brresident

I heard that the "Disney" interest is for a movie studio and not a theme park. Anyone have any info on this or know somone in the loop? 2000 acers is one helluva movie studio.

I passed through Shreveport on my way to Little Rock a couple of months ago. Shreveport looks kind of small until you hit downtown with all the riverboats and hotels. Little Rock is something else. I love that town...so much more to do than you'd think. Oklahoma City, Little Rock, Nashville and Baton Rouge might be my favorite cities that I've spent a lot of time in. I never much liked Houston or Atlanta.

Crappy schools has been a major hurdle for WBR, but there are many other reasons. Schools: Baton Rouge has been losing younger families for years. Those families have a choice of moving to West Baton Rouge and still having to pay tuition for a good school, or moving to Livingston and can move into a nice house with a big yard for a good price- and have one of the best public schools to boot. Brusly is improving a lot. West Baton Rouge decided about a decade ago that it wanted good schools. It takes about that long for that struggle to pay off. Brusly is growing pretty quickly, though Port Allen's growth is mostly out on Rosedale road west of LA 415 (still only 10 minutes from downtown in heavy traffic). Port Allen High School is still pretty weak (though better than most in EBR school district), but Brusly high is pretty good and improving every year. Infrastructure: There are at least two dozen pipelines running through WBR, most of that is north of Port Allen. Those pipelines can't be built on or moved, so it makes laying out a subdivision more expensive. While the government gaurantees price floors for sugar cane, those land owners would rather keep growing cane than develop the area into a subidivision. Also, there is only one way to get to the rapidly growing Brusly area from Baton Rouge, and that's LA 1....so that perception of bad traffic is warranted. Even though, I have driven from Brusly to the Galvez Building downtown in less than ten minutes. You can easily make it to LSU in 10 to 12 minutes even if you have traffic backed up on the bridge. That traffic problem will change in two ways soon: widening I 10 and created two dedicated lanes from the 110/10 split on through the College Drive area will ease traffic on the bridge. Also, the LA415 expansion into Brusly will be a big help on the interstate backups between LA 415 and LA 1 in WBR. Trust me on this: things are in motion that will open thousands of lots up for development over the next five years. Not included in these traditional subdivisions are also the TND going up near the foot of the bridge towards Brusly. There are massive industrial and commercial developments going up in WBR, so the jobs are there. There are probably as many folks commuting FROM Baton Rouge as there are TO Baton Rouge every day from WBR. The demand is there, it's just up to someone to develop the land. Notice the some of the developments in Brusly are high dollar, expensive homes. You get more for your money there, but people are still chosing to build massive homes- so the demand is there. It would take another bridge to see a Livingston style boom there, but it will grow fairly stead over time.

I sure hope that Dury inn isn't going up where I think it is... That bayou right there smells really bad all of the time.

That place was full not 5 years ago....then walmart abandoned the place to build a supercenter about 100 yards down the street and now the only tenant is a flea market. I agree. Something needs to be done soon. I think the area could use more business development (non-retail). If they can lease out a space for a call center, or any kind of office I think it would work wonders for that area. It used to house office max, Books a Million, at least a dozen clothing stores, Wal Mart. I suspect that the owner of that strip mall wants too much for for rent, as Bed Bath and Whatnot, Guiltar outlet, and and Baby's r Us opened up on the other side of the mall. The Logans left that area too. It was the closest Logans to my house. Now I have to drive to South Baton Rouge if I want to eat at an establishment where I can throw peanut shells on the floor. Town Center is actually a little closer to me now, anyways...but they don't have any casual steakhouses...though that sports bar place is pretty cool.

Little Vietnam? Where is that? I had heard about that sort of thing, but could never figure out where it was.

I'd like to see something that catches the eye. The two mid rise towers with a large atrium at the ground level with plenty of lighting would look pretty cool at night.

The more I see of that rendering the less I like the plan. Does anyone think these things through? Not only that, but my biggest concern is that creates a void between the levee and the pier thingy that will get clogged with trees and what not during high water. During the winter, you will be able to walk under the pier....which will be a haven for crime. These boardwalks are nice, but if they take up that much area they become filled with drug activity, crime, and homeless, much like boardwalks and over passes all over the country. You can't have access under the park and a void between the levee and the park doesn't really look good....unless you want Baton Rouge to look like Atlantic city in 30 years. I really hate that plan. I'd rather them leave the paperclip and keep the rest of it the same than to put that stupid idea into the works. Who wants to have a park on stilts 30' above the water. Give us a floating pier or actually fill in a park area that slowly slopes into the water. Anything but the stupid pier idea! It will draw attention to itself because they will have to put those ugly bumpers on the side to keep boats from damaging it. It's not well thought out at all. The designer didn't put any effort into it.....it will probably cost a fortune to build and it will be under utilized. It will probably block the view of the river for much of downtown and it will eventually fall apart like the municipal dock did, except it will be twice as large and there will be no way to not look at it. Really dumb plan. I'd like to see them fill in a smaller park area, perhaps including a place for outdoor concerts. Other than that, I don't know what BR could do...but I know that the current plan sucks. I'd like to walk on the ground, not a pier, and walk to the water if I wanted to.

Has there been any decision yet as to where the new Charity will be? Howell Place has the room. It's clean, safe, and near the interstate. It's also on an intersection of two big highways that should be easy for emergency access. It's in Northern Baton Rouge. Just a thought. I passed through that area today. I noticed a bit housing development that wasn't there last time I passed. It was on the corner of Airline and Scenic. Is that a housing project? Lots of smaller houses really, really close together. They all looked very similar in design. It was a gated neighborhood. Either way, more people in that neighborhood combined with more police protection should give the local retailers a boost. Traffic on Airline is astounding. They should widen it to six lanes all the way to Plank Road. I have noticed that since they have widened Airline south of Florida Blvd, a some of the empty stores are being filled...places like Hammond Air and what not seem to be doing a little better (though that place was always crazy busy). Anyways. I'd just like to see North Baton Rouge with some development. The Coca Cola plant is a start, but Howell Place is ideal for a Wal Mart, Charity Hospitol, and possibly a movie theater.

Good. They can break out the street sweepers more often than once a decade, too.

I'd say that some incidents are more likely to be recorded in south baton rouge than in north baton rouge. Baton Rouge Police Department is known for ignoring calls from student neighborhoods, so I can imagine that they don't show up north of Florida Blvd as often as they are needed.

I agree. It's just nasty. City Plaza is too modern and nice to go with it, and it just doesn't have the classical beauty that the older buildings along North Blvd or 3rd street have. Knock it down and put in a high rise hotel or an office building. You can bet offices will be in high demand across the street from the courthose. Lawyers offices alone would be in huge demand. A hotel would do well near the Shaw center, River Center, 3rd Street, and nearby LSU. Now that I think about it.....if there were any place that I'd want to put a large mixed use tower (mostly offices), it would be right there.

Anyone have any details on the Advocate site, yet? I think that since Riverplace may actually be a reality at 25+ stories that I'd rather see the two 8-15 story buildings that everyone mentioned. I'd like to see something like a 10 story high end office building and a modern 15 story hotel with riverfront views. It's such a huge block....I'd like to see more shorter structures on it than one massive structure and green space that will take away from the Capitol building.

Oil is about $70 per bbl of crude and looks to stay higher than $60 a bbl for the next ten years at least...of course, now Lafayette starts booming again like it was in the 1970s. I asked a friend of mine who works for Schlumberger in Lafayette when he thinks oil will be affordable again. His response was "Gee, I hope not for a long time." That just goes to show you how Louisiana's economy works. We had major bust in the 1980s when the energy industry busted and oil was $12 a bbl. That whole town is oil and gas, and oil and gas service industries. Everyone eats very well there....lots of money, and lots of new young people moving into town. There are a number of very big, high income businesses in town with helicopter pads.....oil and gas, of course. There is this one building off HWY 90 that looks like a giant oil rig. Next time I go out in that direction, I'll have to snap a pic.

So are they going to make hwy 90 a freeway all the way to New Orleans? That probably needs to happen yesterday. Oil and gas industries dominate that road from Lafayette all the way to Morgan City....lots of money there. I haven't been in town in a while, but I remember that road also being a bit bumpy, and very busy between I-10 and Broussard.