The Eight Aspects of Good Downtowns

"Plan Baton Rouge, the downtown master plan led by renowned New Urbanist Andres Duany, turns 10 years old this year. Most of the projects suggested by that plan have come to fruition, including Main Street Market and the Shaw Center for the Arts. Our downtown is far more vibrant than it was in 1998, but it still lacks the buzz found in cities like Portland, Ore., Dallas, Colorado Springs, Colo., or Boise, Idaho."

"Alex Krieger of Chan Krieger Sieniewicz in Cambridge, Mass., will lead the second phase of Plan Baton Rouge, assuming the contract is signed. Krieger, the former chairman of the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, believes there are about eight common values all successful downtowns embrace."