No Meeting Today due to Labor Day Holiday

Summary of last meeting coming soon.

High Speed Rail through Shreveport?

A friend of mine forwarded me a link of a map showing the plan for a national high speed rail network going through Shreveport. I said it be wonderful and that I'll now start fantasizing about it. He said:

It would be amazing if the HSR came through Shreveport and the station was downtown (that would be a natural match for downtown redevelopment).... The ultimate hijack would be for the station to be located near CenturyTel or somewhere in south Shreveport... or some other outer reaches... or even over in Bossier...

But, you speak of fantasy... so I am going to send the link that led me to the HSR site... http://www.newurbanism.org/ I cannot completely buy into the New Urbanism idea but I do like some aspects of it... If you remember the british tv series, The Prisioner, from the 60's (with reruns in the 90's) there is just something unsettling (maybe creepy) about some of these developments... i.e. - a place called Provenance... where New Urbanism has been applied to create an island in suburbia...

Anyway, here is how I got to that site... http://archidose.blogspot.com/2004/03/new-urbanist-glen.html Critique of Chicago's "Glenview" development...

Thanks friend!

Article on Baton Rouge Dog Parks

Thanks to David Aubry bringing this article to our attention. If your curious about dog parks, or how they're working down in Baton Rouge, check out this article just published in USA Today by David Hensen.

(Site Changed to Government Plaza!) Major City and Parish Meeting Monday at 1:00

A special thanks goes to those in the city government who alerted us that it the meeting isn't at Independence Stadium's skybox, as first announced, but is at the Council Chambers at Government Plaza on Travis St.

(Hmmm. Seems like a late meeting announcement too. Powers that be aren't trying to avoid public participation in the master plan, are they? Do they need to be reminded that democracy may be time-consuming and inefficient, but it's the only thing that separates us from the dark ages? Hope not. Could be just that wires got crossed somewhere along the way during the chain of communication.)

The following was sent by April Dahm:
IMPORTANT MEETING FOR ALL SHREVEPORT RESIDENTS

The following information was given to me today by Matthew Linn, Caddo Parish Commissioner. Please take this VERY seriously and make every attempt to attend.

The Shreveport City Council has called a meeting with the Caddo Parish Commission at 1p.m. this Monday August 31, 2009 at the Independence Stadium skybox. This meeting will be advertised in Fridays newspaper printed by The Times. This meeting will focus on a positive outcome for the Master Plan.

We've all heard a lot of discussion to why plans, studies, and projects have difficulty getting off the ground in Shreveport. WE ONLY CAN COUNT ON OURSELVES TO TO ADVOCATE FOR OUR VISION AND SEE THAT THERE IS ACTION.

We hope to see you on Monday! And thank you to Matthew Linn for keeping us informed!

Parking Day

Forwarded to us from Caroline Majors. Thanks Caroline!
PARK(ing) Day 2009 is Friday, September 18th!
Originally created by Rebar, San Francisco art and design collective, PARK(ing) Day is an annual, one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks.
Anyone can participate in PARK(ing) Day, though it is strictly a non-commercial project, intended to promote creativity, civic engagement, critical thinking, unscripted social interactions, generosity and play.
some park(ing) day videos: http://parkingdayla.com/
park(ing) day “how-to” guide: http://parkingdaynyc.org/help
here’s a park(ing) day in Cincinnati: http://www.cincinnatiparkingday.blogspot.com/
official website: http://www.parkingday.org/
map of cities participating: http://www.communitywalk.com/san_francisco/ca/parking_day_2009_map/map/369376

By-Laws Approved at Monday's Meeting. Vote on Board Members and Officers Next Monday. Those Interested Asked to Submit Bio's.

Here's a summary of our last meeting:

In attendance: Jimmy Couvillon, Milton Hutchinson, Robert Trudeau, Feico Kempff, Maurice Loridans, Ryan Tew, April Dahm, Steve Godfrey, Susan Keith, David Aubrey, Matthew Linn, Cynthia Keith, Jon Soul, Sheri Kerr, Caroline Majors, Loren Demerath, Ian Webb. (Others? Please comment to this and let me know! Sorry I missed you! - LD)

Visioning forum discussed: people commented that it seemed to be a useful experience, particularly for starting conversations on important topics for planning the city.

Several more people paid their annual dues of $5 to become voting members of ABetterShreveport. (Feel free to bring yours to the next meeting and be eligible to vote for board members and officers!)

The by-laws were unanimously approved! Before the vote, there was some discussion of the by-laws on points related to the calendar year, voting procedures, and number of people on the board, officers, and whether the executive director need be a board member. Approved by-laws are posted for any to view.

PLEASE NOTE: Board members and officers are to be nominated and voted on at the next meeting. It was suggested that those interested might submit short bio's for to be posted. E-mail Loren at ldemerath@gmail.com if you'd like to do so.

The Coates Bluff Greenway was described and progress reported, including discussions held at the Visioning Forum. It was noted that a number of people at the forum were aware of the project.

Progress on the Bike Routes Project was described in terms of plans and discussions held with various people at the forum, including with Mike Strong of the D.O.S. Caroline Majors, a professional urban planner who has joined the group, noted that bike lanes on certain kinds of roads will do more to encourage non-cyclists to try cycling than would sharrows, but she also acknowledged that a mixture of both types would be useful.

The Downtown Group reported on their progress on planning a regular downtown lunch meeting, and on their goal of creating a coalition of property owners. It was also noted, though, that if the group were able to create a persuasive vision of what downtown development can be and what it would require of owners, owners can then be approached asking if they would participate in making the vision a reality.

I think all would agree it was quite a productive meeting. Guess that timed agenda works!

The next meeting will be Monday at 6:15 p.m., again at Centenary Square, room 206. (Across the street from George's Grill; enter from the back parking lot and you can't miss us!)

The agenda will be sent out soon. As usual, suggestions for items are welcome.

Meeting Tonight at 6:15

Just a reminder.
And feel free to come early to chat about Saturday's event (see below for Jimmy Couvillon's take). I'll be in my office by 5:00, and can open the room as soon people arrive.
See you tonight!

A view of the visioning at the Great Expectations Citizens' Planning Conference

Jimmy Couvillion, Shreveport
Originally uploaded by trudeau

Here's Jimmy Couvillion's account of yesterday's visioning forum for the city's comprehensive master plan. Thanks for your view, Jimmy!

I don't think that anybody should attempt to describe what happened, but when the clickers failed to record the responses from the people the real test of working without the planned technology began. It's like a speaker depending on a powerpoint progam and finds him or herself having to perform alone. My guess is some three hundred people were present to take part.
My table had a good representation of the Shreveport area with one returning visitor from North Houston, Texas. He is Mr. Robert S Barnwell III, the descendent of the Barnwell Drilling Co and the family who built the Barnwell Center down on the river front. His remarks included pointing out that for a city of its size Shreveport has a lot of access routes and Clyde Faint Parkway and the riverfront are positives for Shreveport. Mr. Barnwell is a classic story of migration away from Shreveport. Moved to North Houston and started a new company called Texas Gas Utility Services Inc. and remains President of his firm today. He heard about the Master Plan Vision Forum and came home to participate in expressing his thoughts on opportunities and challenges for Shreveport.

A lady from Southern University came over and sat next to me and gave the most complete account for what is lacking in Shreveport. It was about lack of job opportunity and the middle-size housing shortage. She pointed out that young graduates, if they are not in the medical field or law profession, must leave town if they can't find a job other than working in government or educational institutions.

Billy Wayne and I met at the entrance so he brought me over to his table. Education and Arts related to After School Programs is Billy Wayne's bag of tricks. Good balance of opinion on all major issues and I sing the same song about lack of human capital and financial capital in our City for new business opportunities.

* Return of the Holiday In Dixie Parades kicking off the State Fair. I bought an old style bicycle so I would like a bike parade or tour on downtown shreets on Sunday afternoons.
* More kid art drawing contests held on the West end of Texas Ave around Artscape, Southern Museum and Robinson Film Center. That brings the parents with the kids to downtown.
* Free transportion from Sport-tran would improve job accessibility, access to library and schools to further education opportunities.Loren Demerath and Barnwell were talking across the table about downtown and how we needed to take the attitude that we could create a great downtown for more retail business , and residents and more parking space by removing old buildings that contribute nothing to downtown. A large retail store was mentioned, too, by Loren.
* We need a list of building owners of downtown properties. Loren said just think if we had our own Bossier BoardWalk on Texas Avenue. The return of storefront windows and an active place for people. That sounds like what the city look like when I went to work here in 1963.
* Barnwell point out that he opposed the late hours for the bars on the riverfront. I though our table was mainly interested in returning downtown to being a living city again and work for more jobs with opportunity for a better life.
* Our vision exercise of what Shreveport would look like in Twenty or Thirty years was cut short by the folks at the mic, but we passed our written thoughts to the facilitator, a great young lady from Southern University.How we get there is the next plateau and I wish we would have had more time to get to know each other better and work on solutions to address taking advantage of recognized opportunities and how to conquer our challenges. We had a lot of competition from the front of the room at the mic that was distracting to the table and many of our conversations were cut short as the speakers thought better by saying something in the mic.. When the announcement that the electronic clickers were not working they brought out the old sheet of paper and started explaining the questions and the check sheet at the same time. We lost "Mo" at this point but our table was able to proceed on with more conversation on the subjects already mentioned and I and a few others failed to mark on our sheet of paper while talking at the same time.After lunch the table changing started and folks decided what subjects presented were of interest and they moved on. I visited with Rose Wilson McCulloch and Lola May and was joined by Scott Hudges. Later Scott and I were joined by Craig Durrett and we enjoyed each other's company until the party was over.This, as I understand it, is the Shreveport Vision-only stage of the planning process. The next step is to continue the process in the neighborhoods of Shreveport. So, there is a chance to take what we have heard and determine what opportunities and challenges exist away from downtown. I suggest neighborhood leadership needs to come together and prepare for a good representation of neighborhood folks. I hope the distractions are few and people participating can build on each others ideas for a better Shreveport community quality of life.. The Technology went to hell. This is not the first time such has been used and it is certainly not new tech. They get an "F". What ever their names are, we need to remember them.Wish I had thought to copy the sign-in sheet for our table. I did see that it was being keyed into a laptop by another lady from Southern, so maybe it will be possible, to get a copy.I must say the association, "A Better Shreveport" were great contributors to the vision forum by having active members present to take part and aid in the vision process. MPC Staff and Commissioners did the heavy lifting of drinks, trash hauling and such.Was not a perfect process, but that is an over-used word anyway. It was cool or cold in there and the lights didn't go out.

A Single Fact Motivating ABetterShreveport.org and Efforts Like the Master Plan

I'm inspired by the shared task of planning our city together. I hope others are too. Here's why:

There's a fact out there, supported by a lot of research, that should motivate us. It should motivate us to improve the quality of life in Shreveport, be it through the master planning will be doing tomorrow, or by participating in groups like ABetterShreveport.org, or any neighborhood association or local, non-profit, public-interest group. The fact is this:

THE AVERAGE LEVEL OF QUALITY OF LIFE IN A CITY
IS NOT PREDETERMINED BY ITS LOCATION.

Instead, it's opportunities for good jobs, social interaction, exercise, and experiencing nature that more predictive of health and happiness. If you have a fulfilling job (paid or unpaid, thereby including homemakers) and an active social life, if you exercise regularly, and if you're outside relatively often, you're more likely to report a high level of physical health, and happiness, and satisfaction with your quality of life.

Those things can be affected by the way a city is built and amended over time. Transportation technologies affect our opportunities to socialize with each other, to exercise, or experience the outdoors. Retail and residential development patterns affect those things as well. They can also be affected by a city's governance is organized, such as our master planning process giving us a chance to feel empowered, hopefully. And these things are also influenced by the evolving identity of a city, partly a function of its past, but also a result of conscious reflection, which in turn can influence the programs and events it produces. Gotta love our festivals and our general southern appreciation for a good time, right? Would our Red River Revel be the same without it?

But all those aspects of cities are malleable, can be changed, and can even designed very intentionally to create predictable outcomes. The gist of all this is that we can make Shreveport a place where we're more likely to socialize, exercise, and enjoy the outdoors, and even create good jobs for ourselves by doing two things. First, by creating opportunities socialize in open spaces--in cafes, coffeeshops, or sidewalks of pedestrian-oriented downtowns. Socializing allows us to see what we have to offer each other which eventually leads to profitable ventures, and good jobs. Second, by creating opportunities to walk or bike from place to place can entice us to both exercise regularly, and experience the outdoors. Better living is there for the taking. We just have to carefully plan ahead to create it.

So, just because Shreveport isn't as beautiful or important as many other cities, doesn't mean it can't be a better place to live in than those more fashionable places. We can make Shreveport a place where people are generally happier and healthier than their counterparts elsewhere. Other cities have done it, and we can too.

So, take that, doubters! Think Shreveport's doomed to be at the bottom of any list of great places to live? Think again!

Or, more to the point, join us in the master planning effort, or in ABetterShreveport.org, or at your own neighborhood association, or any public interest non-profit group, like Shreveport Green, the Shreveport Historic Preservation Society, the Highland Restoration Association, the Shreveport Regional Arts Council, SankofaVision.org, etc. There's a lot going on to be a part of, folks. So jump on in and join us! Do it!

Get Up to $20 Per Month for Biking to Work

It's true. You can get up to $20 a month for biking to work from a federal government program. The money you get is meant to offset some of the costs of transitioning to bike commuting, such as buying a helmet, safety vest, etc. You can read about it here. (And thanks go to Becky Palmer for pointing out the article.)