CITY OF SHREVEPORT HAS LITTLE REDRESS AGAINST 70TH HOTEL

It’s a long-playing record that the renovation/remodeling of the old Sheraton Hotel on E. 70th has started, then stopped, then started, and now has stopped again.
 
Information presented at yesterday’s City Council meeting by the project lender provided no real insight as to 1) if work will begin again, and (2, if so what was expected completion date.
 
Councilman Grayson’s Boucher’s admonition that the property could be considered to be blighted was more of a “I will huff, and puff, and blow your house down” idle threat.
 
The City can cite the property owners for high grass, trash on the premises, unsafe conditions, etc. that will yield nothing more than liens for city cleanup efforts. Other than that not much can be done even if the property is abandoned like the apartment complexes that frequently harbor transients that start fires.
 
The long discourse with the property lender, Boucher and Taliaferro provided nothing more than political theatre which was abundant yesterday during the votes on the servitude for the Red River Expressway and the Kings Highway special use permit.
 
For politicos the most interesting aspect of the meeting was the sole "No" vote on the Kings Highway agenda item by District A  Councilwoman Tabatha Taylor, especially since the project was supported by District B Councilman Gary Brooks who represents that district.
 
Taylor previously voted "No" on a zoning case in District E, Councilman Alan Jackson's district, ignoring the long-standing council policy of supporting the recommendation of the affected council member.
 
Needless to say if the opposite had happened on a zoning issue in her district Taylor would have raised holy hell at the dissenting council person.