Downtown for dickheads

It is a truism that downtowns and urban living are now "in" amongst those who ply the conventional wisdom (at least until the next real estate bubble commences in the far exurbs). Like most cities, our downtown here in the Stick has been neglected, waiting for the much hyped renewal it deserves from the moneyed elements. However, there are many unpleasant realities to contend with which stand in the way of such a revival: the armies of homeless people, downtown's distance from the neighborhoods of the professional class, the wear and tear on infrastructure and buildings which comes from decades of use and exposure to the elements, and the simple fact that downtown is "open" for all as the center of the community of all citizens.

So with our real downtown lacking enough of a cool cache for the latte set, the dickheadery in this city instead set out to construct a new artificial downtown for themselves, where all the real life, gritty elements that might upset their discriminating souls have been expunged in favor of a Disneyfied carnival atmosphere centered on high end shopping, entertainment, dining, and other elite pursuits - that is, stuff only dickheads could adore.

So let us pay a visit to:

Resembling a Hollywood movie set version of downtown more than a real downtown, this "town center" in the otherwise concrete wastelands of the suburban ring is a definite hit with the Escalade and designer clothing set.

Look, folks! I'm in Hill Valley!

By the way, if you can make out the lettering on the top of this apparently exploding building, it says "Perkins Rowe Town Hall." The first town hall in history, folks, which doubles as a modern stadium seating movie theatre. 

Indeed, the site is very attractive, and pulls in the crowds easily. The urban feel, intended to emulate an urban streetscape, is definitely a major attracting factor, and is far different in nature from its immediate low density surroundings. There is a complex mixture of uses which includes retail, housing, office space, restaurants, etc. In theory one could live, work, and play here without ever venturing into the forbidden zone of suburban crabgrass past Bluebonnet Boulevard.

In point of fact, this may be the most urban location in the entire city, given our actual downtown's decline into a moonscape of parking reservoirs.

But observing closely, you find that living/working/entertaining at "the Rowe" is at a tad different level than what you normal, working folks are used to:

For one, the grocery stores do not cater to an average Joe clientele.

Furniture stores, you find, sell hideous appearing "modern" pieces which resemble every "art" museum you have visited, each chair and table attempting to outdo each other in the race to appear as stark, cold, and sterile as possible.

Don't see too many of these in the 'hood. I don't know too many folks who make under six figures who might shop here. (This store, by the way, is one of the many in the development that are the only one of their kind in Louisiana - most of them outlets of luxury chains that folks here would never miss.)

The reality, of course, is that Perkins Rowe is intended for dickhead sensibilities - an elite clientele with exotic, often bizarre tastes unknown to Joe the Plumber and his other hardworking brethern. Indeed, they inhabit a strange, diseased world of their own, of chrome and glass and spinning shiny metal objects, where bling is king and style trumps substance or moral integrity. 

I do not blame the developer - this is where the money squats today. This is the end game of bubble Amerika - an endless parade of buying pointless, overpriced luxury goods and eating at deluxe restaurants for the "experience" above all else. It is the downtown functioning not as the working vital heart of a larger community, but the new downtown a la dickhead: an upscale luxury shopping mall with ample free parking, controlled public places, centered on amusement and self-preening as opposed to productive work and sacrifice.

And while this glittering bubble downtown built on debt and possible fraud (how else, the modern way!) thrives, an actual gods-to-honest downtown not five miles away which was built by productive hand lingers and suffers from lack of investment and activity.

God save us from all dickheads.

Cities are now for fish and bugs

Or so the arbiters of current planning practice would seem to believe given their undying passion toward "conservation" and environmental "best practices" to the exclusion of all else. Having spent much time in the belly of the development professions, I have witnessed forthwith that selfsame obsession which folks in that field hold toward preserving the natural environment, no matter the costs.

The desire to conserve natural resources is honorable and makes economic sense from time to time. But it is increasingly clear that the "in" thing to-day in city planning, GIS analysis, academic research, design engineering, architecture, and related fields is the overwhelming dictate of the political correctness of our age, to render development and human impacts on the environment "sustainable" and "eco-friendly" - and never mind the costs to the human lives for whom in their name this is all accomplished.

Never mind that human action will have some impact on the environment no matter what, as with any biological creation. Never mind that the environment is always in a flux of change, that species do come and go, that nature has a vast power to absorb the alterations which we effect upon it. Never mind that without anthropogenic environmental manipulation, civilization and all the comforts and benefits that spring from it would not be possible.

When men were close to the earth, life was nasty, brutish, and short. We should thank our "evil" developers and other risk-takers for increasing the quality of life manifold over the last few relatively free centuries (a fruitful era undergoing its death throes by Praetorian depredation as we speak).

It is apparent that the real issue here is not any fondness for the vaunted "quality of life" but indeed, an unhealthy affection for all that is natural which lies in direct opposition to the ability of individuals to pursue the business of their lives. Indeed, the root of the matter lies in a deep hatred for humanity, of all things made by man of productive value, a death wish to destroy human life in exchange for the betterment of fish, birds, and insects.

The death wish of primitivism indeed continues to engage the elites and serves as a professional gravy train for scores of budding dickheads who stake their careers in the exhilirating fields of "wildlife management" and "floodplain administration," needless to say within the confines of the eternally expanding public sector. The State as always looms large in all this, living up to its eternal reputation as enemy of humanity and existing in the service of itself, and consuming and destroying what human chattel stands in its way.

Decades ago the mission of urban planners, as misguided as any a profession to exist, was at least nominally aimed at human betterment, by shaping cities to meet the present and future needs of current and potential future residents. The business was about planning for future public services, expanding needed infrastructure, measuring out future requirements of human populations, and proposing solutions as needed. Now it appears that our vast reservoirs of urban despair, with all its problems of crime, poverty, undereducation, unemployment and underemployment, etc. are no match for the well-being of fish, trees, bugs, and water lilies when it comes to engaging the energies of our best and brightest urban policy makers.

This is a schizophrenic age above all else.

Cities vs. the State

The radio is my alarm clock, and again this morning I was awakened to the sounds of the morning talk folks on WJBO, discussing some politician's lame proposal to construct a new Amite River crossing between Central and Watson by extending Hooper Road (LA 408) to LA 16 in Livingston Parish. This structure and approaches is alleged to cost over $100 million.

Understand this issue in local transportology.

EBR Parish contains 450,000 people, yet retains a vast amount of empty, developable space around the urban center, much of it located in convenient proximity to major activity centers. Much empty land remains in Central, Zachary, Baker, and the southwest/southeast corners of the parish to accommodate expanding populations near jobs and business centers. Indeed, much land exists in the central city area to house populations right now in areas located close to businesses, schools, parks, and other amenities.

Yet despite all this, the terror of the wretched Other persists, and thanx to the fiat socialism of public education most city folks are faced with the sole "choice" of failing EBR schools, to be shared with the feared Black People. (That is, if they haven't created their own lily Caucasian preserve school district for themselves - this means you, Central.) So after thirty years of White flight, there are now approximately 200,000 souls who live in the neighboring parishes of Ascension and Livingston - with only marginally better school systems, "but hey, at least we kept them jungle bunnies out."

Between Ascension and EBR Parishes, there are only three road crossings - I-10, Airline Highway/US 61, and Jefferson Highway/LA 73. Bayou Manchac (a small, barely navigable waterway otherwise) creates a seemingly insurmountable boundary toward greater communion between these two polities.

Between Livingston and EBR Parishes, there are also only three road crossings, courtesy of the somewhat greater separation provided by the Amite River - I-12, Florida Boulevard/US 190, and Magnolia Bridge (LA 37/64).

All these crossings were constructed in the age when these were exits from the city into the hinterland, not suitable for carrying 100,000 cars per day to and from lookalike subdivisions upon the denuded prairie.

The crux of the traffic problem in this region is the over-usage of these crossings into the crabgrass frontier and the approach roads therein. Simply put, it is like placing a constriction point on a water main every day.

The traffic situation within the exurbs themselves is also troubling, the rapidly developing sprawl spreading over an area served by inadequate country lanes and farm to market roads intended for an agricultural community of small population.

Do we want to sponsor continued development in this vein? Do we wish to beggar our urban centers and permit the complete secession of the capable majority, leaving our cities entirely in the hands of those incompetents, superflys, and sociopathic criminals who are bound to remain? Because this is what our politicians have seemed hell-bent on doing for nearly a century now.

Government policies are always designed to destroy communities, whether it be bridge building to greenfields, erasing civilization via the subsidy of indolence and irresponsibility, creating generations of ignorant unemployable morons via public skooling, or subsidizing the malinvestments of the politically connected dickhead elites (whom we so facetiously refer to as "entrepreneurs") in the name of "economic development."

It stops now. Piss off a bureaucrat, invest your life in the urban center.

Random notes from the roadfront

Now for some random local notes of the viatological variety:

Burbank Drive project complete

I believe that this is the first major road expansion to open under the auspices of the Green Light Plan. This project completes the twinning of Burbank Drive and provides a continuous four lane connection between downtown and south Baton Rouge via LSU.

Since this was originally constructed as a two lane road on a four lane ROW by the state in the 1980s, only minimal ROW acquisition was required and construction proceeded relatively rapidly.

--

New Orleans master plan calls for removal of I-10 Claiborne viaduct

This is a pie-in-the-sky, fantasy bullshit idea dreamed up by some dickhead Northern planners who obviously hate automobiles more than they feel any sort of dedication to balanced transportation planning principles.

Originally, Claiborne Avenue thru Treme was a surface boulevard with a generous, oak-shaded neutral ground, and served as the business district of sorts for the New Orleans Black community in the era of formal racial segregation. During the 1967-9 timeframe, the La. Department of Highways constructed the I-10 elevated highway along this neutral ground, utilizing the most logical and easily obtained open corridor of land through the downtown area. Ever since, area residents have bemoaned the highway’s negative effects on the neighborhood, even as it has become a crucial artery for regional traffic.

One hundred thousand automobiles rely on the Claiborne elevated to conduct their daily travels. It is too critical a piece of infrastructure to eliminate. Like an old fence which vines have covered, to remove it is to create a gaping hole in the infrastructure systems which hundreds of thousands depend upon daily. Any discussion of removing the viaduct now is moot; this should have occurred at the time of construction. I am generally in favor of preserving neighborhood integrity, but not at the expense of compromising regional mobility.

I love how the dickhead “urbanists” speak of freeway eliminations in other cities such as San Francisco, Oklahoma City, and Milwaukee in situations such as this. Disingenuous talk it is. Those freeways were generally spur routes into downtown areas, or were replaced by a new freeway facility at a nearby location. The Claiborne elevated comprises a central part of an important trunkline freeway.

And the state will certainly be cool to any proposal to remove the viaduct, so long as engineering-oriented pragmatists rule the day at DOTD. The viaduct is showing its age, but there is no way that anything less than a replacement freeway will sit in its place after it reaches the end of its lifespan.

Besides, nothing can save those neighborhoods now in their supreme decline toward moral squalor and decadence. The reign of the thug and superfly is far too entrenched in the New Orleans ghetto to-day for the disappearance of a mere freeway to make much of a difference. These are problems rooted in the infrastructure not of the utilitarian variety, but of the moral fabric of society.

Power is wielded by the few

It is astounding what sort of tom-shittery goes on behind closed doors in the tabernacles of power, every day, in this city, state, and nation.

In this very city right now, small, self-interested cliques of craven, chardonnay-sipping dickheads band together in groups with "public" purpose, no more than eight to ten at a time, to plan the lives and outcomes for thousands, even tens of thousands, of people - to decide who will live where, what businesses will not be allowed to operate in a certain area, what shade of colors are to be permitted for your shutters, how many stories your home can be and how far it must be situated from the roadway. And so on and so forth.

They call this a "special study" in town planning terms.

Fly on the wall that I am, I was recently silent witness to one of these erstwhile "planning sessions" by which special studies are conducted. The subject was a proposed "overlay district" that is soon to be installed by our solons upon one of the major thoroughfares of this parish. Pity the unwitting unfortunates who inhabit the vicinity.

There were maybe a handful of folks there, many of them area residents for whom protecting their property values and secure suburban lives from "encroachment" by commercial uses is apparently a magnificent obsession and a full time job to boot. Also there were several power players present, the names of whom shall be withheld to protect the messenger (that is, me). This was not a public meeting in the common sense. No mass involvement of those pesky homeowners this time around, when the "visioning" by the "professionals" is conducted. (Presumably the public meeting stage comes in the future, when plans have been drawn up and more or less finalized, despite whatever the sheeple have to say about it. Gotta love public participation.)

The intent of the overlay district, or so our solons will tell us, is to "beautify" this major arterial and render its environs more aesthetically pleasing through the imposition of regulations in the local development code that will establish what types of uses, building types, and manners of construction are permissible within the district. Indeed, this roadway is not anyone's idea of attractiveness, though it is hardly this region's worst offender.

With all the problems facing our local leadership here, you'd think they'd concentrate on pressing issues like crime, poverty, and socioeconomic discrimination. But I digress.

But this is just the "public" story. The real intent, so it seems, is for a select group of homeowners and associated interests to seal off the neighborhood for themselves, allowing only uses which they deem "appropriate" (for their land values, I suppose). That means no filling stations, convenience stores, supermarkets, car washes, apartments with their pesky lower-income renters, etc. etc.

This is the god's honest truth. The discussion at meetings of this sort generally starts with "what we won't allow" and then exceptions are made from there.

Never mind that most people would rather prefer that basic services be located closer to home than not. See how far separation of uses benefited my 'historic' inner city neighborhood, where one is compelled to drive well out into the suburban concrete jungle to obtain basic necessities such as groceries and prescription drugs.

It is indeed possible for a small clique of self-interested citizens to wield the reins of democracy and divert the favor of public policies to themselves. Daily this goes down in the halls of power. And in doing this, everyone else who was (deliberately) excluded from the table suffers, for the political means are always the triumph of the zero-sum game over the freedom and multiplicity of choices which the unrestricted free market offers us daily. For the benefit of a few, the lives of the many are impoverished.

Of course, the roadway in question wouldn't be so goddamned ugly in the first place if the town planning principles of an earlier generation had not been so carefully followed - that is, strict separation of uses and development codes which essentially outlawed anything not low-density, auto-oriented development. All this promulgated, again, because the suburban brie-and-cheese set wanted their property values preserved at all costs - not to mention keeping The Other far, far away. Read your histories of Amerikan town planning if you don't believe me. (And they call town planning a "science.")

Again, government intervenes to "correct" a problem which it itself had created. (And they say that we in this state don't "plan" "enough." Eh?)

So to "correct" the "problem", even more of our freedoms are eroded. We are already not allowed to construct businesses in locations which the State has designated for housing, and vice versa; now we are to be told the precise dimensions to which our homes and businesses are to be constructed, with further specifications as to the precise materials, colors, and architectural styles which may be used. Any deviation from these dictates, and...well, you know what happens when a person "resists arrest."

Smooth.

Of course the solution is to remove all these costly and banal land restrictions which grow our cities into mass dysfunction and let freedom reign. But then the dickhead-staffed homeowners' associations wouldn't like that all that much, now would they? 

Downtown street scenes

A collage of downtown scenes from a lazy Sunday afternoon in the Stick:



Third Street on Sunday: dead as always.




The superstructure for the new parish courthouse has been substantially completed by now.



II City Plaza is essentially finished, and awaits its future tenants.



The public sector started construction on their tower first, but private industry beat them by a mile.



The brick and mortar ladies of Third Street greet us from across the moonscape of parking reservoirs.



A downtown institution sleeps on Sunday for lack of meaningful foot traffic.



This gutted, partially renovated structure on Lafayette Street resembles something out of postwar Berlin. Finish the renovation already!



Adaptive reuse: this building houses a restaurant, cafe, and part of the LSU art gallery. At one time, this was a parking garage (hard to believe, but true).



This tower of State bureaucrats sits lonely and forlorn, the public "servants" at rest for the week-end.



A pleasant place to sit and while away a Sunday afternoon downtown.

Paper pusher chase

The dickheadery never ceases to amaze me. One of their big pet peeves is keeping "young, hip" (insert metrosexual moan here) "highly educated" (credentialism again) people in the community and prevent them from bolting for bigger, brighter centers to which budding young dickheads seem to be attracted like flies to a candle. (Ever heard of freedom of movement, pursuit of happiness? Guess not.) So predictably the local dickhead coterie has established a web site that will wage an important role in the battle to "stem the talent drain"! Here it is in all its glory.

How lame can you get. These points are easily demolished:

Your dream job is waiting for you here. At last count, there were 15,000 jobs available in the Baton Rouge area; these include high-paying positions in IT, engineering, medical, financial services, and other professional fields.

Doesn't mention that half these jobs don't provide for a decent living ("medical professional" includes hospice workers, y'know), or provide for the advancement opportunities that budding young dickheads crave. Because to this narcissistic generation, it's all about the money: making it, and flaunting it.

Don't expect these jobs to be here very long, either. Jobs are a declining commodity these days.

Our economy is stable and robust. In fact, BusinessWeek just named us one of the top ten recession-proof areas in the country.

One of our few advantages. But this is mainly true because the area's economic backbone is bureaucrat work - state government, public universities, etc. Piyush the Boy Wonder recently cut some trimmings there, mainly out of fiscal necessity (the state can't print money like Ben and friends can), but there's still plenty remaining on the subsidy cart.

They don't call it Parasite City for nothing.

K-12 Education. That’s right, education. Don’t confuse Louisiana state averages with the Baton Rouge area specifically. Five of the top school districts in Louisiana are located right here in the Baton Rouge area.

Ha! Don't make me laugh. The above is technically true, in a manner of speaking. But for those of you from out of state who aren't familiar with the cesspool of unabashed failure that is public education in Louisiana, "top school districts" here translate into your middling to lower performing school districts elsewhere.

Recently the state assumed control of 12 EBR Parish public schools due to blatant long term underperformance. Two of the aforementioned "top districts" were essentially secessions from the EBR school district.

Dat's what happens when you have corn-fed, bottom of their state college class educrats "of color" at the helm. The lazy leading the lazier.

Universities: There's nothing like the culture of a great college town. And we have two great ones-LSU and Southern University.

Though BR has two major universities, don't think that the college set dictates the feel of this place. This ain't College Station or Starkville. Sure, a few well placed neighborhoods have a campus feel. But the primary demographic in BR is married couples with children. The major effect of being a university city is LSU football and all the hoopla that goes with that. (Not a problem if you like that sort of thing.)

In Southern's case, the ghettos of Scotlandville begin at the front gate. Big impact it has there.

Food. That’s one thing that hasn’t changed. You’ve lived here, so you understand. No further explanation is needed.

There's much better food in New Orleans. Take it from me, I know this for a fact. It's very hard to find a decent po-boy 'round here.

Though compared with, say, Buffalo, the cuisine is relatively swell.

Family. We love the tradition of family here. Whether you still have family in the Baton Rouge area or just plan to start or raise your family here, now is the time to come back to the people who love you the most.

Indeed, this is true. If anything, BR should appeal to a certain type of dickhead. The city is geared entirely towards the interests of Corporate Amerika. BR is a city devoid of interesting places, people, things to do, or destinations to visit. There is nothing else to do here besides go to your drone like job, work eight hours, and then return to your box like apartment or house in the suburbs. No pesky outside interests, nothing interesting or uplifting, that might divert energies away from profiting the mecha-Corporations that colonize the barren asphalt wasteland of our built landscape - the bank branches, fast food huts, big box stores, office parks, shopping malls, chain restaurants, strip centers, and filling stations that are the preeminent features of our urban architecture.

It is a very empty and demeaning existence, to say the least - but I hear it appeals to the corporatist, "career minded" imbeciles who hop jobs and cities so they can buy that new Ferrari.

But Atlanta and Dallas have us beat on that mark - economies of scale and all that. So oh well. Lame try that was.

If you want to know why many young folks leave this city, take that to heart. Stop trying to chase the corporate suits who are going to leave anyway, and make more effort to retain the rest of us here.

That is real inclusiveness - which you so claim to support. Or not.

The dickheadery strikes back - and the working man's dissent

Browsin' around the web, I caught sight of this odious article at the Business Report website. Quite frankly, it neatly summates what is wrong with society to-day quite succinctly in a nutshell, particularly as this relates to the cancerous dickheadery. This article is literally dripping with moral highbrowness and acid exceptionalism of the most perverse sort.

Let us read:

The face of change in Baton Rouge looks a lot like Dan Kahn—a 26-year-old, Harvard-educated public school teacher in a sharp business suit with a goal of improving the community through hands-on involvement. He is not a native. He does not bleed purple and gold. And he doesn’t live in the suburbs. Instead, he works for systemic change, lives in an eclectic downtown community and believes the monumental change will take more than just fixing the city’s traffic problems.

Kahn is just the type of person that city/parish leaders have talked about since the brain drain began in the 1980s. He is a committed and optimistic young professional with the ingenuity, humility and drive to extract the best from a city desperately trying to catch up with the rest of the country. But he’s one of the few Baton Rouge has.

In 20 years, the city will have the chance to reflect on how its decisions have impacted economic growth. What it will undoubtedly have to consider is whether or not it lost the Dan Kahns of Baton Rouge. “I believe in this city,” he says. “I believe in the people here. On a personal level, for myself, this is exactly where I want to be.”

If it chooses not to fight to keep him, it could lose a generation to the faltering job market, the battle for the “center” of the parish, stagnation in downtown growth and a community fiercely opposed to individuals who are different from the norm. But if it chooses to fight to keep Kahn and others like him, the city could emerge stronger, more united and with a better chance of sustaining economic viability in a fiercely competitive global market.

First, this term "young professional." So nice sounding, so pleasant. "Why, of course we want young professionals around, whoever they are." Do you? Do you really?

Why do we need "young professionals" so badly? What's wrong with older professionals, or non-professionals for that matter? Do the labor contributions of the working classes not count anymore? This is typical dickhead thought - only those people with advanced education, "good" jobs, and fat salaries count in the world. (Especially 'young professionals' like our friend above with, wait for it, a Harvard diploma [insert revered sighs here].)

And why do these dickheads wish to change things? What is it about this city that makes it so offensive to these people? Might we not have enough fern bars for their liking?

This city is an overall pleasant place to live. Boring, perhaps, but pleasant. Take that from a former resident of Chocolate City, murder capital of the universe, where thugs wielding AK's in the street are a daily sight, not to mention the cities of the homeless and the breadlines everywhere. People here have no idea how good they have it.

To reach that point, Baton Rouge must understand that actions speak louder than words. It must follow through on developing and sustaining a higher quality of life, it must accept the challenge of diversifying the job market so the city can offer high-tech, exciting careers to graduates. And it must realize that constantly suppressing the hopes of progress through parishwide feuds over libraries and capital improvement packages is chasing away the very individuals who hold the key to the future of Baton Rouge. Lose this generation, let them move to other cities and never come back, and Baton Rouge could slip farther behind the rest of the country.

And how, pray tell, are we supposed to 'catch up' to all those other 'young, hip' cities? The implication that (as usual) State action is needed is quite dripping from the above passage. Oh yes, let's turn to the State as always, to make life better for everyone! That always works wonders!

I would also like to know exactly what makes "high-tech" careers more redeeming and of higher social utliity than "low-tech" careers. Oh, my bad, we're exploring dickhead mentality here. Higher salaries means more tax revenue for the dickheads in charge. Serves to explain it.

Cities like Birmingham, Ala., Chattanooga, Tenn., Nashville, Tenn., and Richmond, Va., received the memo long ago. They grasped that change must happen swiftly so that when they are left to account for their actions, they will still have a place in the economic future and continue to be culturally relevant. Baton Rouge needs to learn from the successes and failures of those metropolitan areas that have risen above stagnation and intolerance.

Apples and oranges. BR is a small city and comparing it to Birmingham or Nashville is ridiculous on the surface. A small city means a distinctly different economy - a better economy, mind you, than the fiat money funded paper pushing racket that comprises the economies of most of these 'young, hip' cities to-day. (Can't you just hear the metrosexual "ohs" and "uhs" every time I write those words??)

What makes people so drawn to the 'young, hip' bullshit, I have no idea. Gotta be led by the nose and be trendy, I suppose. Didn't get NBC very far, though.

“I live in a world that is tolerant and inclusive of all people,” Kahn says. “I will love my students the same; I will respect all society members the same. Like Patrick Henry said, I may hate what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. We need a more inclusive community, and we’re going to get there.”

Don't make me laugh. The intolerance of boobus dickheadus is legendary. If you're so tolerant, dawlin', then come spend some more time on my side of town. Maybe it will open your spoiled little eyes.

And with that high level of education, young professionals bring progressive qualities to the table. The Wall Street Journal and International Business Times describe them as highly educated, highly energetic and highly demanding. They are more politically liberal and often take for granted the modern advances with which they have grown up. At the same time, they are team-spirited, diligent workers, eager to take on challenges and far more demanding of social and workplace equality.

When you see the word "progressive", immediately think "State worshipping."

If these people are the future, to quote an old song, "Future's so bright, I gotta wear shades."

Gotta love how the media likes to lump entire demographic cohorts into lockstep patterns of thinking and doing, as if all people of a certain generation thought alike, ate the same foods, enjoyed the same music, etc. Maybe true to an extent, given the slavish conformity of our age. But guess what, assholes? You have not even begun to consider outliers like me!!

Matt Dawson is another example of why highly educated young people are leaving Baton Rouge. A lifelong resident, Dawson moved last spring to Houston for work. Though he was employed at Joseph Furr Design Studios even before graduating from LSU’s landscape architecture program, he began searching for a more challenging work environment.

“After working there for a year,” Dawson says, “I realized pretty quickly I had no career growth opportunity. Plus, I wasn’t making any money.”

But Dawson didn’t want to leave Baton Rouge. “I was really looking to stay there,” he says. “I was dating someone, I have a single mom and I just like Baton Rouge.”

Ultimately, it wasn’t enough to keep him here. Nor will it be enough to bring him back.

Folks, witness the dickhead mind at work - career first, quality of life second. Follow the money. It's all about "career growth opportunities" now, not investing time in your community and waiting your turn for your time at the bat to come. (Just gotta love the corporate dickhead doublespeak.) And no, a year ain't enough time for that to happen. Patience, patience, please.

The creed of nihilism, folks, has reached a logical crescendo in this particular situation.

Finding jobs that fit the needs and desires of young professionals won’t completely alter the pattern of outmigration. It will take a little something called entertainment. Baton Rouge has already worked diligently to improve commercial availabilities like Perkins Rowe and Towne Center at Cedar Lodge, but young professionals often look for the heart of the city—downtown.

The never-ending need, of course, for dickhead "entertainment" facilities is as always paramount and drives much public discourse in this city. Shit, if I were Joe the Plumber, I'd be asking my elected officials why we cater so much to this singular, rather tiny cohort of people on a public level. Certainly they won't be inviting Joe the Plumber to their private cocktail parties.

Of course the answer is that no politician wants to appear to be standing in the way of "progress", especially if said "progress" translates into an increased role for the State. So when a benighted set of jackanapes proclaim themselves in all their hubristic glory to be "progressive," the powers that be will move heaven and earth to accommodate them. Wish the almightly solons could do the same for those who support laissez-faire capitalism and free markets.

"The question we have had to ask is: If there are vibrant downtowns all across the United States, why isn’t there one in Baton Rouge?” says Michael Trufant, the spokesman for A6, a group a group that says its sole purpose is to improve the Baton Rouge area.

Because the State owns about half of it, maybe????

“It all seems quite haphazard, doesn’t it? An empty building next to places where I have to follow a dress code, next to a somewhat vacant office space,” he says. “It doesn’t all seem to fit in a city that has so much potential.

“I really hope to see a much more coordinated effort in taking a long-term strategic outlook about where this city needs to be, because if we don’t start building for the future, we’re only going to be facing these same problems again.”

While most community and city leaders would agree with him, there is little done to set Baton Rouge’s downtown development on a cohesive, energetic path to change. Unfortunately, it will take that change to become an exciting city for the young professionals Baton Rouge claims to want.

Gotta love the adherence to failed statist models. Never is it questioned that State action is the key to strangulating our struggling central business district.

And what the hell is a "long-term strategic outlook", besides more dickhead bluster and blarney, a deliberate use of words that the "little people" could never understand?

At the end of the day, while jobs and entertainment are priorities, quality of life is an even bigger issue. One of the other attributes of the desired young professionals is tolerance and social acceptance. Millennials and Generation Y are far more progressive as a demographic—regardless of whether they are gay, straight, conservative Christian or atheist—and tend to be far more open. And they expect that from their leadership and their communities.

And why exactly is this a good thing, besides pushing the petty political agendas of the 'enlightened' class? Tolerance means also permitting moral shenanigans that would never have been allowed in a more intelligent age. Y'know, like ghetto parasitism and all that.

(OMG URBAN PRAIRIE SCHOONER IS A RACIST!!!)

Suck my ass, naysayers. I speak the hard truths on these pages. If you interpret that as racism, that's your misfortune.

Tell you what, when you dickheads start treating working folks and people who don't exactly mix in nicely at your wine tasting parties with respect and dignity, and stop denigrating their opinions and way of life, then I will listen to your spiel about tolerance. But until then, SHUT THE HELL UP.

That expectation makes the debate over One Baton Rouge even more relevant. The nonbinding resolution that would have welcomed all residents despite age, race, gender, religion and sexual orientation was a failure of the community to understand that economic growth with young professionals behind the wheel needs equality.

C.D. Wright, EA Sports’ project manager for the company’s LSU location, says, “That’s a huge factor for me. The city needs to be open. They need to be able to accept.”

Ooookkaaayyy....See my earlier post on this topic.

Yes, some merely symbolic and quite ridiculous State action was going to make or break my attitude toward this place!! I believe so firmly in making a hollow gesture toward inclusion! It's the thought that counts!!

Ultimately, Baton Rouge is left with incoherent messages to young professionals. It says Baton Rouge doesn’t want to modernize libraries and make them community centers if it means it has to give up a title or a little convenience. It says Baton Rouge will try to improve downtown, but not so much to rock the boat. It says Baton Rouge will give you jobs, but not the ones that you want. It will accept and love anyone like family, unless you are different—because that’s scary and unfamiliar. And when the city is faced with making tough decisions about how to shape its economic future, it will back down and let opportunity pass it by without stepping up to the plate with a valid alternative.

So basically, you've decided here in the above paragraph to essentially trash the will of the majority, to state plainly that the preferred way of life of the working majority doesn't count, that the working man's thoughts and desires don't matter, that we should remove our healthy suspicions toward people and entities (including the State) which threaten our quality of life, place our trust in the arbiters of everything that is "young professional" due to their 'progressive' nature and allow our natural 'betters' the power to control things.

A bald faced, naked grab for power could not be any less concealed here.

Reign of the superthug

In retail America to-day there is a growing trepidation. Stores are closing. Chains are liquidating and going out of business right and left. Places that were once safe to walk around and shop now pose a cold and forbidding presence. Husks of once thriving retail litter and blight the suburban landscape.

What is the common thread of this retail failure?

The state of the economy is an obvious answer. But it doesn't explain everything. Certainly the depression will bring a final denouement to the many failing zombie retailing firms out there (you know who you are). But even before the terminus of the late credit boom, malls were failing in large numbers. Certain chains couldn't put it all together even in good economic times (Kmart, Circuit City, etc.). Scarred commercial strips abounded on the bleak and fractured arterials of the predominantly blue collar inner suburbs, not to mention the urban core itself.

Retail space is still being expanded and constructed despite the depression; what is being built, however, is a highly selective portion of the retail scene. The good retail offerings increasingly have turned to thriving upper income areas. Retail growth trends favor these demographics. The newest and fanciest retail concepts find fruition here. Nobody builds enclosed malls and shopping centers anymore. Open air concepts such as "lifestyle centers" and strip shopping plazas are the order of the day. Like lemmings as always, the development community follows the alleged trends.

But there was already good retail infrastructure existing. So why build even more space? The retail sector is vastly overbuilt. There is simply too much space chasing too few tenants and merchants.

It is, of course, a factor of location. People want retail offerings to be located reasonably close to where they live and work. They do not feel like driving an inordinate distance (as inner city dwellers like myself must do) to shop for groceries.

But people also will not shop where they do not feel safe, no matter how convenient from a location perspective.

If you read dead retail tribute sites such as this one, you will come to notice a common thread behind the various stories of retail failure portrayed therein. You will come to notice that each mall or retail center started out with high hopes, and may have even thrived for a time. However, the end result is often the same: the mall becomes populated by the "inferior element" in society, and the retail offerings come to cater to their needs, providing the average suburban shopper less of a reason to visit. Inevitably the crime and shootings follow, which precipitates the final period of decline leading to eventual closure.

What is the culprit therein? Poor mall management? Economic misfortune? New and unforeseen retail competition? Developer greed? Cheep commercial credit? (Corn-Fed credit per Bernanke's non-stop printing presses indeed permits an excess of commercial development that otherwise would not exist. But that is an enabling factor. Why build anew, with all the issues that entails, when it is immensely cheaper to invest in the already existing capital structure?)

In Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, which happens to be the Urban Prairie Schooner Heartland, there are three enclosed shopping malls located within a few miles of each other, all located closely upon the east-west axis that is Interstate 10. Each mall serves its specific retail niche which it has assumed over time based on changing market conditions. Each mall has adapted to its competitors and continues to thrive and remain profitable for its owners. Each mall provides a safe, pleasant, clean shopping experience free from fears of the lack of security or safety.

Why do three shopping malls thrive therein, despite close proximity? Because people shop there with the expectation that they will not be molested or otherwise harmed by a criminal element.

These malls draw patrons from all over the New Orleans metropolitan region. In decades past, my relatives from St. Bernard Parish would make the long trek across the city to Metairie or Kenner to shop at the malls there. Why did they prefer to make this long trip rather than spend their money at retail centers more proximate to their homes? (For those unfamiliar, St. Bernard Parish has no enclosed malls located within its limits. The most the parish's retail offerings could muster were a freestanding Sears [now defunct, a hurricane victim] and a Wal-Mart Supercenter.)

For those of you who know the New Orleans area, you will remember that in years past, the single enclosed mall located east of the Industrial Canal was the now-defunct Plaza at Lake Forest. For those of you not familiar, please peruse this insightful article to discover for yourself the sordid history of that center. No wonder my relations refused to shop there.

Granted, this is a localized example, but instructive nevertheless.

Eastbank Jefferson Parish, as of yet, does not house a significant underclass resident population. The vast underclass abyss of adjacent New Orleans can only traverse the inter-parish frontier with difficulty due to a poor transit system. Even when entering the E.J., erstwhile thugs will be watched at all times by a vigilant and probably excessively violent police state apparatus which vests itself in the guise of the Sheriff's Office.

I do not condone the sometimes thug-like activities of the JPSO here, having been on the receiving end a few times in my life myself. But the point is that safety is a primary factor in the success or failure of a retail venture. When the superthug is admitted into the retail precinct and permitted to do his thing, events predictably devolve downward from there.

This is not the job of the State police, which only makes things worse in their own way. This is up to the mall management. The thug's progress must be arrested at the outset.

But it is an uphill struggle. Increasingly large sections of the population have turned to indolence, subsidy, and other elements of the thug life. The thug population is increasing rapidly, which should be no surprise given that thug values have become the more or less mainstream cultural conceits of modern Amerikan society: living for the moment, emphasis on materialism, disrespect of other human beings, rejection of responsibilty and the sacredness of those human bonds inherent in the institutions of marriage and the family, disdain of productive activity including work, inculcation of a subsidy mentality of obtaining something for nothing, increasing pathological and criminal behavior, increased rates of social disorders characterized as "mental illness", decline of moral codes and value systems, rejection of the intrinsic value of human life and in particular the right to life of the unborn, and of course increased practice of all these values and increased tolerance of all those others who practice thug values.

So it should be no surprise that our malls and shopping areas have fallen prey to them, particularly our older centers in those neighborhoods which thugs have either colonized or otherwise "gone thuggin'."

And so the newer centers arise in the far suburbs, in areas free from thug activity for the moment. But as the empire of thuggery expands and productive human activity presumes to occupy less and less space within the geography of the urban area, even these centers will one day fall, a futile fiat money regime attempt to keep a decent offering of retail alive with only a limited lifespan. (This is intrinsically known by those who develop these centers. They are so cheaply constructed and adorned, I can only presume they are working under the presumption that they will only be profitable for a short period of perhaps ten to twenty years before dropping to 'second-tier' status with the thug invasion and thus making an eventual appointment with the wrecking ball.)

And in the final account, the thugs will control our destiny, since they will comprise the absolute majority. But by that time, don't expect much retail to be left, since the thugs will be too busy murdering us for anyone to care about much save bare survival.

It goes beyond retail, unfortunately. The dead mall phenomenon is but the canary in the coal mine. The thug increasingly plays a larger and larger role in our nation to-day. In due time, this role will become pivotal.

Such is the endgame of allowing the superthug to rampage unchecked. And such is the epitaph of our society.

Wild and woolly

Not steps from my doorframe, the dense urban environment gives way to some of the most unmitigated wilderness in the region:

Do I live in the far exurbs? No! This is the inner city, honky!

The Cap peers out beyond the dense canopy over the abandoned and overgrown urban jungle, just steps from thriving neighborhoods, a busy freeway, and the downtown area.

Civic sprawl

The rapidly metathesizing cancer of local government imprints its physical form upon the city's landscape in the form of the urban renewalist nightmare known as the Civic Center.

Here is the public precinct in all its glory:



The civic center was largely constructed in the 1970s upon the desires of then Mayor-President Woodrow "Woody" Dumas to construct a centralized local government center in the grandiose poured concrete fashion so common to the era. (Notwithstanding this, various city departments are still to this day located in various off-site locations, some which are not even located downtown.) However, local government has made its presence felt in this general area for some time. Future trends portend continued and even expanded public use at this location, pursuant on voter approval of the nearly $1 billion (!) bond at the polls on November 4.

Yellow dot: Old State Capitol - The Old State Capitol served as the seat of Louisiana state government from 1847 to 1862, and again from 1882 to 1932. A historic and beautiful structure modeled in a non-traditional neo-Gothic medieval castle style, it serves today as a museum and tourist attraction, and a marquee landmark for the city. While not strictly part of the civic complex, it abuts the complex closely and is surrounded by its dark works on its east and south sides, making an incongruous sight among the civic center's modern Brutalist structures. The historic wrought iron fence which surrounds the property (recently restored) prohibits communion between the former state precinct and the local governmental center.

Red square: Old Parish Courthouse - Dating from the 1920s, it comprises the oldest local portion of the complex. Its red stucco roof and generous shaded setbacks from the street set this structure apart in terms of grace and class. Currently it serves as quarters for city court and its enforcement arm, the constable's office.

Green square: Municipal Building - Upon the creation of the consolidated City-Parish government in 1949, a need for additional public space beyond the old parish courthouse and old Baton Rouge City Hall was ascertained. The former City Hall, located nearby on the corner of North Blvd. and Fourth Street now houses the BR City Club.



The Municipal Building was opened in the 1950s - a five story structure that, for a time, unbelievably managed to contain nearly the entirety of City-Parish government. (This was the era before the expansionist public sector became endemic on the local level here.) To-day, somewhat half-forgotten, it serves merely as the HQ for the EBR Sheriff's Office and the City-Parish Department of Public Works, with some other DPW offices occupying the balance of the space.

Yellow square: Governmental Building - The centerpiece of the 1970s public consolidation, this ten story butt ugly Brutalist structure is the City-Parish's current seat of government, containing the offices of the Mayor-President, the Metropolitan Council chambers, and various other city departments and agencies including the assessor, parish attorney, information services, registrar of voters, clerk of court, and others.



Five of its ten floors are occupied by the 19th Judicial District Court, and thus this building serves as the de facto EBR courthouse.

Purple square: Baton Rouge River Center - Formerly known as the Centroplex, the River Center is BR's convention facility. The arena portion is an original 1970s structure while the building to the south is a 1990s-2000s addition.

Adjacent to the Governmental Building also lies the Performing Arts Center (purple dot) and River Center branch library (orange dot). An open air venue, Galvez Plaza (green dot) is used from time to time for concerts and public events. Finally, Repentance Plaza (red dot) serves as a tasteful green space which serves as a 'lawn' for the complex (though not a heavily used lawn at that).

Magenta square: Future 19th Judicial District Courthouse - The construction of a modern 12 story courthouse, now underway and slated to finish in 2010, will mark the greatest certain change to the civic complex in a generation. The courthouse will permit the 19th Judicial District Court and the Clerk of Court to vacate the Governmental Building (to be rechristened as City Hall) and allow this space to be occupied by other city agencies currently located in off site locations, which can then be sold off, rendering their maintenance costs no longer a burden to the public purse.

Blue and black squares: Future hotels for dickhead conventioneers -Private investment in new convention center hotels will be instigated (or so our politicians claim) with the passage of the bond issue in November. This will spur even greater alterations in the civic center built environment if approved. The bond issue is slated (among other things) to pay for River Center expansion and expansion of the parking facilities in the area. The current location of the public defender's office is slated to be the site for the first proposed hotel; this will eliminate the attendant structure as well as a tasteful Creole cottage type structure on the corner of St. Ferdinand and Louisiana Streets. The East garage (blue dot) will be expanded in place, and the West garage (blue square) will be demolished to make way for the second proposed hotel. The West garage will be replaced by constructing a new South garage south of Government Street between St. Phillip and St. Louis Streets south to Europe Street, and would connect to the River Center via an elevated walkway.

This garage construction would entail demolishing several historic homes where low income folk live, as well as a semi-historic 1950s era one story office structure (now vacant) and a historic home now occupied by the law firm of the former EBR district attorney. Finally, it would close off and obliterate a one block long historic brick-surfaced portion of France Street that climbs the bluff:



Another insult to Beauregard Town looms.

Change looks to come to the civic precinct - expect more pictures as it unfolds!

Bucky's dome

Last November a great blow against history was committed in this parish when the Kansas City Southern Railroad demolished one of the few classic Buckminster Fuller geodesic domes in existence.

This particular dome was constructed in 1958 to house a railroad turntable and maintenance facility for the Union Tank Car Company, but as of its last years was more or less left to abandonment:





Like everything else once productive in America, left to ruin and an uncertain future, eventually terminating in the wrecker's ball.

A few forlorn snaps of the doomed facility which have managed to preserve it for posterity. Little did I know that soon after I captured this famous facility on camera, it would disappear virtually without notice...

Around the Stick Quickie

Like the Garfield and Friends Quickies of old! No Screaming with Binky here, though. Oh well, see this instead.

Nicholson Drive in the vicinity of the LSU north gate is increasingly taking on a higher-density, if not decidedly urban, vibe:





Scenes such as this bring to mind Mid-City New Orleans, in a faint sort of way.

(Hey give the area credit, this is pretty urbanized as Baton Rouge goes.)

In other urban news, here is the new fascism writ into the physical landscape:



The "designated smoking area" for the bureaucrats at the State government complex downtown. Yeah, this is the entirety - a couple benches tucked at the rear next to the freight entrance.

The numerous "No Smoking" signs/laws/probations/whatever have chased all tobacco activities to this dark and hidden location.

Smokers, the new set of second class citizens. See, it's official now!

While we are the topic of government idiocy, here is something else:



Fallen trees, debris, and other junk remains on public ways nearly two months after the late storm events.

Proving yet again that while you take care of your yard and prevent anything on your own property from becoming potential liabilities, the State feels no obligation to do likewise.

It's public property, man! Who cares!

Cap City!

More photos from around the 'hood, courtesy of my week-end meanderings!



The II City Plaza tower at 4th and Convention is nearing completion. The basic structure is finished but work continues on the lobby and interiors.



A recent addition to downtown, the newly renovated Kress-Levy building at 3rd and Main looks top ho and spifflin' and now awaits tenants.



More Third Street renovations. This structure looks to be about 50% done.




What cheer, urban decay! The former EBR Arts and Technology School at North Blvd. and St. Ferdinand slowly deteriorates due to neglect and abandonment.

Please, somebody occupy this building. It really needs some love.



The Old Governor's Mansion on North Blvd.




Fourth Street on a Sunday evening, looking forlorn and abandoned as is usual during non-working days. This looks south from the Capitol precinct.



The sun sets behind the Capitol as the day, and weekend, ends.

Spatial mismatch

One of the negative things about living in the inner city is that one can never find what you need in the easy-cheezy convenient way that a resident of the suburbs can. Such is the final insult of our auto age.

An urban resident often finds that basic services such as grocery stores, banks, pharmacies, etc. are usually located some distance outward in the suburbs, or in the outer extents of the urban core if lucky. Much the same can be said for less essential services such as hospitals and medical centers, movie theatres, video rental stores, restaurants (that are open at reasonable hours), barbershops, specialty stores, and other retail/service offerings.

These types of establishments generally do not locate themselves in inner city areas, for obvious reasons. It is easier to chase customers and disposible income in auto mall land where there is more of both.

Some folks move into an urban area with the idea of reducing their "carbon footprint" and then they find that they must drive more than they used to, just to reach the closest supermarket or drugstore. Oh the irony.

My neighborhood has a small corner grocery store that supplies a large number of basic goods and foodstuffs without having to travel out the Interstate into auto-land, but it's not a good idea to shop there too often if you are on a budget.

It goes without saying that downtown here lacks a full service grocery store, pharmacy, etc. This is not a criticism per se. Downtown as a neighborhood, as in so many other cities, does not have a critical mass of residents and other human activity to support these businesses.

Yet lack of these amenities does not bode well for growing or expanding a downtown residential base. Those people that downtown manages to pull in from the suburbs have to be willing to make the sacrifice of convenience of having every service known to man located just five minutes away on the arterial that feeds the subdivision. It is a price one pays, regrettably, for living in a more fulfilling environment. Few people, when given the trade-off, are willing to do so.

But there are positives, too, to living far from the land of the strip mall and cheep plastic and glass garishness.

Since retail options are distant, it reduces the temptation to spend money, and makes what purchases are conducted rarer and more responsible.

And of course, one is not regaled with the sea of asphalt as a daily fact of life in one's urban experience.

And if you work in or near downtown, your commute becomes a lot shorter, and probably far less congested. Or you find that walking or biking to work becomes an option, and you can dispense with the automobile entirely for commuting purposes.

In the age of sky-high petrol prices, that's always a good thing.

I give a few establishments credit for locating in suitably reasonable places for inner city residents. Family Dollar stores can be found in neighborhoods relatively close to downtown. Unlike other chains I suspect they don't see any stigma in selling merchandise to customers with Black and tan faces.

It is a chicken and egg problem, fundametally. Businesses generally chase customers, but customers don't like to live in areas where they have to make a long trip to reach those businesses, if there are other and more convenient living options available.

It is the real problem of spatial mismatch, notwithstanding anything the academic profession wants you to believe.

Urbanism in Baton Rouge, Part IV: Historical Growth Patterns

The modern city of Baton Rouge is overwhelmingly a product of the 20th century (particularly its latter half) and the automobile age. This contributes to the overall suburban and low-density quality of the city and its environs. In 1900 Baton Rouge was a small town less than 10,000 in population. Even as late as 1940, the city was a relatively small and sleepy river community heavily centered on its industrial, governmental, and educational aspects from both an economic and land use standpoint. This series of illustrations arranged neatly by decade, available from the BR City-Parish Government GIS website, provides an overview tour of the rapid mid- to late-20th century suburban expansion that has contributed the majority of Baton Rouge's urban form.



1946: We start in 1946, when Baton Rouge was a vastly smaller (and more compact) city. The developed area is dominated by the relative size of the industrial complex on the north and the university campuses (they have not grown, but the city has) on either end of the city. Development wraps around the industrial precinct in an effort to keep residences and employment centers in proximity. The developed area extends only as far inland as the current Foster Drive for the most part, except for the Old Goodwood area which comprises a low density outlier on the far eastern fringe. Virtually all development is contained within the arc of the Airline Highway bypass route.

To-day most of the residential areas shown here comprise "Mid-City" Baton Rouge.



1956: BR's immediate postwar growth trends were to the north - proximate to the industries which were the city's most important source of employment during the period. The developed area has nicely filled up the territory which was annexed into the city in 1949 with the creation of the City-Parish consolidated government. These northern suburbs were, for the most part, White working class; the south comprised the more white collar and middle class part of the city. This socioeconomic division is a long standing situation which has persisted to this day. Segregated pockets of Black residence, such as Scotlandville and Old South Baton Rouge, existed, and would come to expand over time.

On the far east end of the map, the nascent Broadmoor subdivision can be spied, comprising the first substantial urban development outside the Airline Highway bypass - a sign of things to come.



1965: Development continues to be centered in the north, but small subdivision clusters can be spied sprouting off from the Perkins Road, Jefferson Highway, and Highland Road corridors to the south, the beginnings of the current movement of scatteration to the south and east. (Then as now, these roads were not entirely suitable for long distance commuting - the growth of the south would vastly accelerate with the completion of I-10 to Gonzales.) The suburban cluster east of Airline, centered on Florida Boulevard, has grown substantially, and this area would become the locus of suburban growth through the late 1960s and into the 1970s. To the north, the small town of Baker is included as the scope of the littoral is expanded to accommodate the growing city.

At the time the Interstate system was incomplete through the area, thus this was the heyday for major arterials such as Airline Highway and Florida Boulevard. The "Florida Strip" between Foster and Airline was the city's most important suburban center during that time. However, even at this late date downtown retained some of its relative importance.





1976: In the year of America's Bicentennial, the extent of Baton Rouge's eastern growth is palpably visible. Virtually all urban expansion in the north had ended by this point and new development was largely focused on eastern EBR Parish. The 1970s were the decade which the Interstates assumed prominence in the region as transportation arterials, thus rendering less important surface highways such as Florida and Airline and laying waste to their retail offerings as shopkeepers favored locations with Interstate visibility and access.

Showing the entire parish in this scene, the map demostrates just how much empty land there is in EBR Parish, particularly in its northern extremities. At this date inter-parish suburbanization was still in the embryonic stage. Even at this late date, much of southern EBR remains rural, though change would be soon in coming.



1986: The decade of big hair and bad taste in fashion brought large scale development to southern Baton Rouge and permanently shifted scatteration trends to more of a southeastern character in the parish, reflecting the routes of the Interstates and racial/income trends. With the completion of the Interstates, cities in outlying parishes such as Denham Springs and Gonzales (not shown here) would assume prominence as satellite exurbs within the next decade. Increasing minority populations in the EBR public school system would make a Livingston or Ascension address much more desirable for White middle class families, despite the commuting distances and attendant traffic tie-ups involved. In the 1990s Zachary (the urban cluster at the far north end of the parish) would obtain its own school district and join the list of lily white exurbs. The cities of Baker and Central (incorporated 2004) have also seen fit to secede from the EBR schools.

The neighborhoods of north BR, first generation suburbs of the 1940s and 1950s, had by this time largely lost their White working class populations and had solidified into the core of Black Baton Rouge, with the area of Black residence moving like linchpins south from Scotlandville and north from the Eden Park area to subsume the district. This only continued to reinforce the long standing division of Baton Rouge between a relatively unprosperous north and a largely affluent south.

Note certain scatteration trends:

• The area south of LSU and Highland Road, with the exception of the Brightside Lane precinct and the Gardere area, is largely undeveloped and remains so as of today. The development which has taken place in this alluvial plain has largely been of the multi-family variety, accommodating university students near campus and poor Blacks in Gardere.
  
• 
  
• Development in the south tends to avoid the creeks and waterways (and thus flood prone areas), leaving natural greenbelts around the important drainage courses. On a negative note, this development pattern precludes a great deal of connectivity between neighborhoods.
  

More commentary to come!

Top of the Cap!!

While we are on the topic of urbanism, I continue in this vein as I clean out my image archives!

One fine day a while back I happened to be bipping around the central area, and during this occasion I took these photos at great risk to my life and limb from the open air observation deck of the Louisiana State Capitol:



This picture of downtown is the photo on my computer desktop background.

Sad when you can capture virtually all of the central business area in one snap...



To the east sprawls the Mid-City area (my former place of residence) and on the horizon lies the vacuous suburban wastes of eastern BR. The freeway is I-110, with the hairpin bend of the Governor's Mansion curve plainly visible. In the distance, you can see the tiny white rectangle that appears to be a building; this is the Class B-in all its glory Dean Tower, which is situated on Florida Boulevard near BR Community College.

My current home lies somewhere in this photo. Can you guess where?



The industrial/petrochemical precinct of the northland is situated not too far from here, its complex metal sarcophagus and omnipresent steam cloud constantly looming over the city. Some forlorn State buildings located along the Capitol lake occupy the foreground.





On a clear day (and many not so clear ones) you can see Fart Allen and the vast Sugarcane Empire of the westside rolling off toward the western horizon.



Penetrating toward the forbidden southeast suburbs, the camera lens strains to distinguish anything of merit within the sea of heavily foliated urban sprawl.



The mighty Mississippi rolls past the Capital City and its teeming industries, as the "old river bridge" (US 190) provides a backdrop in the distance.

Urbanism Compared: New Orleans

Originating from the erstwhile Chocolate City, I cut my urban studies teeth in the land of the jazz funeral and po-boy. Having lived someplace in the greater New Orleans area from the time of my birth until a few years ago, I have always held the city to be the benchmark by which all urban areas are measured. No longer a resident here, it is always startling to return and be amazed by the full-fledged urbanism which exists in the Crescent City that is sorely lacking elsewhere among the ranks of Southern cities, an urbanism which I took for granted for most of my life but have gained a newfound appreciation for in its absence.

More than any other city in the Deep South, New Orleans is by and far a product of the pre-automobile age. (Given the by and large historically non-urbanized nature of the American South, this is an anachronism in itself.) New Orleans was for decades the South's only truly major city (if Baltimore is not considered to be a Southern city, which only seems fair) and one of the nation's largest urban centers.

Other Southern cities may have their roots in the 19th or even 18th centuries, but the greater part of their urban fabrics are developments of the 20th century, thus assuring widespread automobile influence on their urban form. Even the Crescent City itself sports vast areas of auto-centric suburban style development along its outer fringes; however, as a percentage of the city area, auto-centered development comprises far less territory than in a Baton Rouge, Houston, or Atlanta. (It goes without saying that the outlying suburban parishes are almost entirely a product of the automobile.)

While Atlanta, Dallas, Memphis, etc. owe their survival as viable urban environments to cheap petrol and an auto-centered economy, New Orleans' existence relies on various counterbalancing modes of transportation and trade - shipping, rail, highway, air, and pedestrian. As a port city, all modes of travel must be accommodated to ensure efficient transportation of products and people. As a major tourist destination, a walkable and interesting urban environment is required to attract visitors and permit efficient and inexpensive travel between the closely spaced attractions, shopping/retail areas, and hotels.

The density and liveliness of a major downtown area which is by and large absent from many mid-sized Southern cities (and not a few major ones) is the rule in New Orleans. Granted, downtown has declined substantially in its importance and maintenance over the course of the late 20th century, due to the inevitable automobile influence and the paralyzing incompetence and corruption which waxes endemic to the city's leadership class. However, downtown New Orleans' importance has remained large compared to other cities, and enough of the urban tout ensemble has been preserved for the central core area to remain relevant and active in comparison to its erstwhile upriver neighbor. The difference between the downtown areas of a mid-sized quiet conformist bureaucratic city such as Baton Rouge and a large noisy cosmopolitan metropolis such as New Orleans is the difference between night and day.




Canal Street is the essence of urbanism at its finest. Various transportation modes along this famed wide artery create a central spine for downtown, lined by a mixture of businesses, hotels, and other establishments. Buildings of several stories present a varied but contained streetscape of high density that by its very nature assigns auto-centric functions a secondary role.



Removed in 1964 and re-installed at very high expense to city, state, and federal taxpayers in 2004, the Canal Street streetcar line lends an air of New Orleans charm to the thoroughfare, as well as providing practical transit in classic style. The historic Perley Thomas streetcars from the St. Charles Avenue line normally do not see service here, but serve duty here today as the modern red-colored cars of the Canal line were victims of the Katrina deluge.



It goes without saying that the Vieux Carre is the ultimate expression of the tout ensemble in New Orleans. In fact, the term "tout ensemble" was originally coined to describe the urbanism of this historic district.



Old and new collide as modern downtown skyscrapers hover over centuries old Spanish colonial architecture. (The Vieux Carre is mostly Spanish in architecture due to the great fire of 1777 which virtually destroyed the old French city.)

The contrast may seem jarring, but it is this easy juxtaposition of the ancient and the modern that has lent to the city's versatility over time.



Downtown, known in New Orleans the Central Business District (or CBD), lies on the upriver side of Canal Street adjacent to the Vieux Carre, and is heavily populated by modern office towers such as these - fueled by the oil revenues of the heady flush times of the 1970s and early 1980s, fully byproducts of the automobile age and its propensity for architectural gargantuanism on a large scale.

Even so, I wish Baton Rouge had a few more of these.



That is not to say, however, that the CBD lacks areas of subtle small scale architecture. This is Gravier Street near Tchoupitoulas.



One of the many narrow alley type streets for which New Orleans is famous. This passageway in a forgotten corner of the CBD sports a largely desolate industrial air.



Due to various economic factors, including decline of break bulk shipping, consolidation of petroleum related activities in Texas, suburbanization with its attendant dispersal of office space, general economic decline, a degenerate and corrupt political and socioeconomic leadership, a general sense of moral and socioeconomic malaise among the people within and without the city, and other factors (I could go on but this might take all day), downtown has largely lost its large variety of retail and commercial functions that it possessed until the early 1980s. (Some retail remains, but primarily in the guise of the omnipresent "T-shirt shops" for the tourist crowd and low-end stuff for the remaining population in the city, which today is largely Black and low income.)

What is left is primarily professional offices, but this in itself cannot fill all the built space. What the office sector does not need, then, is for the most part taken up by the requirements of the all-encompassing hospitality sector - that means hotels. And there are many hotels today in the downtown area, large and small. The above photo captures just one of seemingly hundreds.



This substantial edifice, one of the largest of the hotels, is a foreign and unlovely sight in a city that prides itself on its small scale urbanism, and towers uncomfortably over the Canal Street pedestrian.

Gotta love the fascist inspired political advertisement.



Regrettably, the nature of tourism has changed over time. In the past much tourism was legitimate and capitalized on the city's colorful history, Latin-inspired culture, and unique charm. To-day the city has seemingly degenerated into a pseudo-authentic version of Las Vegas, trading its unique culture and history to sell a caricature of itself, where every day is Mardi Gras and the liquor flows freely. The current hospitality paradigm is centered squarely on the dickheadery's favorite recreational activity - uninhibited alcohol consumption and rampant promiscuity.

This new paradigm is centered on what comes closest to a modern Gomorrah on this earth, the world famous Bourbon Street. Never a favorite of mine when I was an actual resident of this burg, here it is in all its scarlet glory, during the evening hours when the hedonists crawl out from their rocks like cockroaches to engorge themselves in the raw pursuit of pure pleasure.

Is this what it's come to, folks? Is this what we have become in the eyes of the world?



The Crescent City. Without the river bend at this location, New Orleans as we know it would not exist.



And with that we leave New Orleans to the aerial sight of the vast urban landscape.