It’s official: Baton Rouge sucks. At least when compared to almost every other urban area in the United States.
You may have already come to this conclusion by driving off campus and into the rest of the city.
Long lines of traffic, seas of parking spaces and counter-intuitive road systems have all combined to make Louisiana’s capital city among the
worst-functioning in the country.
The urban planning organization Smart Growth America conducted a recent study called Measuring Sprawl 2014. It measured the Sprawl Index of 221 cities based on four criteria: development density, land use mix, activity centering and street accessibility.
One only has to look at No. 4 to realize that Baton Rouge is doomed for failure. Indeed, our college home ranks 216, just five spots from the bottom of the list.
However, among mid-sized urban areas, we come in dead last.
This should not come as a surprise. It seems as though Walmarts easily outnumber traffic-free roads at any given moment.
There is a larger problem, though, because as a city falls down the list, so do its chances of social mobility and economic opportunity.
More sprawling cities also tend to have higher rates of fatal car accidents and
obesity. Once again, just look around.
The study claims people who live in areas with lower Sprawl Indexes generally experienced higher quality of life because of cheaper housing and fuel, more transportation options and their tendency to lead safer, healthier lives.
In everyone’s favorite category, economic mobility, the research showed that Baton Rouge residents had a 7.2 percent chance of moving from the bottom to the top of the income ladder, while residents in a low index area like Madison, Wis. had a 10.2 percent chance.
This just goes to show that as we abandon the older, more organized and
well-planned neighborhoods, we lose economic opportunities those who live in denser, more efficient areas are apt to take advantage of.
If we compare Baton Rouge to another Louisiana urban center, New Orleans, we see drastic differences.
The former capital blows the current one right out of the water. In all four categories, New Orleans easily outranks Baton Rouge mostly because of its greater density and better street connectivity. The Crescent City comes in a full 174 places ahead of Baton Rouge, ranking 42nd.
When separated from Kenner and Metairie, however, Orleans Parish only falls behind the densest counties in places like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
While the prospects for Baton Rouge’s future may seem bleak as strip malls and suburban thoroughfares expand with the traffic around them, officials have a plan.
The Metro Council approved the
FutureBR plan in 2011 to help curtail the effects of the city’s rampant sprawl.
It promised to focus “on land use, urban design, neighborhood revitalization, transit and transportation goals, parks and recreation, environment and conservation, housing and infrastructure and economic development,” according to The Advocate.
Not vague at all.
Perhaps Baton Rouge could take some lessons from its older, more compact counterpart downriver. After all, people don’t come from all over the country to stroll up and down Perkins Road; they come to see Magazine Street, even if there is nowhere to park.
In a city where new restaurants and shopping chain outlets spring up like weeds, it could be time for officials to take note of New Orleans’ focus on creating bigger jobs in small businesses than smaller jobs in big businesses.
While it could be years, or even decades, until Baton Rouge has done enough soul searching to discover that there is more to life than dinner at Outback Steakhouse and a walk through Perkins Rowe, it is never too early for something lacking in this city: originality.
Eli Haddow is a 21-year-old English and history junior from New Orleans.