I'm from Jackson, Ms and hate Baton Rouge. It lacks flavor, culture and anything that sets it apart. It lacks entertainment, style and big events. People hate it because it carries the crime, traffic, noise, pollution and all the negatives that come along with big cities but the payoff is Applebees, Mall of Louisiana, a couple Casinos and that is about it.
Jackson is pretty terrible but it is Jackson, Ms it is supposed to stink. Baton Rouge is an hour away from one of the greatest cities on the planet. A city that chain restaurants really struggle because there is so much local flavor and yet somehow this doesn't trickle over to Baton Rouge. The sad thing is you get that trickle over of flavor and culture to the Ms Gulf Coast even into the Florida panhandle but Baton Rouge can't manage to figure it out. Also, don't act like Baton Rouge's wine drinking society doesn't think just as poorly of New Orleans. I used to here how much they hate the Saints because all they did was lose, how they couldn't stand living in New Orleans because of the traffic, crime and litter. They didn't have a problem gobbling up the high end seats in the dome when the Saints started winning and now they don't have a problem living in a more congested Baton Rouge with a very impressive crime rate.
I know from a personal view, Baton Rouge isn't any more terrible than a lot of cities such as Jackson or Montgomery or Shreveport, etc. The thing that makes it so terrible is the proximity to New Orleans and all the things that make it a world class city but failure to take advantage in any sort of way. It is almost like they are striving to become the Chili's of Cities.
Link?