Last year’s Miss USA pageant was a big success for the Capital City, bringing in revenue along with valuable national and international exposure for Baton Rouge. We all expected an encore for 2015.
But no one expected Donald Trump to run off the TV networks, sponsors, judges and co-hosts from this year’s event. (Of course, not many are surprised that his mouth got him in trouble.)
Regardless of the fiasco and difficulties created by Trump, the 51 contestants are here in our city along with their families and friends, and we need to welcome them all and deliver another wonderful experience with the best in Southern hospitality, including great food, good times and lots of smiling faces. Our reputation is still on the line.
We want to once again prove to the contestants and guests what a great place Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is to visit and have them leave as ambassadors, saying, “Trump is a zero, but Baton Rouge was a 10!” We want them to know Baton Rouge is a class act that can rise above the circumstances and show them all a good time—and put on an outstanding pageant on July 12. It is an opportunity for us to shine.
This extreme situation created by Trump has moved this “entertainment event” from the TV screen onto the “international news stage.” Baton Rouge is in the spotlight. There will be a time later to discuss the agreement and funding, but this week, the show must go on and our community must rise to meet the challenge as the world watches.
TRAFFIC WOES
The prospects don’t look good for solutions to our ongoing traffic nightmare. A recent nationwide report by The Associated Press showed the average travel time to work for the Baton Rouge metro area was higher than the national average at 26.9 minutes. That’s almost an hour a day. The report said we have 360,000 commuters, with 85% driving alone, 9% in a carpool and just 1% using public transit.
A big problem in our community is that many drivers use the interstate as “main street” to get from the suburbs or outlying parishes to downtown where they work. Many use it to cross the bridge to an industrial plant, and bottlenecks on the bridges ripple throughout the city.
Of course, much of this “traffic problem” is not an infrastructure issue but a school issue. So many people commute from Ascension, Livingston, Central, Zachary and West Feliciana because of schools for their kids. If they could live in town near a great neighborhood school, they wouldn’t be spending an hour on I-10 or I-12 every day.
I see many new homes going up and thousands of apartments—but very few new roads. And we can’t even spell “synchronization” in this town. We just add another turn lane. It doesn’t work.
We have one-entrance subdivisions, train tracks going through town and have done a very poor job of long-range planning, anticipating the future growth. There is very little evidence of vision over the past 40 years.
We have talked about a new bridge, loops and closing the Washington Street exit on I-10 to allow two lanes off the new bridge for decades, but we’ve never made a decision. There are lots of ideas and opinions, and I am not sure what the solution is.
Our elected leaders—and residents—have made this bed over decades, and now we are lying in it. And it is very uncomfortable. But as Baton Rouge continues to grow, the problem grows with it—and I expect the commute time will, too.
GOVERNOR’S FIELD COMPLETE?
We have just over three months before we go to the polls and vote for the next governor. State Rep. John Bel Edwards, the lone major Democrat in the race, is hoping to capture the Democratic vote and make the runoff. With demographics now showing our state has a more than 40% minority population—mostly voting Democrat—Edwards has a good shot if he can just keep other Democrats out. Two blacks have flirted with the race: prosecutor and attorney Tony Clayton and retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré. Edwards had to be concerned, as each would have taken votes from the Democrat and may have cost him a runoff spot. Both Clayton and Honoré have decided not to run.
Edwards quickly issued a statement last week about Honoré, saying, “I will ensure that his leadership experience is a resource we do not waste in my administration.” Does that mean we can expect to see an “appointment” of Honoré to possibly a cabinet position if Edwards wins? Honoré says he isn’t ready to endorse a candidate but isn’t ruling it out. Keep your eye on this.
So has Edwards dodged all the bullets that might split his Democratic vote and cost him a spot in the runoff? Maybe. While everyone thinks the field is set, there is still one question mark out there: John Georges. The Advocate publisher and former independent candidate for governor—who spent more than $10 million of his personal funds last time—could still get in the race. His last race was for mayor of New Orleans as a Democrat, and while he has seemed reluctant to run for governor this year, he has indicated to friends that he would make a final decision this summer. Edwards will have to sweat it out.
MORE TO THE STORY
You may have read recently about the LSU tenured professor, Teresa Buchanan, who was fired. I am on the LSU Board of Supervisors so I am familiar with the case. But if you got your information online from one of the two stories below, you are misinformed and maybe offended as well. Both—one in a liberal and one in a libertarian publication—tell only part of the story. Both also use the “F-word” in their stories, which should reveal their bias in favor of Buchanan. Their headlines show that they miss the point, and that they are trying to make this serious matter trite.
The headlines were:
“LSU Prof Fired for Telling Jokes Is Latest Victim of College Anti-Sex Hysteria” [Reason Magazine]
“Academia’s P.C. Brigade Has Started Policing the F-Word. That’s Taking It Too Effing Far.” [Slate]
These articles are not only very simplistic, they’re also inaccurate.
LSU finally got fed up with misleading stories and responded last week, saying, “Recent news reports about the termination of one of LSU’s professors have not been entirely factual. Teresa Buchanan was not terminated due to isolated incidents. LSU has documented evidence of a history of inappropriate behavior that included verbal abuse, intimidation and harassment of our students.”
LSU said, “Dr. Buchanan created a consistently hostile and abusive environment in the classroom. Additionally, she was asked not to return to more than one elementary school in the Baton Rouge area within the last three years because of her inappropriate behavior.”
LSU concluded, “We believe it’s important to state the facts in order to correct some misperceptions regarding this issue. This case is not about the rights of tenured professors or academic freedom, as some of the press have reported. LSU had an obligation to take action.”
The LSU board agreed and supported LSU President F. King Alexander’s decision.
