On Wednesday, May 29, the Shreveport Downtown Development Authority had its second meeting of "civic leaders, business owners, developers, and stakeholders...to keep the conversation going about the future of downtown."
This was not a public meeting, and it was not noticed.
At the bottom of this article, you can see who was invited and who attended.
A few observations:
1. One wonders about the DDA definition of "stakeholders", since many downtown building owners not invited
2. Notably Tim Huck not invited--he owns 4 downtown buildings, 2 of which are occupied and the other 2 soon to be occupied--but he is outspoken, so....
3. Very few owners of downtown properties invited--what about Dickie Grider, who has several buildings in downtown IAD, to Huck. Cooper's Corner developers, the owners of the building housing The Glass Hat and other tenants..
4. One invitee has only developed property along the Kings Highway corridor and has shown little interest in downtown Shreveport
5. Two architects were invited, one of whom has not designed any downtown buildings--and a mayor downtown architect player who owns his build was NOT invited
6. One DDA board member who has a downtown building not in compliance with the property standards ordinance was invited, but did not attend
7. Noticeably missing in the list was Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson's realtor
8. A few big money players were invited despite no development/ownership of downtown buildings
With this small group who actually attended, one cannot expect much from this gathering other some window dressing and a photo op. So much for all the tax dollars flowing into DDA from the surtax paid by building owners in the DDA footprint.
The following is the list of those invited:
Mayor Tom Arceneaux
Senator Sam Jenkins
Representative Steven Jackson
Chairwoman Tabatha Taylor
Councilman Gary Brooks
Commissioner Victor Thomas
DDA Board Members
DSDC Board Members
John Beaird
Meredith Cassell
Claire Childs
Christopher Coe
Linc Coleman
Jason Cram
Ed Crawford
John George
Scott Hughes
Bobby Jelks
Beth King
Chris Lyon
Tim Magner
Mike McSwain
Roland Ricou
Mark Sealy
Jack Sharp
Chris Stokes
Ben Walker
The following is the list of those in attendance:
Mayor Tom Arceneaux
Chairwoman Tabatha Taylor
John Beaird
Christopher Coe
Jason Cram
Leigh Anne Evensky
John George
Scott Hughes
Chris Lyon
Tim Magner
Mike McSwain
Bill Sabo
Jack Sharp
Chris Stokes
Don Usry