Baton Rouge City Profile

[dan326]

Has anyone drivin by the call center going up on Florida lately? I thought it was going to be hiddeous, but it is actually coming out nicely. I think a little pond with fountains would look nice.

Edited August 27, 2007 by dan326

[dan326]

The Mall at Cortana has space for 145 stores.

[richyb83]

The Call Center looks a little plain, but it could be worse.

How many spaces are now vacant out of the 145??

That's cool you get to ride the Trolley LT. I need to check-it-out myself. Never rode on it before.

Edited August 27, 2007 by richyb83

[dan326]

Do any of ya'll think any of our big four suburbs (Zachary,Baker, Denham Springs, and Gonzales) will be become a big city(45,000 + population) within 20,40,60 years? I didn't incude Central because they already have 30,000 people.

Edited August 31, 2007 by dan326

[twstdndmntd]

Do any of ya'll think any of our big four suburbs (Zachary,Baker, Denham Springs, and Gonzales) will be become a big city(45,000 + population) within 20,40,60 years? I didn't incude Central because they already have 30,000 people.

Wait Central already has a population of 30K people and DS and Gonzales doesn't? I thought DS and Gonzales was our biggest burg "cities". I could see our 4 burbs growing to a population greater than 45K. I don't think it'll take 20yrs tho. But I don't know how big they are now population wise so I'm not sure how long it would take? What are the population stats for our 4 burbs?

[richyb83]

Those numbers are somewhat deceiving. Central "annexed" a HUGE chunk of land; much larger than Denham Springs and Gonzales. There city limits have stayed smaller (the same) for many years. I think the numbers would be virtually the same as Central if they indeed incorporated as much land as Central(city) has.

I would like to know the population of these towns myself. Watson(North of DS) is not yet incorporated and still carries DS address; otherwise those numbers would be impressive too. I believe if Prairieville incorporated a huge chunk of land as Central did; there numbers might suprise some.

Edited August 31, 2007 by richyb83

[dan326]

Population stats

Denham Springs:10,206 (2005)

Baker:13,793 (2000)

Zachary:11,275 (2000)

Gonzales:8,156 (2000)

[twstdndmntd]

Population stats

Denham Springs:10,206 (2005)

Baker:13,793 (2000)

Zachary:11,275 (2000)

Gonzales:8,156 (2000)

Interesting numbers, I would have thought that DS and Gonzales would have had alot more. I guess it's true that if they would incorporate more land their numbers would increase. I thought they had a nice chunk of land annexed into their city limits tho. I find it extremely interesting at Bakers numbers. I would have thought that DS and Gonzales would have at least been verging on 50K-75K.

[dan326]

With Halloween around the corner, Baton Rouge

[dan326]

Here's a map of B.R. in 1939. It's neat to see how we had already layed extesinve road road system for a city of ,what I'm guessing, was no more than 70,000 people.

Here's comparison I made of today. the purple is the developed part, the purple spary is the developing parts, and the green lines are most of major roads that existed.The first Mississippi Bridge was opened in 1940. I read that Huey Long ordered the bridge be made low so that our city would remain the farthest inland deep water port.

[richyb83]

Great post Dan! Love the 1939 map of BR. If you notice? it was said that the topography for BR is shaped like a hand. NBR, downtown thru Mid-city is the palm; then fingers of higher and lower ground wedged in between where Bayou Duplantier and Ward's Creek follow. Hence the name Highland Road and Perkins (formerly upper Highland) following the higher land. Connecting the fingers north/south were Essen, Bluebonnet, and Siegen. Jefferson Hwy. and Greenwell Springs Rd. do this too, just not as pronounced.

Look at the huge Bluff Swamp/ Spanish Lake area. That dense green canopy is BR's lungs(filter system) for all the polution caused by the miles and miles of industrial corridor along the river. This must remain preserved. It sucks to even think the southern loop cuts across that were the Bald Eagle made a miraculous comeback! The loop can be just to the south following the Nicholson corridor.

No doubt Baton Rouge was/is a late bloomer; the population explosion started soon after in the 50's-70's.

Edited September 8, 2007 by richyb83

[dan326]

Thanks, Richy. It does look like a hand. I also think it looks like a head of hair.

I think it's really neat how Baton Rouge grew so much in such a short amount of time. And now we're growing again! I try and ask my parents what it was like,but they don't remember.

I love looking at these old maps. I'm going to try and see if I can find one for each ten year period.

But Houston is an example of some really spectacular growth.

Year Population Rank

1850 2,396

1860 4,845

1870 9,332

1880 16,513

1890 27,557

1900 44,633 85

1910 78,800 68

1920 138,276 45

1930 292,352 26

1940 384,514 21

1950 596,163 14

1960 938,219 7

1970 1,232,802 6

1980 1,595,138 5

1990 1,630,553 4

2000 1,953,631 4

Edited September 8, 2007 by dan326

[richyb83]

Wasn't sure where to post this?? Here or Coffee House?

I have always enjoyed looking at the population numbers of all the different cities; including Baton Rouge.

2000 or 2004 census has BR around 224,000/227,000 people (EBR 412,000?); but many out-of towners traveling thru BR down I-10 find it hard to believe that Bluebonnet and Siegen with all the large development are not included in the "city limits". While we are not the only city guilty of this; BR has been slow to annex places you would consider "Baton Rouge". If BR did a realistic annexation; the current population would be more than what people see.

According to citydata.com these area's that might be considered BR; but are technically not included in the population:

Baton Rouge 227,818

* Shenandoah - 17,070 (probably more now)

* Merrydale - 10,427

* Gardere - 8,992

* Oak Hills Place - 7,996

* Village St.George - 6,993

* Old Jefferson - 5,631

* Brownfields - 5,222

* Inniswold - 4,944 (little more now)

* Monticello - 4,763

* Westminster - 2,515

* Millerville - 2,500 (unofficial)

> Add all those places up and you see BR becomes much larger adding roughly +77,000 more people.

Then BR's urban population totals are more like 305,000. Mystery uncovered.

[bobby255BR]

why is it so hard for BR to annex those places? Like you said they are already considered apart of Baton Rouge to most.

[BRPJ]

Wasn't sure where to post this?? Here or Coffee House?

I have always enjoyed looking at the population numbers of all the different cities; including Baton Rouge.

2000 or 2004 census has BR around 224,000/227,000 people (EBR 412,000?); but many out-of towners traveling thru BR down I-10 find it hard to believe that Bluebonnet and Siegen with all the large development are not included in the "city limits". While we are not the only city guilty of this; BR has been slow to annex places you would consider "Baton Rouge". If BR did a realistic annexation; the current population would be more than what people see.

According to citydata.com these area's that might be considered BR; but are technically not included in the population:

Baton Rouge 227,818

* Shenandoah - 17,070 (probably more now)

* Merrydale - 10,427

* Gardere - 8,992

* Oak Hills Place - 7,996

* Village St.George - 6,993

* Old Jefferson - 5,631

* Brownfields - 5,222

* Inniswold - 4,944 (little more now)

* Monticello - 4,763

* Westminster - 2,515

* Millerville - 2,500 (unofficial)

> Add all those places up and you see BR becomes much larger adding roughly +77,000 more people.

Then BR's urban population totals are more like 305,000. Mystery uncovered.

Wow, thanks for posting that, I always wondered what the figures were. And I wonder why they don't just go ahead and annex it? isnt that helpful?

Anyway I think its better to have a bigger city than a smaller one, no?

Anyway the city truly does have those 305,000 residents wjether its incorporate or not. We all know Blubonnet.seigen etc is def part of the city

[BRPJ]

Interesting numbers, I would have thought that DS and Gonzales would have had alot more. I guess it's true that if they would incorporate more land their numbers would increase. I thought they had a nice chunk of land annexed into their city limits tho. I find it extremely interesting at Bakers numbers. I would have thought that DS and Gonzales would have at least been verging on 50K-75K.

yes, i don't see how denahm springs is at 10K. New roads is about that big. I would have thought its at least at 50K by now. How many sq miles is DS?

Maybe thats the problem

Edited September 12, 2007 by BRPJ

[twstdndmntd]

Wow, thanks for posting that, I always wondered what the figures were. And I wonder why they don't just go ahead and annex it? isnt that helpful?

Anyway I think its better to have a bigger city than a smaller one, no?

Anyway the city truly does have those 305,000 residents wjether its incorporate or not. We all know Blubonnet.seigen etc is def part of the city

All of those numbers are astounding. When I first moved here I always wondered why the city hadn't annexed from Essen out to Siegen when clearly it is part of the "city". I think the reason the city hasn't is more of a financial reason, if those areas, which are rich in tax money, are annexed by the City of Baton Rouge then wouldn't that mean the parish would loose much needed revenue? But in the same aspect the City of Baton Rouge would gain a tremendous amount. Let's be honest tho, how much of EBR Parish is not incorporated into a seperate city? There's BR, Baker, Zachary, and Central so I don't see the little bit of unincorporated areas needing that much of a tax base. Just a thought tho. I believe there is a need for a seperate governing body for the City of BR and EBR Parish. But I think thats for another thread. LOL

[byrde]

All of those numbers are astounding. When I first moved here I always wondered why the city hadn't annexed from Essen out to Siegen when clearly it is part of the "city". I think the reason the city hasn't is more of a financial reason, if those areas, which are rich in tax money, are annexed by the City of Baton Rouge then wouldn't that mean the parish would loose much needed revenue? But in the same aspect the City of Baton Rouge would gain a tremendous amount. Let's be honest tho, how much of EBR Parish is not incorporated into a seperate city? There's BR, Baker, Zachary, and Central so I don't see the little bit of unincorporated areas needing that much of a tax base. Just a thought tho. I believe there is a need for a seperate governing body for the City of BR and EBR Parish. But I think thats for another thread. LOL

But we have a consolidated government so I don't see the financial reason for not annexing those areas.

Edited September 13, 2007 by byrde

[twstdndmntd]

OH yeah I had completely forgotten that we were consolidated. I guess in that case they figured it's all going to the same place so why spend the money to annex it into the "city".

[BRPJ]

OH yeah I had completely forgotten that we were consolidated. I guess in that case they figured it's all going to the same place so why spend the money to annex it into the "city".

I don't know it just seems like the best thing to incorporate what is pretty much the city, but is not the city only because it has not been incorporated. lol

i think the city is better off officially with a larger population.

[twstdndmntd]

I don't know it just seems like the best thing to incorporate what is pretty much the city, but is not the city only because it has not been incorporated. lol

i think the city is better off officially with a larger population.

Agreed!!! I think we'd be taken a little more serious if we had a bigger population. It would make it look like we were a bigger "city". Course I'm still hell bent on us having more towers downtown so we look like a "city". In my mind until we have some sort of viable skyline we will always just be an overgrown burb. LOL

[richyb83]

Wasn't sure where to post this?? Here or Coffee House?

I have always enjoyed looking at the population numbers of all the different cities; including Baton Rouge.

2000 or 2004 census has BR around 224,000/227,000 people (EBR 412,000?); but many out-of towners traveling thru BR down I-10 find it hard to believe that Bluebonnet and Siegen with all the large development are not included in the "city limits". While we are not the only city guilty of this; BR has been slow to annex places you would consider "Baton Rouge". If BR did a realistic annexation; the current population would be more than what people see.

According to citydata.com these area's that might be considered BR; but are technically not included in the population:

Baton Rouge 227,818

* Shenandoah - 17,070 (probably more now)

* Merrydale - 10,427

* Gardere - 8,992

* Oak Hills Place - 7,996

* Village St.George - 6,993

* Old Jefferson - 5,631

* Brownfields - 5,222

* Inniswold - 4,944 (little more now)

* Monticello - 4,763

* Westminster - 2,515

* Millerville - 2,500 (unofficial)

> Add all those places up and you see BR becomes much larger adding roughly +77,000 more people.

Then BR's urban population totals are more like 305,000. Mystery uncovered.

Oh yeah....I forgot to add the Katrina population number to that as well; but that won't officially come out til 2010. With realistic annexation pop. of 305,000 + Katrina influx, wonder how many more that would be??

^Your right twstd...BR is almost an overgrown burb and downtown's malnutritioned skyline is proof Fourth Street needs some sort of new mixed-use landmark high-rise tower between Chase Tower and One American Place!

Edited September 20, 2007 by richyb83

[BRPJ]

IF we really added a good number since katrina, and we annexed the rest of Baton rouge in time for the 2010 census, The city would probably be at 350,000!!!

Thats a big difference than 230,000... sounds like two totally different cities

[twstdndmntd]

IF we really added a good number since katrina, and we annexed the rest of Baton rouge in time for the 2010 census, The city would probably be at 350,000!!!

Thats a big difference than 230,000... sounds like two totally different cities

The last census said that we had 274K people. Even adding the extra annex portions I don't think we'd make it to 350K. The truely estimate that we've only gained like 25K from Katrina. I think the most we could hope for in the 2010 census is somewhere around 325K. Could be wrong. I personaly think the state should do a statewide census.

[BRPJ]

The last census said that we had 274K people. Even adding the extra annex portions I don't think we'd make it to 350K. The truely estimate that we've only gained like 25K from Katrina. I think the most we could hope for in the 2010 census is somewhere around 325K. Could be wrong. I personaly think the state should do a statewide census.

274K? I never heard of that, I thought we still were in the 230K range without the south baton rouge annex...