Baton Rouge Coffee House

[richyb83]

I wanted to post all this in BREC thread; but since it was brought up in the Coffee House; here it is.

Actually they are about to start.....Check-out the Linear Park Conceptual Map - February 2008

BREC's Capital Area Pathways Project (CAPP) has selected and been approved to study a site for future development. The 2.8 mile linear park trail corridor stretches from Siegen Lane to Bluebonnet Blvd. along Dawson and Ward's Creeks. It will connect Perkins Rowe/CAP Elite/Mall of La/The Grove/Siegen MarketPlace

http://capp-online.org/9.html

Then Click on EBR logo that has another MAP; (very hard to see) has pathways following every bayou/creek/"greenlinks" you can imagine covering the "entire parish"! Including connecting Miss.River Levee across LSU along Bayou Duplantier all the way to Olympia Park(nice size)

BTW up in the northern section of EBR Hooper Road Park has a grueling 5 mile path with hills and another at Comite River Park thats 3 miles.

Edited May 20, 2008 by richyb83

[dan326]

This is from the Discovery Channel Show "Haunting". Near the end you hear a faint lullaby and a small girl appears riding the horse. It's really neat.

Edited May 24, 2008 by dan326

[dan326]

Here's an interesting article from 2004 about Cortana. I'm gald they didn't build apartments around it or it would have really turned into the ghetto. One thing that is kind of funny is how it says it plans to get more business from Livingston as it is growing, remember ,this was before Juban Crossing. &

"For most of its life, the Mall at Cortana has been a bustling shopping destination surrounded by grassy fields.

The green buffer served a function: motorists always could easily see the mall from busy Airline Highway and Florida Boulevard.

But for the past several years, Cortana's owners have been busy convincing retailers to move into big box stores of 50,000 square feet or more around the mall's perimeter.

Today shoppers are just as likely to run into Shoe Carnival, Guitar Center, Lowe's, Old Navy, Super Wal-Mart, Babies R Us or Bed, Bath & Beyond as they are to go a particular store within the mall itself. Cortana officials believe the perimeter stores serve a greater purpose by giving the mall a wider foot print, making it a stronger draw for customers from farther away.

An early master plan of the 500-acre Cortana site called for retail, residential and even office space development surrounding the mall. But that was long before the advent of retailing's modern favorite, the big boy."

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa52...10/ai_n24285933

Edited June 13, 2008 by dan326

[richyb83]

The Mall of Louisiana seems to be grabbing this concept as well; adding Power Centers around the noth & east perimeter with Bluebonnet Parc and the other with Circuit City/Dick's Sporting Goods; etc. Their advantage is they have hotels and more restuarants; not to mention Interstate access.

I hope the best for the Mall at Cortana; their perimeter big-boxes have helped them stay afloat IMO.

Business Report had a Poll last week asking at what location would you set-up your new place of business??? Cortana was not even one of the three options. Actually Towne Center was voted #1 ahead of the new Boulevard(outside Mall of La.) and Perkins Rowe. Towne Center being located in the geographical center is simply too close to Cortana. The reason places like Gap; American Eagle; Kirklands; etc left Cortana in favor of Towne Center.

[dan326]

Actually American Eagle still operates there along with other "affluent" stores like EXPRESS and New York & Company. They have opened a few stores too. I guess I care so much about MaCT because it's so huge. I'd hate to see a 1.6 million shopping center go defunct and be demolished for a wimpy open-air center or be turned into a crappy church-mall. I sent them some suggestions, I hope they read it. I think I'll send them somemore just incase.

[cajun]

I hope the best for the Mall at Cortana; their perimeter big-boxes have helped them stay afloat IMO.

It's a 2004 article.

It didn't help, and the mall is screwed.

The entire northern section has a huge power center/strip center that is mostly empty. One major anchor store in the mall is empty- and the occupancy rate is now lower than it ever was in the Mall's history. They are just doing this to bring in more rental income. Power centers are cheap construction and rents are usually pretty high. The usual shoppers have all been replaced- and the new ones are not spending enough money to keep it afloat.

They can't skip around the issue- they have to either spend about $100 million to make major changes to the mall structure or they can let it die. This mall was top of the line in 1980. Trends have changed, and because of it's size, they will have to spend a fortune bringing it into the 21st century. The whole mall is ugly and inclusive- like almost everything built in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

GGP- the company that owns Mall of Louisiana, is not letting their investment lose. They spend all that money upgrading a mall that's still fairly new.

Edited June 14, 2008 by cajun

[dan326]

I can always count you, Cajun to give an honest straight up opinion. The guys who own Siegen MarketPlace also own Cortana, and if you noticed, when Seigen MarketPlace opened also Cortana got a few of the stores like Old Navy and Shoe Carnival. So maybe when Market Palce starts on their exspansion Cortana will get some.

Yesterday, Coldplay, which is one of my three favorite artists along with Evanescence and Aaliyah, released their 4th album yesterday called Viva la Vida and ya'll can be sure I was their to pick it up. It's pretty good though the sounds might be a little too different for someone who's never listened to their music before.

Here is the one of the songs of the album also called "Viva la Vida" whcih you've probably heard a piece of on the Apple iPod commercial.

Edited June 18, 2008 by dan326

[dan326]

I went to Dallas/Ft. Worth a several days ago, going through Shreveport to, and Houston on the way back. When I was passing through The Woodlands I saw this beautiful shopping center called "Colonial Pinnacle at Portofino". I love decadence in architecture and this didn't disappoint. It was kind of funny that they had such great architecture for such a mediocre stores. Here are a few pictures I found.

Edited June 20, 2008 by dan326

[BRPJ]

...

Edited June 23, 2008 by BRPJ

[BRPJ]

Yesterday, Coldplay, which is one of my three favorite artists along with Evanescence and Aaliyah, released their 4th album ye

O love Aaliyah! rip. My favorite album is the Aaliyah album. I love "I can be"

I like cold play too, i need to download their new album

[dan326]

That's my favorite of her albums too! I also like that song, but my favorite of her songs is "More Than a Woman".

Edited June 24, 2008 by dan326

[buckett5425]

I got bored today, so I played on photoshop to make a new avatar. But, its so small as avatar, that you cant read it, so I thought id post it on here.

[dan326]

That's a neat avatar Steve. What building is that? Maybe you should try to sell it to the school, when I first saw it I thought you had found it on the school website.

[buckett5425]

That's a neat avatar Steve. What building is that? Maybe you should try to sell it to the school, when I first saw it I thought you had found it on the school website.

haha, yea, I wish I could sell it to them, but Im sure they are bound by the university to use the official logos. But maybe we can use the design for next years AIAS t-shirts. The building is Atkinson Hall, the architecture building. Its a drawing i did from first year. Its a free hand, abstract, two-point perspective.

[twstdndmntd]

I really wish BR would get an IKEA

[nquint1]

I really wish BR would get an IKEA

I do too! However, I have a feeling it will be awhile before one opens here(Charlotte just got theirs). I'd like to see an Ikea at the corner of I12 and wherever the loop connects.

[dan326]

I do think they will put an IKEA in Baton Rouge as their Louisiana location, but they will put it where the loop joins to I-10 as we will have to share with New Orleans.

Edited July 2, 2008 by dan326

[cajun]

Okay...Baton Rouge needs another big exibit at the Kidd museum.

I'd like an aircraft carrier, but all decommissioned carriers are already in place, and all new carriers are Nimitz class, which are simply too large to dock at the Baton Rouge harbor keep from blocking the shipping channel or depriving downtown of sunlight.

So....I think it's time to upgrade the exibit with a submarine exibit. The new ones are also extremely large, but they will actually fit on a dry dock in Baton Rouge. A coast guard cutter is also a cool thing to have...also, a reproduction "ironclad" warship from the civil war would be neat too.

I would also like to see more about the Mitsubishi Zero (Japanese gunship and bomber in WWII) and the Wildcat/Hellcat planes from America.

Mobile and Charleston have much cooler exibits- not taking anything away from the heroic USS Kidd, but perhaps it's time for another exibit.

They have a great little museum there, but it could be so much more. An Aircraft Carrier could actually hold the entire museum in the lower deck! How cool is that?

The current museum is awesome, but is should be larger. You can actually camp out on the USS Kidd overnight....so it's obvious that they go above and beyond a normal Museum, so they deserve more big exibits.

Edited July 13, 2008 by cajun

[buckett5425]

I think a submarine would be cool. But as for a large ship, like an aircraft carrier, i dont think it can make it under the bridges, haha.

[richyb83]

Not sure what to make of this; but it sounds interesting.

BR job productivity highest in nation

Brookings

[richyb83]

This is good stuff!

City plans to clean up 300 lots in Eden Park

The city-parish on Monday begins a weeklong effort its calling

[dan326]

This looks like something that was meant to go up along side Bon Carre Center. It's a multifamily development going up in Las Vegas called "Boca Raton".

[richyb83]

Wow, it sure does!!! I wish they would build that somwhere here in BR!

[byrde]

For those of you with High Definition Televisions and Cox we are getting two HD Channels that will cover the olympics. Channels 701 and 702.

Cox adding HD channels for the Olympics

The 2008 Beijing Olympics start Friday, and Cox Communications is adding two new high-definition channels to provide specialized coverage. During the games, Cox subscribers will have access to the NBC Olympic Basketball Channel and the NBC Olympic Soccer Channel. The Sports Zone channel will also be converted to all Olympic events during the two weeks the games are going on. NBC plans to televise 3,600 hours of Olympics coverage, spread across its main broadcast channel, CNBC, MSNBC, USA, Oxygen and Telemundo-more hours than all previous Summer Olympics combined.

http://www.businessreport.com/archives/dai...008/aug/06/595/

[richyb83]

Got it! Thanks for the head's up Bryde The Olympics come a the perfect time just before football season!!!