re: What caused the area between downtown and LSU to become so ghetto?

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I don’t know about ghetto… but that area Old South Baton Rouge has always been Black

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But we didn't get the war on poverty until the 60s, and then the fathers started disappearing, and urban decline went to afterburner. It's pretty easy to track.

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bullshite

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My brother in Christ the area known as “the bottoms” which is pretty much what you are referring to has always been the black neighborhood of Baton Rouge even when your dad was knee high to a duck

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OP has a 4chan /pol/ symbol in his user profile,

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pepe the frog is bigger than /pol/ mr. pearl clutcher.

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Homestead exemption is the problem.

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This is very true. Large swaths could be cleaned up in a very short period of time.

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Tiger Town was able to survive as a commercial neighborhood due to it’s proximity to LSU, but slowly and steadily declined as the Bottom and Top declined throughout the 60’s through 80’s. The last gasp of Northgate was in the late 2000’s with the Carlotta Street party, Northgate Fest, Chimes Street having a popular strip of bars, and the Varsity being the best midsized venue in town. The area noticeably declined as a social hub, but is relatively stable since 2010.

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Your history is really good and on point.

One of the things you didn't touch on was how there was once a rule/law (I'm not sure if it was written or more unofficial) that there couldn't be a bar within 1 mile of the campus gates, so the first sort of LSU "college bars" were located more down Highland and mostly in the pre-existing hood, like the Bengal and Cotton Club. And I think this factored a lot in the way things developed.

It still grinds my gears to think how they had a really good opportunity to redevelop that Highland/State Street/Chimes Street area when they tore down the old University Shopping Center, with the old movie theatre, Murphys, and such, and how they just totally blew it with the way they did it.

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I mean fill in the blank the answer is always the same right?

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Yes and no, what allowed the (reason) to exist there or move in there. There can be different things, for example, the interstate causing white people to move out -> reason moves in. X jobs no longer available -> white people move -> reason moves in. That's what I'm asking and seeking to understand.

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This is very true. Large swaths could be cleaned up in a very short period of time.

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Question.
Do the people living in most of these dilapidated homes own them, or do they rent?

You ask about a very specific area and when given a correct answer about that area, you blast the correct answer as being false by mentioning a different area as some weird proof of your assertion. Logic, geography and continuity are your friends...

North Baton Rouge blight took place later and I will not discuss that issue any further. (Artfully dodging the looming specter of a ban.)

Back to discussing the area between downtown and North campus.
According to relatives who witnessed that area, it was a little blighted in the late 50s and part of it was an area which people refered to as 'the bottoms." Low lying - low rent. Old raised and cheaply constructed houses.
According to LSU crime prevention program resources, it was a strong petty crime zone in the late 70s and early 80s. (There was a map with color coded pins which indicated area crime locations and other pins showing locations of known offenders. Not sophisticated, but it showed what it showed)
My own car was vandalized across the street from the BRPD Highland Rd station - within sight of their front door, which had a protective panel over it for their safety... That station was termed Fort Apache by their personnel at the end of the 80s. It got worse as drive-by craziness came to BR. (Uh ohhh, time to dodge another potential ban threat.)
There were a few efforts to revitalize some of the area such as Beauregard Town and Catfish Town, but a lot of money was spent with minimal benefit that I could see. I got suckered into living in the area briefly. That was a poor choice which went badly. Worked sales in a lot of BR for several years and got to know many areas. Also got to know a lot of enforcement personnel through some civic clubs. Back then a lot of BRPD were multigenerational residents and members of that or other area PDs.

So the correct answer is that this part of BR has been rough for generations. Started as cheap low land and never really improved despite a lot of effort and money spent in making it better.

It just is what it is.

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“the bottoms” which is pretty much what you are referring to has always been the black neighborhood

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Wrong. Very wrong. You do not know what you're talking about.

Nicholson between Roosevelt and Oklahoma was Italian for a lonnnnnng time. They had their businesses nearby on Highland and elsewhere.

The Bottoms may be black now but from Magnolia Mound to Pancho's was nothing but Italians. Some were still there to the end when that developer bought up both sides of Nicholson about 20 years or so back.

Source: lived there and had family there before that going back to WWII or thereabouts.

Just go look at the records and you'll see Cacio's, Vacaro's and all sorts of Italian names.

Racism. It's your fault