Internationally renowned firm will meld best practices with unique local needs to develop comprehensive plan for downtown. Baton Rouge, LA – Internationally renowned planning group Sasaki has been selected to lead Plan Baton Rouge III, a planning initiative focused on advancing downtown Baton Rouge. Planning meetings began in earnest yesterday (February 17th), with consultants visiting Baton […]
Jacinda Townsend’s second novel, Mother Country, has won the 2022 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, presented annually by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation to support an emerging African American fiction writer. She receives $15,000 to support the continuation of her craft. A national panel of literary judges selected the winner from 25 eligible […]
By Sara Bongiorni Build Baton Rouge is conducting a first-of-its-kind experiment in urban redevelopment. It’s incubating a hybrid land bank and trust to advance the redevelopment of blighted lots on and near Plank Road into affordable housing, parks and green spaces, commercial sites, and environmental services. Foundation Fact: The Baton Rouge Area Foundation researched and […]
By Sara Bongiorni Illustration by Carolyn Blakley Suicides on the Northshore spiked sharply more than two years after hurricanes Katrina, Gustav and Isaac and 2016 spring flooding. A new initiative aims to prevent a wave of suicides in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida by offering free access to online mental health therapy designed to reach […]
By Mukul Verma An island is being born. Made by man and nature, the atoll in University Lake is doing double duty. It’s an experiment to determine the best method for dredging a lakes system in decline. And it’s a prelude to the construction of a boardwalk, designed to allow walkers and cyclists to safely […]
In Livingston Parish, Chantelle Varnado, with a hand from her family, cares for 400 kids with special needs By Amy Alexander | Tim Mueller photos Chantelle Varnado has a passion for helping kids express themselves. Her doctoral studies at LSU involved learning everything she could about rib cages. Help the kids to breathe better, she […]
Two synagogues forge a bolder future for Judaism in Baton Rouge By Gary Perilloux Generations of Jewish families practiced their faith consistently in Baton Rouge, but they did so in synagogues separated by five miles: B’nai Israel on Kleinert Avenue and Beth Shalom on Jefferson Highway. That separation changed in 2022. Today, the congregations are […]
Currents Q3 2022
Sara Bongiorni Leaders of a project to create an urban trail are, from left front row, Jenni Peters and Adrian Owen-Jones with, from left back row, Misti Broussard, Brumby Broussard, Al Moreau, Chad Hughes, Carl Stages and Julie Becnel. A handful of scrappy business owners are leading the push to build a safe and beautiful […]
By Amy Alexander It’s the kind of March day you’d like to bottle and pop open on a stifling July afternoon–seventy-odd degrees, piercing blue skies, just the right amount of snap in the air. Eric Romero and I have the best seat at Parrain’s Seafood Restaurant, out on the broad, breezy porch, amid the flinty […]
By Mary Ann Sternberg Cottonwood Books existed for over 40 years and several iterations in the shadow of the Perkins Road overpass. But, since 1986, that name emblazoned in white on a royal blue awning has been synonymous with a single person: proprietor (and often sole employee) Daniel Robert Plaisance, known to everyone as “Danny.” […]