Also, campaign against blight continues

The city of Shreveport continues to make it easier for entrepreneurs to set up shop in the city through its website, www.shreveportla.gov.

One of the ways the city is doing that is through its Economic Development One-Stop portal. Mayor Tom Arceneaux said it is the place to start “if you are opening or expanding a business, as well as to gather some information.”

“Virtually all of our permits can be applied for online,” he added. “There’s really a tremendous wealth of information there.”

Arceneaux added that, in addition to providing information for starting a business, the portal offers resources to expand existing businesses, including those within specific industries, such as hospitality.

“We are moving all of the liquor licenses and ABO card applications online,” Arceneaux said. “At some point, for those, you have to be fingerprinted, so there is some time you have to appear in person for those. But we have reduced the number of times you have to do that.”

The Economic Development One-Stop portal is a work in progress, the mayor said, and the administration welcomes feedback from users to improve the experience.

“It is live and will continue to evolve,” he said. “We would love to have feedback from entrepreneurs and other people who are looking at it, saying, ‘This was good, but I wish it had X.’”

In addition to the economic development portal, the city has launched an online dashboard to track capital projects across the city. The database includes projects planned from the most recent bond issues, as well as many pre-existing projects.

“There are 163 projects on there, including projects that are not yet funded,” Arceneaux said. “So if you want to know about a particular project or look at all the projects, you can do that and tell what stage of development each project is.”

Both the Economic Development One-Stop portal and the capital projects dashboard are available to the public through links on the city of Shreveport’s website homepage.

Block by Block rolls on

The mayor’s campaign against blight in Shreveport continues, with volunteer crews rallying throughout the city to clean up neighborhoods. The mayor recently got in on the action in Queensboro.

“This weekend was fabulous,” Arceneaux said afterward. “We were at Bilberry Park, and the neighbors were out. They were partying and pleased to see us. It was fabulous. We really had a good time. And we picked up 500 tires, or something like that.”

The Block by Block campaign is targeting resources in high-need areas one block at a time, rather than spreading efforts thinly across the city. Plans will be tailored to each neighborhood, featuring a comprehensive lifecycle tracking system that monitors violations, abatements, legal actions, demolitions and redevelopment status, according to a news release.

Upcoming ribbon cutting

Arceneaux said that a ribbon cutting will be scheduled soon for a new Shreveport Police Department facility in west Shreveport.

The facility will house a patrol division and a traffic division of the police department. The mayor said that officers are already beginning to occupy the facility.

Police Department personnel have been relocated to substations across the city while a project is underway to upgrade the SPD headquarters at 1234 Texas Ave.

Cheering on the cheerleaders

Arceneaux took a minute to pay tribute to several citizens who have jumped on the bandwagon for Shreveport, whether through the Block by Block initiative, the “We (Heart) Shreveport” campaign, or through their own efforts — people like Bob Thames, who has taken to social media to shine a spotlight on revitalizing downtown.

“We’re really beginning to see a lot of momentum and positivity in the city of Shreveport,” Arceneaux said. “Part of it is a change of attitude, which is one of the major things we were trying to do. I am very sold on Shreveport and believe we have a lot to offer. I believe we will begin to see some additional announcements that will verify that.

So stay tuned.”