T. Graham Howell, deputy chief justice for Student Government, spoke to Baton Rouge mayoral candidate Gordon Mese on Tuesday morning. They discussed the upcoming election and the issues Baton Rouge faces due to past decisions made by former mayors.
Mese is one of six candidates so far in the mayoral race. Howell planned his interview to be the first in a six-part series.
The interview began with Mese talking about his job at Garden District Nursery on Government Street, his family’s support and the support he’s gotten from strangers for his campaign.
Mese said he wants to “remove money from politics and the government” as part of his campaign. This means he wants to finish his campaign without owing money to anyone, and he hopes one day campaign donations and political favors might be eliminated from political office races, he said. A University alumnus, he graduated in landscape architecture, which he said gives more motivation to his cause.
One goal of the campaign focuses on rewriting the city’s Development Code, which, according to Mese, is “holding us back from becoming the next great American city.”
Howell’s next inquiry concerned Mese’s stance on crime. The mayor hopeful said that current politicians put an emphasis on halting crime, but it’s a problem that’s been around for a long time. He said it’s only a new problem to those who haven’t dealt with it personally before.
Mese said that five members of his family have been held up at gunpoint, and he himself has been stabbed six times. These incidents happened on or around the University’s campus.
“Technology has changed; people have not,” he said of the incidents, which were not reported to the police. He feels that the residents of Baton Rouge and LSU can do something to slow crime.
Officers putting more people in jail fights the symptom, not the cause of the problem, Mese said. Planning more in education, city development and other big issues would help remedy this.
Mese also addressed development and planning and said builders are abandoning parts of the city by building new things and letting their old plans – old buildings – run into ruin. These old buildings can spawn and attract crime. The city has been built twice the size it needs to be, he said.
Mese also said the flawed Development Code is to blame and is detrimental to society.
“The Development Code’s flaws are known by lawyers, politicians, and developers all across Baton Rouge, so why doesn’t anyone do something about it?” Mese asked rhetorically.
Mese said he supports the Capital Area Transit System because he used it during his time at the University. He said the system also helps clear the air because it helps reduce the number of people who drive cars and pollute the air with gas fumes.
“It’s like recycling,” he said. “No one thought we would recycle, but now Baton Rouge is one of the leading recycling cities in America. The bus and transit system should be like that.”
An architectural planner, Mese said, sees things the way they are and makes decisions based on that. This is how he thinks regarding the transit system and his whole campaign.
He also believes that the University is a flagship university that is supposed to lead the state in the future. Using the bus system and riding bikes seem to be the future, so seeing that students here do so influences others to pick up on the trend, Mese said.
“I’m running for you,” he said of his campaign to the University’s students.
To close the interview, Howell asked Mese why he doesn’t carry a cellphone.
Mese amiably answered that his business is within walking distance from his house, and he is around a landline phone about 18 hours a day anyway.
“Being without that stimulation gives serenity,” he said. The race for Baton Rouge Mayor will be held on Nov. 6, 2012, the same day as the Presidential race.
 
____ Contact Kristen Frank at [email protected]