re: What Is St George?

There's maybe like 2 & they're right by each other. The chicks with hair straightener & lotion people.

Everyone knows to avoid them.

Did those businesses have to agree to be annexed? How does that work?

Mostly, yes. They were "courted" by BR let's say. Regardless, the annexations changed the boundaries of the city, and that's why you see railroad tracks being used to connect city properties that were previously non-contiguous.

Well then I wouldn't necessarily say it was a money grab. Could have been those businesses were skeptical of a new city that didn't have the kinks worked out yet.

I saw the message from Grave but while pursuing his FB page I found the 2019 Black Ball? Why were others not invited?

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Well then I wouldn't necessarily say it was a money grab. Could have been those businesses were skeptical of a new city that didn't have the kinks worked out yet.

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It was all legit, politics played a part and the property owners made a decision on what they thought was best.

But it was a money grab by the administration in this sense. The city of BR got the revenues collected but didn't have to provide fire service to the mall or L'auberge or police service to some of these affected areas.

But it is what it is and why the mall is in BR but Dillard's and Sears are not.

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and heeeere we GO

Gravy

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Serious question. Why don't more black people just open businesses? Is there something legit holding them back? Also it always seemed to me that the blacks in baton rouge want to be segregated.

Some in South Baton Rouge describe this proposed city split-off as "White Wakanda," while many businesses and hospitals asked to be annexed into BR back in 2014 to avoid becoming part of this new city.

Just like I said. Whites cannot win with Gravy. He wants all of the potential new contracts in BR for blacks. Well...here you go, ace. Get that Wakanda going. Oh you need whites for that to happen? I see. Typical mentality.

For someone who doesn't have a job or own a house, he is hellbent on big business contracts.

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Looks like a gerrymandered map at first glance.

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The gerrymandering of Baton Rouge's city limits goes back to the Voting Rights Act. One of the ways in which the Voting Rights Act was interpreted by federal courts was that any efforts by cities to incorporate new neighborhoods in a way that would dilute minority voting power was a violation. Since Baton Rouge was already under the microscope with the whole de-segregation case, and had already moved to a city/parish consolidated form of government, it no longer had any need or ability to annex the white suburbs of the city on the southeast side. After all, with parks, water, policing, libraries, schools, and roads already handled at the parish level, the only real difference between being outside the city and inside was calling the sheriffs office rather than BRPD and using the private St. George Fire Department instead of the BRFD.

However, properties inside the city were subject to slightly higher property tax millages, and a larger percentage of their sales taxes would go into the city's general fund. So, to expand the city's tax base, the city discovered that it could expand and take valuable commercial property without violating the Voting Rights Act by avoiding expanding into residential neighborhoods and gerrymandering the borders to only include new commercial developments.

For decades since the epic de-seg order in the 1980's, the white neighborhoods of the city had been demanding some form of neighborhood schools so that they could send their kids to schools near where they actually lived. When the de-seg order was lifted, they hoped, first, that the EBRPSB would build some new schools on the growing south side of town, but refused to do so.

In response, those neighborhoods attempted to form an independent school district, but were told they had to form a city first.

They then tried to form a city by including all of the unincorporated areas on the southern side of the parish, but shenanigans in getting the signatures on the petition verified caused the petition to fail by a few dozen votes (requirements of getting a petition on the ballot is verified signatures of 25% of the registered voters in the proposed city limits).

Baton Rouge then moved to annex a large number of commercial properties (the hospitals and part of the Mall of Louisiana) without annexing any homes.

The St. George backers then offered a compromise to EBRPSB where they would drop the whole thing in exchange for adopting a proposed plan for new schools on that end of the parish. EBRPSB once again told them to go pound sand.

Finally, The St. George organizers decided to try a new petition with a much smaller footprint for their new city which excluded many apartment complexes as well as the black neighborhood of Gardere. This smaller footprint (which lowered the number of required signatures) worked, so the petition has been verified and is on the ballot.

You can see the notch taken out of the new petition where the city had annexed a long strip of commercial land.

Most people assume that gerrymandering is always racially motivated, and they're not entirely wrong. But nearly every instance of gerrymandering occurs because state and local governments are trying to conform with the terms of the voting rights act or with desegregation cases which all but demand gerrymandering.