LSU Homecoming or Ocktoberfest?

On Saturday you could do the Ump pah pah or the RAH RAH RAH in Baton Rouge. LSU won.

The Airport

(I'm not sure what has happened to my last couple of days blogs but luckily I had handwritten a portion of one so I'll retype it.)

I remember what Ryan Airport looked like when I was a child. You'd walk into a room with a concrete floor and immediately to your right was a single window where a ticket agent raised a real window to help you with your flight tickets. I remember people just milling around. There may have been one vending machine, the type with the steel knobs you pulled really hard and then your candy dropped (thud) into the tray. Possibly there was a cigarette machine, maybe not. I was too young to think of people smoking. I'm sure there was a pay telephone in there...it may have been a phone booth. The luggage tags said RYN.

I was born in 1952 but growing up I only knew it as Ryan Airport. It had changed from Harding Field in 1954. As Harding Field it was a military installation that provided flight training during World War II. It was renamed after Captain William Joseph Ryan.

In 1981 it was renamed again and a strategic long range plan began. Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport was born and today, in 2005, it is a marvelous 2 story facility. Now, don't start looking for RYN luggage tags... they are now marked BTR!

We just went to Pittsburgh through Atlanta. The Pittsburgh Airport is very nice. They have a very strict scanning code straight out of some futuristic movie. Then, Atlanta was down right spooky. The place was overcrowded and under construction while we were in it. This is a time when the Airlines are moving into corporate reorganization and bankruptcy. We used to board large planes. Now we squeeze into small seats on teeny planes for longer trips. They are having to cut corners. It shows. Delta no longer goes from Baton Rouge to Dallas! Well, in time all things will pass.

LSU WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?

Sylvia Weatherspoon of WBRZ- Channel 2 News last night reported that LSU's infirmary received 2000 doses of the flu virus and is giving it FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE to kids or people who show up! HOW TOTALLY IRRESPONSIBLE! With the country daily running news reports of hospitals and other medical facilities running out of the flu virus for high risk people (like the elderly), how can the administrator at this LSU facility justify having no screening process... not working hand-in-hand with the rest of the Baton Rouge medical community? This person needs to be reviewed in the harshest way.

AND to pour salt on a wound...our youngsters at the correctional institutes are getting them and even some of the prison population. WHO IS DOING THE THINKING? Do you have a case of the DumbA__ or What?

Going D O W N T O W N

Yesterday I drove downtown for the first time in a very long time. I drove past the Court House. You could feel 'death' down there. The Derrick Todd Lee Serial Murder Trial is currently going on. He was found guilty on the murder of Murray Pace day before yesterday. It was an eerie feeling down there. They have reached the sentencing stage and in only minutes we'll know what his fate will be. That is the big news story on the stations today.

Much has changed downtown. New buildlings have gone up and more are under construction. Streets were busy with folks going in and out of restaurants. Many of them were sitting outside at little tables. It was surprising for the middle of the afternoon. As a child, there were three movie theaters downtown. There was the Hart, the Gordon and the Paramount. Anyone who was a lifelong citizen of Baton Rouge knew it was a mistake to demolish the Hart and Paramount when they did. However, it was before the age of preservation had truly set in. Also, fun to visit was a Piccadilly located on Third Street where a new restaurant now is trying to make a go of it. I can remember shopping in Rosenfields with my mother.

There are somethings that may have changed a little but the flavor of them haven't and that is why I included this photo. It is of North Blvd. It is how I remember the street. I'm sure it must be wider or a different pavement but it is how I think back on it.

Uh oh, where'd the money go?

Today marks the creation of the Baton Rouge Blog. These comments will be mine and mine alone unless I have "guest bloggers" or borrow things as examples. I've lived here all my life and seen the city in various stages. Baton Rouge is a great place to live. Our weather is fabulous many times of the year (like today) and the times it is so hot and humid you can't breathe? Well, I just go inside into the air condition. Everyone has air condition in their homes and cars.

As a child I can remember my father telling me that in 20 years Jefferson Hwy would be widened to a 4 lane Highway. He was correct. He must have seen the plans or known who was involved. Currently 4 lanes with a middle turning lane, the road is a nightmare of a traffic jam beginning at 3 in the afternoon. But most of Baton Rouge is gridlock during some part of the day. That goes for our overloaded interstate as well.

We are saddled with a 9% sales tax but with a very low property tax. I remember years ago being at the now defunct United Companies in the President's Office. I asked him about Property Tax and he pulled out an envelope stuffed full of cash that was earmarked for the Assessor's Office! It was no surprise to me when the Assessor committed suicide years later. That office is setup for under the table money just as was the Commisioner of Insurance's. Louisiana politic's is notorious and well deservedly. Just look at Edwin Edwards and his son finally being sent to prison. Obviously they were guilty, amazingly they were "found guilty and sentenced".

If the money we raise through taxes and the like hasn't been spent on our streets, then perhaps it has been spent on our schools you say? Anyone from here knows that we are at the bottom of the rung when it comes to public education. No, our school system in Baton Rouge is really a parochial/privatized system with a lame public system. Our money hasn't been put there.

We've been though Dumas, Screen, McHugh and Simpson in my lifetime. That is three from outside the Greater Baton Rouge area and one from within. It appears that, looking at the city today, someone didn't have much long range vision. I don't believe that was Pat Screen in my heart of hearts. He had many problems but lack of vision didn't seem to be one of them.

We have a mayoral election coming up. I'm truly not sure who I will vote for at this time. We don't have 20 years to fix the problems that are here today.

If you remember how quickly that company came in and fixed (UNDER BUDGET) the interstate a few years ago, then you'll agree with me that someone can help us now. I also don't think traveling to all of these cities is the answer. I personally think that is funny. As an marketing consultant for over 20 years I never had to look at other things to get ideas for my client. I suppose if there were specific systems that worked in various areas or cities that would be one thing, but Baton Rouge is Baton Rouge. We have to concentrate on coming up with our uniqueness and not trying to copy that of other cities.

Later.