NeighborWorks America, a nonprofit created by Congress to support community revitalization, has donated $675,000 over the last two years that the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, the Center for Planning Excellence and other partners have leveraged into $2.5 million to improve Old South Baton Rouge, officials said today. That money has gone to home and business rehabilitation, home ownership counseling, and predevelopment work in eight target areas. But much work remains to turn around the blight-ridden area between LSU and downtown.
“While I’m not shouting [with joy] yet, I am smiling,” Metro Councilwoman Tara Wicker says. “People are tired of going to meetings. They’re tired of talking about the progress. It’s time to move this thing forward and get some things done.”
BRAF says more than $150 million has been invested in Old South in the past decade, including new condos and apartments near LSU, a new library, a Head Start center and a community center. The parks system has revamped City Park, and an $18.6 million federal HOPE VI grant has replaced housing projects with single-family homes, although only 48 houses were built, not the 127 officials originally hoped for. To read a longer version of the story, click here.—David Jacobs
