re: Can someone explain to me the change in Baton Rouge?

quote:

---

There has been a great increase in people and cultures into the city over the last 20 years.

---

The population of Baton Rouge has grown less than 4% since 1980. Not 4% per year, 4%. about 220K in the 1980 census and about 229K in the 2010 census. Projected to have dropped to about 228k since then. The surrounding bedroom communities have grow, dramatically in most case.
A lot of middle class and upper middle class residents have relocated to those communities to escape crime (real or perceived, I do not know but perception equals reality in these situations)

quote:

---

It seemingly went from a small city to medium sized city with big city problems in that time span

---

When I was there in 1980, you were advised to be cautious more than a couple of blocks north of campus. It looks like that is still the same and maybe even 1 block off of campus. I've told my son to avoid going north of campus when at all possible. It does feel more threatening than it did when I was there, but I was 18 and bullet proof back then.