Thoughts on St. George City? (Baton Rouge, Zachary: sales, 2014, homes)

[southseeker]

I'm surprised there hasn't been a lot of discussion about this here. How do people feel about it? For those that don't know, the unincorporated area of St. George wants to make it's own city. The area will roughly stretch from Essen, a bit of the Burbank area, and back towards Ascension Parish. In other words, a good bit of south Baton Rouge. I admittedly don't know a whole lot about the situation other than their desire to not be apart of the EBR school system.

I'm personally very worried. South BR is big part of Baton Rouge and generates a good bit of its revenue comes from with the Mall, Perkins Rowe and everything in between. Central leaving I was okay with, giving where it was in the part of the city, but this would be a hit for sure.

The Map and some other info.
The Map

[things and stuff]

A lot of people don't realize that this is all part of a con job by the local corrupt good ol' boys establishment. They have wanted complete control over contracts, to privatize city services, hire their relatives, and even pay themselves with city money but its hard with a larger city that is divided because the "other side" will tell on each other.

This has been the goal since day 1. First they operated under the rouse of saying they just wanted to form a school district but when that fell though they went on with the main phase which is a money grab. Not that EBR isn't flawed as well!

mod cut
Oh well, sorry to flame in your post. I just see this ending poorly for the whole area.

[annie_himself]

First of all, it's not leaving anything. Also Central was never part of a city.
I love it, creates needed competition for Baton Rouge city leaders to stop dragging ass and do something to change it's image and improve it's infrastructure.
Will Baton Rouge feel it? Oh yeah, but it's a much needed rude awakening, IMO.

[southseeker]

Originally Posted by annie_himself

First of all, it's not leaving anything. Also Central was never part of a city.
I love it, creates needed competition for Baton Rouge city leaders to stop dragging ass and do something to change it's image and improve it's infrastructure.
Will Baton Rouge feel it? Oh yeah, but it's a much needed rude awakening, IMO.

BR voters share some of the blame tbh. A lot of are satisfied with the status quo or either don't care enough to want progress in the city. So even if this go through, I don't see it making a huge change in our political environment. Call me Cynical, but fellow BR votes have rightfully made me feel that way.

[mhounit]

Originally Posted by things and stuff

A lot of people don't realize that this is all part of a con job by the local corrupt good ol' boys establishment. They have wanted complete control over contracts, to privatize city services, hire their relatives, and even pay themselves with city money but its hard with a larger city that is divided because the "other side" will tell on each other.

This has been the goal since day 1. First they operated under the rouse of saying they just wanted to form a school district but when that fell though they went on with the main phase which is a money grab. Not that EBR isn't flawed as well!

.

Ok , sport . Name some names and post some facts to back up that rhetoric .

[Park Bolivar]

First off:

I've got a kid in a magnet school in EBR (and another one in the same school in a year). I've been following the school and district performance scores for 8 years now, and I've watched EBR in that time go from a system with two 'A' elementary schools to five, and from one 'B' elementary school to five as well.

In that same time, the EBR district has gone from being a low 'D' district to a high 'C' district, and, at this pace, with eight years of annual performance score improvements under its belt, will crack into being a 'B' district in the next 2-3 years.

On top of that, some developments, like Mayfair Lab, and the opening of a second FLAIM school, both of which are pretty well guaranteed to be 'A' schools in the next 2 years, and the dramatic improvement in McKinley Middle and Westdale Middle, I'm feeling like things have been really looking up for the EBR system.

Well, until about 3 weeks ago.

And, my sentiment is, at present, "aw hell, just when we're starting to get things together, somebody's got to go and f*** it all up".

Next off:

I think that the St. George movement proponents are of one of three minds, and I'm not sure which it is:

1) They genuinely believe that, given the demographics of the district and the higher tax revenues to be had from peeling off the Mall + Bluebonnet + Siegen, that they can create an 'uber-Zachary', with the wealthiest per-capita district in the state. The biggest flaw in this is that anywhere from 40 to 65% of all children in the area go to private school. (I will expand on this at great length in a second).

2) They don't care about the public schools (many of the proponents are already senior citizens, and many of the rest send their kids to private schools), and assume that by redrawing the sales tax structure of the municipal arrangement, they can get lower property taxes out of the arrangement.

3) They don't care about the public schools, and are angling to wrest control of the firehose of Mall + Bluebonnet + Siegen sales tax money. I don't like thinking about this, as even the suggestion of it makes me nauseous.


Now as for #1: The critical flaw of the St. George school district.

Nobody likes to admit the fact that parental income and education dictate anywhere from 60 to 80% of student performance. There's almost no such thing as a good school (by any contemporary definition), there's only good students (which really means 'good parents', which really means 'wealthy' or 'well-educated' parents). Sure, there are bright kids from bad homes, just as there are dunces born to the best-heeled families, but they account for 10% at either end.

So, with that, the problem with the schools in southeast Baton Rouge has been that:

A) The middle and upper-middle class abandoned the schools back in the mid-1980s, anywhere from 40-65% of all schoolkids in the southeast part of the parish go to private school

B) The magnet system, invented as a means to keep the middle and upper-middle class in the public schools, is basically too damned good at what it does (drawing the top performers out of neighborhood schools). Of the remaining kids in the public schools, the top third self-segregate into magnet schools.

So, with those two things happening, you end up with a situation in which Woodlawn High, located smack-dab in one of the wealthier and better-educated neighborhoods in Baton Rouge, ends up catering to a student population that's 75% on free or reduced lunch.

In other words, the only people in left in the neighborhood schools are those either too poor to go to private schools, or not bright enough to go to magnets.

The problem is: None of these things are solved by the creation of a St. George district. A friend of mine said: "Imagine some family in White Oak Landing, taking their kid out of Parkview Baptist or St. Michael, to go to Woodlawn. Imagine on day one, a fistfight breaks out between some kids who live in Gardere who also attend Woodlawn. On day two, all of those kids are re-enrolled back in Parkview Baptist or St. Michael. And the school's back to where it was when it was an EBR school"

And, that, I fear is what is going to happen, that we split up the cities, we wreck the City of Baton Rouge's finances, and the EBR magnet schools, and St. George ends up with deep pockets and (still) terrible neighborhood schools.

[Rosinante]

I voted WORRIED… worried that the people of the area are so stupid that they don't understand the entire parish will suffer if this incorporation ever happens. Well, it IS Louisiana, after all.

Edit: Excellent post, BTW, Park Bolivar.

[selogic]

Originally Posted by Rosinante

I voted WORRIED… worried that the people of the area are so stupid that they don't understand .....

Kip and his minions are counting on that .

[things and stuff]

Originally Posted by mhounit

Ok , sport . Name some names and post some facts to back up that rhetoric .

Sure. We all know Senator Bodi White was caught extorting BREC into buying land from him and his business partner for a nice profit.

Bodi White gets Lionel Rainey III, a political consultant, to run point on organizing the St. George movement even though he doesn't live in or own property in the proposed city of St. George. Lionel Rainey III forms a company called LR3 with no website or physical presence and somehow manages to IMMEDIATELY land a $717k no-bid contract with the state that is $1 under the max legal amount, to do work that is vague and is already being performed elsewhere.

Leader of St. George Baton Rouge pullout linked to Eichers; fledgling company awarded $717,000 no-bid state contract | Louisiana Voice:

it was awarded on a no-bid basis. In other words, LED never issued a request for proposals (RFP) nor did LR3 ever submit a proposal despite having no obvious qualifications for creating an Internet database system.

When asked about the no-bid contract, LED responded by pointing out that contracts for social services may be awarded “without the necessity of competitive bidding or competitive negotiation,”

Basically, our state tax dollars are fraudulently being used to pay this guy. A scandal already probably isn't a good sign of things to come.

[annie_himself]

...interesting