Would you rather elect officials who have a vision and ideas and are proactive in pursuing them, or ones who just react when a problem comes to light—that may have been prevented?
“Easy answer for me,” writes Business Report Publisher Rolfe McCollister in his latest column. “But lately I have seen more evidence of knee-jerk responses by local politicians—Mayor Kip Holden and the Metro Council—to some issues that have been around for years or even decades. Who is looking ahead?”
McCollister points to the controversial barge cleaning facility proposed by the levee on River Road across from BREC’s Farr Park as the latest example. Along with Riverbend residents, Mayor Kip Holden and LSU President F. King Alexander have called for the project to be reconsidered, and the Metro Council is taking steps to attempt to have the property rezoned, effectively killing the project.
“But I want to address the bigger picture of why politicians are just getting involved in the 11th hour, when this ‘barge’ issue began in 2013,” writes McCollister. “Does anyone at city-parish track Department of Environmental Quality permit applications that mention an East Baton Rouge site (filed in February)? Does anyone track land developments on other public land that is outside the Planning & Zoning and Metro Council process (for example, land owned by the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, etc.)? It appears not. (This is something our officials should fix.)”
Instead, McCollister says, our elected officials wait until a storm brews, people scream and it hits the media, getting the spotlight—and then the politicians appear.
“Councilman John Delgado is best at this,” McCollister writes. “Blast the culprits and lay blame. File a motion to change the zoning. But wait; hasn’t this site been zoned ‘heavy industrial’ for decades? Who was asleep at the wheel here while this company and the port spent almost two years going through the process? Did anyone examine the zoning along the levee when we began talking years ago about a bike path on top going for miles? Once again, it appears not.”
Read the full column, in which McCollister also touches on the battle scars from St. George incorporation effort and the antics of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.
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