District 10 hopefuls offer visions of improved area

• By CHARLES LUSSIER
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Sep 12, 2008 - Page: 3B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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After an unplanned break caused by Hurricane Gustav, the race for Metro Council resumed Thursday as four of the five candidates for District 10 explained why they should represent this heart-of-Baton Rouge district.

Speaking to a small crowd at the McKinley Alumni Center on Thomas H. Delpit Drive, the four candidates showcased their roots in the Old South Baton Rouge community.

Michael Samuel, a retired technician with Dow Chemical, said that if elected, he wants to “try to make it (District 10) some glimpse of what it was in the past.” He said he wants Thomas H. Delpit Drive to look like streets in the nearby Garden District. He recalled sadly that he recently had to drive outside the neighborhood to eat a good breakfast.

“I couldn’t even find a place to eat grits and eggs in south Baton Rouge,” he said.

Samuel, however, said his main focus is on areas south of North Street; the district covers downtown Baton Rouge and parts of north Baton Rouge all the way to Airline Highway.

Candidate Larry Selders, a social worker, jumped on that comment. He said he wants to represent all facets of this diverse district.
“I live in the south Baton Rouge area, but I didn’t decide to run for just the Old South Baton Rouge area,” Selders said, “I decided to run for all of District 10.”

The four candidates spoke at the first of five Metro Council forums being sponsored by the Baton Rouge Black Chamber of Commerce and Pan-Hellenic Council in advance of the Oct 6 election.

Only candidate Angela Bird was not present Thursday.

Tara Wicker, a former administrator during the administration of former Mayor Bobby Simpson, said she wishes District 10 were a place where people “want to live rather than have to live,” an area she said she loves dearly.

“When you’re in love, that’s the first thing that’s on your mind when you wake up in the morning and the last thing on your mind when you go to bed,” Wicker said.

Val Lowery, a real estate agent who ran for tax assessor in 2002 and 2003, said he wants to bring to District 10 a supermarket, a pharmacy, barber shops and a better sewage system. He said his time on the state Tax Commission and on a law enforcement commission prepared him to work with other officials to get things done.

“I noticed that they were closing school houses and building jail houses, and something is wrong with that,” Lowery said. “I want to make a difference.”

What to do about the glut of blighted property took up much of the discussion.