Baton Rouge Doesn’t Have a Future.

Ben Smith
Ben Smith
Nov 4 · 5 min read

EEaton Rouge doesn’t have a future. I don’t mean to say that our city will cease to exist. I don’t believe Baton Rouge will be swept away in a storm, or that the traffic jam called College Drive will engorge the entire city. I think our city lacks a future because we, as citizens, are not thinking realistically about one. Our political debates, policy ideas, and our general attitude towards civic development are outdated and ill-timed. The downfall of Baton Rouge will not be any natural disaster or car sponsored Carmageddon — it will be its citizens.

Every city reflects its citizens. Whether you’re talking about the art-loving hippies of Ancient Greece or the rude braggarts of Boston, all cities reflect the attitudes, passions, and ideas of their citizens. Formed by a random congregation of people in one space, every town must figure out how it will function. If it fails to figure this out, the city will collapse. Look at Detroit, a city that put all its chips into the car industry, only for the car industry to kill it. Or San Francisco, a city so obsessed with leftist notions of equality that it has the highest homeless rates of any American city.

On the flip side, you have places like New York, which, through a series of trial and error, figured out how to make a modern metropolis work. It doesn’t always work well, ride a subway. But, New York still offers its citizens a higher quality of life than Baton Rouge could ever hope to provide its citizens. If New York is too cosmopolitan for your taste, then look four hours west to that most Texas of Texan cities, Houston. From a rapid bus system that people use to zoning policies that encourage mixed-use development and lively neighborhoods. When cities figure out how they can work, the results can be astounding. Naturally, these cities attract business and the young creative types those businesses want to hire, but they also offer opportunities for the people who’ve always called them home.

Baton Rouge is not a city that knows how to work. From failing public schools to failing infrastructure, the list goes on and on. Often, we blame these issues on civic leaders or racism. Rarely do we acknowledge the role citizens have played in creating one of the most dysfunctional places to live in America. As citizens, we choose our leaders, the neighborhoods we live in, and what kind of policies we support. We are also lied to by our fellow neighbors, coerced into voting for people and supporting systems that only damage our city’s chances at prosperity. Through a mixture of lies, outdated ideas, and corruption, we are destroying our city’s future.

The 225 Magazine’s November feature story is a criminal example of the lying rampant throughout our city. Flashy graphics, fluffy words, and outdated solutions litter every section of the story — painting the picture that Baton Rouge’s future will be glorious and bright. So, at the risk of making an ass of myself, allow me to level with the red stick: We are screwed.

The article lays out a collection of projects that lack funding, projected completion dates, and a cohesive vision. The reality is that no number of parks built to absorb water will keep our city from flooding in the future. If you want to prevent flooding, stop making hideous suburbs on swamps and flood-planes. If you’re going to encourage a vibrant art scene, create walkable streets and neighborhoods. Get rid of the auto-sewer we call a city. Fix zoning laws to promote dense, mixed-use development. While you’re at it, get free of height limit laws, thus making it cheaper for developers to build taller apartment complexes. Do you want to fix the public schools? Decentralize the school system and allow for independent school districts like every other thriving city in the American south has done. That kind of policy shift would have the one-two punch of rescuing our citizens from the debacle that’ll be St. George. Stop focusing on making life easier for the car. The car is like a Myan god; no matter how many people you sacrifice, it will never be satisfied. The vehicle will not be satisfied until every square inch of planet earth is another lane for traffic.

Baton Rouge doesn’t have a future because we’re not preparing for one. We keep showboating band-aid solutions, calling them “game-changers” when, in reality, they are things we should’ve done decades ago. New York didn’t become the most significant city ever built by man because they spent forty years debating over a ring-road. New York achieved success because it was bold and ambitious. When confronted by the reality, New York lacked connections to the agriculturally productive Midwest; they built a canal to Lake Eerie…in the 1810s! Baton Rouge is fortunate. Our city doesn’t need a channel to reach the gold of America’s heartland. Instead, it has the most magnificent river any human civilization has existed on running right through it. But what we do lack is a citizenry that is thinking realistically and ambitiously about the future. We do not imagine a great future, we’re hoping for one.

Hope and imagination aren’t the same thing. Hope brings you disappointment, but Imagination brings you to action. You think Disneyland got built because Walt *hoped* it into existence? No, he imagined it and made it. Or what about the great nation of ours? Does it exist because Thomas Jefferson just *hoped* it would? No, he, along with millions of others, has spent the better part of 250 years imagining and then building it into existence. We cannot hope Baton Rouge’s future into reality; it must be conceived and then made.

When presenting the 1909 Plan of Chicago, Daniel Burnham said, “Make no little plans, for they have not the magic to stir men’s blood.” The 1909 plan would go on to shape Chicago over the next century. The “imagined future” laid out in the 225 articles and our city’s political discourse is nothing but a pitiful collection of little plans. As Burnham went on to say, “Make big plans; aim high in hope and work.” It’s time for Baton Rouge to make big plans and aim high, to set high targets for our city and work towards achieving them. If we fail to do that and continue to make little plans, Baton Rouge will not have a future.

Explorer Publications

From essays about cities, history, design, and current events to sharing short stories and poetry, Explorer Publications has it all. By aiming to provide high-quality content to readers, Explorer Publications hopes to inspire all readers to explore the world around them.

Ben Smith

Written by

Ben Smith

Mediocre writer focused on the history of architecture, urban development, popular culture, and politics.

Explorer Publications

From essays about cities, history, design, and current events to sharing short stories and poetry, Explorer Publications has it all. By aiming to provide high-quality content to readers, Explorer Publications hopes to inspire all readers to explore the world around them.

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