It may have taken months to build the pale orange shotgun house on the corner of Elmer and D avenues in the Highland Farms neighborhood in north Baton Rouge, but it took less than five minutes for it to be reduced to a pile of broken wood, cables and glass early Thursday afternoon.
The demolition was part of a tour led by Mayor Sharon Weston Broome that focused on the Blight Strike Team’s efforts to tackle abandoned and blighted properties around the parish.
In East Baton Rouge Parish, there are 6,800 adjudicated properties on the tax roll, and there’s a backlog of 137 homes set for demolition. The parish can demolish 5-9 homes a week, depending on the weather, Broome says.
The strike team, which has partnered with multiple community stakeholders, is working in concentrated areas to address blight and strengthen disinvested neighborhoods, says Bettsie Baker Miller, chair of the strike team.
“Changing a block can change the whole community,” Miller says.
Two blocks north of Magnolia Cemetery, on the corner of Gayosa and 18th streets, Investar Bank has purchased seven lots to build multiple single-family dwellings.
The bank plans to split the lots, so the number of homes to be built remains undecided, but construction on the first home is expected to start in the third quarter of the year. Ultimately, all the homes will be built and sold within the next three years, says Renee Graf, retail manager for Investar Bank.
Back in Highland Farms, Sister Judith Brun, director of the Community Initiative Foundation, has been working with the mayor’s office and the Southern University Law Center to analyze the needs of the neighborhood and address crime and rundown properties.
“Products don’t change people. Relationships change people,” Brun says.
Chris Tyson, with the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority, says he’s working on transit-oriented development along the Plank Road corridor in north Baton Rouge. The road not only has one of the highest pedestrian fatality rates in the state, but also has the highest amount of zero-car households in the city.
“A bus rapid transit system is an opportunity to be a catalyst of change” for the 5-mile blighted Plank Road corridor, Tyson says.
