New Orleans work-in-progress: the Lafitte Corridor, a rails-to-trails project

5th Annual Hike of the Lafitte Corridor !!!
Originally uploaded by howieluvzus

This video will give you the origins and scope of the Lafitte Corridor project, which begins "behind" the French Quarter and heads toward Lake Pontchartrain. Exciting and inspiring.

Thanks, Steve Godfrey.

Btw, Bud's Broiler is considered an insider's item, a Crescent City classic.

US govt policy: " Treat walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes."

Bike to Work 05.18.07
Originally uploaded by trudeau

Found this blog post, says Mark Goadrich, from Ray LaHood, the U.S. Secretary of
Transportation, that might be relevant to A Better Shreveport's
initiatives:

http://fastlane.dot.gov/2010/03/my-view-from-atop-the-table-at-the-national-bike-summit.html

From the article:

[...] we have formulated key recommendations for state DOTs and communities:

Treat walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes.
Ensure convenient access for people of all ages and abilities.
Go beyond minimum design standards.
Collect data on walking and biking trips.
Set a mode share target for walking and bicycling.
Protect sidewalks and shared-use paths the same way roadways are
protected (for example, snow removal)
Improve nonmotorized facilities during maintenance projects.

Thanks, Mark.

Details on March 27th Coates Bluff Event

Coates Bluff

Cleanup & Celebration

SATURDAY, MARCH 27

9AM – 1PM

9AM – 12PM: Choose from two locations (rain or shine)

A) The Montessori School for Shreveport – 2605 C.E.Galloway Blvd.

∙ Spring cleaning along C.E.Galloway Blvd.

∙ Self-guided nature walk & bird study tips from local experts

∙ “Greenway” education – learn the future of Shreveport’s greenways & trails

B) Valencia Recreation Center – 1800 Viking Dr.

∙ Spring cleaning along Coates Bluff trail

∙ Coates Bluff historians – join local experts and residents to discuss the little known history of one of Shreveport’s most fascinating areas

12 – 1PM: Free lunch and live music at Montessori

TO BRING: work gloves, long pants, insect repellant, sunscreen

Come help honor Shreveport’s past & create its future!

Brought to you by: Stoner Hill Action Group, Stoner Hill Eastside Brotherhood & Sisterhood Association, The Montessori School for Shreveport, ABetterShreveport.Org, SPAR, Centenary College

CALL 861.6777 FOR MORE INFORMATION

Planning for Bayou Cleanup and Celebration at Last Week's ABetterShreveport Greenways Meeting

Great meeting last week. Kudos to Jon Soul for organizing and administering an effective agenda! Here are the notes:

In attendance at last week's ABS Greenways meeting: Matthew Linn, Jon Soul, Will Smith, Cynthia Keith, Feico Kempff, Loren Demerath, and Carolyn Manning.

Matthew Linn began the meeting by volunteering to provide coffee.

Cynthia described the conversation that began with the question answer period following the CAG broadcast with Rozeman and Aubry; one person recalled the old veteran's park up above the frisbee golf course area where the pond is and stage was; this new revival of that area could be looking down on the dog park that could be dedicated to veterans and veteran animals (animals have "served") and where vets and others could sit and relax while watching animals play--one of the most enjoyable past times.

Cynthia said she'd like to go up with a group of ABetterShreveport folks and have a picnic and outdoor meeting; to be at the site and imagine what could be. The group expressed enthusiasm for that idea, noting that it's really hard to see what a site can be unless you're there. The group discussed the past of the Veteran's Park (Joan Jett, B.B. King, etc.)

Jon circulated the agenda for the meeting, which included the vision, strategy, and action plan for the Coates Bluff Greenway and Anderson Bayou (formerly known as Sykes Bayou). The action plan included the cleanup.

The vision -- we imagine it to be a... . The principles could be to facilitate a healthy & connected community, stewardship of natural & historical heritage, place-based education.

Strategy to pursue --e.g.,actively support presence in S’port/Caddo 2030 Master Plan (Chapter 6 in the Master Plan is Green Systems, and green networks is throughout it), determine funding sources, explore planning partnerships...

establish & improve existing trails

community outreach & education

Jon often takes children down the trail and stops at a certain point and points to the flags extending to the north and asks them if any of them have a sibling and always one or two or more will say they do; he'll mention how the trail could eventually extend that far. Will and Jon said they'd seen wildlife including foxes and owls in the area.

Among the "To Do's":

identify sensitive areas (yellow dots);

Jon said the trail that goes along the Shreveport side (vs. the western "Bossier Parish" side) is more sensitive with water and erosion possibilities and should be a lower trafficked foot path. If we're considering doing more trail work, establishing a trail on the Bossier side... that's private land

The Shreveport side is on a slope, easily eroded, and is very wet and would require things like boardwalks or someting to route over lower floodable areas.

Jon reviewed the sensitive areas where there is water, flooding, and particular wildlife sites, such as the beaver lodge.

Jon also reviewed the areas that have a lot of trash, such as "Tin Can Crossing" or the section along the ridge of Galloway where there are no houses just to the north of the Montessori School. Jon wants to knock that out and make it clean before it sets a standard of a dumpable area (cited the Broken Windows phenomenon).

trash removal (orange dots)

Jon reviewed the tools and support we would need:

wheelbarrows, gloves, black containers

Jon would contact the city for a trailer; Andy Goldthwaite will contact Hughes Recycling; Someone would also contact BCOS and contact SPAR about the gate into Valencia park.

Will mentioned the history he had researched and said it was the Heart Ferry Road that went into the steam boat port between the Coates Bluffs knolls.

We will have an educational table and field guides and interpretters; Sarah Savage will work on making signs to post (simply; e.g. cardboard); Ed and Beth Leuch said they'd be willing to walk the trail and tell people about the flora and fauna in the area;

We have a name: "The Coates Bluff Cleanup and Celebration", March 27, 9AM - 12PM.

The flyer & more details will be forthcoming but basically --

cleanup & coates bluff education at Valencia park

picnic shelter for "base" and information

rec center for bathrooms/ water and bananas

use big double-gate for access to trail and "tin can alley"

cleanup, nature walk, greenway education, and food at MSS
tents/tables for "base" and info

MSS for bathroom/ hot dogs at 11:30

Next Greenways meeting will be in two weeks on Monday the 22nd, mainly to be used to further prepare for the cleanup.

Davenport's Greenways Class

Dr. Davenport lectured today on the structure and functions of riparian corridors.

Key ecological functions:

• helps water quality
• helps buffer against erosion
• helps animals
• stream organisms use organic material ("leaf litter") from riparian vegetation ("downed woody debris") helps add complexity to the stream channel and helps animals like amphibians lay their eggs in eddies and slow moving water away from the "flow".

Two characteristics of riparian ecosystems:
1. laterally flowing water rises and falls during growing season.
2. high degree of connectiedness, e.g., through flooding, or through animals feeding and foraging and carrying with nutriants and waste; energy is carried back and forth.

Might need to know what plants and animals live near a greenway before designing it and what their needs are.

Riparian vegetation reulates factors such as water temperatures.

River Continuum Concept: can have different order streams, going from first to second to third, etc.; faster flowing and less shade; in other places it could have a lot of shade and be very fast flowing if'it's a mountain stream and shade occurs early and late in the day.

1st order is smallest, and might not flow all year; two of the same level combining would make for a larger "higher" level stream.

When designing greenways we need to consider what species would persist, and what kinds of streams would be good for providing the basis of a greenway.

Also need to consider buffer width of greenways. Factors influencing buffer effectivenss include:

• Invasive Species: can increase errosion due to sparse root network.
• Sediment removal effectiveness
• Nutrient and pollutant removal effectiveness
• Floral and faunal community structure protection
• Budget to research effectiveness of buffer (includes costs for scientists to go into the field to collect data, then to do the analysis in the lab; compuer analysis and modelling tasks also could be part of the budget.

Expensive to do, but might need to do conduct the studies in order to get funding.

Aha! The need to spend money to get money! Sounds familiar...

More soon y'all! And thanks Dr. Davenport! (They used the rest of the period to go over the midterm and talk about their research projects.)

Planning Meeting Tonight for the 2nd Annual Bayou Cleanup

Tonight will be a planning meeting the 2nd annual bayou cleanup on Saturday March 27th. We had almost 100 people last year, and collected over 3 tons of trash!

This year, we go deeper into the forest, and there's a possibility of having different teams working on different tasks, including trail making. It's all part of continuing our work on making a greenway
trail through a beautiful and historic stretch of forest. It will serve our community for recreation and leisure, not to mention education, and even transportation.

So join us at 6:15 tonight at Centenary Square, room 206. (Across the street from George's Grill on Kings Highway; enter from the parking lot in back and you can't miss us.)

Seattle Presentation on "Green Zone Planning" in Alexandria

From Robert Trudeau:

"Green Zone Planning" was a presentation at a recent planning conference in Seattle; it was given by Alexandria, La, planner Patrick Moore.

Listen here to Red River Radio's Kate Archer Kent's report from Megan Wolcott on Moore's concept of weaving green belts into the fabric of a municipality.

Thanks Robert!

What do you think Shreveporters? If Alexandria can have it, how about us?

Funding Sources Identified at Last Night's Meeting

We had a good meeting last night with our downstate guest from the National Park Service Stacy Palmer. As it happens, both she and Matthew Linn provided us information on funding available for greenways. Here are the meeting notes:

In attendance: Carolyn Manning, Cynthia Keith, John Davenport, Feico Kempff, Stacye Palmer, Matthew Linn, Loren Demerath.

The group discussed the possible "Family Day on the Greenway" over Easter weekend, but Loren received word from Ian later that night that he's going to have to cancel it for this year. The group's discussion did raise the issue that Shreveport does not have a big Easter Egg hunt type of event and it could be an opportunity to have an outdoor event that would publicize linear parks, the dog park, etc.

It was also noted that having an organized ride would raises the level of bike culture in the city; people could pay $10 each for t-shirts and insurance; have different levels of riding; distances, etc.

Stacye Palmer said Bill Lane made a concept map of the greenway that we could use in our brochure and she'll be sending that on to us.

Stacye described our application for $20,000 challenge cost share, and described another opportunity as well: the Louisiana Recreational Trail Grant that could pay for our funding of MHSM to do the plan for us. Are needs at this point are largely for planning costs.

Stacye asked Carolyn to let them do some of the marketting with her. Carolyn's already bought a commercial grade printer for this purpose. But, long run, to get a grant to print the back of the brochures, and that means it'll be professionally printed on the outside and Carolyn would update it on the inside on her printer. Carolyn says she needs other eyes looking at the drafts; if we could sit around the computer and have a work session on finishing up the brochure and the powerpoint. She and Loren agreed to do that.

The group discussed the brochure; larger size makes it less likely to be thrown away; to be put at events, bike shops, give to stakeholders, caddo parish school board, etc.; make it look real. The tri-fold one will be easier to make and would just tell people about our group generally.

Feico asked about whether other organizations down state get a disproportionate share of money and Stacye said she didn't think so. Stacye described the Lafitte Corridor project that is the only other similar project going on in the state supported by the National Park Service and noted that they started before us and are further along. Feico said we could copy the Lafitte concept for having a Centenary to LSUS route.

The National Park Service has a memorandum of understanding that they use ASLA pro bono to do this sort of thing. It may be the same people as with MHSM. If we're going to pay anyone for planning, we want to use MHSM for it because they've invested in the process and would be well-qualified to assist us.

Matthew Linn reported on a funding opportunity for land aquisition; if non-profits can raise 20% of the money the federal government will pay the rest for parks and trails. (More money is available if its accessible to motorcycles, oddly enough.) Local expertise and help would seem to be available, since both the president of the state parks--Larry Raymond--and the president of the police jurors association--Carl Pierson--are both in Caddo Parish.

Matthew said at LSUS he's been working with Amanda Lewis under Gary Hanson, head of the Red River Management Foundation, and using information provided by Ardie Cisario and Ali Mustafa, as part of a group that might be named something like the Caddo Parrish Stormwater Drainage Cooperative on building web sites that would be used to vent information for what land has ever been flooded, and also for what land is used or desired to be used for alternative transportation via pathways; Matthew will be putting a resolution forward to have it endorsed by the Parrish. He'll also be presenting it at the Levee Board Office on Thurs the 11th at 10:00 at their offices on Grimmett; They'll be looking for endorsements from NLCOG, Caddo Parish, the city of Shreveport, LSUS, the Red River Waterway Commission, and others. It's patterned after a facebook/static website design that was put together by the DOTD. The general idea is that trails can exist on lands used for flood relief.

Bill Weiner's proposal would be an implementation of this. This group would hopefully be marketting it nationally. People would be able to interface with the web site to mark where they flood or would like to have paths.

From Matthew's Facebook page: "A Better Shreveport Members! 80/20 non-profit land purchase assistance through LASTATEPARKS.com or 225-342-8188 ask for Cleve Hardman max purchase per non-Profit is $100,000 land may be used for bicycle, roller skates, walking, etc etc. If you allow motorcycles max purchase price goes up to $200,000 deadline is May 1, 2010"

Next week will be a planning meeting for the cleanup event coordinated by Jon Soul and Andy Goldthwaite. The recommended routes map also needs finishing and the sharrows project can be pushed forward as well--a request needs to be made for paint, a time set for painting, volunteers signed up, etc.

Action on Greenways, and Encouraging Bicycling Discussed at Last Meeting

Just for the record!

Notes from the last meeting:

In attendance: Malari Coburn, Sarah Savage, Maurice Loridans, John Davenport, Jeff Welborn, Feico Kempff, Loren Demerath.

The meeting centered on how to increase walking and biking in the city:

MEET-UP

Maurice described the "Urban Bikers" Saturday coffee run that he and Valerie and Cynthia and Carolyn did through Meet-Up. They biked from Betty Virginia around South Highland and up to the Naked Bean. Meetup hasn't seemed to work that well for recruiting people, but Carolyn said it gradually builds through a grapevine--starts with a few and eventually you end up with lots; part of what they plan to do on these kinds of rides is scout a few garage sales and estate sales and second hand clothing shops; Maurice noted they didn't have cargo capacity like he and Val did with baskets. Backpacks would do though.

ACTION ON GREENWAYS

Feico and Jeff had been talking about funding; The Community Foundation had said it would be willing to serve as umbrella organization for holding funds that people might donate to some sort of "Friends of Shreveport Greenways Foundation"; donors could take advantage of the tax benefits of that.

Loren relayed Jon's announcement that at the meeting on March 8 we would begin planning for the bayou and trail cleanup on Sat., March 27. He's asked Andy Goldthwaite to help him work up that plan. Andy was involved in the organization of the cleanup last year and does maintenance cleanup regularly. We (ABS) can then discuss/tweak the idea and assign tasks if need be."

Loren and Feico described the meeting with Mike Strong and how it was basically good news in terms of being able to use these unused, unoccupied spaces for trails. The cleanup and maintainence involved improves the value of the properties that surround these areas, and doing what we've done in terms of first getting nearby the approval and support residents and neighborhood associations is the appropriate thing to do.

Loren reported that Matthew Linn had researched for us the parcel of land running from Anderson Blvd. to E. Elmwood into the Madison Park area, and said it was owned by one resident and the city. The Centenary Environmental Association is interested in cleaning the trail there and making it a more attractive area to walk. ABS will ask for a map from the city to as part of researching who should be contacted to solicit approval for doing that.

Jeff mentioned that Gary Hanson at LSUS could map some of these trails for us with the backpack GIS rig he has access to, as Jeff Girard has already done for us at Coates Bluff; he suggested we might want to contact their department to ask for that favor of mapping that would also give the opportunity to train some of their people, as well as providing a service to our community.

Jeff noted that once if the trails are mapped, we can then give the city or parish the data of where the trails are then they can piece them together; Malari said providing crosswalks and signage could be the kind of thing that would help; Feico noted that when demand arrises it give something for the city to respond to; it was noted we can use the ABS site to show where the trails are and have them become unofficial-official trails.

We noted that Mike Strong had related in our meeting that he thought much of the land of the easements were state property; it was noted that we can go through Larry Raymond and ask him to be the liaison with the state; he could find out if they're state and how we can use them and how to tie them to the park. It was noted that we'd get more protection with the state involved than we'd get with the city. Experience with developing Bickham Dickson has shown that. It was also noted that we are proposing no permanent structures; even pavement can be "picked up" so it makes it easier to get permission to use the land.

Centenary student, Sarah Savage, said she has been in conversation with National Park people about the best ways to have non-invasive trail markers and educational tools, particularly for projects like ours that don't have a lot of money. Sarah has worked with the National Park Service in doing educational programs in the past.

Jeff noted that establishing trails by use creates a common property notion; what would especially help is a complete plan that develops and coordinates this so they're not separate pieces; Feico said they may be waiting for the Master Plan. Jeff said any of these trails in use can be woven into it the plan; we shouldn't let waiting for that stuff stop us from establishing trails.

Maurice asked if Tim Wachtel's suggested improvements came up in the meeting; Shelly Reagle has said those are part of their planned improvements, and they're in the budget documents Matthew Linn brought to a meeting recently.

HOW TO INCREASE BICYCLING AND RESEARCH BIKING NEEDS

Feico asked John how many students in John's class bike, and Sarah said probably none in Shreveport, though she does in New Orleans.

A lack of a working knowledge with how to bike around Shreveport was discussed. How would a Centenary student get to Walmart for example?

Jeff and Maurice said they'd seen the bike racks ready to put on the buses. People have been asking about when they'll be there for a year in this group. Maurice heard you'll need a certificate to show the driver you know how to use the rack to be able to use it.

Sarah said if we can show how and where to use bikes in Shreveport, it would increase use; a kind of bike orientation for incoming students would help; Maurice has noticed a lot of bikes on Centenary's campus aren't stored; many of the Regents donated bikes have rusted (until professors John Davenport, Troy Messina and others took them inside). The campus could offer storage in some indoor facility, such as the basement tunnel of Mickle Hall.

On the notion of using bike racks to increase ridership, Jeff noted that they had tried to use bike racks to do that outside of the downtown YMCA but it wasn't successful.

Maurice said he plans on opening a bike coop downtown someday that would offer a place to shower, store your bike, and a locker. It was noted that that kind of thing is the sort of active lifestyle ammenity that would attract young educated "creative class" types. Similar to the Cohabitat shared workspace and work community facility being opened by Blake Burris and John Grindley.

Back to making S'port more bikable, It was also noted that a street map of recommended routes would help; although there are very few bikes on campus, with no places to put them and it being a small, somewhat hilly campus, there are many places students travel off-campus. Sarah said a list of places to which you can ride your bike and where you can stow it or lock it would help. (Maurice noted that the Kings Highway Brookshires lets you lock your bike on the railing by the entrance.) Putting it on our web site "bikeSB.org" would be a way of publishing it.

Sarah said we could use "surveymonkey" to poll the entire school. We could ask how many student have bikes on campus; how many would if there were lanes on the streets? bike paths going from campus to Walmart? etc. We could also ask how Shreveport compares to their hometowns on biking and what they'd like to see here that they have at home.

2nd Annual Bayou Clean-Up Day Set for March 27th

Last spring, nearly 100 people collected over 3 tons of trash from Anderson Bayou. Now that bayou is unquestionably a more beautiful place.

This time, we're targetting the area further up the bayou towards the old Coates Bluff Cemetery and behind the Stoner Lab Elementary School. It's been labelled "Tin Can Crossing" for reasons that would be apparent if the camera were pointed to the right.

Details to come from Andy Goldthwaite and Jon Soul on other specific tasks we'll be undertaking that day.

As many of you know, we've already established a trail through the area, and we hope to make it a greenway trail that Shreveporters will enjoy for generations to come!

So, mark your calendars for Saturday, March 27th, to clean up a precious spot of natural beauty that languishes in our own city.