Shreveport in decline? (Forest: appointed, 2014, transport companies)
Shreveport-Bossier CityBossier Parish, Caddo Parish, De Soto Parish
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I just happened to read an article on the 'most miserable cities to live in America' and Shreveport is among the top 10. Looking at the boarded up buildings in the picture from the article indeed it appears Shreveport has parts resembling Detroit. Although it would be a more colourful and less depressing version of the decline in Detroit.
I wonder what caused the decline in Shreveport. Is it the usual story about American cities: job loss because of de-industrialization, outsourcing, and globalization and as a consequence population loss and decline?
Also, the family income of $44.000 from the article seems slightly optimistic to me. It seems someone has been creative with the numbers, just like the real US unemployment rate is more like 30% rather than the official rate of 6%.
Looking at the boarded up buildings in the picture from the article indeed it appears Shreveport has parts resembling Detroit. Although it would be a more colourful and less depressing version of the decline in Detroit.
No it's not. Detroit is bouncing back, Shreveport has been in decline for decades. How would it be more colorful?
Shreveport's population has been flat according to the last US Census. It seems to be bouncing around 200,000 +/- whereas Bossier's growth has been on the uptick somewhere closer to 60,000. Bossier's median income levels are higher than Shreveport's is listed at somewhere around $41,000, Bossier's is at $47,000. Shreveport has higher property taxes and rates and when you break it down... is one of the higher-taxed cities in the state. The various gov't. entities get voters to go along with all these increases on the ballots... probably because no one really understands them.
Shreveport is a lot of smoke and mirrors when it comes to "progress". For every downtown residential area being touted, others fade away with little or no mention. The Shreveport Times newspaper does very little in the way of journalism and has instead focused on being the main cheerleader of all things artsy-fartsy and fun. I've stopped subscribing because they do so little news and they let low-hanging fruit slide in terms of political wrong-doing, corruption and favoritism.
Shreveport is one big party that everyone wants to get on the invite list. But as for anything truly progressive... fuggitabout it. Cronyism rules and don't make waves.
So basically high taxes and lack of progress is what caused it's stagnation/decline? I assume the boarded up buildings were caused by high taxation because business owners moved to a lower tax city?
So basically high taxes and lack of progress is what caused it's stagnation/decline? I assume the boarded up buildings were caused by high taxation because business owners moved to a lower tax city?
That and the lack of higher median incomes. When you don't have a local populace with the needed discretionary income to support these businesses, you're going to see businesses fail. Some 22% of the local citizenry lives at or below the poverty level. Look at the type of businesses advertising on local TV and you'll get some ideas of the business climate. Lots and lots of personal injury lawyers, medical malpractice lawyers, bankruptcy lawyers dominate the airwaves. A quick listing of the top 100 private-owned businesses in Shreveport-Bossier mkt. area indicates many in the top tier are automotive related such as car dealers, parts suppliers and wholesalers. Very little manufacturing.
City gov't. has about $600 million in infrastructure that needs to be addressed (water, sewer, roads, bridges, etc.) but each new administration keeps kicking the can down the road and doing little about it. The Feds have stepped in and have threatened city with fines if the don't crack down... the city's answer? Disagree with the Feds. Good, solid infrastructure along with a well-trained / educated workforce are major boxes to have checked if you hope to get new industry to locate here. One bright spot is the Bentler Tubing plant which has joined up with BPCC to train a new workforce but this is just one example. Thanks to Gov. Jindal's draconian budget cuts, college tuition has jumped 60% or more and more cuts are on the way. Would-be students who don't qualify for assistance have to pay on their nickel and it's not encouraging young people to stick around, instead they head to Texas to qualify for lower-tuition and better programs. They won't be coming back. Even kids who may qualify for state-assistance are facing programs that the Gov. has been eyeing to cut so as to help shore up the $1 Billion + state budget deficit that's on the horizon. So you see, it's a perfect storm.
Shreveport is all about the cultural hegemony that the C of C, CVB and Econ Dev types have fostered and like to use as a carrot on the stick and just keep talking about all these "big plans" that are on the books to improve either the downtown or metro area..... but folks they've been doing this same ol' song & dance for the past 30+ years. Had it not been for the development of having Mardi Gras parades in the late 80's.... first quarter "tourist spending" would've never happened. The casinos have been the one bright spot as far as providing jobs to an under-educated / service-based workforce that local hospitality folks fought hard against in terms of allowing extended hours for downtown bars. Downtown isn't all that great IMHO.... if you go out afterhours... you'll see the festive-environment is less appetizing than the local cheerleaders would want you to believe.
Personally I think the completion of I-49 will give the area a shot in the arm as a warehouse / distribution hub..... but look at how long that's taken to get to where it is now. They were working on this as far back as 1982 and they're still not done.
That and the lack of higher median incomes. When you don't have a local populace with the needed discretionary income to support these businesses, you're going to see businesses fail. Some 22% of the local citizenry lives at or below the poverty level. Look at the type of businesses advertising on local TV and you'll get some ideas of the business climate. Lots and lots of personal injury lawyers, medical malpractice lawyers, bankruptcy lawyers dominate the airwaves. A quick listing of the top 100 private-owned businesses in Shreveport-Bossier mkt. area indicates many in the top tier are automotive related such as car dealers, parts suppliers and wholesalers. Very little manufacturing.
City gov't. has about $600 million in infrastructure that needs to be addressed (water, sewer, roads, bridges, etc.) but each new administration keeps kicking the can down the road and doing little about it. The Feds have stepped in and have threatened city with fines if the don't crack down... the city's answer? Disagree with the Feds. Good, solid infrastructure along with a well-trained / educated workforce are major boxes to have checked if you hope to get new industry to locate here. One bright spot is the Bentler Tubing plant which has joined up with BPCC to train a new workforce but this is just one example. Thanks to Gov. Jindal's draconian budget cuts, college tuition has jumped 60% or more and more cuts are on the way. Would-be students who don't qualify for assistance have to pay on their nickel and it's not encouraging young people to stick around, instead they head to Texas to qualify for lower-tuition and better programs. They won't be coming back. Even kids who may qualify for state-assistance are facing programs that the Gov. has been eyeing to cut so as to help shore up the $1 Billion + state budget deficit that's on the horizon. So you see, it's a perfect storm.
Shreveport is all about the cultural hegemony that the C of C, CVB and Econ Dev types have fostered and like to use as a carrot on the stick and just keep talking about all these "big plans" that are on the books to improve either the downtown or metro area..... but folks they've been doing this same ol' song & dance for the past 30+ years. Had it not been for the development of having Mardi Gras parades in the late 80's.... first quarter "tourist spending" would've never happened. The casinos have been the one bright spot as far as providing jobs to an under-educated / service-based workforce that local hospitality folks fought hard against in terms of allowing extended hours for downtown bars. Downtown isn't all that great IMHO.... if you go out afterhours... you'll see the festive-environment is less appetizing than the local cheerleaders would want you to believe.
Personally I think the completion of I-49 will give the area a shot in the arm as a warehouse / distribution hub..... but look at how long that's taken to get to where it is now. They were working on this as far back as 1982 and they're still not done.
Thanks for your reply, that explains really well what is going on.
One other thing about manufacturing in Shreveport. We had one of the newest, most-technologically advanced automotive manufacturing plants in the U.S.: General Motors. This plant was closed recently and with it left thousands of high paying union jobs along with thousands of support positions from regional suppliers, transport companies, etc. When GM closed, it created a huge vaccuum in the economy as far as payroll, consumer spending and taxes. The plant sits dormant...the Caddo Parish Commission thought it a good idea to purchase the plant and try to market it to a suitable company. Now they've decided to sub-divide it so as to market it to smaller companies. So far, the main thrust has been to get ...Elio Motors to build this 3-wheeler enclosed motorcycle masquerading as a car in the plant. Elio says they'll employ 1500 people. But the thing is that Elio can't get enough "private investment" in the company to qualify for federal grant money. Turns out Elio tried this in Michigan with another closed GM plant and they couldn't get grants or investment. Sooooo they come to Louisiana and the Econ Dev folks along with the Caddo Parish COmmission think they can make it happen. Welll 3 years later...nothing and recently Elio announced it's going to take another year delay before they start manufacturing because they can't get the financial support in place until then. With gas prices dropping at the pump... what makes them think they'll be attractive to investors now? Again...waiting for federal and/or state development grants.... taxpayer money that IMHO will only be wasted as the company owners hope for a payday... a bump in valuation and cash out. That's what I think will happen.... no guarantees this will work out. But Shreveport has had a history of doing this. Back in 1992... they got behind a defense technology company called: "ICON" (seriously that was the company name) which got a lot of development grant money and less than two years later it folded. Seems due-diligence isn't a strong suit among local politicos and econ dev types... as long as the brochure looks promising...they get excited and approve funding with abandon. I could go on.. but I've written in past threads (Downtown Red River Entertainment District---$20 million in wasted bond money to John Elkington, developer of Beale St / Memphis). It's a pattern-behavior that seems to be hard to break and local powers-that-be hope people have short memories...which they do. That and the local media doesn't bother to dig into this...they are all too willing to be PR outlets instead of journalists.
That and the lack of higher median incomes. When you don't have a local populace with the needed discretionary income to support these businesses, you're going to see businesses fail. Some 22% of the local citizenry lives at or below the poverty level. Look at the type of businesses advertising on local TV and you'll get some ideas of the business climate. Lots and lots of personal injury lawyers, medical malpractice lawyers, bankruptcy lawyers dominate the airwaves. A quick listing of the top 100 private-owned businesses in Shreveport-Bossier mkt. area indicates many in the top tier are automotive related such as car dealers, parts suppliers and wholesalers. Very little manufacturing.
Low wages is a big issue, not just in the general population but it is a very big issue when it comes to city employees, (except) appointed positions.
When a city has low pay for its employee groups, it does not create an incentive for the remainder of business public and private to increase the pay of the employee groups. The City Needs to Lead in this regard. First and foremost the officials have to understand the dynamics of income growth, and this has lacked terribly during the last administration and the question is will the new administration make the corrections.
We have to learn how to "MARKET" our INDUSTRIAL ASSETS-which has been a lost concept with no movement in that direction. We also need to think in term of Special Projects, which create jobs to fix some of the broken things. ( the School system has a program for "Subs", this should be adopted for "Special Projects" within the city services"; this does not displace full time workers, it free up full time employee's to do more meaningful works. We have severe under-staffing in some of the labor intensive critical services. Our Road Maintenance needs a Rehab in how they approach that work, the same as we need to have district assigned Forestry Crews who can actually be equipped and staffed to maintain the many areas with dead trees, over grown trees that pose community challenges. All these things go hand in hand with the Road Repair and Sewer Repair needs. But are we looking in a comprehensive manner at these vital elements that improve the over all cityscape of our many communities.
If and as we fail to consider these things, we prolong the problem and allow the cost to increase in getting this work done.
We need better interaction with HUD to truly outline our needs and demonstrate the need for the types of assistance HUD provides. We've not been aggressive enough in pursuing the various Funds and Grants which exist.
So many things have to be stepped up a notch or two and not just plod along as business as usual.
Pay Day Loan places should be under a strict mandate with many constraints, because they bleed any area with low wages and result to hinder the circulation of funds in the city. We allow this plague to attack our city rather than looking at ways to diminish and eventually wipe out this parasite. There is a way to loan people money without preying on the weak and challenged, who often use that money to pay utilities and buy food.
If we don't give focus to using our closed schools to ramp up "vocational and technical facility", we hurt ourselves, because we remain with a vast number of "untrained people", and that becomes a negative to attracting business.
Our Workforce Commission should be the number one supporter of "Vocation and Technical Rehab Programs", and not just a 'follow the script program, that does not meet the production results it could with the right set of vocational and technical programs. You can't spin people in a two week program and dump them back to doing what they were doing and expect to see change. This program lacks in connectivity, due to the lack and limit of vocational and technical field training. ( everyone is not going into nursing), we need a broader range of vocational and technical programming and we have the facilities to make it happen; yet we act and remain blind to what that represents in potential and progress.
Re-vamp the Program, Get State and Federal Funds to help with vocational and Technical program set ups. Then we can mandate people who seek assistance to enroll and complete these programs. In 3-5 yrs we have a trained and more disciplined society, who has skills and hope, which is positive to attracting new growth.
If we don't give focus to using our closed schools to ramp up "vocational and technical facility", we hurt ourselves, because we remain with a vast number of "untrained people", and that becomes a negative to attracting business. .........
Our Workforce Commission should be the number one supporter of "Vocation and Technical Rehab Programs", and not just a 'follow the script program, that does not meet the production results it could with the right set of vocational and technical programs.
Re-vamp the Program, Get State and Federal Funds to help with vocational and Technical program set ups. Then we can mandate people who seek assistance to enroll and complete these programs. In 3-5 yrs we have a trained and more disciplined society, who has skills and hope, which is positive to attracting new growth.
Considering the budget crisis facing Louisiana thanks to an inept governor, any grants or state monies to shore up vo-tech or higher ed will be few and slim. State is facing $1+ BILLION budget shortfalls and Jindal is telling higher ed & healthcare to cut another $300 million adding to the $700 million they've already taken in the shorts. Perfect storm is brewing and will felt long after he leaves office. His two terms have demolished state reserves and it will take another 4 to 6 years to get things back in on solid ground.
This will affect NW La. and the rest of the state for years and there's little relief in site for the short term.
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Good, solid infrastructure along with a well-trained / educated workforce are major boxes to have checked if you hope to get new industry to locate here. One bright spot is the Bentler Tubing plant which has joined up with BPCC to train a new workforce but this is just one example. Thanks to Gov. Jindal's draconian budget cuts, college tuition has jumped 60% or more and more cuts are on the way. Would-be students who don't qualify for assistance have to pay on their nickel and it's not encouraging young people to stick around, instead they head to Texas to qualify for lower-tuition and better programs. They won't be coming back. Even kids who may qualify for state-assistance are facing programs that the Gov. has been eyeing to cut so as to help shore up the $1 Billion + state budget deficit that's on the horizon. So you see, it's a perfect storm. 
