225BatonRouge.com

Lance Paddock missed the planting of the early seeds of downtown redevelopment before 2003, but he witnessed the creation of entertainment districts in San Antonio and Ft. Worth. He’s a new, but outspoken member of Forum 35.

You favor an organic entertainment district over forcing it with a commission and lots of planning.

I worry that we overemphasize the things that are easy to talk about, the things the city spends lots of money on. In my experience, that’s had little to do with what’s created downtowns in other cities. They can say, ‘We’re going to plan for creativity,’ but that’s almost an oxymoron. When people say, ‘We need more planning,’ I just throw my hands up. Baton Rouge has been planned to death.

Young artists have been priced out of downtown. Have we missed an opportunity?

And why did we miss it? Because, of course, letting bohemians live and work in below-code buildings wasn’t going to be allowed. If we want that, we have to remove everything Danny McGlynn has had to go through: the years-long permit process and the red tape.

There aren’t too many risk-takers in downtown. Is there a disadvantage to McGlynn and Jack Warner owning half of our entertainment district?

It’s not necessarily a problem. Most successful downtowns have sections of bars and restaurants that are dominated by two or three owners. It could be a problem if what it means is that only people as bull-headed as those two can get things done. What is the city doing to make it so hard?

So throwing out subsidies, the best thing the city can do is cut the red tape and step aside?

The city has to allow people to take risks and fail. People here say, ‘Look, this business failed; it’s bad for the downtown image.’ No it’s not. In other downtowns you see a succession of businesses that fail until one sticks and becomes an anchor.

What can downtown learn from the Perkins Road Overpass area?

One of the great things about the Overpass is that everyone neglected it, like Sixth Street in Austin. So people were allowed to go in and do what they wanted to do. Benign neglect is often a good development strategy.