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

It's because they don't own the home they live in. Renters typically aren't responsible for upkeep. That's the landlord's job. Also, if the renter spent too much time and effort upgrading property they didn't own, the property might increase in value, causing the rent to go up. The federal government doesn't care if section 8 properties are kept up, section 8 tenets have few other options and don't care, and thus property owners don't care either.

The reason why people on section 8 and public assistance commit more property and violent crime is because of the strict income and asset limits for recieving benefits. If they exceed that, they lose their benefits and have what they were given confiscated. Entitlements give you enough to live, but not enough to be comfortable so they have to resort to illicit income (cash businesses, theft, selling drugs, etc) to have more spending money.

Section 8 and cradle to grave entitlements (medicaid, disibility, WIC, SNAP, etc) are the downfall of civilzation.