Spent 4 days in Baton Rouge; my thoughts

My perspective: I lived in BR for 3 years, 1989 - 1991. When I left, I planned to move back within 5 or 6 years because I loved everything about it. The people, the feel of it, the abundant watersports.. coming from OK, it felt like a whole other country and I just fell in love with all of it.

I have to start with the traffic. Holy hell, guys. I know there's not any easy solutions with the current road infrastructure but the amount of vehicles on the roads seems to have quadrupled (or more) in the past 35 years. I got re-routed to the 190 bridge a couple times and it only added negligible drive time. The experience gave me an idea: Apple/Google maps, Uber & Lyft have AI which reacts & re-routes based on traffic conditions. Could their technology be used to mandate city-wide traffic paths for optimal conditions, instead of just reacting to conditions? The use of such tech would have to be mandated somehow, but damn. You could spend billions on another bridge and I don't know how much it would help the city's traffic issues.

BR, considering its size, IMO is highly underrated as a culinary destination. Add NO and that beautiful drive to Lafayette and it is truly world-class. I hope y'all appreciate that.

Despite the influx from Katrina, BR remains a multi-faceted culture to a visitor like me. I have heard your complaints on this board, and it makes me sad to say I see it too. But the nice enclaves - many old, some new - the feel of it and the people remind me of the Baton Rouge I missed so much. Even down to dinner table etiquette like my mom taught us. Not many in Oklahoma get it. The older enclaves within 10 miles or so of campus are too small & dispersed to do something like St. George, and I feel bad for those homeowners.

Of all the native BR people in BR whom I chatted with.. not one single person gave me a harsh time about being from OK and my son an OU student doing an internship at LSU. I was ready to accept it from anyone, and a few dudes had that look like "should I talk some shite?" but not one manned up. Highly disappointing. Can you only trash talk online and when in groups together? J/K manners still matter, which is nice. But I was ready for it.

The hot females-per-capita is still off the charts.

Thanks for the what-to-do and food recs. We ate like kings the entire time. Favorite was Poor Boys Riverside in Broussard. Had a nice round of golf on Thursday thanks to a recommendation. They had just punched the greens the day before (now that's my fricking luck right there) but grass grows much better there than here. The conditions put the public courses in OK to shame. I remembered the humidity, but it hits different at 56 years of age than it did at 20. MUCH different.