Shreveport's GDP is ranked 380 out of 381

[Chance and Change]

JWG223, if you detest Shreveport so much, why do you frequent its city on this blog site? Everyone knows by now that you don't like Shreveport.

[JWG223]

Originally Posted by Chance and Change

JWG223, if you detest Shreveport so much, why do you frequent its city on this blog site? Everyone knows by now that you don't like Shreveport.

Probably for similar reasons that you still live there. We're both stubborn in our own ways, lol

[Chance and Change]

I don't detest Shreveport, I have as I continue to do, is talk about how we can make it better, what we can improve and identify challenges but always with an aim and intent to think of ways to grow and improve.

No place is perfect, I've seem places in this country, places in foreign countries, and even in some of our worst places the conditions and attributes for options to improve exist.
We have as does many places across this nation, have a great deal of work to do on understanding diversity, understanding the history and its outgrowth of what makes up our challenges. We must learn from it, but also we learn through it, and we learn by review and study of it. It is difficult in any place because when people look back, its not always pleasant, and some who have nostalgic idealistic thoughts, if they think beyond and outside of that bubble, then the expanse of reality is within the viewing.
No People, Black- White - or Other will ever be any better than any other people, that's just the reality of what is the human being. Conditions, circumstance and the cycle of livings challenges impact many, some have pre-set fall backs and some do not, some have foundations that were laid, and some do not. There are many things which goes into what is the society.
Are we as people - willing to look at the whole of it, and consider what must we learn to change, develop and grow in and of ourselves to become a better human being. It's a life long process, those who embrace it grow, as they do, unity finds ways to strengthen all who seeks to develop and grow.

Shreveport is an old city, as is many across American, it has to work past its history, and rebuild itself to create a new history for the generation to come when they look back.

By no means do I seek to pacify anything or anyone, - we have much work to do, some people and some areas have more work to do than others to get to some median of function that we may progress together.

How can and will it be done? Only God knows - but that does not limit us from continuing to seek ways and means to think of becoming and being a better city.

[JWG223]

Originally Posted by Chance and Change

I don't detest Shreveport, I have as I continue to do, is talk about how we can make it better, what we can improve and identify challenges but always with an aim and intent to think of ways to grow and improve.

No place is perfect, I've seem places in this country, places in foreign countries, and even in some of our worst places the conditions and attributes for options to improve exist.
We have as does many places across this nation, have a great deal of work to do on understanding diversity, understanding the history and its outgrowth of what makes up our challenges. We must learn from it, but also we learn through it, and we learn by review and study of it. It is difficult in any place because when people look back, its not always pleasant, and some who have nostalgic idealistic thoughts, if they think beyond and outside of that bubble, then the expanse of reality is within the viewing.
No People, Black- White - or Other will ever be any better than any other people, that's just the reality of what is the human being. Conditions, circumstance and the cycle of livings challenges impact many, some have pre-set fall backs and some do not, some have foundations that were laid, and some do not. There are many things which goes into what is the society.
Are we as people - willing to look at the whole of it, and consider what must we learn to change, develop and grow in and of ourselves to become a better human being. It's a life long process, those who embrace it grow, as they do, unity finds ways to strengthen all who seeks to develop and grow.

Shreveport is an old city, as is many across American, it has to work past its history, and rebuild itself to create a new history for the generation to come when they look back.

By no means do I seek to pacify anything or anyone, - we have much work to do, some people and some areas have more work to do than others to get to some median of function that we may progress together.

How can and will it be done? Only God knows - but that does not limit us from continuing to seek ways and means to think of becoming and being a better city.

How has Shreveport improved in the last 10 years, in relation to the rest of the country (IE, don't cite "Gas prices are down!" that's national...)

[smarino]

Nothing wrong w/ the terms fat, dumb and happy. One can PC it till doomsday, that there is just plain English, and if someone is happy, who cares about the first two descriptors? I'd rather be that than smart, skinny and miserable any day. Which is, to tell you the truth, more often than not the case.

Besides, look on the bright side of this rating scheme. 380 out of 381 is probably a move up for a Louisiana city. I say this w/o an agenda. I love New Orleans, and like a few nearby cities. Love Cajun music, Cajun food, all that. But I ain't going back to live in that state even if you pay me! Nice places to visit, but.....

[Chance and Change]

We can't prespectively name anything Jindal did to improve the State, Not only did he disparage the State's image, he vividly spread an image of poor state level leadership every time he trotted to other states, trying to play a "remake of the Reagan Programming", or stand with the right winger mentality that promoted divide, rather than trying to build unity.

It's bad when a struggling state with health issues cut and close its state hospitals, its bad when a state lags in education and then strips more than $800-million from the State School system. It's bad when we have an aged population due to young people fleeing, and the Governor denies Medicare Fundings.
Jindal, ASSAULTED EVERYTHING THE PREAMBLE STAND FOR:
"
PREAMBLE
We, the people of Louisiana, grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political, economic, and religious liberties we enjoy, and desiring to protect individual rights to life, liberty, and property; afford opportunity for the fullest development of the individual; assure equality of rights; promote the health, safety, education, and welfare of the people; maintain a representative and orderly government; ensure domestic tranquility; provide for the common defense; and secure the blessings of freedom and justice to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution.

THE Man (Jindal) crippled any agency or state office/organization that did not agree with him, by making/forcing skeleton staffs, or dismissing people, and under-funding any organization that opposed his assault upon the state.
Sadly, we have the likes of Vitter and his co-conspirator Flemming, who made a total insulting mess of Louisiana with their scare tacticle aims in their assault on ACA and supporting Government Shut downs.

How can Cities, like Shreveport or any other City plan and prosper when it needs state support via funding the state gets from the Federal system, when we have a governor,too busy trying to be a Republican Poster Boy, and denied this state massive amounts of Federal Assistance.

Shreveport has a chance to move forward, the past Mayor was about paying down debt, the current mayor wants to build a vibrant and progressive city. This is a very different trajectory and if the people and the system work to support the forward motion of the current Administration, we can make progress.

Shreveport has to work hard to compete with Texarkana, and its continuing march forward, Shreveport has to compete on equal footing with Bossier City, who is making trail blazing growth plans.

We can and will get this road issue under control. It will take some work, but it can be done and will be done. We have to deal with some of it on a District and Area Programming, as we cycle through the whole. It will be slow but effective.

We have to market our industrial areas, but we must invest to make them attractive not only in visuals, but in incentives to bring business here. We have to market our competetive advantages.

As to the citizen population, I am again and continually an advocate of " vocational and technical training", as the bulk of our challenged citizens are not financially or otherwise prepared to take on "university level debt", but they can take on Vocational and Tech School debt and progress well in doing so. It is a pathway, as some will expand on their learning while others will enter the workforce and some may even create new work and become small business start ups.
That's building from the bottom up, and brining a sense of hope to the minds and lives of those who, see things as hopeless when all the talk is only about "university and the big dollar cost of going to University"..
No - We promote our people in a capacity they can accomodate and they will excel. We have disenchanted so many young people with this crazy University expense madness, until they have lost vision, lost hope and been made blind to looking at the high value of vocational and technical programming. We can be the Nations Leader in Vocational and Technically Trained people.. That is a goal no one is paying attention to, but it is a worthy goal, and it is an achievable goal.

We simply need to get busy and think different to become and be better. Hope is the pahtway, and faith is the strength we provide to those who travel the pathway. If we don't, then we are more of the problem and less of the solutions.

Now, back to State Politic's - We need the Right Governor_ People, awaken, we've seen what Republican obsessive self promotion and self and crony enrichments has done to us, we need to get a Democratic Governor who supports ALL OF THE PEOPLE, then we can move forward.

We can push our economic stature up - we have everything it takes to be an economic center of many varied functions, but we have to embrace the vision to want to be such. 380 is telling us, that we simply need to get busy.