posted by admin on Dec 20
Historic & Natural Resources
• There are 7 historic districts in the National Register of Historic Places, including the original city of 64 blocks (today’s downtown), and 54 individual sites or buildings on the State historic register.
• Designation on the National or State Register does not protect structures from inappropriate changes or demolition.
• There are 29,000 acres in the park system, administered by Shreveport Public Assembly and Recreation (SPAR).
• Caddo Lake is the largest natural lake in the south outside of Florida.
• From 2001 to 2009, the number of jobs increased 4% and the number of businesses increased 7.5%.
• Economic sectors that lost more than 10% of jobs during 2001-2009 included the Agriculture, Real Estate, and Administrative Support and Waste Management sectors.
Prosperity & Opportunity
• There are 1,050 lane miles of concrete streets, and 1,202 lane miles of asphalt streets. Since 1997, street miles increased by 28% while population levels remained flat.
• The average commute time was 17 minutes, compared to the state average of 25.
• 89% of commuters use a car to get to work and 78% drive alone.
• 13% of households do not have access to a vehicle.
• SporTran provides 17 routes of bus transit. The time between busses is 30 minutes or more.
• Currently there are no dedicated bike lanes.
• Newer neighborhoods are less likely to have sidewalks than older ones.
Transportation
• Crime rates have dropped about 50% since 1989.
• The City’s Police Department has approximately 500 officers and handles some 250,000 calls every year.
• In 2009, the Fire Department was the busiest in Louisiana, providing both fire and EMS services with 625 trained personnel in 21 stations throughout the city. Average response times in 2008 were under five minutes.
• Fire calls for service outside the Inner Loop have increased 32% compared to 22% in City as a whole.
• Shreveport Public Assembly and Recreation (SPAR ) provides recreational programming in 18 recreation centers.
• Crime rates have dropped about 50% since 1989.
• The City’s Police Department has approximately 500 officers and handles some 250,000 calls every year.
• In 2009, the Fire Department was the busiest in Louisiana, providing both fire and EMS services with 625 trained personnel in 21 stations throughout the city. Average response times in 2008 were under five minutes.
• Fire calls for service outside the Inner Loop have increased 32% compared to 22% in City as a whole.
• Shreveport Public Assembly and Recreation (SPAR ) provides recreational programming in 18 recreation centers.
posted by admin on Dec 15
P o p u l a t i o n & Tr e n d s
• People have been leaving the older areas of Shreveport to live in formerly undeveloped areas farther from the city center, especially toward the south.
• The populations of Shreveport and Caddo Parish have been stable since 1980, but the number of households has increased. Like in other parts of the country, more people live alone and fewer households include children.
• The Shreveport-Caddo area population is becoming older, more African-American, and has a small but growing Hispanic component.
• Since 1990, residents in the prime workforce age groups and those approaching their working years (under 18), have decreased by number and percent.
Ho u s i n g & N e i g h b o r h o o d s
• The majority of housing in Caddo Parish and Shreveport is in single-family structures.
• The majority of households in Caddo Parish and Shreveport are homeowner households.
• 14% of all housing units in Shreveport (about 13,010 units) and 13% of all housing units in Caddo Parish outside of Shreveport (about 3,019 units) were vacant in 2008.
• There are 6,849 adjudicated properties in the city and 350 outside the city in the rest of the parish.
• Drinking water for the city comes from man-made Cross Lake, the city’s 13.9 square mile reservoir, with Twelve-Mile Bayou as a back-up source. Two-thirds of Cross Lake’s shoreline is developed.
• The water and wastewater system has over 1,000 miles of water and sewer mains. Since 1997, water main miles increased by 10% and sewer miles by 18% while population levels remained flat.
• Water rates are lower within the city than for users outside the city limits. Rates have increased for all users to fund new water service areas.
• At the current rate of fill, the city’s landfill will last until 2022.
posted by admin on Dec 2
LOUISIANA DIVISION OF THE ARTS
Rapides Symphony Orchestra, Alexandria Museum of Art, West Monroe steel guitar player Laymon Godwin, New Delta Review Literary Magazine, New Orleans jazz radio station WWOZ. These are just a few of the thousands of arts organizations, enterprises, and individual artists that grace every corner of the state and every discipline imaginable. Their contributions have forged Louisiana’s reputation as a land rich in culture and creativity. They have nurtured the state’s quality of life and fattened the economy. Recognizing the powerful influence of the arts on both Louisiana’s psyche and pocketbook, Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu has retooled CRT’s Division of the Arts grants program to encourage organizational and individual growth as well as creativity.
The lion’s share of the Division of the Arts budget goes into the grants program, with $4.6 million of state-appropriated funds granted out in Fiscal Year 06/07; and in FY 07/08, grants funding hit a record $5 million.
The grants program the Division inherited disbursed funds primarily on a project-byproject basis. “Now, just like with any industry sector, the idea is to develop a solid, stable arts infrastructure,” said Arts Division Director Veronique Le Melle. Half the Division’s grant funds still go to the Decentralization Program, which directs funds to regional arts agencies that re-grant in all 64 Louisiana parishes for local arts priorities. But the other half goes to Direct State Funding of the Arts, where the Lt. Governor has initiated several new funding programs to achieve his paradigm shift from grant-making to strategic investment.
