re: Older Baton Rouge residents. What lead to the decline of NBR?

The base of capitalism is the ability to "own" things and to secure the benefits of one's own labors. No one wants to invest their money in places where they cannot secure their property and their lives due to indemic crime. I have heard the same from many former tenets of retail space at Cortana Mall and elsewhere in North Baton Rouge. They sold enough merchandise to he profitable if not for their incredibly high "shrinkage rate", i.e. the percentage of goods that are lost to theft. They were shop-lifted out of business.