Lots of outright lies and propaganda were spewed. The main issue was these detracted from legitimate questions, concerns and plans. It became easy to discredit opposition when they clung to "you are a racist" as their de facto argument.
No one questions how wasteful and over spent the city of Baton Rouge was. Massive pension debt would continue to grow. They ranked around 1 city employee per 30 residents. They had a local metro type gov that continued to raise taxes on useless services and poorly managed spending.
54% of the new area voted, on Saturday, to form a new city from out outer unincorporated area. There is precedent from 3 other cities with in the Parish (county) that have done the same thing. Break away from the consolidated city-parish rule.
Lots of will be needed. You see this happening in areas are large cities, like Atlanta and Houston. Its making big headlines, so much that NYT already has posted a slightly slanted article. The atleast present both sides cases.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/us/b ... eorge.html
BATON ROUGE, La. — Residents of a largely white suburb of Baton Rouge voted on Saturday to incorporate a new city of their own — to be called St. George — and take away control of the community’s taxes, schools and other services from the less affluent, more diverse surrounding parish.
The outcome was a rebuke to parish leaders, and illustrated just how strongly many residents wanted to separate themselves from Baton Rouge, the state capital, which is governed jointly with the parish.
Yet with just 54 percent of voters supporting incorporation, the referendum also demonstrated a split in the community over the proposition, with concerns that going ahead with incorporation could sow further division and financial uncertainty in what would be Louisiana’s fifth-most-populous city.
The yearslong effort began as an attempt to create a new school district, and evolved over time into a drive for a whole new city. Supporters said they wanted to improve schools, have more local control over infrastructure and have their tax dollars spent closer to home, rather than see the money spread across East Baton Rouge Parish. They said all areas of the parish would benefit as a result.