A proposed city separation in Louisiana has all the usual suspects screaming "Racist!" (as usual).
Wealthy white Baton Rouge residents have won a decade-long court battle to split from poorer neighborhoods and form their own city with plans for better schools and less crime.
The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the new City of St George could move forward with incorporation, splitting off from the rest of Baton Rouge.
St George will have 86,000 residents across a 60-square-mile area in the southeast of East Baton Rouge Parish and will have its own Mayor and city council.
Supporters of the new city say that the existing city-parish government is poorly run, with high crime rates and bad schools.
Opponents say the movement is 'racist' and will create a 'white enclave' as it separates a wealthy area of the city from the majority Black city and school district.
There's more at the link.
I lived in Louisiana for more than a decade. I know Baton Rouge reasonably well. I'm pretty sure you'll find those living in the proposed City of St. George are not primarily whites objecting to sharing the city with blacks. I'm confident you'll find they're simply sick and tired of paying the highest rates in the city, only to receive exceptionally poor treatment at the hands of the municipality, which has for years (decades!) taken that money and used it to employ, service and subsidize poorer people in the city while neglecting "the goose that laid the golden eggs". Now that the goose has decided it will no longer put up with that, and instead wishes to improve its lot in life, they're screaming that the problems are the goose's fault - racism, rich vs. poor, haves versus have-nots, and all the rest of the usual slogans.
The same scenario has played itself out in other American cities, notably Buckhead in Atlanta, GA. In every case of which I'm aware, the same allegations of racism, elitism, etc. have been leveled against those who want to escape the poorer morass that's absorbing their high rates and leaving them with almost no return on their money. That applies particularly to security. Criminals from the poorer areas target those living in the rich areas, because that's where the money is - but the city police do nothing extra to protect those targeted areas, often under instruction from the City Council to do so. It's understandable that the victims of crime feel more than a little aggravated by it, and want something done about it. They've finally decided to do it themselves, since they can't rely on the city's leaders to do their job.
When will the progressive left learn that if you steal the goose's golden eggs for long enough, it'll take itself off to where it can lay its eggs in safety, free from your rapacious clutches? Why should the richer suburbs subsidize the poorer without any return for themselves? If they were treated fairly and equitably, they probably wouldn't mind so much: but when they're basically robbed blind to pay off poorer areas, they get a mite tetchy about it. In their shoes, so would I.
I hope the City of St. George will serve as a wake-up call to other Baton Rouges around the country. Don't push your greed too far, or it may come back to bite you right on your fundamental jujube.
Peter
9 comments:
They are lucky it is Louisiana instead of California, because otherwise, a activist judge would simply declare the court decision "racist" and reverse it. You cannot leave and will be required to continue paying.
Now that isn't to say it won't happen in LA, but it won't be the automatic decision it would have been in CA.
they are wholly incapable of self control in any aspect of their lives. they will never stop until hey die, then they'll vote for more.
"Not giving me your home equity is Racist".
I would love to see a mural of black slaves looking through a time portal at their descendants in a classroom. Butts hanging out over the tops of trousers cutting up & being generally disruptive in the classroom. Mouths agape the slaves turn back to the plantation in sad disbelief. Shame!
My bet is that it will be 'swept under the rug' by the media. Don't want to give folks ideas!
Alamo Heights and Balcones Heights are within the city limits of San Antonio, likewise Highland Park and University Park in Dallas. Wealthy, heavily policed enclave cities are usually at odds with the surrounding metro area's government and it's usually about money. This is complicated by geography,, as there's relatively little fast land west of the river at Baton Rouge for expansion. I wouldn't want to live that close to the Atchafalaya swamp . And it's Louisiana, the closer you zoom in the stranger it looks. Big corporations rarely move there. Worked outside the levee in Venice for a few months and lived a long year in Monroe, or maybe they all are there. Dozens of trips through Baton Rouge on I-10, but I never got off the interstate. It would seem that it would make better sense to buy around Hammond or Mandeville and Covington and commute.
This is 86,000 people, and in Louisiana that means a good spread of socioeconomic types, not just the rich. And they're right, city and parish government are corrupt and ineffectual and stealing their money while providing negligible services, that's how Louisiana river parishes operate. They're going to have to have their own cops and other services. How many Baton Rouge police officers or EMTs live in the proposed city of St George? They might change employment.
rick m
Oh, but Peter, the rich should pay their fair share!
Never mind that the wealthy pay the greater part of the taxes in this country, proportionally much more than others, while a greater number consume more services and also receive an annual stipend, called a 'tax return'.
--Tennessee Budd
This is complete BS from people that haven't lived there. As is usual, rich and white get thrown out in the commentary. That is absolutely not true (except for Highland Road) as I lived in some barely above ghetto (Gardere, represent) properties in what is now going to be St. George, 20 years ago.)
I student taught (as a 25+ student) 20 years ago in an EBR school, and I'd consider it bad when a 12 year old talks about oral sex being performed on me in front of the class. The decline accelerated after Katrina (I lived slightly outside of the area, just barely North of I-12.)
Baton Rouge isn't a wake up call. Everyone moving to Ascension/Livingston Parish was supposed to be. But it won't be. Louisiana is going to do Louisiana things, which is why you have to leave if you want to succeed.
Also lived in Fulton. It's shaped like a barbell with a less than one mile wide "connection" up GA-400 (toll road) from Atlanta to Alpharetta that is close to 25 miles long. Why?
Because data centers and corps put people and offices outside metro ATL ($$). But ATL needs the money, brah. It's one of the weirdest shaped counties I've ever lived in, and it is obvious why.
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