Thursday, May 8, 2008

The EPA Grant is in! Hooray!

Our application for a Smart Growth Implementation team to come and counsel us is in. It asks for help on public participation processes in decision-making. (In our case, as most of you know, it would be the decision-making about how to make use of our bayous for "linear parks" or "greenways" and pedestrian-bike paths.)

A big thanks to the Mayor's Chief of Staff, Dale Sibley, who's really been great, and of course to Mayor Glover himself. The Mayor has agreed to serve as our principle governmental partner in the application. And thanks to Monty Walford and Calvin Lester for their support. Thanks to the Louisiana Department of Health's Head of Chronic Disease Prevention and Control Program, Matthew Valliere. Thanks as well to the Louisiana Department of Transportation's Coordinator of the Safe Routes to School Program, Shalanda Cole, and to good ol' Brian Parsons, the DOT's Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator who I met in Lafayette at the state-wide pedestrian-bicycle network meetings.

Most of all, though, a big thanks to the collection non-profit organizations, the advocacy groups, and the neighborhood associations that joined ABetterShreveport as as principle partners: AmericaWalks-Shreveport, The Highland Area Partnership, Sankofa Vision, and ShreveportGreen. And we're awaiting official word from two others as well, but thanks so much Charles, Dorothy, Leia, and David for your letters!

The next move will be to use this grant application as a basis for a grant application for bigger stakes: funding. And good pictures of the levees and bayours would help. If anyone wants to contribute some, you'd be most welcome to. My photography skills are minimal, as you can see from the BayousToUse blog.

A meeting next week for the bike clinic stuff, what to do for summer goals, and what to work on for downtown development. And, as always feel free if anyone wants to bring an issue or topic for discussion.

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