Friday House Blogging


Shifting gears for a second, this Advocate editorial lets me pretend to be young AND post a pic of Michael's manor:

While it’s important that city centers be improved, as Baton Rouge is making strides in downtown, the areas just outside downtowns are part of the CEOs for Cities study.

Baton Rouge leaders don’t have to look far for ideas about how to build on early successes in downtown. There are studies about ways to improve Old South Baton Rouge, the area between downtown and LSU, and the midcity area out Government Street.

These require a push. Urbanism is by its nature more complex than throwing up a subdivision on a green field far from anywhere.

One of the virtues of the hard work of urbanism is that it builds upon infrastructure already in place — the street grid, the sewers, fiber optic lines — so that the taxpayer or utility ratepayers don’t have to subsidize sprawl.

And as the CEOs for Cities report indicates, many young people are willing to be the urban pioneers in and around downtown Baton Rouge.

It’s an issue for the city’s economic future, and by city in this instance we mean the entire metropolitan area that orbits the city’s center. “Metro areas with vital centers will fare better in attracting talented young adults,” the CEOs for Cities report said.

If we want to keep our talented young people from LSU and Southern at home, we ought to pay some attention to providing the urban life that the study said many of them desire for their futures.

I'm definitely in the downtown area...as for the young part, well, guess I can pretend not to notice my thinning--and graying--hairline.

Here's to "new urbanism," even if it's Red Stick.