Musa Rahman calls North Baton Rouge home. He works and lives there.
“In our community it’s all people. It’s like a rainbow,” said Rahman. “It’s different types of people.”
Rahman said when he found out the Mayor-President of Baton Rouge vetoed the Economic Opportunity Zone for the North, disappointment doesn’t even cover how he is feeling.
“This was an opportunity for our community to be seen and heard,” said Rahman.
The council finally passed the ordinance after months of delays. It aims to give incentives to people who want to build businesses there, but the mayor said it lacks “strategy” and is not a “real plan.”
“This is enough, this is the time. Now I don’t know why he’s saying that it’s not enough,” said Rahman. “Businesses in the community, grow the community. It’s like pouring water on a plant, and we need that in our community for our children, our senior citizens, and you know, the average person, me or you.”
Resident Tyrone Thomas has been fighting to get North Baton Rouge noticed for decades.
“It don’t make sense,” said Thomas.
Now Thomas said he is going to continue to fight for his community.
“We hope that we can override,” said Thomas. “I’m hoping to call the Governor’s Office because we will lead a protest from the Mayor’s Office to the Governor’s Office because something’s got to be done for North Baton Rouge,”
We did reach out to the Mayor’s Office to see what his plans are if the veto goes through. Right now, we are waiting on his response. The meeting to override the Mayor’s decision is Wednesday, April 27th.