NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Baton Rouge is Louisiana’s best place to live and its worst, a new report says. A coalition of groups analyzed 2007 data on health, education and earnings to form a quality of life index. The “best” rating for Baton Rouge cited a suburban swath of predominantly white southern East Baton Rouge Parish combined with West Baton Rouge Parish. The “worst” rating came for sections of downtown and north Baton Rouge, which are predominantly black. The report, spearheaded by Oxfam America, the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation and other groups, said someone in the first area “is expected to live, on average, nearly half a decade longer, earn twice as much, is almost three times more likely to have a bachelor’s degree and is three times less likely to have dropped out of high school” than someone living in the other section.
Baton Rouge gets best, worst ratings in survey results
September 16, 2009