Allendale Strong

FCI Blue Peer Group for Co-op startups
2023-07-13 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Chicago) | Virtual

Legislative Public Hearing for the Highway Priority Program
2024-02-07 08:30 - 09:30 | Bossier Parish Community College, 6220 E Texas St, Bossier City, 71111, United States
This past Friday John Perkins attended the NLCOG meeting and learned that the Louisiana Legislative Joint Transportation, Highways, and Public Works Committee is holding its annual roadshow around the state to review fiscal year 2024-25 preliminary priorities with interested citizens and hear from citizens their concerns and priorities.

The meeting for the Shreveport / Bossier City area (District 4) is this Wednesday February 7, 2024; 8:30 am at LA Tech at Bossier Parish Community College, Building H – Moran Room, 6220 E Texas St, Bossier City (District 04: Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Claiborne, Desoto, Red River, Webster)

Please excuse the short notice. John asked that anyone who can please join him at this meeting to speak about prioritizing maintenance, updating transportation planning methods, and right-sizing our transportation infrastructure without additional revenues. A good summary of our issues can be found in a January 24th published letter to Governor Landry by the Louisiana 4-Corners Coalition for Transportation Planning Reform (La4CC), Louisiana’s future demands 21st century approach to transportation. As a La4CC member Allendale Strong collaborated in writing this letter / article.

The following is an excerpt from the LaDOTD website announcement linked above:

“All interested persons are invited for the purpose of becoming fully acquainted with the proposed program and will be afforded an opportunity to express their views in person. Oral testimony may be supplemented by presenting important facts and documentation in writing. Comments may also be provided at the above web address. All interested parties will be able to listen to the meeting by ZOOM. The ZOOM information will be posted on the Highway Priority Program web page at the above web address prior to the hearing. Written statements and comments can be handed to the committee conducting the hearing or mailed to the following address, postmarked within 45 calendar days following the final hearing:“

JOINT TRANSPORTATION, HIGHWAYS AND PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE

C/O LA DOTD (SECTION 85)
P.O. BOX 94245
BATON ROUGE, LA 70804-9245

Last year Allendale Strong made an effective presentation that was reinforced by Representative Glover, a committee member. This year newly elected Representative Steven Jackson is on this committee.

Hope you can attend or submit written comments.

Louisiana 4 Corners Coalition for Transportation Planning Reform
2023-07-04 16:00 - 17:00 | Virtual

Freeway Fighters Monthly Meetup
2023-06-28 15:00 - 16:00 | Virtual
(4:00 pm Eastern Time)

Corner Store Co-op Committee
2023-06-24 08:45 - 09:45 | Allendale Friendship House, 1515 Clay Street, Shreveport, LA, United States

SWEPCO Park Advisory & Committee Zoom
2023-06-28 11:30 - 12:30, 2023-06-14 11:30 - 12:30 | Virtual
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/531883105
Meeting ID: 531 883 105

AllendaleStrong Monthly Meeting
2023-03-09 18:30 - 20:00 | Allendale Friendship House, 1515 Clay Street, Shreveport, LA, United States
Join us for our monthly meetings on the 2nd Thursday of each month, 6:30 – 8 PM at 1515 Clay Street.

Louisiana General or Runoff Election Day
2023-11-18

Vision Zero Cities 2023 Conference featuring Dorothy Wiley
2023-10-18 10:00 - 11:00
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Vision Zero Cities brings together leading industry and policy experts, advocates, and elected officials from across the nation.
Transportation Alternatives is excited to host the 10th Annual Vision Zero Cities conference from October 18 – 20, 2023 at New York University in partnership with the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at NYU Wagner.
Kicking off this three-day event, will be Dorothy’s session:
Mr. President, Tear Down this Highway!

11:00am – 12:00pm ET
Urban highways divided communities and destroyed neighborhoods. Now cities from Syracuse to San Francisco to Detroit are choosing to get rid of them altogether. And for the first time, new federal program is helping foot the bill. In addition, some cities are choosing to forego new highway construction altogether.
Featuring:

Shawn Dunwoody, Reimagine Rochester

Miriam Schoenfield, Reconnect Austin/Rethink 35

Will Toor, Executive Director, Colorado Energy Office

Dorothy Wiley, Allendale Strong

Learn more at transalt.org/visionzerocities

NLCOG Public Input Meeting
2023-10-17 15:30 - 18:30
Public Input Meeting Announcement and Position Statement
Since February of 2012, Allendale Strong members have been working together to renew our community Relationally, Economically, and Environmentally. That includes politely and consistently advocating for separating through traffic from local business traffic. In the decade since the 3.5 mile I-49 Inner City Connector (ICC) “zombie” project has been revived by the Committee of 100 and other community members, North Louisiana Council of Governments (NLCOG) has repeatedly ignored input from any community members who are not in favor of building the connector through the heart of Shreveport. We have to assume that the upcoming public input meeting will lead to more of the same – carefully recording opinions on all sides, only to ignore those who advocate for anything other than the destruction of our historic, downtown adjacent neighborhoods.
NLCOG will be presenting the route options for public input on Tuesday, October 17, 2023, from 3:30-6:30pm at the Shreveport Convention Center in the Captain Shreve Ballrooms C & D. They will be labeled as 1, 2, 3, 3A, and 5. All of these route options explored by NLCOG are bad for the neighborhood and bad for the city at large. The only option that does not defy federal laws (1965 Transportation Act and 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)) is #5, which would designate 3132 as the I-49 Loop and use federal dollars to make it bigger and wider. Using the 3132 loop is what we’ve recommended for over a decade. While #5 gets closest to what we have learned are the best practices for cities, adding lanes and expanding capacity as planned would certainly be a waste of taxpayer dollars.
We encourage citizens to attend the public input meeting to learn more about all of the proposed routes for a project which cannot be completed for another 20 years. Which ill-advised construction project would you like a billion taxpayer dollars to be tied up in for two decades? NLCOG is currently projecting a record of decision will be made by next year, regardless of public input. We also anticipate filing a lawsuit (we have received legal assistance from over a dozen pro-bono attorneys) if the decision handed down is any of the first four route options through the city. All four are illegal. All four cannot get funding from the federal government. All four would destroy valuable historic areas of our city, and burden us with the maintenance and upkeep of a billion-dollar project that no one needs, and that would make the problem of sprawl in Shreveport much worse. The I-49 ICC 3.5 mile cut-through freeway proposal was officially removed from consideration twice by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), first in recognition that it violates 1969 NEPA, then in a 1996 corridor study stating the existing 3132 loop would be designated I-49 through Shreveport due to the ICC proposal being redundant, wasteful and harmful. Why has NLCOG and business interest continued to advocate for a bad idea?
Allendale Strong has spent over a decade learning about what works best for cities and the people who live there. We’re now proud to be part of a state-wide coalition to change how transportation planning happens (La 4 Corners Coalition) as well as a national group of citizens just like us who are fighting unnecessary interstate projects around the country (Freeway-Fighters.org). The systems that are in charge of building interstates in America are very old and very hard to change. But the things we build in turn shape the way we live. We will continue to advocate for building environments that build community wealth and enhance human health and well-being, rather than cause harm like interstates do. Allendale Strong meets every second Thursday of the month from 6:30-8:00 p.m. at the Friendship House at 1515 Clay Street. We are excited to be able to now turn our attention to renewing SWEPCO Park, creating a Corner Store Food Co-Op, and empowering citizens to become homeowners. We hope you’ll join us to work toward building a Shreveport we can all be proud of and that will serve all humans – not just those who own automobiles.

Which future do you want to live in? We’ll gladly continue to collect citizen feedback to submit to NLCOG at: Future Survey

As soon as we know how to submit comments directly to NLCOG outside of the Oct. 17 meeting, we’ll post the details here.
