re: How would you fix Baton Rouge?

quote:

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This sentence right here explains why Baton Rouge is unfixable.

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Actually, it shows that it is fixable, but why it probably won't be fixed. There are large swaths of BR that actually have pretty decent infrastructure. There is a solid urban core with a road grid, excellent rail infrastructure to support industry, underground electrical lines, fiber optic cable, buried sewers, and the best municipal water system in the country.

The problem is the outlying areas were developed from the 1980's forwards with zero planning. However, it's not too late to fix these things. What needs fixing is the permitting office, the interstate (i.e. adding more lanes and at least one more bridge), and easing surface street choke-points by creating alternate routes (i.e. bulldozing a few dozen houses to connect a bunch of currently dead-end streets to create a more redundant grid.

It's more expensive to fix now than it would have been to do it right from the start, but it is far from impossible with a little gravitas and vision. The problem is that outside of Kip, this city has operated with next to zero vision beyond their next re-election campaign. When one is only looking out for what looks good in 2-4 years, they cannot (and do not) plan 30 years ahead. They sacrifice long term progress for short term gain because that is what the electorate is likely to judge them on.

Implement a purge once a year for 10 years.
Widen roads. Fix potholes.
Turning lanes on all two lane roads.
Make roundabouts a thing.

FIRST - get rid of that racist bitch mayor
----uh, that's what the OP started with