Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” If we are ever to come to grips with our traffic problem in Baton Rouge, we need new thinking and a resolve to make the tough decisions to turn this thing around.
Let’s not kid ourselves. Baton Rouge’s traffic situation did not invent itself. Everything we see today is by design. Every street, turn lane and traffic signal has an author.
So will the solutions. And those solutions demand expertise, innovation and bold decisions.
But they always have. The question is, can the current class of politicians and planning professionals live up to the task of realistically assessing the situation and thinking for the long term about real solutions.
The optimist in me would like to believe the Green Light Plan is going to make things better. It has helped. But we suffer gridlock daily in certain areas and are not close to where we need to be to handle the future growth forecast.
I also recognize that good planning executed capably on the basis of sufficient funding would be a new experience for most of us here.
We have always been behind the curve and playing catch-up due to lack of courage and political will. Fred Raiford, former head of DPW (appointed only after the job requirement that the position be filled by an engineer was removed by Mayor Tom Ed McHugh), once told me that the folks downtown never thought the city would grow past College Drive. So much for vision or planning.
Local folklore (which happens to be true) has it that years ago, two homeowners in Highland Creek called a legislator during the session to remove the appropriation for extending Staring Lane from Highland Road to Burbank Drive because they didn’t want it coming by their home. It was deleted, and we suffered with the dogleg created to Gardere Lane. Recently Staring was extended as it should have been years ago. The original plan was finally enacted years later and at an additional cost that probably ran into the millions. Insane.
If only this were an isolated incident from a bygone era. You probably have your own list of bonehead planning moves. Here are a couple of infamous examples:
Kenilworth Boulevard was to be extended from Perkins Road to tie into the back of Hennessey Boulevard and pass by Our Lady of the Lake to Essen Lane. A single homeowner on Pikes Lane didn’t want the public thoroughfare coming by his backyard, so the road and railroad crossing was placed one block down, creating another of our infamous doglegs that backs up traffic with another signal, often blocking cars from turning off Kenilworth onto Perkins. And the turn lane from Perkins onto Kenilworth backs up and blocks northbound traffic on Perkins. More insanity. And all too familiar.
And how about Lee Drive. Why isn’t it four lanes yet? Why in the world, when College is five lanes to the northeast and West Lee is four lanes to the southwest is the connecting Lee Drive from Perkins to Highland only two? Stanford Avenue is four. Staring will be four soon. Bluebonnet is four. Siegen is four. So why is Lee two? Who takes ownership for this insanity and poor planning?
We know Highland Road will always be two lanes, and that is why a four-lane Burbank was built. But if we accept that Highland Road is a special case, how can we then allow so many single-entrance subdivisions (and I live in one) to dump all their traffic onto Highland? Are there no standards?
Another of my favorite repeat offenders is all the dead-end streets. They would have been arterial connectors except that somebody who wanted their quiet neighborhood with the shady cul-de-sac had the proper pull downtown. I don’t want to deny anyone the opportunity to live peacefully, but from a planning standpoint, this is another really bad idea.
I haven’t even mentioned the interstate, a federal highway Baton Rouge confuses with Main Street. We could plausibly build a loop to get the truck traffic out of the heart of the city. But that won’t do anything to reduce the crushing load of commuter and local traffic on I-10.
I could lament all the variances given over and over again by the Planning Commission and/or the Metro Council to a favored few. Or how Raiford allowed the sidewalk on Corporate Boulevard over the canal by CitiPlace to be built to serve only The Gates Apartments instead of the general public. (Look at this “bridge to nowhere” next time you drive by.) We are punished every day for poor decisions made for the wrong reasons by people who knew better.
That is why positions like head of the Planning and Zoning Commission and DPW (and Traffic Planning) are so important—and so powerful.
We are currently in a search for a new person to head our Planning and Zoning Department, and we need the best—and we should be willing to pay for it. We will surely pay if we hire someone who makes the kind of decisions that have us in the position we see today.
But even if we have the right people in these positions, it will come to nothing if our elected leaders view traffic planning and street development as their personal sandbox. I do not intend this as a blanket indictment, but the mayor-president, Metro Council and legislators must demonstrate the courage and will to listen to real planning experts, develop a vision based on the greater good, and then stick with it. Any plan that can be tampered with to please or profit a few homeowners or a developer is less than worthless. In fact, it is very costly.
Should we be flexible in our planning? Of course. If the fundamentals change, so should the planning. But we shouldn’t change sound plans to satisfy the whims of one person or even a whole neighborhood. Baton Rouge is a city, not a closed fraternity where brothers do each other special favors.
We as citizens, all of us, share some responsibility, too. We didn’t THINK BIG either. We didn’t demand the planning be done and followed. We didn’t believe in the future and approve a bond issue years ago when we could have put in the right infrastructure in the right way and for a lot less.
There is lots of blame to go around. And it can’t all be laid at the feet of city-parish government. We should recognize the role that the wholesale flight to the suburbs to avoid bad schools played in our current mess.
We all know traffic stinks, and we have way too many problems for a town our size. But we are reaping what we sowed.
I don’t have the answer. I know our history, and I agree with Einstein. Our thinking (and decisions) have to change from the past to solve our problems for the future.
Justice of the Peace: Larry Spencer
Small-businessman Larry Spencer, a Republican, finished first in the primary. This is Spencer’s first run for public office, and he is a man of character with a fine record of serving others. He and his family have lived in the district for years. This was a clear choice. Larry Spencer has a sincere desire to be a public servant as justice of the peace. He deserves your vote.
I must also inform you that the opponent, EBR school board member Jerry Arbour, whom voters have rejected multiple times for a judgeship, recently rented an apartment in the district and changed his registration so he could run for this office. He has been an embarrassment on the school board and blocked reforms for children. And in this past week he has resorted to negative attacks on a good man. Arbour should be ashamed.
West Feliciana Parish President: Kevin Couhig
Businessman and entrepreneur Kevin Couhig, a Republican, has experience working in state government as an assistant secretary of economic development. This is his first run for public office. West Feliciana needs economic development, and that is Couhig’s strength. Developing the tax base in West Feliciana is critical to supporting its fine school system. Kevin Couhig is the right choice.
