Editor: The face of La. poverty will shock you

While Baton Rouge has replaced New Orleans as the most populated metropolitan area in Louisiana in the 2010 census figures, so too has it supplanted the Crescent City as the city with the highest concentration of poor people in the state. The rate of concentrated poverty in Baton Rouge has soared by roughly 22% over the past decade—the eighth-fastest growth rate among the nation’s largest cities. In short, “We are the face of poverty in Louisiana,” says Business Report Executive Editor JR Ball. “This, of course, will come as an absolute shock to you. That’s because readers of this publication tend to be business executives, tend to be in an upper-middle-income bracket or higher, tend to be white and tend to live in faux French Country homes, many along Highland Road and almost all well south of Florida Boulevard. We, in the white community, have fared pretty well during the nation’s economic downturn, which is why the Baton Rouge Area Chamber can tout all those fabulous stats about how prosperous the region has been while other cities have suffered. Tell that, however, to the black community, living largely in high-poverty neighborhoods squeezed between Florida Boulevard and the cities of Baker and Zachary.” Read the full column here. Send your comments to editors@businessreport.com.