Been there, done that, got the Dog Park tee shirt, a little ceramic course hound and recalling Victoria Provenza explaining to Mayor Glover the importance of having the amenities to draw and keep talented young people in Shreveport. My daughter went to Chicago, land of dog parks and dog beaches. Now, this tech-savvy child of mine is in Portland, which I think may be like Austin-cool, but in a Pacific Northwest kinda way. Shreveport has so much going for us that we should be a place to come and stay. As I visited the SBC Unfiltered this week, meeting the interesting, enthusiastic Millenials, this Boomer felt maybe we are on the right track with Texas Avenue Makers Fair, TACA, Shreveport Common, Downtown Development, SHVDogPark, SPAR, UnScene, Brew, Run with the Nuns, Artbreak, Red River Revel, Farmers Market, bike friendly, LGBT accepting, animal rescue providing and all that. We do have to do more to make One Shreveport, build A Better Shreveport or #TeamShreveport, whatever you want to call it, to lessen the economic and educational divides, to make better opportunities for our young people, and to show the world we are an enterprising City, a transportation hub, a manufacturers dream, a destination, a cyber innovator and a racially-neutral beacon of hope. We get out what we put in, and then some, in a synergistic, symbiotic City. We are not the next Detroit. We are not Austin, or Atlanta, or the Next Great Marketing Idea. We gotta look around with a fresh eyes of a visitor and fix whats broken, clean up the messes weve made and move forward together. We CAN do it. We must do it NOW.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 13:15:23 +0000