JOHN PERKINS CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST
What can Shreveport do to foster economic recovery while we waif for I-49 to be completed in 2038 at the earliest?
It’s going to be a couple of decades before that magical fold pooping unicorn called I-49 ICC is finished. Then folks in Texarkana can shave a couple of minutes off their trip through Shreveport to Natchitoches for the meat pies. Hopefully, some will stop off here for Strawn’s pies on their way back.
While we wait, let’s take the federal bailout money promised next year and spend it on fixing Shreveport’s ailing infrastructure NOW! Start with the worst neglected streets in Shreveport and get streets repaved. We borrowed half a billion dollars’ work on the consent decree, and we will need to borrow another half billion to finish that job.
The Jimmie Davis Bridge has been shovel-ready since February this year. The money was in place until our legislators clawed it back for I-49. We could start this year on that project.
Did you know that our T.L. Amiss Water Purification Plant is 90 years old this year? We need find a new water supply and a modern purification plant. Red River, anyone?
Why don’t we bootstrap our failing schools and create some jobs at the same time? I volunteer one hour a week to tutor one elementary child in reading and math. It’s easy and rewarding. The program is Communities in Schools, which was doing great in Texas so our local VOA brough it to Caddo Parish. Helping a child during school hours catch up, which may not be available at home, is important. What if we created paid positions this fall in each school to increase the adults in classrooms helping with reading and math?
This last one is harder. Legalize it! Last year the median income for marijuana industry workers was around $48,000 annually. Compare that to Shreveport’s median last year at around $38,000. New jobs created with legalization include growers, trimmers, local shop owners and bud tenders, on through all of the marketing and management careers that go with any industry.
Then there is the boost to local tourism impact. Going all the way back to Shreveport Madam Annie McCune, Shreveport tourism has depended on offering East Texas something they cannot get back home. From legal prostitution to illegal gambling nightly in “casinos” in Shreveport and Bossier through legal gaming, it is in our Tourism DNA.
We can start this year if the one of the bills in congress, like the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment & Expungement Act is passed and signed into law this year or next.
THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED IN THE June 19 ISSUE OF FOCUS SB - THE INQUISITOR.