re: For those keeping score, add a new tax for BREC to the list of planned tax increases

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You are mixing apples and oranges.

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Well... the smarter way to approach this would be by mixing apples and oranges, wouldn't it?

Regardless, I'm not going to vote for any new BREC taxes (or any new property taxes of any kind) but I do like the idea of moving the zoo to the state fairgrounds property if the finances work within BREC's current budget.

Still haven't heard a good reason why BR feels the need to even have a zoo at all.

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And IMO the quality of the amenity and it's ability to attract visitors is more important than it making north Baton Rouge happy.

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I don't see this is just a North v South thing, but as a business decision too.

I don't accept the fact that EBR parish needs a new zoo. They have one now and didn't properly keep it up. It wasn't upgraded as time passed and that is because BREC didn't put money back into it to do what was necessary.

We don't have the 150 million dollars for this zoo and all the other goodies that BREC wants which will cost additional millions (follow the link I provided earlier for more projects). We have other fish to fry in this parish that are more important and we are deeply in depth already.

And if we did have the money, I think a new zoo should cater first to the people that are going to pay for it (EBR taxpayers). That means people that live in Central, NBR, Baker, Southdowns, Red Oaks, Sherwood Forrest, and Old Goodwood all should have access to the zoo too. Making it convenient to Ascension makes sense business wise, but politically it stinks.

You are proposing to put it on the Southeastern border of the parish because more potential customers live in Ascension which screws people living in much of the parish, and the site you are picking flooded and would need a costly reengineering plan to make it sutiable for a zoo.

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There is no way Baton Rouge can have a great zoo (and IMO it definitely should have one) without being bigger, nicer, and more convenient to the bulk of its target audience.

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And therein lies the crux of the debate.

Should we have a "great zoo" at the expense of great roads, great schools, public transportation, the elderly, the library system, a new prison, a new mental health clinic, and on and on???

At what point does someone say stop the insanity, we can't afford all this? When does someone say we need to prioritize? Do you want a new zoo or do you want more cops that are paid well and better trained? Do you want better schools? Do you want to improve key roads like Lee, Nicholson, Pecue, Staring exte4nsion, etc.?

We have all these independent govt. entities planning on spending more and more of our money, and there's no one group planning for the parish as a whole.

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I live in AP and don't want the damn zoo moved to the Fair Grounds to bring more traffic and congestion out this way with it.

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Why don't you just stay in AP? Then you won't have to deal with it.

With the "take over" of the Gov't in B.R. pretty well complete, I can't understand why any intelligent property owner would vote for more taxes to be wasted and handed out to certain "favorable" groups! This won't affect me but I do feel for the citizens who pay the bulk of these taxes being taken for granted!

I don't support building parks and libraries in Baton Rouge. All public spaces are used for is to sell drugs

BREC already has a massive amount of unused property around the current zoo. Most people don't know it's at least as much property as the zoo takes up now. They need to use what they have, and keep the zoo where it is.

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Cortana would be a good spot for a zoo.

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It would be a better place right now.
No storm mitigation, convenient to people and not too far off the interstate.