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.
What impact do you think the incorporation of St. George will have on attracting new businesses to the region? Do you think the incorporation will create competition between Baton Rouge and St. George for future investment, and if so, how do you plan to navigate that?
Certainly it’s going to be a factor as far as the impact of those guys forming their own city and all that. I think the number I’m seeing is $50 million is what’s owed—that’s just one of the many figures we’ve heard in the negotiations between Mayor Broome and Mayor Yates. Baton Rouge has a $1.3 billion budget. $50 million isn’t a drop in the hat.
But as far as competition for businesses and people bringing their companies here, I just don’t see it that way. Baker, Central, St. George and Zachary all have their own mayors. I think we’ve got to work hand in hand. It’s about teamwork. Whether it be industry or small businesses or whatever, if they land in Baton Rouge, Baker, Central, St. George or Zachary, I think it’s a win either way. But don’t get me wrong: The people of Baton Rouge, especially inner-city Baton Rouge, are those that are most in need.
On the ballot is a proposed update to Baton Rouge’s Plan of Government that would create the position of city-parish manager. Do you support that measure?
I don’t. I think it would add to further bureaucracy. You’re voting in—hiring—a mayor, and the mayor should be able to handle that job. And the mayor also reserves the right to have their chief of staff and their team. I don’t want to always use football terms, but if I’m the head football coach, I don’t need to hire anyone to handle head football coach duties. At the college level, some teams have what are called associate head coaches, and a lot of the time that’s just a term to help that associate head coach because it looks good on a résumé. I know that wouldn’t be the case for a city-parish manager, but if I’m the mayor, I’m the mayor. I got this.
Louisiana has a well-documented outmigration problem, particularly when it comes to young professionals. What needs to be done in Baton Rouge to better attract and retain young professionals?
I don’t think we’re a destination of choice right now, and that’s because of a lot of the stuff we talked about earlier in this interview.
No. 1 is the crime. The crime is high and a lot of it is violent crime.
Then there’s the fact that this is not a beautiful city. I don’t care what anyone says—this city is dirty. Some areas of town look better than others, but there’s a lack of pride. The roadways are littered with trash, and then there’s the abandoned buildings. This is the capital city of Louisiana. It should look way better than it does.
And then there’s the East Baton Rouge Parish Public School System. We’ve got a good superintendent now in LaMont Cole, but a lot of our high schools are struggling on state test scores. We’ve got some high-performing schools—Baton Rouge Magnet High School and Liberty Magnet High School are both in the upper echelon—but not everyone can go to those schools.
Baton Rouge has to be a mecca for not only people staying but also people wanting to come in. Right now, it’s the furthest thing from that. There’s a reason there’s an outmigration problem. We’ve got to fix stuff in this town. Everything from crime to infrastructure needs to be addressed, and we didn’t even talk about the homelessness and the mental illness. There’s no true psychiatric facility for people here. If all those things became better, I don’t think we’d have the issue we have right now. Baton Rouge has to be attractive if we want folks to stay.
Editor’s Note: This interview is part of a series of Daily Report mayoral candidate interviews. All candidates are asked the same questions.
Read our interview with incumbent Sharon Weston Broome here.
Read our interview with mayoral candidate Ted James here.
