Mayor-President Kip Holden gave an upbeat assessment of Baton Rouge’s future Wednesday, and vowed to move aggressively to address the problems of poverty, urban blight and the city’s growing murder rate.
In his annual “state of the city-parish” address to the Baton Rouge Rotary Club, Holden talked about significant accomplishments in 2009, as well as the challenges facing the city and parish in the year ahead.
One of those challenges, he said, is reducing the number of homicides in the city, which reached a record of 75 last year.
Holden said 60 of the slayings occurred in four ZIP code areas — 70802, 70805, 70806 and 70815. He said police are targeting those areas for aggressive crime-fighting efforts this year.
“The police can’t do it alone,” Holden said. “Our citizens, especially in these ZIP codes, must join us to make a difference.”
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