re: Another Loss for OneBR/TogetherBR - St. George GAINS Over 70 New Signatures By Deadline

I can't speak for the man, but perhaps he changed his mind when he noticed what was going on at city hall.

But I really do not know. I'd like to think he changed his mind.

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I can't speak for the man, but perhaps he changed his mind when he noticed what was going on at city hall.

But I really do not know. I'd kid to think he changed his mind.

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Delgado is, was, and always will be a political opportunist. When the St. George thing happened before, he already had his sights set on running for mayor/president. He believed that with Kip not running, if he could pander to North Baton Rouge while presenting himself as a business-friendly candidate, and appease the progressive white-guilt vote by opposing St. George, he would build a large enough voting coalition to make it into a runoff. Instead, by trying to be all things to all people, he charmed no one, and failed to make the runoff.

After the election, he saw the unpopularity of Broome as an opportunity to make himself known as the opposition. He started organizing a recall effort. However, Broome outmaneuvered him big time. She had the BRPD enforce an open container ordinance that most people had forgotten ever existed right outside of the bars that John Delgado was the public face and part owner of. Most of his bars were along 3rd street, a popular "bar-hopping" location for the 21 and up young professional crowd. By enforcing open-container laws, the bar-hopping aspect was destroyed and his bars started bleeding money. He's already lost at least two of them, and a couple more are hanging on by a thread.

Delgado screwed himself, and he deserves what happens to him. Baton Rouge deserves a better face for the political opposition against Mayor/President Broome and her corrupt Cadre of racial marxists.

I never ended up signing it. I don’t live in the area but I’m still registered there. I never felt like driving across town.

But I’ll certainly be voting YES.

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What you have to understand is that East Baton Rouge Parish and the City of Baton Rouge have a joint government. The parish government is also the city government, and the Parish President is also the mayor and there is no city council, just a "metro" council. That means that the school system is administered at the parish level as are parks, and roads.

Once this consolidation occurred back in the 70's, there became no reason to expand the city limits, especially since the voting rights act has been interpreted to prevent municipalities from expanding their boundaries in a way which would dilute minority voting power.

However, despite the parish seemingly being run by only one body, there is a separate general fund for the City of Baton Rouge which is used to pay for the Baton Rouge Police Department, city fire, and pet projects. The dirty secret is that a huge portion of that general fund comes from taxes on the unincorporated areas of the parish. Those areas are paying the taxes, but are not getting the benefits of those additional services. For example, they still have to pay extra for their own fire protection from a private company (The St. George Fire Department).

All of this, however, started almost 20 years ago when people in the suburban parts of the parish (unincorporated white neighborhoods on the Southeast side of town) demanded the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board build them a new high school and end the forced busing programs. They were told to pound sand. So, they proposed forming their own independent school district. They were told by the state legislature that they couldn't do so without forming a city. They then tried to form a city, but had just enough signatures thrown out. In addition, the city rushed to gerrymander in commercial properties around the mall, Laberge Casino, and hospitals to rob the fledgling city of those potential sales tax sources.

After that effort failed, the St. George proponents proposed an olive branch to the city and the parish school board. Once again, all they demanded was a new high school and a few new middle and primary schools on their side of town. Once again, they were told to go piss up a rope.

Since they were accused of being white supremacists when they drew the boundaries the last go around (which included all of the unincorporated areas south and east of Baton Rouge including multiple large black neighborhoods like Gardere), this time, they drew boundaries which excluded those black neighborhoods as well as several large apartment complexes. They formed borders that were consolidated and less spread out. After the intimidation shenanigans and corrupt antics by the sitting mayor, St. George is likely going to happen this go-around. Better Together really overplayed their hand and pissed off a lot of people sitting on the fence.

If you want to know why St. George people want schools so damn bad, look at a map of Baton Rouge. Look how massive of an area St. George is relative to the rest of the parish. There's only one high school out there, one. Most of the kids are bused deep into the city for school, thus, most of the middle class kids go to private school instead

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^^ this guy gets it.

Yep. I told someone this last weekend. I didn’t sign but got a text saying that I could still remove my name. I said that this was absolutely going to remind some people to go song before the last deadline.

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I don't live in St. George either and want to see it happen. I know a lot of people that want to see it happen even if they won't benefit.

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I have a feeling after my current project, I have a feeling I'll be moving back to the BR area (although I'd prefer to go overseas). The only way I actually move into EBR is if St. George happens. Otherwise, Prairieville it is.

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As a non Louisiana outsider, I don’t get the big deal

Why are so many non- St George residents so adamant that they not be allowed to form own city?

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I was opposed to St. George in the past but not anymore. They see the amazing school systems from the TX ISDs. Only 2.6% of children in Austin, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio attend private school. It's 26.4% in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

Many people in those neighborhoods know people who have moved to Houston and see the better life they are living. People have moved to Houston by the droves for decades.

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St. George opponents also sent out a text blitz over the weekend to residents of the proposed city, reminding them that Monday was the deadline if they wanted to remove their names from the petition.

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Never got that. They must only send that to people with a "D" on their voter card.

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Everyone in the County that st.g is in

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Ain't no counties down here baw

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Why are so many non- St George residents so adamant that they not be allowed to form own city?

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because they will lose their cash cow.