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Neighborly relations

Rouzan, the controversial traditional neighborhood development on the south side of Perkins Road between Southdowns and Pollard Estates, was finally approved by the Metro Council on Jan. 23. While it’s not Baton Rouge’s first such development [that would be Willow Grove], it will be the first inside the city limits to sport official TND zoning.

Many of Rouzan’s future neighbors in Southdowns were staunchly opposed to the development, due largely to concerns about traffic and drainage and a belief that Rouzan’s residential density and commercial elements are inappropriate for that part of town. Others were supportive, in part because being near a TND could help their property values. The debate pitted neighbor against neighbor, and the words weren’t always nice, with accusations of intimidation and stolen yard signs flying back and forth.

So now that the argument is apparently over, will these people be able to live with each other?

“Some people don’t want to talk to me anymore, which is incredibly silly,” says Kate McLean, a Rouzan supporter who lives in University Gardens on Stanford Avenue. The Southdowns area is generally a pretty tight-knit community, and many people were able to respectfully disagree on Rouzan and stay friends, she says.

“At this point, I’m waiting for the rest of them to grow up,” she says. “I tend to think it’s going to fairly well blow over. By the time [construction] gets going, there’s not much anyone can say or will say about it.”

Melinda Walsh, who lives on Stephens Avenue, says the conversations she’s had with her neighbors about Rouzan have all been cordial, but noted that the debate was quite emotional for many.

“People who live in Southdowns, on both sides of this issue, really care about this neighborhood,” Walsh says, and she hopes her neighbors stay involved. She says now that the development has been approved and is going forward, everyone concerned on either side of the issue should ask what they can do to help make the area the best it can be, including Rouzan. —David Jacobs

Rating game

It doesn’t take a genius to realize the Federal Reserve has been steadily cutting interest rates to fend off a national recession, but consumers might not know those cuts are intended to encourage borrowing and, ultimately, spending.

Jim McElroy, chief investment officer with Whitney National Bank’s Trust and Wealth Management Division, says consumers can expect better interest rates on loans like home equity, credit cards and possibly vehicles. It typically takes a little time to see the benefit, but McElroy says it’s coming and with good timing for areas still rebuilding from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The Federal Reserve is so focused on trying to jump start the economy by making it enticing to spend that it took the unusual measure of dropping the rate by three-quarters of a percent, which McElroy says is the biggest single rate cut since 1984. But don’t panic yet; this rate has been as low as 1% in this century. —Anna Thibodeaux

Tearing the sheet

Talk of “the health care crisis” sometimes leaves people yawning because it seems abstract. Now Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center will no longer be part of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana’s network, because of the failure of both sides to come to an agreement on reimbursements—the amount the insurer pays the hospital in return for the care it delivers.

How’s that for concrete?

From OLOL’s perspective, reimbursements were already painfully low in light of the escalating costs of delivering care, thus their request for a double-digit increase seems justified—even necessary. From the insurer’s perspective, agreeing to such a hike would have resulted in unacceptable rate hikes for their customers, who are—let’s face it—already paying through the nose.

It’s an eerie echo of a similar situation between Humana and Baton Rouge General Medical Center, which last summer tore the sheet after failing to agree on reimbursement levels. —Steve Clark

BUSINESSofPOLITICS

Primary involvement

As you know, Louisiana has changed its election laws. The so-called jungle primary system has been squashed and replaced with party-specific primaries. While the Louisiana Republican Party has decided to let only diehards vote in their primary, Democrats will allow independent voters, meaning those with no affiliation, to cast ballots in its primary. Is it possible that the GOP’s overt partisanship and quest for ideological purity will push 22% of Baton Rouge’s electorate to the Democratic side? “That could very well happen,” says Albert L. Samuels, an associate professor of political science at Southern University. “I think they will be missing out on new voters, which isn’t surprising. The party has a long history of dictating who should be their candidate.”

Is Landrieu liberal?

It will be one of the banner questions raised during the upcoming U.S. Senate race: Is incumbent Democrat Mary Landrieu of New Orleans liberal or moderate? To be certain, her opponents will label her as a liberal if past campaigns are any indication. And Landrieu, surely, will fire back that she is a straight-to-center moderate. According to the most recent annual study by Congressional Quarterly, only one other Senate Democrat crossed the aisle more than Landrieu: Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska. “I do not approach Senate votes as a Democrat or as a Republican,” Landrieu says. “I support the president when it is right for Louisiana, including voting to shelve irresponsible taxes that left Louisianans footing the bill for national energy policy. But I will also continue to stand up to the White House when administration policy hurts us.”

Insurance assurance

Thanks in part to a state-sponsored social program, the number of uninsured people in Baton Rouge has been in steady decline since 2005, according to this year’s Louisiana Health Insurance Survey. The percentage of uninsured adults locally dropped from 19% in 2005 to about 17% in 2007. The number of uninsured children, meanwhile, plummeted from 14,600 in 2005 to roughly 9,900 last year. Overall, it was among the sharpest declines statewide. The substantial change for children is credited to the Louisiana Children’s Health Insurance Program and public awareness of the initiative. “Since 2005, outreach efforts for LaCHIP have been extremely successful in helping to energize enrollment,” DHH Secretary Roxane Townsend says. “Previously, a large number of uninsured citizens were simply unaware they were eligible to receive these services. By providing that awareness, we were able to overcome a major hurdle in bringing down the uninsured number.” —Jeremy Alford

Update your diction

Don’t call them the Florida Parishes anymore. The preferred moniker these days is I-12 Alliance.

The five parishes (Livingston, Tangipahoa, St. Tammany, Washington and St. Helena) have caught the economic corridor fever, and now have their very own Web site at I12alliance.com.

Austin-based Angelou Economics developed the site, which touts the region as home to 500,000 people of “varying degrees of expertise,” including NASA engineers, oil rig maintenance workers, Fortune 500 executives and international horticulturists.

A trove of online statistics contains such nuggets as the average age of an Interstate 12 dweller (36) and the steal-of-a-deal commercial and industrial energy rates offered by the Washington/St. Tammany Electric Cooperative (6.54 c/kWh and 5.92 c/kWh, respectively).

But Angelos Angelou, the firm’s principal consultant, insists the Web site is “just a starting point.” Look for the parishes … er … alliance to begin courting firms that specialize in energy, logistics, material supplies and aerospace manufacturing. —Penny Brown

Ready to scream?

Kleinpeter Farms Dairy’s venture into the freezer is almost ready. President Jeff Kleinpeter says half-gallon containers of ice cream should appear in stores by Jan. 29. There’s chocolate and vanilla to start. Pralines and cream, strawberry, butter pecan and no-sugar-added versions will roll out during February. “I wish we could do more, but we have so many things to figure out like getting it into stores, displaying it and trying to keep up with the mad rush it’s going to be,” he says. Kleinpeter says they’ll be stocked in all the independent grocers in and around Baton Rouge as well as Winn-Dixie. “We’re getting ready to get into the Targets and Super Wal-Marts. Everybody,” he says. —Marissa Frayer

Sorry, Cincinnati

Comair has stopped its daily flights between Baton Rouge Metro Airport and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Anthony Marino, director of aviation for Baton Rouge Metro, says the move is part of a shakeup among Delta Air Lines’ regional carriers. Comair flew a 50-passenger jet between Baton Rouge and Cincinnati each day. There is a possibility Sky West or one of Delta’s other regional carriers could resume the flights, but Marino says there’s not much of a demand to visit Cincinnati. “Cincinnati is just another hub,” he says.

Meanwhile, Metro Airport officials are working on a deal to bring in another discount airline to provide flights to the east. Marino says the new carrier would have as much of an impact on fares for eastbound flights as Frontier Airlines did on flights to the west. “We hope to close the deal by the summer,” he says. —Timothy Boone

ONTHEBEAT

B.R. lobbies up: Mark Drennen (right) has joined the staff of Cornerstone Governmental Affairs, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying and consulting firm that recently opened its first Louisiana office in Baton Rouge.

Schooling Apple: Though Apple head Steve Jobs called the MacBook Air the world’s thinnest notebook computer, LSU physics professor Jorge Pullin says otherwise. Pullin told computing Web site CNET.com that the Sharp Muramasa notebook, which came out in 2003, was 0.54 inches thick compared to the Air’s 0.76 inches.

Towne Center II: Steve Keller, who developed Towne Center at Cedar Lodge, and Robert Daigle, who developed River Ranch in Lafayette, the state’s first TND, have teamed up for a major project in Lafayette. Keller says he’s going to talk to every Towne Center tenant about opening a location in his Lafayette TND.

What’s new? A survey by a trucking industry magazine says that Louisiana has the worst roads in the country. The Overdrive magazine poll also said that the section of Interstate 10 through the state was the worst segment of road in the U.S.

Changes for Provident: Provident Group, a Baton Rouge-based nonprofit housing development agency, has changed its name and moved its headquarters from Quail Run Drive to Bankers Avenue. The move gives them five times more space. The new name is The Provident Resources Group.

Slow food: A new study by researchers at Pennington Biomedical Research Center found men who ate half as fast as normal ended up eating about 10% less than normal, while there was no difference in how much women consumed when they ate at half-speed. Corby Martin, one of the authors, says the difference could be that women tend to be more aware of how they eat, so they could stop before they’re actually full.

New for the Old: New exhibits are being added to the Old State Capitol over the next few months in an effort to increase the educational component of the building. The new exhibits will spotlight the state’s political history.

Passing planning

Two traditional neighborhood developments were easily approved by the parish Planning Commission at its January meeting. Commissioners approved zoning changes for Americana, a 414-acre TND near Zachary, and La Vie, a 995-acre TND project at Interstate 12 and O’Neal Lane. La Vie has been approved by the Metro Council; Amercana is scheduled to go for approval on Feb. 20. —T.B.

Americana

• Shearwater Group, developer

• 886 low-density units

• 167 medium-density units

• 613 high-density units

• 670,000 square feet of commercial/office space

La Vie

• Robert Day, developer

• 875 single-family lots

• 650 medium-density properties

• 3 million square feet of commercial/office space

• Will include a film studio

Drip, drip, drop

For the second consecutive year, the number of houses sold in the Capital Region dropped because of continuing comparisons with the post-Katrina housing boom. Despite the sales slowdown, there were some bright spots. The average sale price for a home was up 5.5%, from $186,035 in 2006 to $196,352 in 2007. T.B.