re: How would you fix Baton Rouge?

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Real question should be can TD find, fund, and run a winning candidate?

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I'm one of BR's biggest cheerleaders on this site. F&%k it, I'll run if Chicken will bless it. Can't be worse than Condon Uncensored running for mayor.

My top 3 to get the ball rolling and try and stop the bleeding.

1) Clean house, starting with the chief of police and working my way through the city parish government as I encountered trouble. Appoint a new chief of police who was very serious about tackling crime in this city in a no nonsense and unapologetic approach, and I’d support them and give them everything I could to be the most successful.

2) Take out a full page ad in the Advocate, as well as post billboards throughout the city apologizing for this city not having the backs of our police officers, and throwing people under the bus for the sake of politics, and send out an open invitation to people serious about pursuing a career within the police department explaining how dedicated we now are to getting this ship righted. I would then go on a massive campaign to hire as many police officers as I possibly could with money allotted, and equip them to be successful, especially in unwavering support from the office of mayor.

3) Create a work force comprised of low risk prisoners and supervisors/guards to clean up this city’s roads, underpasses, fences, walls, etc with soap and water/pressure washers, and others who’s sole job every day is to pick up garbage along our interstates and surface streets. In addition, replace guard rails, weed eat around fences and repair that which Mother Nature has decided to take back for herself because of it’s sheer neglect over the years. Messy house, negative attitude. Clean house, positive attitude. It’s actually quite simple why this is so important. You absolutely have to change the cloud of negativity this city is under and get people to start believing and having hope again. This sends that message.



This city has an arse load of problems, even bigger ones like our failing infrastructure, exodus from the city, horrendous traffic, and the like, but you have to start somewhere, and I’d start with improving attitudes and letting residents know that BR has new leadership that is not content with the status quo, and is very serious about tackling our biggest problems.

Move it to another state. Too many greedy politicians have too many hands in the pot for anything in LA to ever improve much less get fixed.

Move LSU to NOLA

Then set a fire and run

Sign him up!

All good ideas, but I don't understand the infatuation/value of No. 6:

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6. Build the LSU-Downtown tram if I could obtain federal funding to cover initial costs.

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What will this accomplish?

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6. Build the LSU-Downtown tram if I could obtain federal funding to cover initial costs.


What will this accomplish?

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What you do is extend the Downtown Tram down Government Street to the Entergy Building so that the Downtown Tram acts as a connector between the BR/NOLA commuter rail and LSU. It would allow tourists flying in to MSY to get to LSU, the state capital, and the CBD without ever setting foot in a cab or rental car.

Then, you convince Laberge to foot the bill to extend it south from LSU to Laberge. Next, you use the existing rail line from Entergy to Southern to extend the commuter Rail to Southern and build a spur down the median of Harding Blvd to get it to BTR.

Finally, you then use federal grants to upgrade tracks between BR and Houston and create a high speed rail between BR and Houston with stops in Lake Chuck and Beaumont. This ties into a high speed rail project running through the Texas Triangle connecting Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and DFW.

Just making BR a viable day trip location for those traveling to New Orleans would greatly improve tourism dollars pouring into town. Also, connecting BR to MSY would massively improve outside investment by making BR more attractive to relocating firms downtown.

BR has 4 problems:
Crime
Bad schools
Deplorable infrastructure
Corrupt/incompetent administration

Fix two of the four, and you become an attractive option for businesses.

The NUMBER 1 thing BR could do that would instantly improve the city at little to no cost would be a massive overhaul of the permitting office. That place is a wrinkle in time where months and years disappear while startups die on the vine. Get the permit office streamlined, and small business creation will take off like a rocket.

A good start would be to have child birth licensing. In order to birth a child you have to test negative on drug testing through out pregnancy. Not be on welfare. Must have job if already if you birthed children before, and have custody. If not, the govt pays for abortion or child will be adopted by parents who do meet that criteria. Those who give up for adoption will receive 5k for the trouble.

The key to making it work is to design it where it doesn't share the same travel lanes as cars, runs late at night and on gamedays to cut down on DUIs, and to keep the stops from being every block like those useless CATS busses. The idiots downtown immediately adopted renderings that showed the streetcar rails in the travel lanes and announced that the Tram wouldn't run on gamedays or late at night