Getting in: Local real estate broker Darryl Gissel will announce his candidacy for Baton Rouge mayor at an 11 a.m. press conference on Tuesday at 728 North Blvd. According to a news release, Gissel, the Louisiana Republican Party’s former executive director, will run as a No Party candidate. Gissel also will introduce three campaign co-chairs who represent different areas of the community. In February, Gissel told Daily Report the mayor’s race should focus on improving the quality of life in Baton Rouge. “We have made a lot of progress in our city over the past eight years but we still face big challenges that affect the quality of life for all of us,” Gissel said at the time. Other announced candidates include: former state Sen. Sharon Weston Broome, Metro Councilman John Delgado, Sen. Mack “Bodi” White and former Southern University Athletic Director Greg LaFleur.
Together again: More than 100 business and community leaders will reconvene for an Urban Congress at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Baton Rouge Community College’s Bienvenue Student Center. The congress, hosted by urban renewal nonprofit MetroMorphosis, will map out its multiyear strategy for addressing issues and assess current policies impacting black men and boys living in Baton Rouge. The congress first met April 16. After Tuesday’s meeting, it will begin meeting monthly. “This first meeting will allow us to recap the congress and present the organizational structure. We will provide resources to ensure the groups get off to a strong start and make meaningful progress over the next year,” says The Rev. Raymond Jetson, MetroMorphosis president and CEO.
On hold: The city of New Orleans has delayed the bid process for the removal of Confederate monuments because of an ongoing court case in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. WWL-TV reports the bids were supposed to be open today. The decision to remove four monuments celebrating Confederate era figures or events, as well as the bid process to remove them, has been marked by controversy and court hearings. The city council voted late last year to declare as nuisances the Robert E. Lee statue at Lee Circle, The P.G.T. Beauregard statue near City Park, the Jefferson Davis Memorial on Jefferson Davis Parkway and the monument to the Battle of Liberty Place tucked away off of Canal Street. H&O Investments of Baton Rouge was hired to remove the monuments but backed out of the job after its employees received death threats and businesses threatened to cancel existing contracts with the company. Read the full story.
