Page 1 of 1
Posted on October 7 at 12:20 p.m.
I agree, Kip's a great mayor, if a bit misguided on Capitol (sic) Improvement projects.
The loop will turn out to be his monorail. (Simpsons reference, for those who watch). As tax revenues fall along with shrinking Federal stipends, "da loop" is going to end up a half-completed mess.
On Election countdown: 225 endorses Kip for mayor (Out Loud)
Posted on September 26 at 8:35 p.m.
"However, he later suggested some transportation alternatives for the city such as park-and-ride centers for the thousands who enter the city every day from neighboring parishes."
Congratulations. Welcome to 1983. It would have been easy enough to plan for something like that fifteen years ago, since Park and Ride has been taking cars off the road at little cost to the state for nearly thirty years in California and Texas.
Sorry - I'm just really frustrated with Louisiana, even though I managed to escape and am doing well in California. When are you folks going to learn? I can fly down there to visit family and eat good food anytime, but I sure as hell will never live in Louisiana again. Dirty, poor, often ignorant and proud of that fact, and a state that seems consistently about 20 years behind the average. You just elected George Bush Jr. for God's sake.
Enjoy it. See you when Louisiana get to 1990 - about ten years from now.
On Election countdown: 225 endorses Kip for mayor (Out Loud)
Posted on November 27 at 9:21 p.m.
Par for the course in Baton Rouge; while no one was looking, someone at KCS destroyed an architectural landmark on the same level as Fallingwater.
No one in the city cared; there's probably no connection between those who approve demolition permits and the historic preservation register.
I grow more and more disappointed in my former home every day. When developers try to move the city forward with TNDs, everyone complains about drainage and traffic - without commissioning any studies of their own. When idealists ask the city council to approve the very idea of tolerance, it is rejected by the white christian power base in Baton Rouge.
Long story short, the powerful in Baton Rouge are gonna have it their old-school way, even if it costs Baton Rouge its rightful place as the next major city of the south.
Isn't it time someone called the power structure in Baton Rouge on their BS? The demolition of the dome without notification or question, over the protests of preservationists, is just one more example of how things work.
Posted on March 29 at 5:03 p.m.
One question I have about Baton Rouge is why there is such total cultural reliance on cars. Even in parts of town that are fortunate enough to have shopping, dining, and residential developments within walking distance of one another, there are _no sidewalks_.
Even if one wanted to "do the two step" by walking to dinner and back, or to work, it's just not possible - slanted drainage ditches are the normal roadside fare, inviting twisted ankles or worse. Crosswalks at major intersections are almost nonexistent outside of downtown and LSU.
Perkins Rowe, which should be a model of how to connect low density residential neighborhoods and businesses with high density development, lacks pedestrian connections to the south end of Bluebonnet. To cross Perkins at almost any time of day on foot at this intersection would be as sure a way to die as imbibing the aforementioned bottle of strychnine.
College Drive - where do I start? Who thought it would be a good idea to install six separate signals along a half-mile stretch of confused, cluttered, railroad-restricted thoroughfare? What a complete mess. Shut off half those entries onto College Drive and reroute them. Install right turn lanes at College and Perkins. Fix the problem.
I'm heartened that Baton Rouge's traffic engineers are looking forward and planning ahead (finally), but after seeing what efficient urban landscapes look like in California, this city needs a bigger change - one of attitude - before our traffic problems will get any better.
(And the next time I hear an SUV driver complain about the price of gasoline...good lord, what hypocrites.)
Posted on February 6 at 9:59 p.m.
People care too much about sports?
In Baton Rouge?
Say it a'int so!
Posted on January 26 at 12:54 p.m.
Actually, I made a typo in my original post; the California bar smoking ban started in 1998, not 1996.
On Smoke out
Posted on January 25 at 3:52 p.m.
Smokey Bourgeois complains that the no-indoors-smoking law brings California to his doorstep, but he must not do much homework on building his business. With our declining population, stumbling state economy during boom times, failing grades in education, roads, safety, and many other categories, maybe we could do with a little more California and a little less business as usual.
After California's 1996 voter initiative to ban smoking in restaurants passed, a slight dip in bar and restaurant attendance followed.
Within six months, most bars and restaurants in California were reporting sizable increases in sales.
Within two years of the ban's passage, most bars had adapted by installing outdoor patios and smoking areas where drinkers could enjoy drinks, music, food, and smoke. Record business followed these industry-wide changes, and though the results aren't conclusive, workers in these places didn't have to suffer with eight hour shifts of secondhand smoke and the attendant, proven health threats.
Seattle's pubs and bars often have climate-controlled indoor smoking rooms - something Louisiana businesses can emulate.
Maybe that's the key; instead of relying on the same old stinky smokey schtick, business owners here should try changing things a little bit to see if business increases. California bars and restaurants found that smoker segregation allowed them to pull bigger crowds of customers who don't smoke and business adaptations allowed them to keep their smoking customers happy as well.
Smoke has kept us from enjoying George's admittedly less-than-healthy menu more often; I hope the new law doesn't put Smokey in a funk.
On Smoke out
Page 1 of 1
Posted on October 25 at 1:12 a.m.
Just another day in backwards land - witness overwhelming support for John McCain in Baton Rouge, who thinks "womens health" deserves scare quotes.
On These rotten “pillars” of our community (Out Loud)