There’s a lot happening in Baton Rouge right now.
Julio Melara is the publisher of Business Report.
In our September edition of Business Report alone, we’re writing about a new leader at BREC, work on a conservancy for City Park and the lakes, and plans to rethink the future of the Raising Cane’s River Center.
Then there’s Butch Spyridon.
After 32 years leading the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp., Spyridon is coming back to Baton Rouge to help with the River Center effort. Longtime residents may remember that before Nashville, he led the Baton Rouge Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, now Visit Baton Rouge. He left here in 1991.
A lot has changed since then, in both cities. Nashville’s transformation is well known. Baton Rouge doesn’t need to become Nashville, nor should it try. But there’s something worth learning from a city that figured out how to build on its strengths, create an identity and give people reasons to visit, invest and stay.
That’s really what all of these projects are about.
For years, we’ve talked about keeping more of our young people here, attracting young families, giving businesses the talent they need and creating a city that people are proud to show off when friends, clients or potential recruits come to town. We’ve commissioned the studies, held the meetings, formed the committees and talked through the possibilities.
At some point, talking has to give way to doing.
None of that happens by accident. It happens when a community is willing to invest in itself—its parks and downtown, its public spaces, its entertainment venues, the places where people come together. And investment always comes with some uncertainty.
I’ve been here nearly 30 years, and I’ve watched too many opportunities slip away because we were unwilling to take a risk, bold leadership was lacking or the status quo simply proved easier than change. We can’t keep making the same choice and expect a different result.
At some point, you have to take a risk and step out of your comfort zone. You can study an idea forever, find a dozen reasons to delay it and wait for the perfect plan or the perfect political climate. But cities that move forward eventually have to make a decision and go.
And this can’t be about south Baton Rouge versus north Baton Rouge, Black versus white, Republican versus Democrat, or one community competing against another. This is about the Capital Region rising to its potential. Progress in one part of the region can create opportunity throughout it—but only if we’re willing to see our future as a shared one.
That doesn’t mean we should support every project simply because it’s new. We should ask questions, debate costs and priorities, and expect good planning and accountability. But scrutiny cannot become an excuse for paralysis.
Baton Rouge has become very good at explaining why something can’t be done. And it’s worth asking: When was the last time we brought a truly transformative project to life in this city? The Shaw Center, which opened in March 2005, comes to mind—and that was more than 20 years ago. At some point, we have to become just as good at figuring out how something can be achieved.
We cannot keep saying we want to retain talent, attract families, improve downtown and compete with other cities while resisting the very changes that could help us do it. We can’t demand a different outcome while protecting the status quo at every turn.
The projects underway today won’t solve every challenge facing this region. Some will change. Some may not happen at all. But taken together, they represent something the Capital Region needs a lot more of, and that’s ambition. We should welcome it.
It will take more than government, business leaders or a handful of organizations. It will take all of us being more open to change, more willing to work across the old lines that have divided us, more willing to take risks and more demanding about the kind of community we want to leave to the next generation.
The opportunity is in front of us. We’ve spent a long time talking about what this city could be. It’s time to go build it.
The best is yet to come!
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