re: The Blues of Living in BR: a BR blues fest review in Huffington Post

I agree....but my point illustrates that some people just don't try to enjoy themselves. You have to carve your life out when you are young and in a new place. It doesn't just happen.

It's not the 1980s. Baton Rouge has recovered quite nicely from that crash and has plenty to offer. In the grand scheme of things, that bad chapter in the city's history is behind us.

Blues Fest was a great time, very glad we went. I even bought a record from one of the bands and gave it a spin. (Is that hipster enough for the author?)

yea but did you buy the festival beer or bring your own?

and what was this "crash" in the 80s some of you guys are talking about?

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yea but did you buy the festival beer or bring your own?

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Dude.

You know the answer to that question.

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I agree with this. Sadly, I think a lot of it, honestly, has to do with the crime, traffic, and parking situation near most of these "cool" places. Most of these "cool" places have shitty parking (Mud & Water is the exception) and are in areas prone to massive traffic headaches between them and where most people live. Crime is also rampant in places adjacent to those "cool" places. People in Baton Rouge are super paranoid when it comes to the crime in their city. They hate dealing with the hastles of parking and traffic, so they stick with what's easy, accessible, safe, and comfortable. "Cool" is the opposite of "safe", "accessible", and "comfortable" because if it was, it wouldn't be "cool".

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I think you're right, but I also think it's found in most big college towns in the south too. People like getting married early and getting comfortable and old quick. I also always kind of attributed it to a cultural thing at play. People aren't really interested in numbers let's say in having a real killer nightlife, bad arse restaurants over say a lot of chains, and it's also a lot to do with what I like to call the "Houston Model" of spreading out. So, yeah, the traffic is a big F up, and getting around is as well. No real cabs to speak of, and public transit is thought of as beneath people, because of the Houston Model which revolves around the automobile exclusively. Now, before say the 90's when cops began cracking down on drinking and driving, when we didn't worry as much about getting a DUI, it wasn't as big of an issue for the BR nightlife and the plethora of different hot spots around town that packed people in. Now however, because you have to pilot home and drive your arse off to get home a lot of the time, it's a real sticking issue for people, who just prefer to stay home and drink a lot. You would think that might cause people here to begin to look at the public transit issues, cabs, or even the piss poor planning that went into this ever expanding suburban layout we created for ourselves, but then there's that perception of what public transit and cabs are at present HERE that dis interests them. They look at their present realities and not possibilities or what it could be, and don't usually travel very far outside the region they're comfortable with to see life in other areas that do enjoy a little more sanity in city layout and public transit.

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North Baton Rouge went from having established middle class neighborhoods to a wasteland of roving gangs.

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For here, I'd say the big housing boom had as much to do with it as anything in the 90's and early 2000's especially, as well as some other factors.

What should have become perhaps starter homes for young couples soon turned into one big nasty ghetto which waxed worse and worse at every passing year until at some point people had no other option than to evacuate or be sucked down the drain with it financially and in quality of life. Public education and de-seg as a result of Parker also played a huge factor in taking people away from their neighborhood schools and putting them in a place they had no interest in or identity toward, and that pretty much rang true for everyone, so where once people identified with their schools, neighborhoods, and communities, that was no longer at play. BR went from the city getting excited over the BRHS versus Istrouma rivalry game to one not even having a football team any longer as a magnet school and the other as something nobody identified with anymore in the slightest. Lee is now a footnote in history, and that's about the size of it, save perhaps Catholic where people still take pride in, but that's more religious and tradition than community.