Columns & Opinions

The exhortations of “I remember when I was a young man,” or “I remember when we were growing up,” or “I remember back in the day,” are all phrases that most generation X’ers and millennials don’t like to hear or don’t want to hear from their parents. They don’t want to hear it because they think their parents are “old-fashioned,” or as some of them might say, “not cool.”

Thank you Caddo Parish and citizens of Caddo!

There is no easy or difficult; only status quo and change. For far too long the status quo for Caddo schools has been a managed decline of an aging and bloated footprint. Despite periodic and painful decommissioning of campuses, most recently E.B. Williams Stoner Hill Elementary, we’re still oversized by approximately 30%. We can accommodate 42,000 students but only have approximately 32,000 enrolled. We’re bleeding out approximately 1,000 per year. As a result of parish-wide outmigration and “donut holing” of the core, there are dozens of aging and emptying schools. These schools, despite best efforts, are more expensive to maintain, frequently less safe and much less cost-efficient per student.

I attended the Chamber of Commerce-sponsored breakfast Wednesday morning to report on the Chamber’s What’s Happening Breakfast, which was a presentation of reports from the mayor’s transition committees.

As much as we in the financial services industry want to encourage people to invest, we sometimes have to say no. (That’s the difference between advising and selling.) Of the many reasons that come to mind, there is a common denominator: unrealistic expectations.

Elections have consequences, and that is certainly no more evident than what happened almost five months ago when Shreveport citizens decided to make a change of course. They decided to elect a Republican mayor to lead a “Democrat” city. It was not expected, but it happened, and now the new mayor is trying to figure out how he is going to move the city forward for the good of all of its citizens.

This next Monday, April 10, will mark the 100th day that Tom Arceneaux has been the mayor of Shreveport. It’s been a whirlwind for the new mayor, bringing many challenges and a few victories.

The recent shootings on Logan Street in Allendale and in downtown Shreveport have shaken the city, and rightly so. Thirteen people were shot. It seems that every day there is a shooting or a killing in Shreveport. That is a sad commentary.