ABS Celebrates Dog Park, and Frets Over Coates Bluff by Magnet at Last Meeting

In attendance: Dione Procell, Loren Demerath, Lydia McClanahan, Cynthia Keith, Brian Salvatore, Lani Duke, Maurice Loridans, Stephen Pederson, Jon Soul, Susan Keith

In small talk at the beginning of the meeting, Brian Salvatore noted that he’s discovered that 1906 N. Market, which used to be a Holiday Inn where Sam Cooke was inspired to write “A Change is Gonna Come,” after he and his friends were denied rooms there because they were black.

Cynthia was happy to report that Mayor Glover did sign last next week to move the dog park ahead; the Red River Waterway Commission, and the Shreveport Dog Park Alliance were the other signatories.  After a cooperative resolution had been passed the site was shifted to Stoner Park.  The Dog Park Alliance is donating $28,000 which they’ve fundraised through dog washes, silent auctions, puptual nuptuals, etc., which will be put towards the design, planning, engineering and construction of the park.  It’s gonna happen y’all!  Won’t those playing pups be happy!

The main topic of that night (expected to be at tonight’s meeting as well), Dione Procell, (teacher of World History, Psychology and Sociology at Magnet) presented to the group on a proposal to reenvision Tract F of the Riverscape Development, including the possibility of saving the Coates Bluff Extension Plan.

Her colleagues at the meeting were Amanda Bertrand, mother of a senior at Magnet, and former PTA President, and Lydia McClanahan, a retired landscape architect for the city and MPC.

Dione spoke on how she had recently explored the forest on the other side of the bluff from Magnet High School where she now teaches.  She said discovering not only the beauty, despite the trash, but the history as well, was a revelation.  She got angry about the trash and had talked to Jon Soul about it, who recounted how he first felt and how he’d call Loren late at night and vent, and how he’s since founded Bayou to Bay and worked with ABS and others to create the trail.  

Dione showed Riverscape’s Plan and how Tract F--which is the section which goes north to south just behind Magnet and below a steep bluff is a forested pond, beautifully secluded.

A dotted line going through Riverscape’s plan shows the easement which they can’t build upon, and over which they have shown a meridian.  Maurice has read the legal document that covers the easement over the sewer line and says they can’t build over it.

Another Magnet teacher, Ginger Marks, called Oliver Jenkins about the burning, but it seemed to continue.  

Loren recounted how some years ago, when the plan first came out, he and Sharron Swanson, and Feico Kempff met with David Alexander to ask about the possibility of allowing the easement to be used for a trail.  The meeting ended with Mr. Alexander saying it was a possibility and that he would have to consult with the investors in the development, but we hadn’t heard anything about it since then.

Lydia asked if mightn’t it behoove the group to reapproach David Alexander.  She pointed out that those are deep lots along the back, bordering on that bayou.  Dionne said there were many, many ducks there, so it could be a wetlands issue.  Feico pointed out that developers can get credit for doing something to preserve wetland areas.  Dione heard from the U.L. Coleman company that she needed to talk to Debbie Hicks about it, but hasn’t been able to reach her yet.  Loren noted that Cole Guthrie spoke to the group about Coates Bluff apartments at one point a year ago or so.  Coleman may have bought the property behind Magnet on Tract F from Riverscape.  The concern of the group is that they’re now bulldozing it, and may be hurting the natural beauty that’s developed there.

Dionne is wondering if we can get somewhere by talking about this, or if there’s even a point to trying to make a trail or cleaning up the trash if developers are going to bulldoze it all.

It was noted that if any ABS members have contacts with Sequoia Construction, such as with Devid Pettiette, Cole Guthrie, Dennis Procell, Debbie Hicks, we could find out what the plan is.  Feico said, what they’ll want to know is what we want from them.  It was noted that we know what we want: a path to connect from Montessori School end to the Veteran’s Park end; it’s only the stretch directly behind Valencia Park and Magnet where there’s not a path yet, so we almost have a complete connecting trail.

Dione showed pictures of the area below Magnet, noted what a great outdoor education resource it is; it’s so close to Magnet with art, science, and nature lab possibilities, and is already being used by Montessori and Stoner Lab Elementary Schools.  There’s lots of trash in certain places right behind Magnet, and to clean it would be a massive undertaking on the scale of Jon’s Anderson Bayou Cleanups.  

When Feico asked what cashe is the concept of “outdoor classroom,” Loren noted it’s rising, particularly noting the success of people like Jon Soul, Outdoor Education Director at Montessori, at many sites around the country.  Amanda said it has great potential for grant writing whenever you can connect something to the classroom.

Amanda said we’re missing at Magnet a sense of neighborhood because so many students drive there.  Magnet’s contributing to the trail would help tie it into Valencia Community Center, and to the other schools in the area that also use the trail.

A year ago, ABS had tossed around the idea of getting Centenary to be the recipient of a conservation easement.  Maurice had wanted this to be more of a guerilla group that makes trails and if one doesn’t get used it’ll grow back and maybe it wasn’t such a good idea.  Maurice thinks the connecting link to the bike trail going to the east may be in doubt if it doesn’t get enough use.

The group agreed the Coates Bluff trail with it’s bayous and forest used as educational resources, alternative transportation link, is an important community resource worth trying to preserve.  Next week’s meeting is relative open for agenda items, so we can feature this one again.  Loren offered the meeting as site Dionne could offer to meet with David Alexander.

In the week since then, Dionne has set up a meeting with David Alexander for this Wednesday.  We’ll meet tonight to talk about what that meeting might offer, and other options that are before us for the area’s preservation.  Join us!

Strategizing on How to Preserve the Coates Bluff Trail Key Topic at Tonight's Meeting

A large tree being taken down near the Coates Bluff Trail

Lots of stuff on the agenda for our meeting this evening:

- Efforts to preserve to the Coates Bluff forest behind Magnet High

- The possibilities for a used bike depot

- Makers-spaces and bike coop possibilities

- Update on the bike-routes map

Join us at the Wright Math Building on Centenary's campus, 6-7 p.m.!

Artisanal Spaces and History Tours Discussed at Last Meeting

Notes from the Meeting of January 20^th

In attendance: Feico Kempff, Brittany Turner, LeVette Fuller, Stephen Pederson, Maurice Loridans, Loren Demerath

In pre-meeting small talk, Maurice recounted how Stephen passed him the other day on a “fixie”; and he once climbed Mr. Driskill on one.

Biking on the parade route before the parade was a topic, and how it’s a natural Cyclovia.  {Loren later wrote about it for a column in the Heliopolis newspaper.} LeVette recalled the San Francisco Grand Prix bike race where people could ride the route before the race.  Maurice uses the Centaur and Gemini for his own Cyclovia.  Stephen recalled how this past weekend people did it the night before the Houston marathon.

Feico has sent a book notice about happy cities; about how the advent of cul de sacs and roadways that’s created a development system that’s really an “autopia” that keeps people from walking and biking and using your car to do everything.  An example is Coates Bluff apartments.  Part of it is a fear of crime and part of it, LeVette, noted is perhaps a bit of elitism.

Some To-Do’s for us on getting a used bike depot started:

Loren reported talking to Don Hooper about a space, and it could be that people would drop off the bikes near his office and we could collect them from there.  Don Hooper gave the o.k. to use a certain amount of space, and gave ideas about a storage design.  Loren later then talked with Chris Sampite about putting a bike donation bike rack along the eastern wall of Centenary Square on the southern corner, right across from the laundromat, at Woodlawn and Kings.  Looks like we’re likely to get approval.  

    The next step is making a sign, maybe one that might read:

Used Bike Depot

Take One or Leave One

(and in small type below:)

You can visit ABetterShreveport.blogspot.com or {QR code} to learn how a new

bicycle cooperative will use your old bike to benefit those in bicycling need,

and how you can attend coop clinics to learn bike repair. 

Thanks for your donation and for facilitating fun and healthy transportation! 

For keeping our tools, placing a shipping container near the storage area might be useful. For downtown locations it was mentioned that under the Makers Fair location the DDA has been renting space that will soon come available, but at $400/month it’s too rich for our blood.

We discussed Feico’s idea forwarded the week before about developing a particular space to be used by artisanal entrepreneurs.  An artists and musicians cooperative is more specialized, but utilitarian craftspeople could be included, like tailors, shoemakers, quilters, weavers; and more utilitarian crafts like welding, glass blowing, pickle making; the list kept going! wool, candles, furniture, decorative arts, vodka making, chocolate making, pencil making!  Maurice noted that in Mexican towns they’re called “artesianas” where people can go to buy things from artisans.  LeVette noted that in Paducah, Kentucky, the city gave away a lot of downtown space to artisans.  HandmadeintheUSA.org has used Ashville as a base.  One furniture maker some of know in town is Wade Easley; people like him might be interested. 

LeVette wondered if it might not make sense to offer an alternative to what SHRAC already has so much momentum on with the Shreveport Common.  Others pointed out that there’s an artist’s tour in Highland right now of people that aren’t incorporated into  SHRAC.  Dorothy Christy Hannah exhibits work in Highland, and one artist/craftsman has just built a workshop in the area.

In this particular location proposed by Feico, the current owner—the School Board—might continue to own it and get credit for it.  The Rescue Mission had made an offer but was only going to pay half of what they asked for it.

Feico also floated an idea of the old Rex Theatre, cum Don’s Seafood and Steak House, and now a possible funeral home, becoming a music venue supper club.  LeVette was skeptical the neighborhood would approve, but Feico’s vision wasn’t for a bar.  It was noted that neighborhood is continues to transition, as Styr has just closed.

There are other ideas that have been floated in recent years, like the Blue Goose District.  In Copenhagen there’s a neighborhood called Christiania that was made by people squatting there.  The hard part may be rounding up people that’d be interested.   Maybe the library makers-spaces could be incubators for developing those interests.

Maurice asked about the Red River District, Loren said Carolyn is representing ABS on the committee, and she's since reported that haven't met for a few months. They’re doing “Free Fridays Forever” under the bridge, starting at 9:00, but really it started more like 10:00; the Lackadaisies played there recently and were great.

History tours were also discussed.  Brittany Turner has posted an opportunity to partner with the library and the DDA on hidden history tour; photographing sites and loading them onto “Historypin” (a mapping site run by archivists and librarians; a wiki based site where folks can add things to a map; e.g., a picture of the Methodist Church without its steeple) and organizing them into different tours, music, crime, politics, etc.  April Dahm with Stephanie Pedro did a walking tour.  The difference here is that it’s live and you can supplement it.  As well as the usual suspects, Dan Garner and Brain Salvatore were mentioned as others interested in Shreveport history and as possible helpers in getting something like that going.

Our recommended bike routes map is almost ready to go.  We have a group of transportation cyclists on email to which Loren will send it out.  The group includes Garrett Johnson, Jon Soul, Robert Trudeau, Troy Messina, Ed and Beth Leuck, Chris Chiocetti, Ian Webb, Carolyn Manning, and the map’s primary authors: Maurice Loridans, Stephen Pederson.  We’ll ask for one more go-round of feedback, then get it ready to print and distribute!

Dog Park was asked about… Word is we need one more signature, the Mayor’s, and we can’t think of a reason he wouldn’t sign now.  Fingers are crossed!

Since that meeting: Loren sat in on a conference call with members of the advocacy group of the HGIO coalition pushing for a network of paths and trails.  The call was with Jennifer Ruley, a state expert on getting that kind of thing done.  It was a very useful call, and Loren will summarize it at the next meeting.

Other agenda items to come:

Coates Bluff Trail – Final Leg Ready to Be Completed!

Bicycle Depot and Cooperative – Might We Be Ready to Start?!

Bike Map Revisions and Final To-Do’s – Are We Ready to Print and Distribute?!

Canoes News – And a Springboard for a Centenary Outdoor Adventure Cooperative?
General Updates – Speaking of Finalities, Doggedly Reached!

To discuss those things, we’ll meet Monday evening, 6:00-7:00, in the Wright Math Building on Woodlawn, across the street from the Magale Library on Centenary’s Campus, two blocks up from the Gold Dome.

Meeting Today on History, Paths, Maps, Mardi Gras, Coops, etc.!

I'm posting this here in case you're not part of our facebook group (what?!).

Sure, we're meeting!  6-7 p.m. as usual in the Wright Math Building on Woodlawn, just up fro the Gold Dome.  Talking on the radio too, 5:00-5:45 on KSCL 91.3.   

First Meeting of 2014 set for Monday the 13th

Since our institutional host, Centenary College, is still on break until Wednesday, we'll have our first meeting of the year on Monday the 13th.  Lots of stuff percolating, including Stephen Pederson and Maurice Loridan's map of recommended bike routes, a tactical plan for developing the city's first trails network plan,  some progress on the bicycle cooperative, and of course, we'll have a dog park update!  See you next week!

Recent Media Coverage and Community Meetings

The proposal we use drainage ditches and levees for multi-use paths is getting out there. When I was interviewed on KTBS' morning show (posted on the right of the page) I got to show pictures and talk about the expert who came here.  Then there's this article that came out last week in the Shreveport Times.

On the topic of alternative transportation and downtown development, ABetterShreveport members Maurice Loridans, Feico Kempff, and Loren Demerath attended a meeting yesterday with the Community Planning Assistance Team (CPAT) sent by the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) who created a program to provide place-based assistance and advisory services to communities, regions, and neighborhoods on transportation and downtown development.

Carolyn Manning also attended the first meeting of the Council of Neighborhoods on Thursday night.  We'll be eager to hear her report on that at Monday's meeting.

Some of us should also be able to report on what's happening today: the Community Update on the Master Plan that the city is holding for officials, and community leaders at the Convention Center.  Among the speakers will be Paul Farmer, CEO of the American Planning Association, and Dara Sanders, Master Plan Administrator.

On the heels of all this, Dara Sanders will be attending our regular ABetterShreveport meeting on Monday.  Please come and help us discuss how things can be moved forward.  As always, we meet in the Wright Math Building, Monday evening from 6:00-7:00, on Woodlawn Ave., just across from Magale Library and up from the Gold Dome on Centenary's campus.

Joy of Biking Expressed in TV Story on ABS Proposal for Network of Paths

I know I wasn't wearing a helmet in this KTAL story on our effort, but look how slow I was going!  Anyway, you gotta love the simple fun of bicycling expressed by the little boy.  

Was also interviewed today on KTBS and will try to post that soon.  I'm sure the press is interested because they know their viewers are too.  People want it, and it's do-able!

Presentation at City Council for Trails Network Effective and Well-Attended

Thanks to those who attended the City Council meeting yesterday! The council saw you, and that had to help nudge them forward!  So thank you, Kelly Pledger Weeks, Cynthia Keith, Katherine Brandl, Maurice Loridans, James, Patrick Furlong, Matthew Linn, Kathy Fontaine, Lani Duke, Sam Whittington, Brittany Smith, Ema Viskozki, Cathy Smith, Rob Ajluni, Kelly McDade, and others I've probably overlooked.  We know many couldn't come but support the notion of a network of paths for transportation.

Those of you there heard Jeff Everson's advice to us on how to move network of paths close to reality, and we had a great conversation with Dara Sanders about it afterward as well.  Next Monday night's meeting we'll be debriefing on all of that and planning our next moves. 

The gist of it all seems to be: we can make a city trails plan largely by ourselves, and use that both to apply for grants, and also to get others on board for what a paths network could do.  Join us Monday night to strategize!  6-7 at the Wright Math Building at Centenary.

ABS and Friends Go Before the City Council at 3 p.m. Tomorrow (11/12/13)

TIEING UP LOOSE ENDS

As the time draws near for presentation of the multi-use path proposal to the city council on Tuesday, the team members are focused and ready. The meeting Monday night began promptly at 6 p.m. and focused mostly on the upcoming council meeting scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

In attendance was Maurice, Loren, Cathy, Katherine, Brian, Lani and intern, Amanda. Victoria Provenza, and Dr. Kelly Weeks were in attendance as well.

Victoria was a guest on the radio show tonight with Loren. She was proud to make the announcement of the upcoming Living Passionately in Shreveport radio show that will be thirty minutes of 'passions' and special guests, and will feature things such as Mardi Gras season and some of the other main highlight events and artists in the area.

Brian touched on Educational Reform and suggested we hold off on another education meeting so soon. Things are really going well since the meeting we had last month. It was the first time that the RSD and the state's history has partnered with the school district. They are going to come in and advise the district and give them the chance to make the modifications necessary. The collective feeling was to have the state partner with us instead of taking over, and this is in fact what happened at the education meeting we had. Those parties present felt grateful for being able to express their concerns on a neutral ground and have their voices heard.

The new superintendent Theodis Goree will take office on December 1. Mary Nash-Robinson will go back to her position as head of human resources. She was the one that initiated all this correspondence and partnership with the RSD, so she is to be commended.

We will be postponing the Education Meeting for a later date and will be following up next week with a recap from the city council meeting on Tuesday.

NARROWING THE FOCUS FOR MULTI-USE PATHS AND CONVINCING THE COUNCIL

In the way of Maps, we need to finish up on the spokes. Maurice will lay out the empty spaces and map out the proposed routes. Stephen will take the paper map and use arc maps to draft a digital copy. The Tips for Safety including the legal specifications “Cyclists’ rules and recommendations for safe riding”  and the local hazards (places to use caution) will be put together by Maurice.

Also inside the pamphlet there should be some key destinations including sights, resources, bike shops, parks, event sites, festival plaza, basic schedule of bikeable events, tours, etc.

We also still need supporters to attend the city council meeting on November 12 @ 3 p.m. and will need to come wearing white shirts to show their support.

We have 5 presenters at the meeting to cover various aspects of the proposal of multi-use paths for cyclists, pedestrians, and mobility aids as alternative modes of transportation. The presentation should take about 18-20 minutes to present to the council on Tuesday. There will be a powerpoint presentation prepared (in hopes we can use it) with images to include the map, like the one we have posted on the blog, and images to correspond with each presenter's topic including images of how these trails work in other areas including Bentonville, Arkansas, and Alexandria, Louisiana. Other areas to consider touching upon include: The Environmental aspect, health, transportation, obesity, life longevity, and above all, safety.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PREVIOUS MEETING (NOVEMBER 4)

The November 4th meeting hosted a map emphasis night that included lining out proposed paths and recommended bike routes to present to the city council at the meeting on Tuesday, November 12, 2013. Our Guest attendees for that meeting included Stephen Pederson, Victoria Provenza, James Bobbitt, and Maggie Malone. Our regular members in attendance were Loren, Maurice, Lani, Chris, Cynthia, Cathy, and Feico. Intern Amanda was also present to take notes from the various highlights of the meeting.

Our goal is to create a pamphlet of recommended bike routes. People can make their local versions. Victoria can get the permits for those.  Those routes most travelled by those in attendance were drawn onto the map to be laid out in the proposal for the recommended bike routes. These maps and pamphlets can be passed out to cyclist enthusiasts at local grocery stores as well as the tourist bureaus.

Guest Stephen Pederson recommended the use of the Arc Map program to help draw in these multi-use pathways, and agreed to take the map and put some drafts together for the group. The program will allow the lines to create the paths and make networks. We can even put it up on Arc GIS online. Map My Ride by ESRI, the eminent mapping software, have online a place where experts like Stephen can create geo-database that includes all your data and upload it to a usable format on the web that any user can access. It has way more user functionality than Google maps.

Stephen has biked in San Francisco and in LA, where they have two separate systems of bikeable pathways. Motorists were aware of cyclists in LA, and were incredibly bike-friendly. His suggestion is that we need more education here on pedestrian and cyclist safety for everyone. Also, if cyclists adhere to the rules, then the drivers can adhere to the laws for safe cycling. Having basic rules for safe biking may be good to put in this map.

Stephen also biked while living in Ruston, Louisiana, where he attended college at Louisiana Tech University. He participated in the annual bike night there at LA Tech, and he rides recreationally (mountain & road biking) and commutes daily via bicycle as an alternate means of transportation. He says he has often seen people riding the wrong way. From his personal experience in the last six months since moving here to Shreveport, he has not had an incident or any negative feedback to report, but he was hit twice and harassed while cycling in Ruston for several years during his college experience.

Amanda suggested that we talk to the local libraries about a series of educational programs to be hosted in their meeting rooms across Shreveport. These lectures could be entitled “How to get from A to B safely on a bicycle in Shreveport” to help educate our public about bicycle and pedestrian safety rules.

Victoria showed us the Official Louisiana State Bicycle Sustainability Map for tourism and cross country as a visual to aid us in implementing the bike routes into the map systems for Shreveport. We can ask the DOTD (dept. of transportation) to create “call outs” or zoomed in maps of the bikable routes in the Shreveport area.

CITY COUNCIL MEETING TOMORROW

Remember, those of you who can, we encourage you to come out to the city council meeting at 3 p.m. tomorrow (November 12). We will all be wearing white shirts to show support, and hopefully we can move into the next phase soon. See you there.

Next Education Forum---Update

      One of the things that we discussed at the ABS meeting on Monday night was the best time to hold our next Education Forum.  Recently, there have been some very encouraging developments in the Caddo Parish School District.  First of all, the CPSD recently hired a new Superintendent, (Dr. Theodis Goree), who starts next month  He is a capable, young and energetic person, whom we have high hopes for, and whom we believe the CPSD was fortunate to hire in the middle of the school year. 

    Second, the CPSD is on the verge of forging a "shared partnership" agreement with the Louisiana Recovery School District (RSD), thereby managing to avoid an outright state takeover of several of its most academically troubled schools.  CPSD Interim Superintendent, Dr. Mary Nash Robinson and RSD Deputy Superintendent for Transformation, Mr. J. DeLano Ford, should both be commended for negotiating this partnership agreement, something that is really unprecedented in our state!   We are pleased with this tentative agreement, because we believe that it will help our students a lot.   We would also like to believe that last month's special ABS Forum on Education played a small part in helping to facilitate this partnership.

     Considering all of this, we decided to wait 2-3 months before holding the next ABS Education Forum.  This will allow the RSD and CPSD to continue to work together, in peace, and also provide our new Superintendent some time to assume his new responsibilities here.

   Then, in February, we can invite Superintendent Goree to be our special guest for what will surely be another interesting and constructive Forum.