A proposed city separation in Louisiana has all the usual suspects screaming "Racist!" (as usual).
Wealthy white Baton Rouge residents have won a decade-long court battle to split from poorer neighborhoods and form their own city with plans for better schools and less crime.
The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the new City of St George could move forward with incorporation, splitting off from the rest of Baton Rouge.
St George will have 86,000 residents across a 60-square-mile area in the southeast of East Baton Rouge Parish and will have its own Mayor and city council.
Supporters of the new city say that the existing city-parish government is poorly run, with high crime rates and bad schools.
Opponents say the movement is 'racist' and will create a 'white enclave' as it separates a wealthy area of the city from the majority Black city and school district.
I lived in Louisiana for more than a decade. I know Baton Rouge reasonably well. I'm pretty sure you'll find those living in the proposed City of St. George are not primarily whites objecting to sharing the city with blacks. I'm confident you'll find they're simply sick and tired of paying the highest rates in the city, only to receive exceptionally poor treatment at the hands of the municipality, which has for years (decades!) taken that money and used it to employ, service and subsidize poorer people in the city while neglecting "the goose that laid the golden eggs". Now that the goose has decided it will no longer put up with that, and instead wishes to improve its lot in life, they're screaming that the problems are the goose's fault - racism, rich vs. poor, haves versus have-nots, and all the rest of the usual slogans.
The same scenario has played itself out in other American cities, notably Buckhead in Atlanta, GA. In every case of which I'm aware, the same allegations of racism, elitism, etc. have been leveled against those who want to escape the poorer morass that's absorbing their high rates and leaving them with almost no return on their money. That applies particularly to security. Criminals from the poorer areas target those living in the rich areas, because that's where the money is - but the city police do nothing extra to protect those targeted areas, often under instruction from the City Council to do so. It's understandable that the victims of crime feel more than a little aggravated by it, and want something done about it. They've finally decided to do it themselves, since they can't rely on the city's leaders to do their job.
When will the progressive left learn that if you steal the goose's golden eggs for long enough, it'll take itself off to where it can lay its eggs in safety, free from your rapacious clutches? Why should the richer suburbs subsidize the poorer without any return for themselves? If they were treated fairly and equitably, they probably wouldn't mind so much: but when they're basically robbed blind to pay off poorer areas, they get a mite tetchy about it. In their shoes, so would I.
I hope the City of St. George will serve as a wake-up call to other Baton Rouges around the country. Don't push your greed too far, or it may come back to bite you right on your fundamental jujube.
Peter
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/04/always-they-cry-racist-instead-of.html
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