The liquified natural gas business is going to go through Lake Charles, and with all of the big LNG terminals being built in that area, they’re going to have that for some time to come.

Which is great for the city.

But not too long ago, there was the idea that the LNG boom would lead to Lake Charles having the opportunity to grow beyond that industry and petrochemicals as a whole, diversify its economy and get out of its small-city status. There’s enough land and infrastructure in the southwestern corner of the state for Lake Charles to grow at least as big as Shreveport. Maybe even Baton Rouge.

Of course, having a dilapidated I-10 bridge running through town that John Bel Edwards had eight years to replace and did nothing productive didn’t help. Nor did the two major hurricanes which rambled through town in the past decade.

None of that will serve to stand in the way of Lake Charles’ economic development prospects more than this will…

This is a chicken wing restaurant chain from Lafayette which is considering opening a location in Lake Charles, so what you’re seeing is Marshall Simien, who just got elected mayor of Lake Charles in May, pitching them on doing business in his city.

And it’s a black-owned business, so Simien thought it would be an awesome idea to point out that “the brothas” are now running Lake Charles.

So, what? Lake Charles is open for business for black people? OK. Does that exclude white people? If not, why point out that “the brothas” are in charge of Lake Charles now?

Simien beat Republican incumbent Nic Hunter is a fairly close, very low-turnout race back in May. It was not unforeseeable that something like this would happen. He has a reputation as something of a racist.

We could say this proves that to be true, but we’ll stop short.

What we’ll say instead is that this is a deeply unprofessional dunce who lacks the skill to run a lemonade stand, much less a city of nearly 100,000 people and a mission to grow into a prosperous mid-sized burg.

Lake Charles isn’t going to move an inch with this kind of leadership.

Why is he giving that stupid Forrest Gump pitch about all the water around Lake Charles to a chicken wings restaurant chain anyway? With two locations in Lafayette, one in New Iberia and one in Baton Rouge, Lake Charles seems like a pretty obvious next venue for their expansion, and what’s the mayor doing trying to recruit chicken-wings places to plop down locations in town anyway? That isn’t exactly a Nissan plant or a data center where billions of dollars in investment or hundreds of jobs would flow from that economic development win.

Because they’re black-owned? Is that it? We’re not past that?

Apparently not in Lake Charles. Not with Marshall Simien and his brand of “brothas” in charge.