A million-dollar, three-week campaign to engage Louisiana residents on hurricane recovery reached its midpoint Thursday with much of what has consumed the state for the past 17 months: frustration, warning signals and beacons of hope. At a Baton Rouge Community College theater, a sparse crowd watched the one-hour “Louisiana Speaks” documentary, which has aired on public broadcasting stations throughout Louisiana and as far away as Dallas and Atlanta.

A panel discussion that followed tapped the conflicting views about how and where the state should rebuild in coastal parishes. The Louisiana Speaks campaign, begun Jan. 22 and continuing to Feb. 10, is taking the same input on Internet-based polls and survey forms stuffed in 300,000 newspapers recently and taken via a toll-free phone line. Some of those attending Thursday’s event complained about the apathy of Louisiana residents, with one attendee saying, “The people are not interested. This place should be filled.” Panelist Brace Godfrey, a Baton Rouge attorney and developer, warned that pessimism and bickering could become the enemy of a great opportunity at Louisiana’s post-hurricane crossroads.

“I think we’re on the road to missing it,” he said. “What I think will cause us to miss it is a lack of courageous leadership.” Rather than point fingers, Godfrey noted his own family’s situation and his counsel to his aged mother that her longtime church needed to be demolished to secure a better future for coming generations of worshippers. Rather than committing resources indefinitely to banished evacuees in trailer parks, “Our goal ought to be: How do we empty them?” Godfrey said. The multimedia Louisiana Speaks campaign, led by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation in conjunction with the Louisiana Recovery Authority, seeks the input from every resident in south Louisiana. Armed with guidance from five questions in the Louisiana Speaks poll, a consulting team led by Fregonese Calthorpe Associates will deliver recommendations to the state for planning south Louisiana growth through the year 2050.

One of the consultants, Glen Bolen, said a recent Houma meeting on the recovery was packed, indicating that residents hurt most by the hurricanes are more engaged in the recovery effort. Campaign officials didn’t have a count on how many have responded to the poll, but Bolen said about a quarter of them have been under age 34. The Louisiana Speaks poll seeks input on land use, transportation, economic policy, housing and wetland loss. Midway through the documentary, narrator Lynn Whitfield cites the major reasons why planning matters: By 2050, south Louisiana will have 1.4 million more people, 445,000 more people in floodplains and commuters spending 174 hours a year in their cars (four times the current level), if nothing changes. “Now,” says Whitfield in the film, “is the time to ask: How should we grow?” Strengthening the coastline and lowering the danger of flooding and damage are critical, said Jeff Hebert, because “the one thing that insurance companies will definitely tell you about Louisiana is that we have to learn how to live with our risk.” “It’s about, yes, I want to stay here but what do I need to do to stay here,” said Hebert, deputy planning director for the Louisiana Recovery Authority.

One audience member, describing waning interest in the construction industry as a career, cited a Harvard Business School survey of teens in which construction scored 384th on a list of 385 job choices, followed only by cowboy. Stephen Moret, CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, said the community at large has become too focused on a traditional four-year college degree as the ideal track for everyone, when a majority of the future work force will need more than a high school diploma but less that a bachelor’s degree. “There’s a lot of folks making six-figure salaries doing electrical work and a whole range of things in the construction industry,” Moret said. The state’s recruitment of modular housing and building materials companies has been hampered by questions about the speed of the housing recovery, but that should change soon, Hebert said. Boo Thomas, who’s leading the Louisiana Speaks effort for the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, said teams will visit college student unions in coming days to build participation in the campaign. E-mail blasts are planned, as are additional meetings in the New Orleans area.