Mike Polito is now one of them

Mike Polito's fear for Baton Rouge in 2007: people who'll be dead in 20 years deciding what the city becomes. Nineteen years later, he's one of those people—and he's still not backing down.

Why it matters: Polito now chairs the BREC Commission, steering City-Brooks Park's future and potential alterations to its 9-hole golf course.

• The old Business Report quote isn't nostalgia. It's a test of whether the man holding the pen believes his own line.

What he said: "That we continue to allow people who will be dead in 20 years to tell us what our city should look like in 20 years," he said when asked about his greatest fear for Baton Rouge.

Where it started: Polito's 2007 warning traces back to a 2003 canvass trip to Austin, when a group of young Baton Rouge professionals came home and formed A6—pushing for structural and quality-of-life change.

• The results were mixed. Polito's the one who never stopped pushing.

His answer: He doesn't dodge the old quote—he leans in.

• "I'm even more concerned because now I'm one of those people. And so now it's very important that I'm not hypocritical, and that I'm listening to those people, and that we make decisions based on the same criteria I had in 2007."
• "I think it's more important now, and I would ask the older generation in Baton Rouge to think about that."

The bottom line: Someone will ask Polito's successor this same question in 20 years. He just showed them how to answer it.