Red River Teachers Assoc leader Jackie Lansdale and Dodie Horton, legislative assistant to State Rep Henry Burns, will apprise the education issues facing the voters in this session on the weekly public affairs program Time for A Better Shreveport.
Robert Poole, Centenary student, will chat about the service work he performed as part of The Big Event.
Hosts are Loren Demerath, Carolyn Manning and Robert Trudeau, board members of A Better Shreveport.
Info: 869 5297
stream at http://kscl.fm/
The mountain bike trail on the east side of the Bayou Pierre slough will complement the Coates Bluff nature Trail, and has begun to take shape!
Centenary students on a morning of public service called The Big Event were brought to Valencia Community Center on Sat, Mar 24, and divided into work groups by Dr. Loren Demerath, Centenary Sociologist and ABetterShreveport member. Along with ABS member Robert Trudeau, two members of Centenary's biology department, Dr.'s Ed and Beth Leuck, help lead teams that worked towards each other on the north-south section of the trail. Trudeau and Leuck's team began clearing above the bike green at River Oaks Dr. On the east-west section, Centenary pre-med student Luke Lisherness was among an all student team that headed east, eventually meeting up with a team of made-up almost exclusively of the Centenary Math Department with Dr. Katherine Brandl, Dr. Mark Goadrich, and Dr. Mark Schlatter, and also DR. Greg Butcher, head of Centenary's neuroscience program.
The main work remaining on that trail is a job for a good power mower. ABS also proposes a cut through the forest along the access road to reach the bike path underpass. (We plan on talking to Cole Guthrie, lead developer of the new L.L. Coleman development there and the much-appreciated guest at last week's ABS meeting about that possibility!)
View New and Future Trails in a larger map
The blue lines represent the trails cut yesterday, the red lines segments yet-to-be-made, the purple is the proposed connecting trail.
More info to come on future work events. Meanwhile the curious may find abundant evidence of the morning's work by heading into the woods on the Coates Bluff nature trail at either of the two entrances: next to the Montessori School on Sevier St., or through the open gate at the southeast corner of Valencia park.
But above all, THANK YOU CENTENARY!
May is National Bike Month. Shreveport bike enthusiasts are planning to create events in April.
The League of American Bicyclists is the national sponsor of Bike Month. This year Bike to Work Week is May 14-18 and Bike to Work Day is Friday, May 18.
Robert Trudeau, Stephanie Pedro, Garrett Johnson, Maurice Loridans and others will create plans that will focus on Shreveport bicycle commuting in April - so that a media event is ready for Nat. Bike to Work week in May.
Please join us! Pop a note to me at trudeau11@gmail.com or on FB.
John Settle, attorney and active rider via the Shreveport Bicycle Club, will be principal guest in a chat about the fun, safety and the future of bicycling in Shreveport.
Settle is widely appreciated for his recent sponsorship of bicycle safety billboards.
Additional guests expected: Attorney and biker Maurice Loridans and non-attorney and biker Garrett Johnson (why he hasn't become one we cannot explain).
Time for A Better Shreveport is hosted by Loren Demerath, Carolyn Manning and Robert Trudeau.
Stream the program at http://kscl.fm.
869 5297
Check out an A Better Shreveport meeting Mon at 6 pm, Wright Bldg, Centenary campus.
In attendance: Brian Salvatore, Barbara Jerrell, William Hartman, John Gilliland, Katherine Brandl, Maurice Loridans, Loren Demerath, Cynthia Keith, Feico Kempff
CADDO COMMISSIONER MATTHEW LINN ARRANGES MEETING WITH MPC PLANNER DARA SANDERS
Last week, some members of ABS who are bicycling advocates attended a meeting set up by Caddo Commissioner Matthew Linn. The purpose of the meeting was for ABS to get to know the Metropolitan Planning Commisssion’s new person in charge of implementing standards set out by the master plan, Dara Sanders. Maurice Loridans, John Gilliland, William Hartman, Ian Webb and Caroline Majors Eckl all met with Dara and Matthew.
The group was happy to note that the meeting seemed to reveal a genuine enthusiasm on the part of Commissioner Linn for making the Shreveport-Bossier metroplex more bikable, and Dara Sanders’ willingness to tackle that task. Dara is working on a number of things now, apparently, but after that will be in a position to address bike-ped issues fully.
It appears that our job is to convince the city council, mayor, and/or parish commision that MPC should be commissioned to direct the planning, painting, signage, and—potentially—construction of bike paths and the complete streets portion of the master plan. Monies are available now through the shale but won’t be in the future.
(The group briefly discussed the structure of MPC and other bodies. The MPC is a hybrid of the city and the parish; it’s the zoning body and is controlled 1/3 by the city council, 1/3 by the mayor, and 1/3 by the parish. NLCOG doesn’t have any teeth as in law-making capacity, but is a voluntary association of city a
nd parish governments. DDA is within a small segment of the city.)The group discussed some of the specific ideas offered at the meeting, including a wheel-like system of routes and paths, and an ordinance that makes the state mandates for “complete streets” apply within the city as well. Maurice’s map of routes he’s developed as a person who has cycled for transportation throughout the city for 10 years now, was found by NLCOG. He now has it again and has since added to it. It was noted that NLCOG could help us get Bossier involved too.
The group had a quite an energetic discussion over the question of the degree to which trying to procure money for planning is worth the effort when there appears to be funding at the ready for paint, signage, and construction. It was noted that many a plan just sits on a shelf, and that we don’t want to waste an opportunity to improve our city’s bikeability. On the other hand, the group agreed at last week’s meeting that those who meeting with Matthew and Dara should communicate the group’s belief in the value of well-planned facilities. Indeed, Maurice expressed to Dara in that he didn’t want any “half-assed facilities” that create problems where there aren’t any now. Segregated facilities (e.g., bike lanes) where we don’t need them, such as on quiet residential neighborhoods. William noted that’s why a plan is necessary: if you just go with complete streets you can end up with just segments of things that don’t make sense. We’ve seen plans of bike paths that go just to parks and not the college campus just a mile further.
URBAN PLANNING AS INTERIOR DECORATION VERSUS MARKET RESEARCH
Loren said he thinks government officials have a tendency not to hire urban planners for the same reason home owners tend not to hire interior decorators: a professional would be nice, but it’s not a hard job figure out, so you can save money by doing it yourself. The proper analogy, though, may be something where the stakes are higher, such as market research. You can guess where and how to advertize, but if you guess wrong, you’re throwing your money away, and it’s not something you’re likely to do well without training.
URBAN PLANNING IS BEST FROM THE BOTTOM UP OR TOP DOWN?
Maurice made two different points on the effectiveness of plans. One, that they aren’t always used—many a plan does nothing more than sit on a shelf and gather dust. Two, that planners don’t always succeed in creating useful plans because they don’t live the experience for which they’re planning. A planner making a bike plan, for example, should be a bicyclist. Loren commented that in proper planning bicyclists are who the planners study and interview to create the plan. Then again, the notion of proper planning changes. (They thought Brazilia was properly planned once; but it’s not a very love-able city.)
OTHER NOTES:
A bond was not brought up in the meeting as a possible funding mechanism.
Caroline pointed how she and Steph weren’t given nearly enough money to complete a plan. It was noted the proportion of money going to planning out of the total is likely a lot, so the cost may be difficult for people to accept.
What Dara will be able to act on will be things that coming up. From here forward when we do anything new, we’re going to make it complete etc.
Apparently it was noted in the meeting that an important government official’s window looks out on the levee and so we can’t go north with levee-top bike trail (!!). William said that’s why we need the private sector to be working on the plan.
There is a need for an educational component to bike-abilty. There was talk about funding for that component. People talked about the danger of having conversations with bicyclists on the road. Maurice said the nation-wide advice is to smile and wave with all fingers.
What Dara will do wasn’t clear in the meeting. It’s not clear if it will just be complete streets happening in the future.
The bond issue includes money for rehabbing and relocating streets. There are projects coming up soon that should be using complete streets.
“20 is Plenty” is the national campaign to knock off 5 miles an hour off the residential streets should help a lot with safety.
Ian Webb was at the meeting too. He suggested we need a greenways coordinator backed by a board. Maurice said ABS does that. But he meant a salaried bike-ped coordinator who’s paid by government with input from governments and citizens groups.
The used-tire amphitheater recently constructed by Jon Soul and cohorts on Coates Bluff Nature Trail was in use on Mar 7 by Fine Arts Survey students from Caddo Magnet HS, said teacher Robert Trudeau.
"These students sampled (via dvd) some of the environmental art of British artist Andy Goldsworthy, saw the work of American artist Patrick Dougherty, checked out "Cadillac Ranch" and "Spiral jetty" and work by Louisianian Clyde Connell before venturing on the trail. They collected cane, sticks and leaves for art projects next class."
Lee Jeter, Fuller Center, called this afternoon with the news that Rep. Roy Burrell would be holding a forum this week on connecting I-49 via a non-loop, through-Allendale route. That forum, according to an email blast seen by Jeter, would be held at Superior Steakhouse on Tues.
"The people at Superior told me there was a meeting scheduled for 5 pm on Tues," said Jeter.
A call to Burrell's office at 4:30 pm did not result in an answer.
