Daily Report sat down with Republican mayoral candidate Sid Edwards to discuss his campaign and his vision for Baton Rouge. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
If elected, what would some of your first priorities be as mayor?
Public safety for sure. That has to be addressed right off the bat. With crime as it is, I think getting with all the law enforcement agencies in East Baton Rouge Parish right off the bat is the most important part of my platform.
Also, cleaning up the city—the abandoned buildings, the blight, the trap houses. I think that’s something that could happen rather quickly where people could actually see progress being made. When I’m coaching, I always say there’s got to be some visual proof, something for people to see.
And third—although this isn’t part of my platform—is really going through and scrubbing the budget. If I become mayor, we’re going to operate with a zero-based budget. We’re going to start over and start with the top priorities and then see where there are other areas that could be cut or eliminated right off the bat.
What would you do to address the long-standing inequities between north and south Baton Rouge, particularly when it comes to economic development?
In north Baton Rouge, there’s hardly any industry outside of ExxonMobil and an industrial corridor on Choctaw Drive that’s got some business that I never really noticed until I got in this race. There’s opportunity there.
But for small businesses in particular—grocery stores, restaurants, shops—it’s such a vast issue to deal with. The median income on that side of town is $21,000, so businesses are slow to head that way. Then you’ve got the crime piece that we already talked about. Crime is highest in the 70805 and 70807 ZIP codes. You’ve got to address the crime issue. But the long-term deal is addressing the income inequities. Todd Graves put a Raising Cane’s right there at Delmont Village, which is awesome, and if you ever pass it, I think it’s one of the busier locations. It’s just that a lot of people out there don’t have a lot of choices. In Scotlandville, having a real grocery store instead of having to drive to Shoppers Value on Plank Road has been talked about for years. A lot of the people out there go into Baker to do their shopping. I think those things have to be addressed, and you’ve also got to look at what type of educational opportunities people out there have to increase their incomes. My hope is that I can influence someone to break that ground. “Hey, can we get boom boom here in north Baton Rouge? Can we put this store over here? Can we do this?” That’s kind of my plan with that.
