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re: What could revitalize downtown BR?
Posted on 3/21/14 at 1:09 am to kingbob
Posted on 3/21/14 at 1:09 am to kingbob
quote:
The city has not only turned a corner, it's rounding third and headed home.
Great way to put it. I don't understand all the negativity around Baton Rouge on here. You guys should be proud of the progress that is being made there.
I remember going to a Better Than Ezra concert in the late 1990s in an empty lot where the Shaw Center is today. When I started at LSU, the Richoux's building with the Coke sign had a comedy club and there was maybe one other place. Downtown was a ghost town after 6pm.
Downtown has come an incredibly long way since then. I think things finally started to change when a half dozen or so state office buildings were built in that new campus downtown in the late 1990s. It's shocking how much has changed for the better since then. IBM was a huge win for the state and for Baton Rouge. The investment being made there seems to have attracted other developers to the neighborhood. There are a few decent residential projects in the works.
I'm also impressed that Baton Rouge has a Trader Joe's, several successful local independent grocers, a big regional coffee brand, and such a huge, nice Whole Foods. I know those are little things, but they are signs of an economically healthy region. I'd like to see a Lifetime Fitness open up in the area.
Historically speaking, I think downtown suffered tremendously like the rest of the region during the oil bust in the 1980s. It finally seems to have legitimately recovered from the Catfish Town days....although there were a few proposed projects that were wasteful, such as ALIVE and the hideous proposed downtown library.
This post was edited on 3/21/14 at 1:17 am
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Posted on 3/21/14 at 5:37 am to xLxSxUxFxAxNx
quote:
What could revitalize downtown BR? quote: Would have loved to have a nice brew pub or something there. they plan to put a beer garden on the second floor with a tv on the back of the coke sign for game viewing and what not.
I think that was originally the plan, but I want to say the last article I read on the canes development at this building said the beer garden plan was now off the table.
Posted on 3/21/14 at 8:11 am to BR Tiger
quote:
You must be pretty young. Downtown BR is quite healthy compared to say 10 years ago.
Where? 3rd street and The Main Street Market on Weekends? Hardly what I would consider much of life. Better than nobody venturing downtown at all? Yes, but it's still relatively dead compared to when I was a little boy and everything was downtown.
To the OP, on revitalizing downtown, there are some things that have to happen for it to experience real long term substantial revitalization and be even better than it's ever been.
1st and foremost, you have to shake daddy and pawpaw off, and get your mind around why it's important, and why reclaiming our downtown and surrounding urban areas is important to this place.
Secondly you absolutely have to get population density in and around downtown because otherwise it's going to be purely a destination you have to venture to than one that we live in and around. And I'm not referring to rentals, but homes that people own and so take ownership of the area.
Third, you have to both plan and build residential and commercial with design that is not temporary, but will stand the test of time, and is interesting and has a look that identifies your city with class and style that points to our cultural history, ie, Spanish and French. But that's farther down the road. Before that you have to take back the surrounding neighborhoods that are falling in upon themselves, and invest in fixing up the existing homes, and hewn them down and rebuild responsibly if they're beyond salvaging or not worth it. And for commercial, take back those old commercial buildings that are interesting, yet lay there abandoned, and put some life back in it. Keep signage classy.
Fourth, and to keep this place from becoming a dump again, to give it purpose, ownership by the citizens of this city, and a reason to go there, you absolutely have to somehow restrict it to locally owned business, and wall out the chains. And if you don't know why that's important, you don't understand what the draw is for downtowns, or why anyone would choose to live downtown instead of St. George. Furthermore, people don't travel to a place you don't even pass by, but have to make a conscious decision to go to in order to shop at chains they find closer to home where they do live at present. They may talk about it, but they'll never do it, or I guarantee you it won't be consistent. That would destroy the place before it even gets a fighting chance to get off the ground.
This post was edited on 3/21/14 at 8:15 am
Posted on 3/21/14 at 8:17 am to fr33manator
Dead now? Do you remember what it was like back in the 90's?
Posted on 3/21/14 at 8:20 am to BR Tiger
quote:
You must be pretty young. Downtown BR is quite healthy compared to say 10 years ago.
very true, if he knew what downtown BR was like in the late 90s he'd realize its (respective to itself) still on the upswing
no offense fr33
Posted on 3/21/14 at 8:25 am to Ignignot
quote:
very true, if he knew what downtown BR was like in the late 90s he'd realize its (respective to itself) still on the upswing
From a perspective of someone who saw 3rd street as the place Baton Rougeans gravitated to to do their shopping, and places like Goudchaux's on Main as packed on week days and weekends, I consider that to be pretty short sighted due to youth.
Posted on 3/21/14 at 8:28 am to Mike da Tigah
quote:
From a perspective of someone who saw 3rd street as the place Baton Rougeans gravitated to to do their shopping, and places like Goudchaux's on Main as packed on week days and weekends, I consider that to be pretty short sighted due to youth.
Hey grandpa, back in your heyday, every city's downtown was like that.
Posted on 3/21/14 at 8:29 am to ThisWayChad
quote:
Hey grandpa, back in your heyday, every city's downtown was like that.
Hey junior, grandpa understands what fricked it up. Shut up and learn something.
Posted on 3/21/14 at 8:29 am to Mike da Tigah
quote:
From a perspective of someone who saw 3rd street as the place Baton Rougeans gravitated to to do their shopping, and places like Goudchaux's on Main as packed on week days and weekends, I consider that to be pretty short sighted due to youth.
You're a big ole bag of nostalgic dicks. The period you long for is so far gone and neither desired nor feasible again in any setting. Revitalization isn't exactly repetition.
Posted on 3/21/14 at 8:30 am to fr33manator
quote:I was talking to one of my friends the other day about why Baton Rouge is sort of suffering on the socialization part of things. We went to happy hour at Bar Louie, which is fine and dandy, but it is a place that belongs on a street with other businesses and restaurants that you can easily walk to and from. But instead, it's in the goddamn mall parking lot. So, it cleared out after happy hour and there was nothing going on.
What could revitalize downtown BR?
I was working on a streetscape project in New Orleans recently and there were plenty of small restaurants, pubs, places to sit and eat and drink and watch people and you could easily get somewhere on foot in a small area. Baton Rouge doesn't have that at all.
I think downtown Baton Rouge should try that dynamic. And not with places like Happy's and Boudreaux and Thibodaux's that fill themselves with popped collared dudebrahs and trixies. I would gladly go downtown to have a drink, walk by the river, go get some food, have another drink, take another walk by the river, etc.
Posted on 3/21/14 at 8:32 am to Mike da Tigah
quote:
grandpa understands what fricked it up
are your referring to the fubar job your generation did to our country?
Posted on 3/21/14 at 8:32 am to mikelbr
quote:
You're a big ole bag of nostalgic dicks. The period you long for is so far gone and neither desired nor feasible again in any setting. Revitalization isn't exactly repetition.
Repetition? Da frick are you talking about? Repetition is doing the same stupid shirt were doing now like locusts moving further and further out of town. Understanding how communities all over this planet operate is understanding what makes one work, not repeating your temporary tent cities and moving out to suburbia.
You're not plugged in.
This post was edited on 3/21/14 at 8:33 am
Posted on 3/21/14 at 8:33 am to Mike da Tigah
quote:
I consider that to be pretty short sighted due to youth.
you know you're on a site that the median age is probably 28, so responses like mine are typical
nitpick if it makes you feel good, to each his own
Posted on 3/21/14 at 8:33 am to ThisWayChad
quote:
are your referring to the fubar job your generation did to our country?
Posted on 3/21/14 at 8:34 am to Mike da Tigah
quote:
Yes, but it's still relatively dead compared to when I was a little boy and everything was downtown.
it appears that downtown BR is quite busy on the weekends. in the last 10 years the downtown area has only gotten better and better from what i've seen.
Posted on 3/21/14 at 8:34 am to Ignignot
quote:
you know you're on a site that the median age is probably 28, so responses like mine are typical nitpick if it makes you feel good, to each his own
I didn't throw the first stone at youth. I just said twenty years or so doesn't get to the heart of the problem, and isn't the answer for long term growth.
Posted on 3/21/14 at 8:36 am to ThisWayChad
Another larger, nicer hotel and more housing would help keep more people around and more neighborhood amenities there (like the new Matherne's).
Looks like progress is being made.
Anyone remember the old Masion Blanche on Florida? That place hung around longer than Bonne Marche. They closed down when the chain was bought out I think.
I think Baton Rouge needs to translate the success they've seen on third street over to Florida, Main, and Government to the east of I-110 somehow.
Looks like progress is being made.
Anyone remember the old Masion Blanche on Florida? That place hung around longer than Bonne Marche. They closed down when the chain was bought out I think.
I think Baton Rouge needs to translate the success they've seen on third street over to Florida, Main, and Government to the east of I-110 somehow.
This post was edited on 3/21/14 at 8:42 am
Posted on 3/21/14 at 8:36 am to ThisWayChad
quote:
are your referring to the fubar job your generation did to our country?
Yes, I am.
I am referring to the big gang rape mine and my dad's generation did to it. That's exactly what I'm referring to.
Posted on 3/21/14 at 8:36 am to Mike da Tigah
quote:
and isn't the answer for long term growth.
traffic is one answer IMO
BR's transportation infrastructure is improving but still behind
Posted on 3/21/14 at 8:36 am to Mike da Tigah
quote:
You're not plugged in.
quote:
you know you're on a site that the median age is probably 28, so responses like mine are typical
Come again? who's not plugged in? Your old arse wanting Santa Claus on a department store and everyone holding hands shopping on 3rd street.
eta: and buckskin bill raising money for an elephant.
This post was edited on 3/21/14 at 8:41 am
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