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Consider local success stories
The Advocate Editorial Not surprisingly, most of the recent news stories about a trip by 150 Baton Rouge area leaders to Nashville, Tenn., have focused on how Baton Rouge might learn from Nashville's example.
The trip, organized by The Chamber of Greater Baton Rouge and the city-parish government, is the second such fact-finding trip to a neighboring city by Baton Rouge's leadership. Last year, a similar delegation visited Austin , Texas, to glean ideas for economic and cultural growth.
It's a good idea for Baton Rouge's government, business and civic leaders to look at what other cities do well and assess how those ideas might work locally. But the recent trip to Nashville prompts another thought:
If leaders from another city came to Baton Rouge to learn from us, what would we cite as civic successes?
The question is sure to prompt quite a few titters among cynics who have come to assume that Baton Rouge will be first in national rankings of those things that are bad, and last in national rankings of those things that are good.
Even so, the question can be a useful exercise. It might help identify local strengths and determine how those successes might be multiplied. Leaders in both Austin and Nashville urged visiting delegations from Baton Rouge to find what Baton Rouge does well and nurture it, rather than attempt to directly mimic another city.
What can Baton Rouge hold up to outsiders as a model worthy of emulation? We asked several members of the Baton Rouge delegation visiting Nashville.
Mayor-President Bobby Simpson said that after 9-11, New York officials came to Baton Rouge to learn about our emergency preparedness and response plans, particularly as they relate to the chemical industry. Simpson said the New York officials were deeply impressed by the skills and insights that local emergency preparedness officials brought to bear on the issue.
Bill Benedetto, chairman of the board of The Chamber of Greater Baton Rouge, said that economic development officials from elsewhere have been interested in studying the chamber's CapStrategy, which involves developing the nine-parish region around Baton Rouge through a cluster plan that targets key industries. Since CapStrategy is in its infancy, it might be too early to tell whether it can be viewed as the gold standard for economic development.
Jim Brandt, president of the Public Affairs Research Council, said Louisiana's constitutional requirement to pay down state debt, along with its creation of a Revenue Estimating Conference to get a clearer picture of state revenue, are enlightened by national standards. Brandt said Louisiana also gets points in some quarters for its method of spreading the pain around during state budget shortfalls rather than gutting a handful of programs. Because of some fiscal reforms, "We're the only state in the country to receive two bond rating upgrades since 2000," Brandt added. PAR is a nonprofit, nonpartisan Louisiana organization that studies state policies.
Beth Courtney, president and CEO of Louisiana Public Broadcasting, said that LPB's recent series on Louisiana history, which was linked to a coffee table book and instructional materials for classrooms, has piqued the interest of other public broadcasting agencies in other states. Public TV officials in Maine seem particularly interested in adapting the concept for a Maine history series, said Courtney.
Other Baton Rougeans will have their own nominations for a Blue Ribbon Baton Rouge list. The trick for all of us is to work smarter, harder and more cooperatively to make the list longer.
