town and an offering of backyard fun are just a few of the booming businesses in the area. And if you truly want access to one of the city's best shopping "districts," you're at its front door with Mall of Louisiana, The Boulevard and Perkins Rowe being a few traffic lights down Bluebonnet.

And as far as the life here, it's in demand. Richard Carmouche of Carmouche Construction and developer of both Jefferson Highlands and Lakeshore Gardens saw the area's potential back in the 1990s.

"The location of the property struck me," Carmouche said, when talking of scouting out a location for his developments. "The whole tract of land was zoned commercial and we thought it was better used as residential due to the location, being in that center of town."

His investment paid off. Carmouche says the developments sold out "as soon as streets were put in."

And the area, even more than 15 years later, is still hot. People looking for a calm oasis can turn to Lakeshore Gardens, where residents live a quiet life and relax lakeside. Many former Jefferson Terrace and Inniswold Estates resident children seem to like the area so much that they buy it up, the very same homes they grew up in. The residents of Jefferson Highlands, well, it seems they never want to leave, with home expansions regularly underway.

And the home prices partnering with the quality of life, those help with demand also. With sales in the past year of $112,000 to $394,000 among Jefferson Terrace, Inniswold Estates, Lakeshore Gardens and Jefferson Highlands, the area is affordable, diverse and a pretty good deal for those wanting to be "in the middle of it all."