BR Business Report:Building a better Baton Rouge begins with addressing climate risks

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For Business Report’s 40th anniversary edition, we asked nine community leaders and young professionals how Baton Rouge can fulfill its potential as an economically thriving midsized city. Below is an excerpt from Center for Planning Excellence President and CEO Camille Manning-Broome’s essay:

As a city planner, a Baton Rouge native, and a parent, I spend a lot of time thinking about the future of this place that I love. I worry about building a safe, healthy community where all residents can thrive, and where newcomers can find plentiful opportunities. I want to leave behind a strong and resilient city, where my kids and grandkids can enjoy a vibrant, productive life. Baton Rouge, if we are to achieve all this, we first must understand our history, our current challenges and our future opportunities.

Over the past 40 years Baton Rouge’s population has grown by 200%, our infrastructure has expanded throughout the parish and new developments have continued to proliferate on the periphery. We have grown into a bustling, culturally rich, midsized Gulf Coast city—and our challenges around flood risk, poverty, congestion, water resources, and infrastructure maintenance have grown as well. Looking ahead to the next 40 years, I feel a deep responsibility to ensure that my two children inherit a city that’s better than the one I grew up in—but the planning and development patterns we’ve established are not going to get us there. Providing a bright future for all of our kids requires understanding our past, being clear-eyed about our challenges and working together to create a climate-resilient, economically equitable place where the next generation can thrive.

We have once-in-a-generation opportunities within our reach to create the future that so many of us have envisioned for Baton Rouge: a city that is resilient, safe, inclusive, and economically thriving; with walkable, bikeable neighborhoods characterized by a special sense of place and a wide variety of opportunities that brings in (and retains) top talent. Achieving this vision will also require doing something difficult, courageous and necessary: addressing the risks we face as a city on the front lines of climate change.

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