Starr Glazer jumps her Simple Seven off the road, a difficult skip at night, and then pedals up to the top of the levee. The path is smooth here, lit by a sky streaked with orange clouds, reflecting the myriad light of the chemical plants across the river. She looks to her left and takes in the view. From this distance, at night, the massive zig-zagging assemblages, dotted with silver and gold lights, look like cosmic tinker-toys, and like spiralling chromosomes as they glitter across the shifting black water.

She rounds the bend to the right, and glides toward a steaming pot of Green Dragon, the best white tea at The Beige Fez, West Baton Rouge’s finest tiki-bar.