How hard could it really be to manage a city like Baton Rouge?

The main part of it, LSU, governs itself. Then ya have chem plants and refineries, they pretty much call their own shots at this point, maybe you can squeeze some extra tax dollars out of them. Ya have corporations and small business, they focus on their own problems and pay their taxes. The town after that is essentially various suburbs that you have to provide water and trash services to. Ya got the bad part of town that causes all your problems, complains the most, and generates virtually no tax revenue. They are also the only people riding the buses. Ya have a bunch of poorly performing schools, but there is a school board that manages that. We have a bunch of libraries and nobody reads. The park system is nice, but could probably have their funds reduced. Seems pretty simple: provide water and trash pickup, have a large police force, don't pump money into things people dont use, and eventually you are going to have to start allotting funding to areas that pay more taxes. Am I missing anything?