Is Committee of 100 Abandoning Interstate 49 Inner-city Connector?

Editorial: Bill Robertson

The controversial Interstate 49 Inner-city Connector project may be losing its most influential supporter.
 
For some time the Committee of 100 of Shreveport-Bossier has provided the business backing and paid advertising to generate public support for the 3.5-mile, $1-billion elevated freeway through Allendale from I-20 to I-220.
 
Now, according to new Committee CEO Jeffrey Goodman, the 49 ICC “is not in our strategic plan.”  Goodman made the remark at the conclusion of his speech at a “One Million Cups” event Wednesday at the Andress Art and Entrepreneur Center.
 
Asked by a member of the anti-freeway Allendale Strong organization to have the 100 Committee host a debate on the ICC project, Goodman balked.  He said the committee’s goals for 2026 do not include the I-49 project and it is not mentioned on the group’s website.
 
Goodman said the 100 Committee was founded in 1961 as a group of local CEOs organized to support civic and economic projects that could “move the city forward.”  He acknowledged the committee’s reputation as a collection of old white men.  He quoted his mother, Sci-Port and Robinson Film Center fundraiser Sylvia Goodman, as asking him why he wanted to be CEO of an organization that “never accomplishes anything.”
 
Speaking to a diverse, multi-racial crowd of young and old, male and female attendees at One Million Cups, Goodman used most of his remarks to promote the group’s signature project, beautifying Monkhouse Drive from the Shreveport Regional Airport to I-20.
 
“Our leadership knows we don’t have a lot of wins” to claim, Goodman said.  “That’s why we’ve identified improvements to Monkhouse Drive as a possible win.
 
“If in five years Monkhouse still looks the same, they should fire me.”
 
Goodman also spoke about bringing keynote speakers to the community to generate new ideas, assisting city government in fighting blighted properties owned by out-of-towners, and improving local attitudes about Shreveport.