Smart City: BBC shreds to work in B.R.

Mobile bureau lands in the Capital City for the month

While traveling the country to cover regional stories, a team of BBC reporters set up shop in Baton Rouge for the month. In between organizing community town halls and covering local issues (St. George: still a thing), the BBC Pop Up team showed off how they get to work each day.

“One of the challenges with being city people for BBC Pop Up and living in non-city locations is getting to work each day. We drive so much that we have to creatively think about how we get to work,” reporter Matt Danzico says before coasting down Lakeland Drive in Spanish Town atop a GoPro-rigged skateboard. Check out the video below:

Granted, they only traveled a few blocks from Spanish Town to the Chase Towers downtown, which is a much shorter commute than most of us in Baton Rouge. (Also, Baton Rouge: city or non-city? You tell us!)

And when the team—which arrived here after spending September in Boulder, Colorado—isn’t enjoying the mild fall weather of south Louisiana, they have been telling stories about voodoo, race and class issues, LSU’s mascot, and Alyssa Carson, the Baton Rouge teenager training with NASA (our sister publication, InRegister, wrote about Carson’s mission here).

Check out more at the BBC Pop Up website and on their behind-the-scenes blog.

STREET SMARTS
Center for Planning Excellence is hosting a weekend-long Street Smart demonstration in the Bernard Terrace, Capital Heights, Valley Park and Webb Park neighborhoods starting Friday. The events are meant to support the Better Block BR efforts and the Mayor’s Complete Streets ordinance—teaching residents about street design solutions to ease traffic, provide better connectivity and pedestrian/bicycle access, and much more.

Find out more about the weekend of activities, including a wine walk, bike tour and food trucks, here.