re: What's actually good about Baton Rouge...

Great food
Quite a bit to do for a city its size (festivals, bars, sporting events)
Decent underground music scene for a city its size
Nice people
Typically mild winters
Relatively close proximity to New Orleans, great fishing, and beaches
Good tasting tap water
Top of the line public library system
A few nice museums (state museum, old state capital, kids museum, uss kidd, etc)
Major university
Underrated (and rapidly improving) downtown
Upcoming Top Golf
LaBerge
Lots of goof courses both public and private
LSU Lakes
Tons of retail shopping variety
Pretty good unmobile industries (chem plants, refineries, port, state government, etc)

It’s far from the worst place ever, but it does have some serious issues with crime, blight, traffic, and public schools.