re: Government Street revamp taking shape

I was listening to an Econ Talk podcast the other day about how cities can do small, relatively inexspensive things to help spur commerce in areas to redevelop existing infrastructure.

The main thing that needs to happen is for the city to figure out which streets and roads are supposed to do what. Baton Rouge, like many cities, has an abundance of 'stroads' which are a combo of street and road and do neither particularly well.

Roads are meant to move people from one place to another, should have limited stopping and little commericial development. Streets are economic centers. Narrow lanes, easy walkability.

Once they figure out which streets should do what, focusing them will help with both commerce and somewhat with traffic.

It looks like they're figuring out what Gov't St should be and developing it appropriately. A good sign.

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I was listening to an Econ Talk podcast the other day about how cities can do small, relatively inexspensive things to help spur commerce in areas to redevelop existing infrastructure.

The main thing that needs to happen is for the city to figure out which streets and roads are supposed to do what. Baton Rouge, like many cities, has an abundance of 'stroads' which are a combo of street and road and do neither particularly well.

Roads are meant to move people from one place to another, should have limited stopping and little commericial development. Streets are economic centers. Narrow lanes, easy walkability.

Once they figure out which streets should do what, focusing them will help with both commerce and somewhat with traffic.

It looks like they're figuring out what Gov't St should be and developing it appropriately. A good sign.

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Baton Rouge lacks one critical thing, roadways that connect. That is the number one structural problem. One of the main reason that areas of town suffer is that traffic isolates them. The surface street options are so sparse, that natural choke points have developed, making migrating from one area of town to another an often arduous activity, meaning unless you "really need to go out that way", most people shop and go out to eat relatively close to the neighborhoods where they work and/or live. The reason is that BR's expansion, especially in the 70s until the present, was done so without a real vision or plan. Things and streets were thrown up haphazardly with no regard for increases in future traffic or connectivity, and it shows. Baton Rouge needs to spend a lot of money making roads connect. Look at a map of Baton Rouge on google and see where simple bridges or imminent domain of single buildings or even just small undeveloped lots would allow many streets to be connected and creating more options for motorists. It's not that difficult, it just takes money, vision, and political will.

Some examples that would help:

connect Jennifer Jean to LSU Avenue. LSU Avenue runs into the back of a condo complex on the other side of Highland Road that dead-ends at a canal. Jennifer Jean dead-ends on the opposite side of that canal. Connect the two with a bridge and you've got a great way to move people from Tigerland to I-10 and beyond.

Connect Buchanan with July Street and realign the intersection of Buchanan and Highland so that East and West Buchanan will connect. This will give another option for motorists trying to get from Highland to Dalrymple north of LSU.

Connect Whitehaven to Pointer Street to allow people to get from Southdowns to the neighborhood behind Pennington without having to use Perkins Road and Lee.

Extend Kennilworth to Burbank and Nicholson, then extend it the other way behind OLOL with overpasses over both interstates and having it connect with Mc Carrol Drive.

Connect Richards Drive with Peebles Street.

Bridge the Canal separating United Plaza/Archives Drive from Druscilla.

Connect Oliphant Road.

Connect Fernbrook Ave to the Road that leads to the Seigan Holiday Inn as well as connect Gover to East Grover to create another means of getting from Siegan to Bluebonnet.

Connect Bowell to Honesuckle Avenue, creating a way to get from Corporate to S. Eugene

I'd vote for that

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In NOLA you have limitless options for back streets and short cuts. But in BR you get stuck in traffic and you are just stuck.

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Agreed. Too bad all of those side streets in NOLA are filled with car swallowing pot-holes.

I didn't really know Jefferson Highway turned into Government Street until I drove it in the spring.

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I didn't really know Jefferson Highway turned into Government Street until I drove it in the spring.

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BR decided that it's post war growth didn't need to maintain it's grid pattern. Really screwed everything up.

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I think the issue was that no one "decided" and the developers just did whatever they wanted. BR went from 34,000 people in 1940 to 125,000 in 1950. By 1980, it had 220,000 people living there. That's the kind of population growth that requires great planning and extremely fastidious management.

What are the towns outside of Baton Rouge doing to develop with the rapid growth they've seen over the past several years? Any of them have any sort of central development plan, or are they all following the same haphazard track BR did and will eventually go through the same issues, albeit on probably a smaller scale?