Our Views: A new phase in downtown

• Published: Nov 17, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Despite, or maybe as a result of, the defeat of a new city-parish tax and bond issue at the polls, a new path forward for downtown Baton Rouge has taken on a new sense of urgency.

Mayor-President Kip Holden had proposed, with the backing of many community leaders, a proposal for major new public works all around the parish. But significant components of the proposal included major new additions to downtown’s tourist and convention attractions.

The proposed Audubon Alive project for the DeSoto Park riverfront site and a major expansion of the River Center convention facilities were conceived as economic inducements that would bring new money into the city and help, indirectly, to pay for the almost $1 billion price tag for the entire package of public works.

While the voters narrowly put those plans aside for the moment, the urgency of improving downtown — both economically in attracting more visitors and socially in contributing to the lives of residents — still will have momentum.

Why? Because other cities are not waiting, and have spent a great deal on bringing to life neglected city cores. Not just big cities from Sydney to London but up and down the Mississippi River and its tributaries the peers of Baton Rouge are investing in new riverfront attractions and amenities.

Economic development experts see the critical role of a vibrant city core as an attraction to young people who otherwise would be drawn away to larger cities.

Baton Rouge as a university town has inherent advantages in a knowledge economy, but those advantages are squandered if the larger community does not provide the milieu for young people to interact and achieve. Downtown is the natural and historical center: The arts and architecture that provide a city with its economic and social “juice” do not flourish in cookie-cutter suburbs.

In fact, Baton Rouge has not done half-bad on this front.

In the roughly two decades since the formation of the Downtown Development District, and the decade since the first Plan Baton Rouge master plan was developed, the center of Baton Rouge has been transformed from the decaying office park it was.

The larger community rallied around the Plan Baton Rouge blueprint for a walkable and attractive downtown. With the leadership of Mark Drennen, commissioner of administration during Gov. Mike Foster’s administration, major state investments were made in downtown. The Baton Rouge Area Foundation and other donors played a critical funding and, not least, political role in boosting downtown because of its long-term impact on Baton Rouge as a place to live and do business.

The nonprofit Center for Planning Excellence and the DDD have estimated public and private investment in downtown as greater than $1 billion over a decade. Another $300 million — much of it funded with private money — is on the drawing boards, although some key riverfront parcels remain parking lots.

The staggering national economy might slow these projects, but the trend has been positive. Good planning cannot repeal the business cycle, but this, too, will pass.

Calculation alone does not do justice to the transformation of downtown. At the Shaw Center for the Arts, at museums and galleries and a dazzling planetarium, Baton Rouge has rediscovered city life. Music and night life are part of a new after-5 scene . The arts have terrific new venues, and residents can bring visitors to the city’s center with pride and not embarrassment. More people are living downtown as well as working and playing there.