Our Views: A rush to sell key properties

When Bobby Jindal was a young man in state government, his boss — Gov. Mike Foster — embarked on a far-sighted plan with two benefits: consolidating state offices to save money for the taxpayer over the coming decades and revitalizing downtown Baton Rouge, providing the state, as well as the city, economic and social benefits for years to come.

That lesson has apparently been lost on Jindal.

In the course of a frantic fire sale of state assets to balance the budget, two key pieces of property in downtown are to be sold. The administration and a top legislator say the sales are pretty far along, with buyers identified.

The sales, though, have occurred without any of the extensive consultation that Foster and his Division of Administration entered into with the city of Baton Rouge and the Downtown Development District. If there is any attention being paid to local priorities for the properties, it’s not apparent.

That’s the nature of a fire sale. Take the check, let somebody else plan for the consequences.

The properties are the vacant lot, formerly the site of the Insurance Department building, near the State Capitol and the 12-story state office building on Third Street at Convention Street downtown.

The old insurance building lot is located between the Capitol and the historic Spanish Town neighborhood. It was recommended for a sophisticated redevelopment project by world-renowned planner Andres Duany in the original Plan Baton Rouge, in 1998.

Jindal apparently does not do sophistication. He needs the one-time cash to help balance, precariously, the state budget in the coming fiscal year.

In a downtown, not all property is the same. These are vital parcels that can make a significant difference in downtown’s future growth.

The office building on Third Street is a prime spot for a hotel or condominium/apartment conversion, in line with the master plans that Foster’s administration helped to create.

Good things could happen to those properties, if the sales go through and the new owners recognize the value of investing in consonance with the master plan. But the administration could help that along by working with local government and the Downtown Development District.

Legislative committees must approve any potential sales, and we hope that city-parish government and the local legislative delegation appreciate the importance of redeveloping these state properties.

Working with others has unfortunately never been Jindal’s strong suit. However, he might respond to pressure from local officials and the delegation to try to get him to do right by his hometown.

Comments

1) Comment by Bouncer - 03/03/2013

I'm sure that Jindal is an over-the-roll kind of paper hanger. Personality wise, those types like to take charge and are overachievers. Over-the-rollers are concerned with ease of locating the end, as well as being able to tear off an exact number of sheets, and they are fastidious about their hands not banging into the wall or cabinet so as to avoid germs. They lack creativity and manifest attributes of the anal-expulsive personality type. They are completely self-centered and act only in their own interests. Under-the-roll types, on the other hand, are laid back, dependable, and artistic. They prefer under-the-roll because of its tidier appearance and reduction of the chance of "accidental unrolling" by a child or cat batting at the roll. They are generally altruistic and other-oriented. As someone mentioned, though, Jindal doesn't really need toilet tissue when so many of his sock puppets willingly lick his bum clean.

2) Comment by GardenVariety - 03/03/2013

Why would the Advocate bother when it's obvious that he has others, such as yourself, who make hanging toilet paper unnecessary. :D

3) Comment by Whatnow - 03/03/2013

Gee, another dig at Jindal. Next the Advocate will try to find fault with which way Jindal hangs his toilet paper.

4) Comment by Scrooge - 03/03/2013

Holding onto property like the governor's mansion requires maintaining it and prevents the private sector from developing it, making it a useful addition to the downtown area. Selling unused state government property like the grovernor's mansion is both efficient for the state, the city, and the private sector.

5) Comment by gjnyc - 03/03/2013

Included in the fire sale is 2200 acres of land in Saint Gabriel. In light of Jindal’s record and myself a resident of Saint Gabriel, I’m organizing the residents and preparing for a fight. This land is virtually untouched and I know he will be willing to sell the land to a Chemical plant or any Industrial entity that would destroy its pristine nature.

6) Comment by Aloysius - 03/03/2013

Y'all are wrongly attacking The Advocate. This editorial isn't about WHETHER it is proper to sell these properties; it is about HOW the Jindal administration is going about it. The Advocate is addressing the process, not necessarily the sales themselves.

7) Comment by [e-mail] - 03/03/2013

The state should not own any property for speculation or any other reason unless it is properly utilized by the state.

8) Comment by postscript56 - 03/03/2013

Over my lifetime the state has divested itself of property many times only to find out after the first contract the cost of renting is greater than the cost of maintaining. So then the state purchases or builds new facilities to consolidate cost and save money - only to turn around and sell it off again later. This cycle has repeated endlessly.

9) Comment by ScotB - 02/03/2013

Holding onto property requires maintaining it and prevents the private sector from developing it, making it a useful addition to the downtown area. Selling unused state government property is both efficient for the state, the city, and the private sector.

10) Comment by GardenVariety - 02/03/2013

Guv Stoopid Parti only needs enough money to get him through the next fiscal year, so this stop-gap fire sale makes complete sense to him and his minions. Come 2014, he'll be on his pilgrimage to his Promised Land, DC. Our state's Micromanager-in-Chief can't wait to get a shot at expanding his and his sponsors' power. The armchair libertarians who've filled this comment section with their usual stuff will, I'm sure, protest him when he takes his Bizzarro Neo-Stalinist Reagan Reborn show to a national stage. (A right-winger being Stalinist is not as contradictory as it might sound. For authoritarians, there's a handful of favored techniques, regardless of ideology. Guv Stoopid tends to like impenetrable bureaucracy, heartless technocracy, calculated instability, and draconian discipline.) 2014 can't get here soon enough.

11) Comment by Melisse3 - 02/03/2013

So the Advocate would rather Jindal lay-off a few more state employees than sell some old, un-used state property. My guess is - if Blanco had proposed selling off un-needed state property it would have been characterized by the Advocate as sound, pro-active management.

12) Comment by prbeav - 02/03/2013

@agagent, government is out of control at all levels. Holden is dis-functional. Jindal is dis-functional. Obama is dis-functional. The two major parties are dis-functional. The problem is that We the People is dis-functional.>>>>Read the preamble to the US Constitution and take it literally, as Federalist 84 does; it asserts that there is no need for a bill of rights, because the people, in the US Constitution, do not forgo their rights: they govern.>>>>For 225 years, the people have rejected the gift of the US Constitution--governance by the governed--the means to perfect written law.>>>>Thus, Obama, a former Constitutional law professor, in his 2nd inaugural speech refers to the majority, "we, the people," because We the People is not the accurate reference. The majority of voters, who elected him, are no more We the People than the Protestant majority who were responsible for the ruinous First Amendment and its attention to freedom of religion instead of what is needed: freedom of thought. We the People need independence, not indoctrination. We the People need to govern ourselves by demanding politicians who know and understand and have a platform intended to fulfill the preamble to the US Constitution. (And we need to amend the First Amendment to replace "religion" with "thought.")

13) Comment by agagent - 02/03/2013

Many of the governors critics are huge liberal hypocrites in that they fully support Obama in: illegal coercion of states in Obamacare, the illegal power given to Obama’s many unelected and unaccountable czars, Obama’s selective enforcement of only laws he agrees with and ignoring laws he does not agrees with, hampering states in their enforcement of laws, Obama’s executive orders which circumvent the powers of Congress, and the Obama administration threatening any media outlet or reporter which dare criticizes them.

14) Comment by agagent - 02/03/2013

The state and the federal government should not hold on to vacant property when there is no plan for their future use by the government. Government ownership of vacant property inhibits a more effective use of the property, as well as add unnecessary maintenance costs to taxpayers. When the property is released by government any economic activity on the property will produce additional revenue for local, state, and federal governments.

15) Comment by prbeav - 02/03/2013

What Jindal has done to education was single-minded and unconstitutional. Louisiana would have been better off if Jindal was a co-operative person.>>>>What Jindal has done to health care was single-minded. Louisiana would be better off if Jindal had appreciation for each person.>>>>What Jindal has done for his cronies--creating ways to pay them twice their values--is single minded and should be challenged by the people.>>>>Louisiana would be better off if Jindal had to answer to We the People as defined in the United States Constitution.>>>>The fact is, Jindal manipulates "we, the people," the divisive electorate--in Louisiana's case, the foolhardy voters who look to something beyond We the People to govern. Most of them think God has their back, but the evidence is they are mistaken. >>>>Failure of the people to govern the people is apparent at all levels of government. It is time for the people to reform and accept their gift and responsibility: We the People as defined in the US Constitution.

16) Comment by [e-mail] - 02/03/2013

How does having the state own property help anything? Waiting for government to grow into it?

17) Comment by tradewinns - 02/03/2013

"....sophisticated redevelopment project by world-renowned planner Andres Duany in the original Plan Baton Rouge, in 1998". 12 or 13 years seems enough time for something to happen if it was going to happen. so like lots of politically motivated expensive proorams, it didn't happen. empty buildings do not increase in value. your first offer is usually your best offer.

18) Comment by Notauser - 01/03/2013

I again have to disagree with you. First, Foster was not a saint doing good things for the city. He was just a simpleton used by the Division of Administration and the old money that owned property downtown. The DOA wanted state owned buildings because DOA charges the agencies rent. Not market rate rent, any more than they charge agencies market rates for any of the other “services” they provide. DOA would have been happy to have the state owned building located anywhere, but by teaming up with the downtown land owners who wanted to increase demand for their properties to increase their rent income they were able to have “everyone” telling simple Foster it was a good idea. Second, the social benefits of having all state employees converging on and departing from a small area downtown, with one hundred eighty degrees of access cut off by the river, did nothing good for traffic. Increasing the average travel distance to work did nothing for ozone levels and the environment or for the effective length of the work day for workers. Third, selling to the highest bidder is better for the economy than selling only to someone who is going to put the property to the use you want. The person able to put the property to its highest economic use is the person who is willing and able to pay the highest price. It is really hard to believe the Advocate hasn’t noticed that centrally planned economies have a long history of failing.