“Depth sounding refers to the act of measuring depth; it is often referred to simply as sounding. Sounding is finding the depth of a given point in a body of water.”
Welcome aboard, Shreveport-Bossier, to Sounding Off! This is a completely unscientific and
shallow measurement of our area’s political and social flotsam and jetsam, and the aggregate effect on quality of life. We’ve decided to sail for gentler tides and lay off Governor Jindal. It’s clear he’s checked out and has given himself over to national interests that likely couldn’t find Louisiana on a map of Louisiana. It’s really just punching down at this point. Even his own party is ready to abandon ship, and he’s as unpopular among Louisiana voters as.. well, as a tax increase. We’ll bet the Office of Planned Giving at Brown is probably not cashing his checks anymore. Let’s leave Bobby on a deserted island with a machete and a book of matches and wish him good luck in his future endeavors.
Last Mark: 16 feet
Even as the storm clouds gather on the immediate horizon, there are couple of bright spots in SBC that give us some confidence that we can weather the coming budget crisis storm. How influential these voices will be remains to be discovered, but at least folks like Rocky Rockett and Scott Martinez understand that hacking away at higher education funding is at least as repulsive to potential incoming employers as backing up on absurdly generous state tax rebates. It may be that unelected community leaders are our best (only) firewall against getting gutted by Baton Rouge. Not to mention Standard & Poor’s. + 1
According to a recent WalletHub study, the fine residents of Shreveport-Bossier are the least likely in America to have seen their own toes in the last calendar year, or something. We’d like to argue with them on this, but we are out of breath. This much reading really takes a lot out of ya, don’t it? I mean, we aren’t teenagers anymore. I knew all those years of figuring out how to deep fry a frozen daiquiri would pay off! Pound sand, science! – 1
While the rest of us are constantly on the hunt for new ways to “do more with less” (which is an absurd pursuit really), Forward Now is building a progressively stronger case for the contention that the Caddo Parish School Board is doing considerably less with considerably more. We’ll not step into the maelstrom of attempting to unravel motivations here. Your beloved captain is a product of Caddo schools and, despite this fact, he can still skiff through some basic math: $108 Million in additional millage + Shreveport already having one of the highest property tax rates in the state + a shrinking school age population + a shrinking tax base generally in both the city and the parish + the Recovery School District breathing down the neck of a handful of schools in the district = cue the band one last time. Superintendent Goree, we pray, will earn that nice pay increase he luckboxed into last month. One way or another. Godspeed. -1
FORECAST: Down to 15 feet. And the water is troubled. Perhaps we should get rid of some of this excess freight. But that would require, you know, exercise. Hey, you might surprise us. In the meantime, no more than two of you should lean over the edge of the deck at a time. Also, we just heard that Jimmy Graham is now a Seahawk. We take it back, this is totally Jindal’s fault too.
Photo by Jonas Nilsson Lee