I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people bad mouth the city of Baton Rouge. The phrase, “I cannot wait to get out of here once I get done with school,” is a line that I have heard often.
Consider this question — what makes Baton Rouge so bad? Other than the extreme humidity in the summers, an occasional serial killer running wild and an overabundance of mosquitoes 10 months out of the year, Baton Rouge isn’t that bad a place to live. The city has a beautiful setting next to the Mississippi River, the food is fantastic, the people are friendly — the list goes on and on. Why are people leaving Baton Rouge and why can’t we lure more businesses to our community? The answer, in my opinion, lies in two areas: education and economic development.
Baton Rouge residents have been blaming the city’s woes on the public school system for years, but the fact of the matter is that the problem has never been fixed. Many critics blame the long-running desegregation case of 1956 for the decline in Baton Rouge’s public school system. I realize ending this is easier said than done, and there is no easy solution to the public school system debacle, but once the problem is solved we should begin to see rapid improvement in our community.
Another thing within the realm of education is the fact that so many bright and talented LSU graduates have to pack up and head to places such as Dallas, Austin, Atlanta and Charlotte because there are no jobs available in their chosen fields in this area. While Baton Rouge is not far behind these cities, it lacks a certain corporate appeal they have.
I do see a light at the end of the tunnel and things are looking bright in Baton Rouge’s future. The Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce plays an important role in recruiting new businesses into the area that will in turn create more jobs in the community. The Chamber must be commended on the great job it has done to bring new businesses into the community. The Capital Region Competitive Strategy is a new plan that was formulated by a team of 1,200 individuals and it provides a business plan for economic development in the Baton Rouge area.
This particular strategy devised eight clusters, or eight different areas that are unique and critical to the future growth of the Baton Rouge area. It then provides analysis on our region as compared to places like Charlotte or Austin. The survey does not stop here. It also studies housing prices and air and water qualities in our community.
Donald Powers, Vice President for Economic Development with the Chamber of Commerce, believes this plan will help bring new businesses into the area, and in doing so these new businesses will open the door for more jobs and higher pay for college graduates searching for employment. “This [the implementation of the strategy] means that sometime in the near future we will have more jobs than we have now, and these jobs will pay a lot more than they do now,” explains Powers.
Luring businesses to the state is becoming an important issue, as some of the candidates in the upcoming United States Senate race are basing their campaign message around economic development. Republican candidate Suzanne Haik Terrell believes economic development is the most pertinent issue facing Louisianians.
“The largest group of citizens leaving the state is our young people,” Terrell told the Baton Rouge Business Report. “This exodus must end. In order to reverse this trend, our state and its elected officials must be committed to fostering an environment of growth for both major corporations and the ‘mom and pop’ neighborhood store. If Louisiana’s economic outlook is not improved, we will lose our most precious assets, our children.”
If public servants and community leaders continue to work together to solve the public school fiasco, I believe Baton Rouge will overcome many barriers that have restricted it from becoming a premier city. The strategy that has been developed by the Chamber of Commerce seems to be well thought out, and over time I believe it will lure more businesses into the area, thus providing more job opportunities for college graduates.