We did. And pretty soundly, at that.
Now, it helped that City Hall and their establishment financial backers were pushing something that the voters had already rejected a year before, and they answered the many criticisms and unanswered questions about the ALIVE scheme with, at best, condescension. Those who opposed ALIVE were dismissed either too ignorant, too narrow-minded, or simply lacked vision. Not a way to win votes.
While I hated to push back much needed infrastructure improvements by defeating the all-in-one bond proposal, I would rather do that than saddle Baton Rouge taxpayers with paying $225 million for the ALIVE project. To paraphrase Cornelius Ryan, The Mayor and Metro Council went a project too far.
I hope the Mayor and the Metro Council listen to their employers - the voters - and go back to the drawing board to re-craft a funding proposal for those improvements the voters can support. We all want to make Baton Rouge America's next great city.
2 comments:
The Mayor had one opportunity after another to listen to the voters who wanted the "park" separated from the rest of the proposal and yet he still refused to back down. I would say he must feel rather humiliated right about now. But he has only himself to blame for the defeat.
It was interesting watching him nod "yes" whilst answering, ambiguously, the question:
"...would the bill have passed if Alive had not been included (in it)?"
Methinks: HELL YES!
Most folks don't appreciate extortion.
Used in context*, "if you do not vote for Alive (which I *want*), there will be no bond for city infrastructure (which you *need*).
That said:
Overall, I am happy I voted for Kip, and, I think that otherwise, he has done a good job with BR. This is particularly true with regard to the management of the Katrina situation. It's a shame it has come to this.
You never know, if he had agreed to split the bill, he might have won both.
Sesameball
*from dictionary.com:
extort:
–verb (used with object)
1. Law.
a. to wrest or wring (money, information, etc.) from a person by violence, intimidation, or abuse of authority; obtain by force, torture, threat, or the like.
b. to take illegally by reason of one's office.
2. to compel (something) of a person or thing: Her wit and intelligence extorted their admiration.
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