B.R. to target blight with new enforcement code

Blight and crime go together, so when the former is rubbed out, the latter often ebbs away. That’s the reasoning behind a new initiative from the mayor’s office and the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority, which are working together to eradicate blight throughout the city in conjunction with Project BRAVE. With a new enforcement code that could be introduced to the Metro Council before the end of the year, the mayor’s office and RDA are targeting dilapidated structures and overgrown lots from the 70805 ZIP code to Tigerland. William Daniel, chief administrative officer to Mayor Kip Holden, says the enforcement code may or may not be a new ordinance, but will be a strengthening of state laws against blight that already exist. “And I think we’re going to get more aggressive with them,” Daniel says. New Orleans in the past couple of years has had success fighting blight, says Daniel, and so have other large cities such as Baltimore. A nonprofit agency that helped those two cities strengthen their enforcement codes is helping Baton Rouge design its own. “We’re just in the beginning stages,” says Mark Goodson, vice president of the RDA. By means of liens, fines and fees established through litter court, blight perpetrators will be held more accountable to clean up their property. “We can go knock down a house, but that just makes us have to come back and cut the yard again—it doesn’t do much for the community,” Daniel says. The fines and fees, Goodson says, will basically fund code enforcement. —Adam Pearson