Mayor-President
Melvin L. "Kip" Holden

2011 State of the City

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am honored to be here today to report on the State of our City and Parish.

At a time when cities across this nation are reeling from the worst economic recession of our lifetimes, Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish are strong, thriving, and enthusiastically planning for an even brighter future.  I remember when a story came across my desk quoting some economist predicting that Baton Rouge would see modest job growth of a little over 800 new jobs this year.

Now, we are looking forward to the opening of the new Pinnacle Entertainment Casino and Hotel scheduled for December. A twelve story hotel and a 30,000 square foot gaming area that will create more than 1,000 new permanent jobs for Baton Rouge. Jobs they plan to fill by working with our universities and community college to conduct job fairs and career development programs, and we're just getting started.  So, please join me in welcoming to our community the management team of Pinnacle Baton Rouge.

Less than a year ago, Portfolio-dot-com listed Baton Rouge among the top ten cities in America for young adults, ahead of New York, San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Portland, and the list goes on.

I can't emphasize enough how proud we should all be of this ranking and why it is so important that we continue working to keep our next generation here in Baton Rouge because they are our future.

In the Brookings Institute list of the top ten most stable cities, Baton Rouge is the Fourth most recession-proof city in America. Business Week ranked Baton Rouge the 11th best job market and in December, Brookings announced the 20 strongest performing metro areas and "Yes, we live in one of them." Just a few weeks ago, Manpower, Inc. ranked Baton Rouge's employment outlook for 2011 as the best in the country. "Number ONE," and a full ten points ahead of the national average. And you know how we love to be "Number ONE."

So,  we start this new year and this new decade full of promise. This spring, we will finish the update of our comprehensive master plan for land use and development, a process we have called FUTUREBR, with a focus on three words: Vision, Opportunity,  and Progress!

But make no mistake about it, despite our success, despite our gains when many cities are fighting for mere survival, there are still those who cannot see the vision. Those, who are willing to let opportunity pass them by and who will always resist progress. And I assure you, my friends opportunity is a bird that never perches.

So, when you see me have a spirited debate with our Metro Council, I am singularly focused on my commitment to move this city and parish forward.
I believe I was elected by you with a mandate to reach for higher goals. And like the poet Emily Dickinson said: "Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door."

I believe my job is to serve you and to lift our community up to be a better place for our children and grandchildren and "Yes," to build America's next great city. Those words weren't just a campaign slogan they are the measure by which I believe all decisions should be made, all initiatives should be launched, and all plans for the future should be focused. So, when someone says, "I don't care if the Bayou Country Superfest goes to another city." I speak up because I do not believe that statement speaks for our community.  I know it doesn't speak for every restaurant or hotel or store or small business that benefitted from the 30 million dollar economic impact that one event had on our community in just one year. Southern Living Magazine named the Bayou Country Superfest one of the four best new music festivals to attend in its "Best in the South" Awards.

I have worked with three Lieutenant Governors who have all financially supported this festival with state funds, the Baton Rouge Convention and   Visitors Bureau, LSU, and LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva, thank you very much, because it’s rare to have an event inside Tiger stadium other than football. I agree to be the water boy for this spring.

And yes, I believe it deserves our support, as well. Thirty million dollars, and the city of Baton Rouge only donated $300,000. The Baton Rouge Convention and Visitors Bureau donated $300,000. The Lieutenant Governor donated $300,000.

And I guess we’re so rich that we refuse to put $900,000 on the table again this year, the city only $300,000 to get $30 million. In this economy, that’s not good. We have to lead and have that vision and people who are willing to change. Unfortunately, our Metro Council did not agree.

Last summer, the City of New Orleans invested 5 million dollars to advertise nationally during what is typically a very slow season for hotels and restaurants in their city. As a result, they were able to increase hotel revenues by 13 % in July, 14 % in August, and 16% in September. It was a great investment for New Orleans.

We have put Baton Rouge on the map as a destination for Memorial Day weekend at a time when travel to our city was virtually non-existent. We must find a way to keep this great event here and we will. Because I hear from you that you want a better quality of life, economic diversity, a city with good jobs and entertainment options.

We will have occasions to recognize Chief LeDuff for his service to our city at times and places that honor and respect him and his desire to be with his family during some very difficult times they continue to deal with.

I speak with him often and we are calling on his unique perspective and national law enforcement contacts in our search process. We are following civil service procedures and our current focus is to make sure interested applicants know of our process and take the next step to sign up for the required exam. We will have a Citizens Advisory Committee to provide community input and assist us in finding our next Chief.

And now another word about crime... we had 69 homicides in Baton Rouge in 2010, this was an 8 % decline over the previous year. The latest information we have shows New Orleans had 175. I mention this comparison because my good friend, Mitch Landrieu and I talk often about the problems our cities face.

Today, for the first time in the history of East Baton Rouge Parish, all enforcement agencies, national, state and local came together to create a Violent Crimes Unit. And that unit will be a permanent unit. So for the first time, the FBI, ATC, Sheriff’s Office, and City Police will all be working in one building and sharing ideas as they get them.

We’re sending out a very clear message today that the people who deserve to be put behind bars will be put in jail and hopefully for the rest of their lives for some of the crimes that you are committing on the people of this great city. They do not deserve it. They have worked hard. And we all deserve a better quality of life.

Fighting crime in cities across America is an ongoing and complex challenge. Every day when we read the newspaper and watch television, we see drug trafficking rampant all around us. To address these problems, it’s going to take education. We’re going to also have to deal poverty. We’re going to have to deal with the drug traffic and we must work with our judges to make sure criminals aren’t back on our streets when they should be serving time.

The man arrested for the horrific murder of Alexandra Engler and the shooting of her young daughter was only on our streets, as a result of plea bargains and time off for good behavior.

We are working to reduce truancy, keep kids in school, and provide job training for those who do not choose college. We work every day to bring jobs to Baton Rouge to keep unemployment down, to provide small business assistance and micro loans to help those who want a chance to earn an honest living. Because jobs, and education help us fight crime.

Sunday night, I was with Allie Engler’s mother after she flew across the country to give back to Baton Rouge by donating $10,000 to support neighborhood projects in Beauregard Town. Out of unimaginable tragedy came a beautiful commitment to the neighborhood her daughter loved. If a woman who lost her only child to a senseless murder can find the time, and the strength, and the dedication to commit to making our city a better place to live. Surely, so can we!

So, I ask you today to choose to work for a better community rather than let anger and negativity tear us apart.

Focus on the positive aspects of our community and find ways to work together to solve our problems. Because what business executives would move a company to Baton Rouge if they picked up the local newspaper and saw a community in fear?

Our local Circle K stores stepped up last fall by offering "Gas for Guns" that removed over 260 unsecured guns from our community in one day but most importantly, about a dozen assault-style weapons. Something you can't put a price on. I firmly believe we have the people and the resources to address crime in Baton Rouge and from our collective efforts, a safer city will result. Our next Chief of Police will be charged with leading this effort

Today, I ask each of you to follow the example set by Bonnie Hunt so the work her daughter Allie was doing in a neighborhood and a city she loved continues.  Mark Twain said, "Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than the things you did."

So when you walk out the door today, I hope you will re-commit to moving our city and parish forward. So how do we build a great city? For more than a year, we have been gathering community input for our comprehensive master plan.

Thousands of citizens have participated through public meetings, workshops, and surveys. Next month, we will roll out the vision for our FUTUREBR Plan. I've followed this process closely and it has been rewarding to see citizens point the planners in the direction they want to see our community grow.

Just a week ago, we broke ground on the new Town Square, a project paid for by leveraging city-parish funds with federal transportation dollars. The Town Square, the new courthouse,  proposed new public library, and the expansion of our River Center that is currently underway. These are all the result of those three words we should keep in mind:  Vision, Opportunity,  Progress.

From our FUTUREBR process comes a recommendation to address another issue we must resolve as a community and that is, public transit. Our problem is not just the short-term funding needs of the CATS System. It’s much bigger than that.

Every economically successful city has a reliable public transit system and we must have one, too. We need a system that doesn't just serve the riders of need but one that also serves the riders of choice. This is not a challenge that government alone can solve. And it will not be a process that you can afford to watch from the sidelines. To keep our local economy strong, our people working, and our young professionals who want to use public transit this is something we must solve together and that dialogue has begun.

Do we need a loop around Baton Rouge? Almost three years ago, we made the announcement we needed a loop around Baton Rouge. Independent surveys show that over 70 percent of the citizens in the capital region say "Yes." Officials in Texas who have gone through this process warned us that politicians have to be strong and lead their communities through the debate without giving voice to the few who will hold us back.

When we had a chance to make a difference some legislators who represent East Baton Rouge, Livingston, and Ascension Parishes threw up roadblocks at every step to keep us from getting funded. Even after 4 million dollars was appropriated by the legislature last year to push this project forward they went to the Governor and asked that the funds be vetoed.

When I was elected Mayor, I heard you loud and clear that you wanted me to address traffic in our city and parish. So, we started right away working on short and long term solutions. When the loop project seemed too much for some, we focused on just the north bypass with the highest projected traffic counts and still some legislators opposed it.

And today, three years after we stepped forward with a vision to deal with our traffic congestion with start-up funding provided by East Baton Rouge Parish, we are still being held back. A north bypass will take over 90,000 cars a day off our existing roads with over 50,000 of those cars coming right off of I-12. 90,000 Cars a Day! Imagine how much better our traffic would flow in this parish but unfortunately, while some continue to debate, Baton Rouge has achieved the distinction of being named the city with the worst traffic congestion in America among mid-size cities.

Drivers here waste more than $1,000 a year sitting in traffic. One group is calling this a "Congestion Tax" we are all paying. If you don't recall voting for a "Congestion Tax," that's because the "Congestion Tax" is a result of doing nothing for decades now. And what have they put on the table as an alternative? A toll road linking Ascension and Livingston Parishes that would serve the same purpose as the route proposed in the Loop but would do nothing to benefit Baton Rouge.

After we have completed the studies and moved to the permitting process two parishes want to start all over from square one. According to them, try to alleviate the bottle-neck at Port Vincent. The problem is... they want you, the taxpayers of East Baton Rouge Parish, to help pay for it. Not a regional solution to traffic around our Capital City, No, they want us to fund a study to help get afternoon traffic out of the heart of Port Vincent. And you know how I feel about studies, I think it's time we stop studying and take the test.

If you haven’t asked your legislators to support our requests for transportation funding to get Baton Rouge moving, I hope you will make it a priority. Because if they don't, we're going to see economic development choked off. Commuters continuing to spend hours sitting in traffic paying that congestion tax and a quality of life that makes it impossible for you to leave work and get across town to your child's ballgame.

2011 will be a great year for our Green Light Plan when we break ground tomorrow on our 28th project and complete at least seven more this year. These are traffic relief projects we are funding with local dollars and in just three years, we will have completed 21 Green Light projects.

As you drive through wider intersections, double turn lanes, and widened streets in our most congested areas, it's easy to see that these projects are working. Then remember that our bond rating was increased to a AA+ rating just one step from the highest AAA rating our city can achieve. That reduces the cost of public projects and makes bond issues a wise choice for funding improvements in our parish.

At the last Metro Council meeting of 2010, a Councilman added an amendment that deleted funding for a number of community sponsored events and economic development programs for this year calling the monies a "slush fund."

The amendment cut funds for programs we have supported through the Mayor's Office. Programs like the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Alzheimer's Services, the Mental Health Alliance, childhood nutrition programs through the Baton Rouge Epicurean Society; the Food Pantry, Battered Women's Program, Veterans programs, work by the Junior League on children's health programs, child abduction prevention, services for children with autism, Down's Syndrome, reading programs, a program for visually impaired teens, one for breast cancer survivors, and many more.

Without these funds, there will be a loss of services to our community. Funds for economic development and arts and cultural programs were also cut which included funds for Forum 35's Art Melt, the Arts Council; the Jewish Film Festival, the Irish Festival, the Italian Festival and monies used for us to participate with the State Department of Economic Development in attracting business to Baton Rouge. Another loss for Baton Rouge.

But while some economic development funds were cut, one of the bright spots in our efforts is the success of our Baton Rouge Film Commission in attracting movie production to our city. In 2010, hotel room nights for the film industry exceeded 33,500 with more than 25 productions filming here last year.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn will be here in production for another month so there is still time to catch a glimpse of one of the stars if someone in your family has Twilight fever. Dungeons and Dragons 3 began filming here on Monday and three Baton Rouge films premiered at this week's Sundance Film Festival to great reviews. In less than four years, we've made it to the top among film production locations.  We've seen Third Street turned into Hong Kong; our Emergency Operations Center, as NASA; and our airport under alien attack.

I spend time with the producers trying to land even more films because of their economic impact...and here's what they tell me: Baton Rouge has film production facilities equal to any studio around the world. They say our success is helping us to build a great talent pool which attracts them even more. They love the food, they love the tax credits, and they tell me Baton Rouge has the friendliest people they have met anywhere. So thanks for your help in building an exciting new industry for Baton Rouge.

Our Healthy BR Initiative also continues to bring new services and partnerships to our city....and it's earning some strong support along the way.

We launched Medline BR in partnership with Our Lady of the Lake Medical Center, a free, 24-hour phone line that provides quick advice from a nurse and access to physicians and clinics.

Baton Rouge is one of four sites selected by the National League of Cities to receive assistance in curbing childhood obesity. Lois and I were also pleased to announce a partnership with the Links Service OrganizationMCA all aimed at teaching our children a healthier lifestyle. We hold an annual Mayor's Family Bike Ride to get the whole family moving together. And this year, our Family Bike Ride will end at St. Joseph's Cathedral for our first t "Blessing of the Bikes" to encourage safety for all those who bike for recreation, exercise or transportation.