Downtown Revitalization: Baton Rouge

[Metro Jacksonville]

Downtown Revitalization: Baton Rouge



Metro Jacksonville visits the downtown of Louisiana's state capitol: Baton Rouge

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/1969-dec-downtown-revitalization-baton-rouge

[thelakelander]

We have at least one reader who does not like today's article.  Without revealing their identity, this was just emailed to my Metro Jacksonville account:

By what was covered I could not tell if this is some kind of revitalize  downtown or not.
I lived in Baton Rouge,La. for twenty years before being transferred to Jacksonville.
BR downtown is as empty or maybe more so of people other than bank and state workers
and that during business hours.
 
You people are a  bad joke trying to sell downtown Jax. Either you are being paid to or have
a vested financial interest in downtown Jacksonville.

Ock, these are your images.  What was your opinion of downtown Baton Rouge?

[stephendare]

People get funny ideas sometimes.

Apparently this guy thinks we are a chamber of commerce group for Baton Rouge or something.

The remark about people downtown was especially odd as there wasn't a single picture of a crowded street anywhere in the photo tour.

[tufsu1]

You noted the Shaw Group as Baton Rouge's lone Fortune 500 company.  Late last year, the company agreed to be acquired by CB&I.  Looks like soon, the city won't have a Fortune 500 company HQ.

[fsujax]

Ah another defunct Festival Marketplace from the 80s. I didnt know they had one.

[simms3]

People get funny ideas sometimes.

Apparently this guy thinks we are a chamber of commerce group for Baton Rouge or something.

The remark about people downtown was especially odd as there wasn't a single picture of a crowded street anywhere in the photo tour.

I think he actually thinks you guys work for the Jax Chamber, because his point is that this thread makes DT Jax look so incredible in comparison, when in reality both cities are so far down the tubes it doesn't even matter.  I think his point is a valid one...a look at "how dead this downtown is compared to ours" disguised as a "Learning From", whereby there isn't actually anything to learn from DT Baton Rouge except that Jax and BR have done almost all the same things and both DTs stink as a result (with Jax's looking better being that it anchors a much larger metro).

I just drove through BR a month ago...the most interesting thing to me was the *huge* oil refinery surrounding the northern end of DT...the refinery alone had a "skyline" 3x as large as the rest of BR.  The other interesting thing is the fact that nearly the entire metro population lives south of the city with one interstate route for commuting...looks like traffic becomes really bad there as essentially 500,000 people have one option north in the AM and one option south in the PM.

From Nola to BR is a bayou with elevated interstate and from BR to Lafayette is a bayou with elevated interstate.  Makes swamps in FL look like dry land!

[thelakelander]

He's definitely not from the Chamber.  Maybe Tea Party but not the Chamber.  Here's the rest of our email conversation:

original email:

By what was covered I could not tell if this is some kind of revitalize  downtown or not.
I lived in Baton Rouge,La. for twenty years before being transferred to Jacksonville.
BR downtown is as empty or maybe more so of people other than bank and state workers
and that during business hours.
 
You people are a  bad joke trying to sell downtown Jax. Either you are being paid to or have
a vested financial interest in downtown Jacksonville.

my response:

Good morning and thank you for your response. The article is simply a photo tour from a recent visit to Baton Rouge to illustrate what that particular city's downtown looks like.  Feel free to sign up to the site and provide readers with your opinion of Baton Rouge and your reasoning for why we should not "sell" downtown Jacksonville.

Have a nice day,

his reply:

Spending tax payers money on downtown Jacksonville is throwing good money after bad. Who would profit from such action? Certainly not the average citizen only those with vested interest. Some one is trying to sell a “pig in a poke”. The truth is many,many downtowns are history including Jacksonville.

my last response:

I think you may be somewhat off base by not taking the time to dig into the details of these discussions. We actually suggest spending tax dollars on things that provide taxpayers the highest Return Of Investment (ROI) for both downtown and the suburbs.  We're probably the most fiscally conservative group in town.  We realize that while downtown and this city has potential, the current system is broken, which is literally bankrupting our city.  We've actually suggested that the best thing the city can do for downtown is get out of it's way and allow the free market to take control.  By the same token, we also suggest that we stop subsidizing fiscally unsustainable development on the fringes of the city and set up a system where all development and lifestyles pay for themselves.

[simms3]

^^^ah, the rest of the email...LoL

[thelakelander]

I just drove through BR a month ago...the most interesting thing to me was the *huge* oil refinery surrounding the northern end of DT...the refinery alone had a "skyline" 3x as large as the rest of BR.  The other interesting thing is the fact that nearly the entire metro population lives south of the city with one interstate route for commuting...looks like traffic becomes really bad there as essentially 500,000 people have one option north in the AM and one option south in the PM.

From Nola to BR is a bayou with elevated interstate and from BR to Lafayette is a bayou with elevated interstate.  Makes swamps in FL look like dry land!

This brings back memories.  I remember going on a road trip to Texas as a little kid.  I thought that elevated section of I-10 would never end.   

[Ocklawaha]

Opinion of downtown Baton Rouge?  I think we have by far the prettier waterfront, Riverwalk, and Skyline. Jacksonville is also FAR nicer when one gets out of the core, i.e.: we don't have 5 miles of oil pipes, and tanks surrounding downtown. All of that being said there IS a lesson to be taken from Baton Rouge. This city is no doubt in the same shape as we are in many ways, but they have done one thing very well, PRESERVE HISTORIC BUILDING STOCK. I found the number of historic buildings in the core not only interesting, some were pretty mind blowing. Lots of the signature moss draped lawns, French balconies, colonial American, railroad Roman and even a few shotgun houses all mixed in with the art deco capital. One can stand in the 1929 era capital's shadow, and look to the one side and see the Pentagon Barracks built in 1825, look another way and see ultra modern hotels and modern office buildings. I think what impressed me the most is in all of the many times I've been through the city I always wrote it off as a tacky and poorly maintained dump of a place. This trip I made the effort to seek out the spark that makes it come to life, and busy or not their downtown is spotless, beautiful and well worth the visit.

It should be noted that these photos were taken on a Sunday afternoon. They had about 3x the number of people around downtown on Sunday then we have... at least 40. LOL. What I didn't see was block after block of closed retail, whatever the traffic is on weekdays, there seemed to be a lot of organic shops, ice cream parlors and pubs.
 

Just as a side note, they too are flirting with rail transit, and the state itself toward a corridor passenger train service that will run from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.