BATON ROUGE - Mayor-President Sid Edwards jumped back in the seat of an excavator Monday morning to tear down the parish's 200th condemned property in 2025. 

Edwards operated the machinery to remove the blight along Comish Drive in Baton Rouge. He was there for the demolition of the first property in January, an abandoned property on Curlew Street.

"You can see the neighbors are all out here and they're excited; this is a milestone and we hope to continue getting better," Edwards said.

The City-Parish spent at least $1.5 million on demolitions in 2025, a tenfold increase over the $140,000 spent in 2024 when 49 properties were demolished under the previous administration. Rachael Lambert, director of the Department of Development, relied on Community Development Block Grants and Office of Community Development dollars to accomplish the feat. By utilizing these resources, the city is hopeful to reach the 200 property goal again in 2026.

The parish is working through a backlog of at least 500 properties awaiting condemnation.

"We want things to be done quickly, but yet, these are people's investments, people's lives; though they might not be living here there's still some sentimental value and we still have to provide some due process," Lambert said.

Once a property is demolished, it still belongs to the owner. The city will place a lien on the property for the cost of demolition. If the lien is not paid, it will roll over to property taxes and if those aren't paid the property will end up adjudicated and could go to tax sale. To avoid further blight, the goal is to bring properties back into commerce.

"We're going to do our part, but people need to take pride in the area they're living in and to keep up with it and to not tolerate the litter and the tires and the trash," Edwards said.

In the first quarter of the new year, Edwards plans to take a closer look at increasing blight fines.