This is my annual rant about the Centaur and Gemini Mardi Gras parades, which continue to intrude on businesses on Shreveport-Barksdale Highway and in residential neighborhoods, such as Shreve Island and Broadmoor, where a disaster is waiting to happen. Shreveport city officials and the leaders of the two krewes show no signs of heeding the warnings of police and fire officials, who say it would be very difficult and nearly impossible to get through the streets into the residential areas should an emergency occur.

There are stories about incidents at past parades, which the local media has totally ignored. One, for example, is an individual having to be moved several blocks on a gurney because the EMS unit could not get to his house because of cars parked on both sides of the narrow street. It is a fearful time for the elderly and infirm who live in these neighborhoods on the parade route.

But there is another side of the story, which I recently learned, and should concern everyone. A former law enforcement officer told me police officers are told not to arrest underage drunks and other unruly persons who attend the parades, except in extreme circumstances. So, apparently, those numbers the police department and city officials tout about how few arrests occurred and that the parades are family-oriented is just a bunch of baloney.

Shreve City is the worst area, he said, where officers have come across drunks as young as 12 years of age. Because the parades start at Festival Plaza in the late afternoon, party-goers in Shreve City have all day to drink and get drunk. When one of the parades started at Preston and Kings and headed toward downtown, it made a positive difference in the number of disorderly and drunk persons in Shreve City because it was out of the area before dark.

Another problem area, he noted, is along Kings Highway. One year, he and his wife and children went to the parade along that stretch of the parade route. There were so many drunks and fights taking place, that he took and wife and children and went home. They will no longer attend the parades. I have heard that same story from many people over the years and include myself among them. The last time I went, there were teenagers, some of them obviously drunk, running along side every float trying to catch everything that was thrown, knocking down young children in the process. There was not a police officer in sight.

When will the mayor and/or city council step up and say enough is enough? The perfect route for the parades is to keep them on Clyde Fant Parkway and off of Shreveport-Barksdale Highway and East Kings. Why the krewes continue to create these problems by using the current route is beyond my comprehension.

Patrick Isn’t Waiting

While some potential candidates for mayor of Shreveport are mulling over whether they will run, state Rep. Patrick Williams is out of the starting gate and has a huge head start. He has officially announced, has put a campaign team together and is pursuing the city’s top job.

Ask any veteran politico, and they will tell you Patrick (I am using his first name because there may be another Williams in the race) is the definite frontrunner. They will even go as far as to say he will be the next mayor of Shreveport.

I can’t disagree with that assessment at this time. Patrick is what I see as the new breed of black leaders in the city of Shreveport. He is young, personable, intelligent and has leadership abilities. Not only does he have a college degree, he has a masters of business administration and is working on a doctorate, which should be attractive qualities to the business community.

In a recent interview with Patrick, I liked what he had to say. He noted that in his campaign – and in the mayor’s office should he be elected – he wants fresh faces and fresh ideas.  While he didn’t elaborate, let me do so. I have written many times about the same people being recycled into new positions once they failed in their current one. It is these so-called leaders who have held Shreveport back because they have the power and the positions and don’t want things to change. I detect Patrick sees the same thing as well. And if there was ever a time when Shreveport needs new leadership, fresh faces and fresh ideas, this is it.

When I moved to Shreveport after 27 years on Capitol Hill in Washington, I joined the Chamber of Commerce and asked to be put on their governmental affairs committee.  Guess what? I was told there were no vacancies. The Bossier Chamber, on the other hand, came to me and asked me to be on its  committee. 

By the way, those still mulling a run for mayor and have not officially announced include state Rep. Roy Burrell; former Mayor Keith Hightower; Councilman Sam Jenkins; Maxine Sarpy, a political ally of state Sen. Greg Tarver; evangelist Melvin Slack; and Commissioner Michael Williams.