Rich White people of Baton Rouge propose segregation.. err secession. New City of St.George.
17 replies, posted
[url]http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/01/affluent-white-residents-of-south-baton-rouge-propose-seceding-from-citys-poor-black-northern-areas/[/url]
[QUOTE]The predominantly white and wealthy residents of the southern area of Baton Rouge have proposed seceding from the city proper and incorporating into a new one to be called “St. George.”
The movement began as an effort to create a new school district, but after the state legislature repeatedly mothballed its proposals — claiming that they could not approve an independent school district that was unaffiliated with a city — organizers shifted their energies to the creation of “St. George.”
The new city would be the fifth largest in the state, with over 107,000 residents, and would include two of the largest tax revenue bases in the state: Perkins Rowe and the Mall of Louisiana. A study by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber concluded that Baton Rouge residents “will be disproportionately paying taxes to the proposed municipality,” given city governance’s reliance on sales tax revenues.
If the succession were successful, the study claimed, it “could entail the dissolution of the present system of governance.”
The demographic shift the incorporation of “St. George” would create is almost as troubling as the economic difficulties. According to recent study on the demographic impact of Hurricane Katrina, the city of Baton Rouge accepted over 200,000 displaced New Orleans residents, the majority of whom were black and settled in the northern, urban parts of the city.
The “St. George” proposal would create a poor, black, and urban Baton Rouge and a wealthy, white, and suburban “St. George.” Supporters of the new city brush off such complaints. “Typical..."[/QUOTE]
These comments are pretty great.
What a terrible idea, it would fuck up Baton Rouge having their biggest tax base piss off and do their own thing, especially with the bit about them accepting so many people after Katrina.
And you know what exactly about Louisiana/Baton Rouge?
The "biggest tax base" of baton rouge is the chemical plants and refineries on the north side like exxonmobil, not perkins rowe and the mall.
It's not about "race". People really need to stop with the bullshit. Until you drive through the entirety of Baton Rouge for yourself and see it for yourself, please stop with the "race" bs.
It's really about class. Upperclass whats to split away from the lower class because the lower class area of BR is just trashy.
[QUOTE=Silence I Kill You;43054276]And you know what exactly about Louisiana/Baton Rouge?
The "biggest tax base" of baton rouge is the chemical plants and refineries on the north side like exxonmobil, not perkins rowe and the mall.
It's not about "race". People really need to stop with the bullshit. Until you drive through the entirety of Baton Rouge for yourself and see it for yourself, please stop with the "race" bs.
It's really about class. Upperclass whats to split away from the lower class because the lower class area of BR is just trashy.[/QUOTE]
So fix the trash.
The break-wall never stops the tide. The only thing which counters the tide is getting rid of the trashyness, fixing the problems of those people, and restoring a sense of unity within the community.
Yeah, after going to BR for school, I learned a good bit about that place. It has a lot of growing pains - in a trip from point A to point B, you can find yourself going through some of the most posh mansion rows to absolute roll-your-windows-up-and-drive level slums in a single trip. There are parts that are practically a boomtown and others that are essentially choked off and dead, it's like a lively new city carving its way out of a carcass of an old one. The duality is really striking.
[QUOTE=Silence I Kill You;43054276]
It's really about class. Upperclass whats to split away from the lower class because the lower class area of BR is just trashy.[/QUOTE]
Hopefully this thinking doesn't spread to the national level.
[QUOTE=Silence I Kill You;43054276]
It's really about class. Upperclass whats to split away from the lower class because the lower class area of BR is just trashy.[/QUOTE]
ew, poor people! i cant [i]stand[/i] how trashy they are! why dont they just [i]stop[/i] being poor? we better get away from them
[QUOTE=Zukriuchen;43055970]ew, poor people! i cant [i]stand[/i] how trashy they are! why dont they just [i]stop[/i] being poor? we better get away from them[/QUOTE]
They're not going anywhere so I don't see how this is applicable...
[QUOTE=Zukriuchen;43055970]ew, poor people! i cant [i]stand[/i] how trashy they are! why dont they just [i]stop[/i] being poor? we better get away from them[/QUOTE]
Imho the way I understand it, this essentially stemmed from a wish to create a school district first, which was being blocked.
In a sense you can't really block people from some level of self governance and if the majority of people in the area want to form a new district, than they usually tend to have the right to do so in a plebiscit.
[quote]It's really about class. Upperclass whats to split away from the lower class because the lower class area of BR is just trashy.[/quote]
It doesn't do a body harm to bring yourself down to the level of an average joe (or below average joe if this applies) to see life from their point of view as well you know.
Those of us who are better off are, if you ask me, obligated to try and do something for those who happen to be less fortunate than they are.
At the same time, counting the less fortunate as trash just because of what they are isn't that nice either. Some of them might, by any standard, be genuinely trash - it's definitely a thing - but at the same time, we shouldn't try to generalize all the average folk as being beneath our notice as well.
[QUOTE=Silence I Kill You;43054276]And you know what exactly about Louisiana/Baton Rouge?
The "biggest tax base" of baton rouge is the chemical plants and refineries on the north side like exxonmobil, not perkins rowe and the mall.
It's not about "race". People really need to stop with the bullshit. Until you drive through the entirety of Baton Rouge for yourself and see it for yourself, please stop with the "race" bs.
It's really about class. Upperclass whats to split away from the lower class because the lower class area of BR is just trashy.[/QUOTE]
For many people, classism is partly racism, because they associate people who aren't white with being poor.
[I]Especially[/I] in Louisiana. I was born there, half of my family is from there, and I've made many trips back since moving away. My grandfather used to let the KKK puts signs on his property, and he didn't even live in some backwater town.
[QUOTE=Zukriuchen;43055970]ew, poor people! i cant [i]stand[/i] how trashy they are! why dont they just [i]stop[/i] being poor? we better get away from them[/QUOTE]
Don't touch that bum, honey
You might catch the poor
I'd hate to play devil's advocate here but the way that Louisiana education has become, there is a decent argument to be made. (In relation to wanting to create a new school district/municipal body)
Let's say you work in your state's capital, and you make a decent living, but not good enough to send your kids to private school, esp. the same schools where the local political elite send their kids. Instead, you have to look at public schools. Your kid is average, so he can't get a scholarship to a private school, and even if he was smart, you aren't poor enough for your child to apply for a (legally questionable) public grant to go to a private school. Your charter school, which is a 'private' public school, is full up this year and that requires some aptitude to gain entry. Instead, you send your kid to what is now a hell of a public school system, since the education system in your state has effectively and systematically skimmed off the top performers! Your child, instead of getting a good education, gets a poor one with kids that mostly hate school and come from rough neighborhoods. Instead of getting an education that will help him move up, he'll more then likely slip down and his prospects of the future will slip with it. Since the area is considered a poor performance zone in an income mixed area, test score requirements will be laxer and the school he attends will be filled with statistically the worst performers from everyone that lives in the district.
Well that sucks. What can you do to avoid that? Move out of the city? Not really in the cards as your entire life and employment lies in the capital, and there's no well developed commuter transportation in the state. Because of where your house is, you are stuck in your school district.
Since school districts have a huge impact on just about everything education wise, and your district is defunct or filled with a voting base that chooses name or political party over qualification, it's not unreasonable why you might want to create a better district then the one you're stuck with.
Yes, there are racial undertones here, but with the way things have become in Louisiana, the people really getting squeezed the worst are the middle class that aspire to be more, regardless of their color.
[QUOTE=Major_Vice;43058844]I'd hate to play devil's advocate here but the way that Louisiana education has become, there is a decent argument to be made. (In relation to wanting to create a new school district/municipal body)
Let's say you work in your state's capital, and you make a decent living, but not good enough to send your kids to private school, esp. the same schools where the local political elite send their kids. Instead, you have to look at public schools. Your kid is average, so he can't get a scholarship to a private school, and even if he was smart, you aren't poor enough for your child to apply for a (legally questionable) public grant to go to a private school. Your charter school, which is a 'private' public school, is full up this year and that requires some aptitude to gain entry. Instead, you send your kid to what is now a hell of a public school system, since the education system in your state has effectively and systematically skimmed off the top performers! Your child, instead of getting a good education, gets a poor one with kids that mostly hate school and come from rough neighborhoods. Instead of getting an education that will help him move up, he'll more then likely slip down and his prospects of the future will slip with it. Since the area is considered a poor performance zone in an income mixed area, test score requirements will be laxer and the school he attends will be filled with statistically the worst performers from everyone that lives in the district.
Well that sucks. What can you do to avoid that? Move out of the city? Not really in the cards as your entire life and employment lies in the capital, and there's no well developed commuter transportation in the state. Because of where your house is, you are stuck in your school district.
Since school districts have a huge impact on just about everything education wise, and your district is defunct or filled with a voting base that chooses name or political party over qualification, it's not unreasonable why you might want to create a better district then the one you're stuck with.
Yes, there are racial undertones here, but with the way things have become in Louisiana, the people really getting squeezed the worst are the middle class that aspire to be more, regardless of their color.[/QUOTE]
This kid gets it. I think once you live in a place with a crime/poverty/etc problem, you develop a new respect for trying to hold your ground in a pretty fucked up place. I've lived in Jackson, MS for 20 years and the fact of the matter is that you CAN NOT walk in a lot of places without being scared for your life. Six of my good friends have been mugged (some of them multiple times) and two carjacked in places 5-20 minutes away from my home. My family makes a good living in a good neighborhood, but the class gap is so fucking big that bridging that gap seems absolutely impossible right now. Simply put, with the economy and employment the way that it is, there doesn't seem to be much we can do within a practical timespan. Living in little pockets of safety amongst a crime-flooded area fucking sucks. You can't blame people for trying to get some breathing room.
And race has nothing to do with it, it's the inevitable and overwhelming crime rates that come with mass poverty and displacement that's the problem here.
I think a lot of people may have misunderstood what I said. When I said "trashy", I was not referring to the people, because while there are some pretty trashy people, most are good stand-up people. I'm referring to the actual view of the towns themselves. The roads are full of potholes, the signal lights barely work, and there isn't enough tax income from businesses or traffic to warrant the fixes. There dozens upon dozens of houses that are/should be condemned, and even then, nobody does anything with them. When you drive through, the physical appearance is..... well, trashy. I'm not trying to talk down about it, but it is what it is.
The northern part was once the MAJOR part of Baton Rouge. There was no essen, siegen, bluebonnet, or perkins. People started to expand outwards, building big subdivisions with big, nice houses, as well as putting a lot of businesses and strip-malls on the outskirts of town. Eventually, the outskirts got pushed farther and farther away from the original Baton Rouge. Since these were all small additions, they were not that big of a deal, until now.
Basically, what has happened now, is that Baton Rouge has expaned beyond it's logical zoning. The children of the people who bought these big nice houses in nice subdivisions are stuck traveling a long way to get to overcrowded public schools. Now, add to that fire the rift between the middle/upper class people who want say-so in their children's education, and the middle/lower class from the other area who are in control of what happens.
And it's not that people aren't trying to help in the poorer communities. ExxonMobil has been funding and providing labor for "habitat for humanity" projects in the area (my dad gets a day off every year to go help out, and he does). Several church groups are going into these communities, even with the fear of being shot or mugged, and actively TRYING to help out. It's just the shell of what was baton rouge that's left there, while the city moved on and moved elsewhere. People don't want to open up a shop in a neighborhood where they HAVE to put roll down doors so they don't get robbed, and still get held up at gunpoint. People don't want to move into neighborhoods where you can get the shit beat out of you for "being in the wrong neighborhood". Crime and neglect have taken over.
But that's just how it is. People move into neighborhoods that they can afford and can provide them with what they want. So if a bunch of rich people all move in in the same area, why can't they have their own town and school district if there are enough of them and they have enough tax revenue from businesses to cover it? That's where they live, it's where they spend their money, shouldn't they have a say-so in the services they pay for in taxes? just kinda throwing that out there....
[QUOTE=Silence I Kill You;43059489]I think a lot of people may have misunderstood what I said. When I said "trashy", I was not referring to the people, because while there are some pretty trashy people, most are good stand-up people. I'm referring to the actual view of the towns themselves. The roads are full of potholes, the signal lights barely work, and there isn't enough tax income from businesses or traffic to warrant the fixes. There dozens upon dozens of houses that are/should be condemned, and even then, nobody does anything with them. When you drive through, the physical appearance is..... well, trashy. I'm not trying to talk down about it, but it is what it is.
The northern part was once the MAJOR part of Baton Rouge. There was no essen, siegen, bluebonnet, or perkins. People started to expand outwards, building big subdivisions with big, nice houses, as well as putting a lot of businesses and strip-malls on the outskirts of town. Eventually, the outskirts got pushed farther and farther away from the original Baton Rouge. Since these were all small additions, they were not that big of a deal, until now.
Basically, what has happened now, is that Baton Rouge has expaned beyond it's logical zoning. The children of the people who bought these big nice houses in nice subdivisions are stuck traveling a long way to get to overcrowded public schools. Now, add to that fire the rift between the middle/upper class people who want say-so in their children's education, and the middle/lower class from the other area who are in control of what happens.
And it's not that people aren't trying to help in the poorer communities. ExxonMobil has been funding and providing labor for "habitat for humanity" projects in the area (my dad gets a day off every year to go help out, and he does). Several church groups are going into these communities, even with the fear of being shot or mugged, and actively TRYING to help out. It's just the shell of what was baton rouge that's left there, while the city moved on and moved elsewhere. People don't want to open up a shop in a neighborhood where they HAVE to put roll down doors so they don't get robbed, and still get held up at gunpoint. People don't want to move into neighborhoods where you can get the shit beat out of you for "being in the wrong neighborhood". Crime and neglect have taken over.
But that's just how it is. People move into neighborhoods that they can afford and can provide them with what they want. So if a bunch of rich people all move in in the same area, why can't they have their own town and school district if there are enough of them and they have enough tax revenue from businesses to cover it? That's where they live, it's where they spend their money, shouldn't they have a say-so in the services they pay for in taxes? just kinda throwing that out there....[/QUOTE]
Habitat for Humanity is pretty great, I've worked with them a few times, nice to hear your family helps too.
The problems being created are the same ones that always occur after white flight, and they're the same ones my current city is suffering from now. People move out of the city, businesses lose revenue and buildings fall into disrepair, and more people leave as a result. Eventually, the city sprawls out way too much, so you get more commuters, less public transportation, you have to make more infrastructure, which means you can't invest in fixing the inner city. The original suburbs are now falling into disrepair as people move further out, and the processes continues.
I totally understand you're point, it's just that further expansion isn't going to solve anything, and it will probably make things worse.
It is time to call the federal troops!
[video=youtube;A5ra9cXx1-o]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5ra9cXx1-o[/video]
Edit: I am stupid
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