Which way for Gardere?
Photos: Gardere on the cusp of change
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Heather Johnson was pleased with her new home and neighborhood after moving to the Gardere area 10 years ago. She says her grass was manicured, her landlord was attentive and the sounds of sirens and gunshots weren’t that common.
But things have changed over the past four years in the East Baton Rouge Parish neighborhood.
All of the apartments in Johnson’s four-unit building on Mast Drive are vacant. Squatters sometimes stay in the partially boarded-up units surrounded by overgrown grass. Her home was recently burglarized.
“I’m ready to leave,” said Johnson, standing in front of the U-Haul she is using to move to her new home in Plaquemine. “I don’t want to, but this is too much.”
Many of the 4,000 or so homes in the Gardere area — about half of which are three- to four-unit apartment buildings built 20 years ago — have “For Rent” signs in their windows. Others are either boarded up or simply abandoned.
Sandwiched between Burbank Drive and the Mississippi River, Gardere includes Hermitage subdivision, a traditional suburban neighborhood, along with two areas where the streets are tightly packed with fourplexes.
Crime around the apartments has been bad for more than a decade. This year has been especially violent, with four people shot to death in less than six months.
Yet at the same time, the area surrounding the blighted neighborhoods is experiencing an economic boom, with new businesses, higher-end apartments and even a ballpark complex.
LSU has bought 60 more acres near its South Campus on GSRI Avenue. Pinnacle Entertainment is set to build a riverboat casino development near Gardere Lane, Nicholson Drive and River Road.
Some experts and city officials say the growth — coupled with efforts from law enforcement, the city-parish and community organizations — might be what the area needs to change for the better.
Others say all the community involvement in the world might not be enough, and that the fate of Gardere rests in the hands of the people living there.
“Development can create a complete neighborhood on the path to sustainability or it can create even greater divisions,” said Saul Ramirez, executive director of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials. “A holistic approach has to be taken if blighted areas are going to be transformed.”
Crime-plagued streets
Any day or night in much of Gardere, East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputies can be seen cruising in patrol units, knocking on doors or talking to residents.
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