Gardere Lane crime tops priorities

• By STEVEN WARD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Sep 13, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.
• Editor’s note: This is the sixth in a series of stories about the candidates for the 12 Metro Council seats in the Oct. 4 primary. Due to coverage of Hurricane Gustav, the Metro Council stories are not being published in chronological order. The interviews were conducted before the hurricane hit Louisiana.

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All four Metro Council District 3 candidates said fighting crime in the Gardere Lane area is one of their top priorities if elected.

“Crime occurs because of the failure of the criminal justice system,” candidate Merritt E. McDonald said.

“We have to make it so people don’t want to commit crime. Forget about building a new prison. We have to work the problem from the other way and stop crime before it occurs,” McDonald said.

Candidate M. Scott Wilson said he wants to make sure more police officers go into Gardere Lane to go after the drug dealers.

Candidate Rebecca Thompson Pero said working with community programs and creating new ones could curb crime in District 3.

Candidate Chandler Loupe said he thinks putting cameras in parking lots and other areas of Gardere Lane could help.

District 3 council member Pat Culbertson is not seeking re-election.

District 3 encompasses most of the southern part of East Baton Rouge Parish from Interstate 10 to River Road, including parts of Highland Road, Perkins Road, Burbank Drive and Nicholson Drive.

Traffic
Loupe, Wilson, and McDonald all said traffic problems in the district could be partly solved with infrastructure improvements, such as road widening and better traffic light synchronization.

Wilson wants to work to eliminate 18-wheeler traffic on Highland Road.

McDonald said he wants to get state legislators to find money for another Interstate 10 exit between Prairieville in Ascension Parish and East Baton Rouge Parish so people heading west into Baton Rouge would have another way to go through the city other than lining up on Highland Road.

Pero said there are no major traffic problems in District 3 right now and the road widening project on Perkins Road is something she thinks will work and help road congestion.

Taxes, economy
While Loupe, Pero and Wilson all said city-parish government should play a role in economic development with better tax incentives for businesses, McDonald said the local government should not get involved.