Amtrak update; smoking in casinos revisted; and REV Entertainment in play

Real progress often comes slowly, so it’s important to celebrate the small steps along the way. Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux recently celebrated progress on a couple of major projects for the city of Shreveport.

On June 7, Arceneaux hosted a news conference with officials from Amtrak and the Southern Rail Commission to announce one step forward in a plan to bring passenger rail service through Shreveport and across the Interstate 20 corridor that would connect Dallas to Atlanta.

Acreneaux and three of his counterparts – Ruston’s Ronnie Walker, Monroe’s Friday Ellis and George Flagg Jr. of Vicksburg, Miss. – have joined with Amtrak in an Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act grant application that will help fund the planning stage of the project.

“This is a very significant rail service,” Arceneaux said at the news conference. “This is the first long-distance expansion of routes for Amtrak in several decades. It’s something that will benefit all of us tremendously. We’re very excited about it.”

If this grant proposal is approved, it will fund the planning for rail service.

“To tell you there will be a train tomorrow, that’s not it,” Knox Ross, chairman of the SRC, explained. “This is a huge first step.

Having Amtrak leading this is the big change we have been waiting for.”

Another positive development, Arceneaux said, was the attitude of the management at Canadian Pacific Kansas City, the freight rail service that would share its tracks with the passenger service.

“For a freight train company, Canadian Pacific is very bullish on passenger traffic,” he said before the news conference. “They are very supportive of this application.”

Another long-term project also advanced recently. The city entered into a contract with the consulting firm Baker Tilley to help evaluate a proposal from REV Entertainment

Group to bring a multi-sport facility to the Louisiana State Fairgrounds, the site of Fair Grounds Field.

Baker Tilley is an international accounting and consulting firm. Baker Tilly has worked with REV Entertainment in the past.

Arceneaux said representatives from REV will be in town this week to discuss the project further.

Arceneaux is optimistic, too, that a deal will be completed to lease the Millennium Studios to Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. He said Jackson’s attorneys are reviewing the lease and expect to hear from them soon.

No veto on smoking ban

On May 23, the Shreveport City Council approved an amendment that repeals a smoking ban the council enacted with the Smoke-Free Air Act in 2020. The amendment allows smoking again in Shreveport’s casinos, which drew protests from casino employees.

Arceneaux recently chose to let the amendment become law without his signature.

“The council passed it with four votes,” he explained. “The fifth vote is there. So my decision was, while I am not in favor of the ordinance, there were five votes to override any veto. I decided to let it become law without my signature.”

Arceneaux explained that under the Shreveport City Charter, if the council approves a proposed ordinance or amendment and a mayor does not sign or veto it within seven days, it is enacted without the mayor’s signature.

“I have serious concerns about the ordinance, particularly from a patron’s standpoint,” he said. “At least in the beginning, non-smoking patrons will not have the same options of play as patrons who choose to be on the smoking floors. And there will be no table play on the non-smoking floor, which means the dealers and people who deal with table play will not have the option to be in a nonsmoking environment. Those were serious concerns for me that I hope the casinos will address as a means of treating their employees fairly.”

In other news

Shreveport has more money to spend on some of Arceneaux’s top priorities after the city council recently approved budget amendments proposed by the administration.

“We now have $9.5 million more devoted to streets, $500,000 devoted to litter abatement, $500,000 for property demolition and $500,000 for repair of street lighting,” the mayor said. “Some very significant changes in priority that resulted from our administration priorities and campaign promises that I made.”

Fun and games

But it hasn’t been all work and no play for Arceneaux. The mayor and his wife, Elizabeth, enjoyed a busy weekend recently kicking off the summer in Shreveport.

The first couple attended the opening of the summer Farmers’ Market in downtown Shreveport. That afternoon they attended an entrepreneurship workshop for children at Shreveport Common Park hosted by the Hispanic Association and the 75th anniversary of the Air Force Reserve at Barksdale Air Force Base.

They presented an award at the Robbys at the Robinson Film Center that night. The next day, they attended the Shreveport Summer Music Festival opening at the Church of the Holy Cross.

“We really could take for granted that there are a lot of things out there of great culture in Shreveport,” he said.