Pictures of the June shrimp boil

Thanks Heidi for these great photos!

Destination Mid City - May 2008

The newsletter Destination Mid City for May 2008 is now available.

What happened with the Westmoreland redevelopment

From the Baton Rouge Business Report

When asked about obstacles to economic development in Mid City, Samuel Sanders, executive director of the Mid City Redevelopment Alliance, immediately says “overpriced property.”

“We have individual owners believing that the wave is coming, with them not realizing that they’re blocking the wave,” Sanders says. Still, the area isn’t without its selling points, and might be “the next best thing” to more-expensive downtown. . .

Full Article

The "new" neighborhood blog

Originally this blog was a place for a few friends in the neighborhood to post photos, video or little snippets of info. So the early postings are not as truly neighborhood-centric as we hope they will eventually become. We really want to include everybody in the neighborhood and encourage anyone to contribute to this blog. We hope it can become a place where we highlight our neighbors-- what they're doing with in their gardens, or projects with their homes, or safe-for-work photos of their travels :)

Anybody who would like to contribute, please email me and I'll make sure you have the access you need to post to this blog.

-Bob Butler chickenside@gmail.com

Happy Birthday Barrington

Once again, another wonderful evening of excellent food and good company-- and a completely painful next day....

Critical Mass ride this Friday

This Friday at 5:30pm bicyclists will gather by the flag pole on the LSU parade grounds for the monthly Critical Mass ride. About 80 riders turned out for the last ride and it was a fun, but rather long journey through the less attractive parts of south Baton Rouge. hopefully this ride will choose a more pleasant ride closer to Mid City so we could more easily detach from the Mass closer to home. Who knows, the Mass may end up at the Live at Five which goes on until about 8pm. Check out the incomprehensibly ugly and confusing Myspace page dedicated to Critical Mass in Baton Rouge.

Here are some photos of some previous rides.

OPCA March Newsletter

Here is the Ogden Park Civic Association's March Newsletter.

Lawn mower theft thwarted

I believe I thwarted a lawn mower theft last Sunday. At about 10pm I saw a gentleman headed toward me (west) on Wilshire, jogging with a lawn mower. He crossed Acadian and continued down Wilshire. So I called the police, and hopped in my car and followed him nearly to Eugene, where I was able to flag down a patrol car. The jogging gentleman vanished, leaving the lawn mower in the road. The mower is a 4 horse power Murray and Is being held in the Baton Rouge police evidence room. The police could not give me a case number because it's technically a suspected theft at this point.

If any of you know anybody who lives in Ogden Park / Bernard Terrace, east of Acadian, please ask them if their lawn mower is missing.
-Bob

End of an era

When I moved into this neighborhood last August, Mac immediately invited me into his bizarre fold. After my first Cadillac experience, he told me that I'd fit right in. Every week, Mac had friends come to his home to play cards, eat, drink and say naughty things... I loved coming home from work and seeing the Cadillac gang hanging out in Mac's yard. I think I really bonded with Mac when I told him that I had thrown up on his lawn after staggering home from a neighborhood party early one morning. When Mac's house was burglarized, he took it in stride. He was sitting on his swing sipping out of his stainless steel martini glass when I told him how sorry I was about it. He said, "oh don't that suck..? Hey, how about a drink..? You playing tonight..?"

I will miss him greatly.

Car Break-in last night

Kowgirl Kate had her car stereo stolen last night-- the third one in less than a year in this neighborhood. Two weeks ago, my car was rifled through, but nothing taken, as there was nothing to take. Is there now or has there ever been an organized neighborhood watch in Ogden Park and would anybody be interested in helping to form and participate in one..?