JR Ball: The curious case of Bodi White

The curious case of Bodi White

JR BALL

IT’S HARD TO believe Bodi White really wanted to be the mayor of Baton Rouge and the president of this parish.

Given how hard the powerful state senator from neighboring Central works against Louisiana’s second-most important city, why in the name of all things Red Stick did he ever want to be its chief executive officer?

Please tell me it’s for reasons other than Eddie Rispone put him up to it.

Perhaps his spate of head-scratching legislative antics are payback to the highfalutin, city-dwelling snobs responsible for his 2016 loss to Sharon Weston Broome.

Dismiss the notion if you want, but a cadre of Baton Rouge influential types, including a few who spend a fair amount of time schlepping the halls of the state Capitol, believe the animus is real.

White’s spite isn’t reserved for the creative and eclectic types who call places like Spanish Town, Mid City and Southdowns home. He’s also none too pleased with the Bocage and Highland Road business crowd who not only didn’t support his campaign but also cast a rather condescending eye—apparently—toward the more rural and less diverse city of Central.

The problem with this theory is that White was sticking it to Baton Rouge long before its moneyed, moderate white voters crushed his mayoral dream.

Maybe he simply sees himself as a white knight, protecting his minions by fending off the hoity-toity, big city elites.

Which might help explain why he 1) extorts BREC every decade or so by threatening to create his own parks department unless the parishwide agency ponies up for some pet youth baseball project in Central, 2) Worked overtime to crush the northern bypass segment of the Baton Rouge Loop Project when the preferred route was not to his liking, and 3) Plays a role in routinely fracturing the Capital Region Legislative Delegation—annually costing the area millions— while other regional delegations, like the one from New Orleans, manage to remain unified long enough to rake in the largesse.

In fairness, there were legitimate arguments against the northern bypass—pitched as a public-private toll road—but those had zero to do with White’s objections. His were purely personal.

White, a lifelong resident of the hamlet known as Central, is the personification of the challenge facing Baton Rouge. We’re a parish with a colossal number of cultural divisions (racial, religious, economic, political, yadda yadda yadda) and getting people to see a picture beyond their own parochial view is nearly impossible.

It’s why the supposedly small government, anti-tax Republican has no problem steering $2 million from the state budget to the Central Athletic Foundation but took a handsoff approach on $32 million for phase one of the University Lakes renovation and is actively working against committing the dollars necessary to finish this critically important quality of life project.

Maybe it would help if White checked the data indicating the lakes project polls just as well in Central and Zachary as it does in Baton Rouge. #Facts.

Parochialism is why White can wrangle an eye-catching $10.9 million in federal American Rescue Plan dollars for the city he loves so much yet now plays political shenanigans with money the governor wants allocated for a new bridge over the Mississippi River. Does he honestly believe his beloved hometown won’t benefit from the project?

His consistently myopic viewpoint is how he can file a bill proposing to redraw the school boundaries for Central, removing Black and lower-income residents from the district, and be oblivious that it comes off as racist. White could not care less that such a move won’t play well with researchers or knowledge-based companies being recruited to move into East Baton Rouge Parish—not to mention this region’s quest to attract and retain young, educated professionals.

The tragedy in all this is no city or unincorporated region can survive on its own. White may not be willing to admit it, but a thriving Baton Rouge is truly a good thing for its bedroom community neighbor to the northeast.

Incredible research being done at LSU, the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, The Water Campus, numerous health care facilities and area petrochemical plants have the potential to enrich everyone in the region—not just the city that calls these places home. Entrepreneurs creating new ideas, knowledge-based innovations, high-paying jobs and, yes, wealth for the successful risk-takers benefits Central—even if none of those enterprisers chooses to live there.

Here’s the bottom line: East Baton Rouge Parish will never

State Sen. Bodi White live up to its incredible potential if White and so many others—including a great many people from Baton Rouge—remain so stubbornly insular.

With White, love means having to say you’re sorry, so …

Dear Bodi,

On behalf of everyone residing in the city of Baton

Rouge—and especially the business community—we’re sorry.

Our bad for not supporting you en masse during your run for mayor-president. Forgive us for not hurling cash at your campaign, endorsing you (Thanks, Rolfe) or voting for you.

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa if we big city folks give the impression of looking down on the good people of Central. On a personal note, Central residents are fabulous—especially

Melanie at Central Pools and

Jessica at Caliente Mexican

Craving. Two finer people you’ll never meet.

They’re even nicer than your baseball park in Central.

Boy, that’s quite a sports Taj

Mahal. It’s way better than anything Baton Rouge has got. And now turf fields are on the way? Well done by you, sir!

If you want, I’ll come over and help run a lacrosse clinic to assist Central’s team.

But I digress.

Even if you can’t bring yourself to help improve Baton

Rouge, can you at least stop working overtime to hurt the city that makes it possible for you to do what you do?

Anyway, for not voting for you and for all the other slights we’ve heaped your way, we humbly apologize.

Let me close by quoting the late John McKeithen, another notable country-born

Louisiana politician, “Won’t ya’ hep me?”

Sincerely,

Baton Rouge