Wealthy white Louisiana residents win right to form their own city and split from poorer black neighborhoods in landmark court ruling after a 10-year - Critics of the new city say the plan is 'racist' and will create a 'white enclave'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13362499/louisiana-st-george-supreme-court-ruling.html

https://archive.is/hWtZi

Wealthy white Louisiana residents win right to form their own city and split from poorer black neighborhoods in landmark court ruling after a 10-year battle​

• St George will have 86,000 residents across a 60-square-mile area
• Critics of the new city say the plan is 'racist' and will create a 'white enclave'
• Baton Rouge residents fear move will be economically devastating for their city

Wealthy white Baton Rouge residents have won a decade-long court battle to split from poorer neighborhoods and form their own city with plans for better schools and less crime.

The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the new City of St George could move forward with incorporation, splitting off from the rest of Baton Rouge.

St George will have 86,000 residents across a 60-square-mile area in the southeast of East Baton Rouge Parish and will have its own Mayor and city council.

Supporters of the new city say that the existing city-parish government is poorly run, with high crime rates and bad schools.

Opponents say the movement is 'racist' and will create a 'white enclave' as it separates a wealthy area of the city from the majority Black city and school district.

Leader of an anti-St George campaign group, M.E. Cormier, told the New York Times: 'There is no basis in fact that the existence of St. George is positive or will bring positivity or have a positive impact on any areas of the cities or the parish.'
Plans for St George started nearly 15 years ago when residents decided they would like to start their own school district.

Their plans then grew more ambitious and in 2015 they drew up a proposal to create their own city.

The proposal didn't get enough votes and the movement ground to a halt until 2019, when a second ballot to incorporate St George passed, with 54 percent of residents voting in favor of separation.

A lengthy court battle followed, with Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome and Mayor Pro Tem Lamont Cole suing St. George organizers soon after the election.

They argued that St George would siphon over $48 million in annual tax revenue from the city-parish government with serious knock-on effects for local services and staff.

They claimed that the loss in revenue would mean services would have to be cut and employees laid off and that St George's proposed internal budget was inaccurate and that they would not be able to be self-sufficient.

Lower courts in Louisiana supported Baton Rouge's arguments, and shot down the proposed new city.

But now the state's Supreme Court has overruled their decisions, saying that the internal budget is balanced and will be able to provide public services, meaning St George can incorporate.

Critics of the St. George proposal argue that it would create a poor, black, and urban Baton Rouge and a wealthy, white, and suburban St. George.

Posting on Facebook, resident Sarah Stelly wrote: 'St George reeks of class division, it's quickly becoming the new worst type of bigotry.'

Another resident, Paul Brady, wrote: 'The segregationist won. I'm no longer a citizen of Baton Rouge. I now live in the white enclave of St George.'

Leader of an anti-St George campaign group, M.E. Cormier, told the New York Times: 'There is no basis in fact that the existence of St. George is positive or will bring positivity or have a positive impact on any areas of the cities or the parish.

'The detanglement, logistically speaking, is going to be an absolute nightmare.'

But Andrew Murrell, a leader of the St George project, told the paper: 'This is the culmination of citizens exercising their constitutional rights.

'Now we begin the process of delivering on our promises of a better city.'

Fellow campaign leader, Norman Browning told The Times: 'I look forward to our ability to build an efficient, productive and vibrant city while contributing to a thriving East Baton Rouge Parish.'

The split campaign emerged out of the ashes of a failed campaign to create a new school district by the wealthy, predominantly white residents of southern Baton Rouge
A 2014 study by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber found that the effects of the partition would be economically devastating for the remainder of Baton Rouge, immediately creating a $53 million budget shortfall.

The study also raised concerns as to whether the remaining portions of Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s state capital, would be able to support public services despite the loss of tax revenue.

As the tables below shows projected figures for St. George would create a town with an average income $30,000 higher than present day Baton Rouge, while the unemployment rate would be halved.

According to figures compiled by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, the new town would have a majority white population, as opposed to Baton Rouge which has a black majority and the number of people receiving food stamps would also be more than halved.

 

[Elderly Homosexual Negro]

What kind of non-whites, may I ask?

The wealthiest neighborhoods in my city are primarily inhabited by Indian and Pakistani physicians, who are also non-white.

Pajeets will most likely be the first to start moving in due to them usually having a comfortable amount of money. It will open the floodgates so to speak, and then you will have the Nigerian expats with money etc moving in. Give it 20 years and it will start going down hill.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Now just imagine what if the hispanic parts of Chicago wanted to split from the city to create their own city just to annoy we know who?

Chicago, like everything else, is hemmed in by suburbs that were established at the turn of the century. Unlike places like Houston or Florida or California they couldn't keep expanding when the dam burst and people started leaving, so they lost population like so many East Coast cities. Since Chicago is Chicago and St. George wasn't Baton Rouge, it would be even more of an uphill battle than Buckhead trying to leave Atlanta (which failed).

 

[JohnnyG]

Now just imagine what if the hispanic parts of Chicago wanted to split from the city to create their own city just to annoy we know who?

They actually linked the Puerto Rican and Mexican neighborhoods with a single street, making the most gerrymandered district in the country. Apparently Chicago politics for the past few decades have consisted of Hispanic pols demanding more reps as their population grows and the black pop shrinks, while black pols and community agitators say it's rayciss for them to ever lose any reps even as they shrink in number. So the "compromise" is more complex carveouts to preserve black numbers and grow Hispanic ones, at the cost of white reps.

I don't think it matters where you go, as every state is different in their own way; but property rights can be really fucking messy, especially if anyone drops a hint at anything is rayciss. Much like how the Civil Rights Act did shit like make "education" a human right and force non-compatibles to co-mingle, the Fair Housing Act pretty much did the same thing when it comes to property.

Really wild how the Civil Rights Act bulldozed every part of existing law and became the new de facto Constitution.

 

[Nonconsentual Pronouns]

All I hear are abusers and parasites screeching that they're being victimized by being removed from the host who's sick of having their blood drained and their flesh bitten. 'How fucking dare you try to run away. You get back here and pay us for the privilege of cultural enrichment.' LOL cry harder, negroid leeches.

It's incredible how emboldened these bloodsuckers have become. They'll transparently complain that they don't want their victims to escape them, that their victims are escaping parasitism, escaping their violence, escaping their incompetency, escaping their apathy, escaping their malice, etc. All while plainly admitting that the entitled parasites are niggers and their victims are provably superior whites who they think should be forced to be their lifelong child support payers. I know that this aspect is nothing new, but it never ceases to leave me shocked and appalled. I am enjoying the comments section under the article, TBH.

I'm very happy for the new citizens of St George, and I look forward to hopefully seeing more areas follow in their footsteps and flourish in their handmade environments. A parallel society is the least dangerous of our options now, unfortunately.

 

[Caesare]

Well, technically it would the the niggers who make Baton Rouge poor and Black.

Ikr? Here they are, once again, blaming the victims for their own poor decisions and self-destructive lifestyles.

There is a reason why your civic-minded neighbors organized themselves to fight a long, difficult battle for their own interests and well-being. The city government wasn't representing them.

Instead of crying about it, maybe try holding your elected officials accountable so people don't need to create their own city within a city next time.

 

[Barry McKockner]

Instead of crying about it, maybe try holding your elected officials accountable so people don't need to create their own city within a city next time.

Their elected official ARE being held accountable. They are doing EXACTLY what "the majority" of their population wants them to do.

I think the absolute funniest part of this is the fact that unlike previous white flight where people would sell their homes to a new taxpayer, these mad lads are taking the land with them, so the city will never see that tax money again, even if they sell. It's brilliant lmao.

 

[Caesare]

I think the absolute funniest part of this is the fact that unlike previous white flight where people would sell their homes to a new taxpayer, these mad lads are taking the land with them, so the city will never see that tax money again, even if they sell. It's brilliant lmao.

I like how this all started over wanting a better school district, and at some point they must've thought, "Why stop at a school district? Let's just start our own city. It'll be right here, in the middle of this other city."

Good for them. This should keep happening, all over the place. Good clean city's with elected officials that represent that communities interests, right in the middle of dirty, crap cities who also just lost their most valuable residential tax base. Show them what happens when civic minded, responsible people have finally had enough of your bullshit and decide to get organized.

 

[blue gopher snakes]

You can either have noblesse oblige or you can have white people at the bottom of the oppression stack getting screeched at for the sins of men long dead.

You cannot have both.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

By the way, that little enclave of Baton Rouge that extends into St. George is mostly a big shopping center (Lowe's, Sam's Club, Walmart, Kohl's)...can't let those tax dollars all go.

Those areas actually petitioned to be annexed into Baton Rouge while the incorporation effort was held up in legal limbo. They weren't the only ones; the Mall of Louisiana (the largest mall in the state, several hospitals, a Costco, some neighborhoods, a casino, and a film/tv studio all petitioned to join Baton Rouge at some point after all of this began while the attempt to create the St. George kept failing.

If this part of town made up so much of your tax revenue maybe you shouldn't have treated them poorly enough for them to make their own fucking city lmfao.

The issue wasn't really about treatment. It was about schools. The St. George movement originally wanted to create their own school district, because the East Baton Rouge Parish School District sucks. Louisiana doesn't have independent school districts, and every district in the state is either tied to a parish government or municipal one. So, to get their school district, they decided to push for incorporation. The funny part: even with the incorporation going ahead, it will still be years before a school district is created, if its ever created at all.

Fascinating. Is this a strategy that can be tried elsewhere or is this a product of louisiana's wacky frenchie legal system?

St. George is the product of a very weird set of political circumstances. You see, the City of Baton Rouge and the East Baton Rouge Parish have a consolidated city-county government. The Mayor-President of Baton Rouge heads both the city of Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish, hence why she's the "mayor-president" (she's the president of the parish and the mayor of the city). However, unlike almost every other example of city-county consolidation, including New Orleans which is also in Louisiana, the boundaries of the city and the county aren't coterminous with each other. Baton Rouge still has its own city limits separate from the parish boundaries. So there are areas that are in East Baton Rouge Parish, but not part of the city of Baton Rouge. Because they are in the parish, they still vote for the mayor-president. This unusual setup is what allowed the cities of Baker, Zachary, Central, and now St. George to incorporate. St. George were unincorporated parts of the parish, not part of the city of Baton Rouge, so they still had the power to incorporate, if they wanted to.

Others in the thread have mentioned Buckhead's past intention to incorporate and its failure. That's a completely different situation because Buckhead is already incorporated as part of the city of Atlanta. Nobody in any position of authority wanted to open the can of worms of having the richest, wealthiest, whitest part of the existing city of Atlanta break away, potentially destroying the city's finances. That would have far reaching legal implications that could effect other cities and nobody wants that to happen.

Telling a court "We're too dysfunctional to provide civic services unless we can foist all responsibility off on some rich white dudes" isn't the epic own you think it is, guys.

The rich pay the majority of taxes. this is true even on the federal level. So its not exactly stating anything hidden to bring up the fact that the wealthy areas now breaking away from Baton Rouge are taking a lot of money away from the city.

I'm not sure what ETJ (extra-territorial jurisdiction) rules are in Louisiana but in Texas it creates a nether-zone where residents of those areas can't vote or take advantage of city services, but also can't incorporate of their own unless the parent city allows them to.

Louisiana doesn't have ETJ laws. Those are unique to Texas and I believe a few other states. If Louisiana did, St. George could never have happened because it almost certainly would have been Baton Rouge's ETJ.

Again, the craziest part was that St. George was never part of the city. If the city wanted to incorporate those suburbs they should've done it years ago, but that would upset the power structure in the city.

In Louisiana, annexations are not unilateral. They are done with the consent of the property owners, usually by request. For example, as I've mentioned, several areas have requested annexation into Baton Rouge since all this began because they didn't want to be part of the new city.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

The issue wasn't really about treatment. It was about schools. The St. George movement originally wanted to create their own school district, because the East Baton Rouge Parish School District sucks. Louisiana doesn't have independent school districts, and every district in the state is either tied to a parish government or municipal one. So, to get their school district, they decided to push for incorporation. The funny part: even with the incorporation going ahead, it will still be years before a school district is created, if its ever created at all.

I can believe that, I am somewhat familiar with how shoddy both Woodlawn High School was in Baton Rouge in terms of academics and physical condition. (The school was rebuilt elsewhere in the early 2000s).

This TIME article (or see the archive) I've always thought was a bit sensationalized in how awful the schools were but even if it was exaggerated it's really something:

When government distributes handouts to select companies, someone else pays, either in higher taxes or in reduced services. Among the nation's most innocent victims: children who attend public schools. In some Louisiana parishes (counties), 20% or more of the industrial property taxes goes to education. So every tax break granted to a company translates into less money for schools. Consider the consequences of that policy for the 56,000 students in the East Baton Rouge Parish school system, the state's second largest after New Orleans. Everyday, many of them face some or all of these afflictions: rat bites; roofs with holes in them; buildings whose antiquated wiring will not permit more than a few computers to work at one time; walls so damaged by water leaks that paint will not adhere to the plaster; floors so rotted that children put their feet through them; long lines to use outmoded bathrooms; sewage backups in classrooms; asthma and respiratory illnesses as a result of mildew and fungus in ancient air ducts; falling ceiling tiles; condemned rooms; collapsing partitions; unusable playgrounds; broken stairs; carpets that smell from the repeated leaks and flooding.

Cindy Jones, an assistant principal, says, "It's astonishing... that people actually have to come to work and to learn in this kind of environment." Adds John McCann, principal of the 1,000-student Woodlawn High School, arguably the most dilapidated building in the district: "Teachers, they get run-down. It hurts their morale. They're tired of coming to school and getting wet when it rains." McCann means, of course, that teachers are tired of getting wet inside the school--not outside.

Sometimes the flooding occurs at inopportune moments, like the time students sat down to take a state-required test that determines whether they will graduate. "We went to classrooms vacuuming out with those big wet vacs," McCann recalled. "The kids were supposed to be trying to take an exam to see if they can get out of school. Well, we had to stop [the test]...and we had to move some kids out of [the] classrooms."

McCann's school was built long ago on a geological fault and is now cracking--literally. The auditorium, band room and choir room are off limits because they have been condemned.

None of this is to suggest that corporate welfare alone is responsible for the plight of the state's schools. While it certainly is one of the contributing factors, there are others. For example, at the same time the state passes out tax breaks wholesale, it does not contribute one cent to building construction or other capital needs of schools, as many other states do. All of which helps explain why Louisiana ranks 45th in the nation in spending on elementary and secondary education.

 

[Barry McKockner]

Show them what happens when civic minded, responsible people have finally had enough of your bullshit and decide to get organized.

Technically, this is the "Decolonization" they've been begging for.

 

[Caesare]

Technically, this is the "Decolonization" they've been begging for.

Same goes for so-called "gentrification". It's simply young White families coming back to the same inner city neighborhoods they built and lived in for years, giving the neighborhoods character and culture until the politicans ruined them.

There's been instances of politicians colluding with inner city landlords to ruin these White ethnic neighborhoods (Irish, German, Italian) by re-zoning and building high rise, low income apartment buildings to flood these communities with the worst type of residents.

Many believe this was their way to break up the ethnic neighborhoods since the residents would all start leaving once the riff raff moved in, bringing with them the crime, alcoholism, and drug addiction they're known for, thus eroding the quality of life in these once peaceful communities.

The politicians wanted these inner city, ethnic voting blocks to go away, since the people in these communities often voted together to protect their shared interests.

Having them flee the convenience of the inner cities and lose their ethnic identity in the suburbs, diluting their voting power was the politicians plan all along. The new residents were low IQ, uninformed about the issues, and therefore much easier to manipulate and control with empty promises. Nothing a POS, corrupt politician hates more than an informed electorate that they have to actually represent effectively. They'd always prefer dummies who dgac.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

So in essence, the real truth is even scummier, is that the City of Baton Rouge wanted to live off of the suburban (St. George) tax base indefinitely while refusing to incorporate them into the city, because that means more services but also disrupts the electorate. On a pragmatic scale that makes a lot of sense, but they can't really say that out loud because that would make liberal lies about the electorate and taxing more obvious.

Something Something Taxation without Representation

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

Something Something Taxation without Representation

Which isn't actually the case here because the communities in St. George actually had a say in governance because they could vote for county officials prior to incorporation, such as...the Mayor-President.

 

[ChampFantana]

Access to White Men and the stable, peaceful, prosperous societies we create is not a human right.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

Technically, this is the "Decolonization" they've been begging for.

Could we said cue to "but...but...that wasn't real decolonization"?

 

[JohnnyG]

This TIME article (or see the archive) I've always thought was a bit sensationalized in how awful the schools were but even if it was exaggerated it's really something:

I have no doubt that the schools are in terrible shape, but of course Time would have you believe it's because of no money fo dem programs, rather than the fact that the 100%-DEI-controlled institutions are given near endless funding and fail to do even basic maintenance.

Looks like Baton Rouge school systems spent about $16k/student, pre-COVID gibs. Most of the US gets by with $9-10k, and yet Baton Rouge would have you believe they should get even more from the State & Federal tax pot. Their teachers have a base salary of 50-70k, with bonuses of 3-10k, and about 20 different certifications that add 1-3k annual "stipends" to their salary. And the "certifications" aren't for things like AP Physics, it's exotic stuff like "Math". How many borderline-literates do you think are pulling six figures and lifelong pensions while failing at nearly 100% of their job?

 

[Xarpho's Return]

I like how this all started over wanting a better school district, and at some point they must've thought, "Why stop at a school district? Let's just start our own city. It'll be right here, in the middle of this other city."

Good for them. This should keep happening, all over the place. Good clean city's with elected officials that represent that communities interests, right in the middle of dirty, crap cities who also just lost their most valuable residential tax base. Show them what happens when civic minded, responsible people have finally had enough of your bullshit and decide to get organized.

St. George protesters are continuing to cope and seethe with asking the Louisiana Supreme Court to re-hear the case anyway (as opposed to the Supreme Court or a higher court, which would probably re-affirm the ruling).

This article (see above for archived link).

Laramie Griffin, a lifelong resident of Baton Rouge and a community organizer, calls the St. George split “neo-segregation”.
“This is essentially a land-grab, a money-grab that will decimate the city of Baton Rouge,” Griffin said. It is estimated that Baton Rouge will lose around USD 48 million in tax revenue that wealthy St. George residents would have otherwise brought into the city. Griffin mentioned cities such as Zachary and Baker, where wealthy white residents also chose to separate their school districts from the larger East Baton Rouge Parish school district.
The schools of Baton Rouge operated under a desegregation order as a result of the 1956 Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling, which established that the segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. The ruling was viewed as a major victory of the civil rights movement. Baton Rouge was subjected to such an order longer than any school district in the country, which was finally lifted in 2003. The school district is now 81% Black and 89% of students are not white.
The St. George split would effectively re-create a segregated school system, turning the social clock back to before the victories of the Civil Rights movement.

Since it's not like St. George's schools won't prevent blacks going to schools as long as they live in the area, it's not "neo-segregationist".
There are a few things to glean from this article:
- School integration has been nothing less than a complete disaster, largely legislated from the bench. It sounds like with 90% black students, you accomplished "neo-segregation" anyway.
- It outright admits that the wealthier suburbs bring in the money for the city of Baton Rouge. Urbanist dogma, which is hand-in-hand with this sort of thing, blames suburbs for not contributing their fair share.
- Less-drastic measures have been discussed over the years, but have all been shot down.

“If you live here in the capital city and have a problem, wouldn’t you want to fix it, do what we call preventative care to prevent these things from happening?” Rather than use their tax dollars to provide housing or other social services to prevent crimes, Griffin denounces St. George residents for wanting to “separate themselves.”

This is typical bullshit from liberals, basically "why didn't they give us more free shit?", not realizing that was the whole point. The suburbs were acting as a free money source for Baton Rouge for years and any complaints about the problems fell on deaf ears.

 

[pikachudidnothingwrong]

The area gets taxed but doesn't get most services offered from the taxing government or say... How does that work?

This all started with two failed attempts by the area of "St. Gorge" to create their own school districts. Both attempts were denied with the claims that they needed to be a city to do that. So they then started that battle. After winning a local vote, they were sued by said taxing government and it was held up in courts for years. The argument was that they wouldn't be able to fund their new city, and that it would hurt the greater parish's funding. (how it can do both is a true mystery, especially since they pay more in) Two lower courts ruled against them on flimsy legal and factual grounds. Finally the state SC ruled in their favor, correcting the lower courts. This now is a last ditch effort to get the SC to reconsider.

The sad part is that without success in current efforts at the state level to change the laws and red tape, even once they become a city, they can't instantly form their own school district by default. Current state law throws up a bunch more battles. The state, not just locals, get to vote on the creation of a new district. (and the left and MSM is mobilizing on this story) They can also be blocked by red tape and legal efforts from the parish again.

 

[HodgePodgeRogerDodger]

The Civil Rights movement and it’s consequences have been a disaster for America.