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. If you appreciate snark, non sequiturs, and awful boating puns, pull up one of our recently rearranged deck chairs, pop a dramamine, and wash it down with a fruity umbrella cocktail. We are partial to the mai-tai. Trust us, you’ll need a drink. The author has a face that launched a thousand ships. In the other direction.
“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.”
The depth of the Red River at the time of this feature’s conception, on January 28, 2015, at 10pm, was 14.6 ft. Rounding up to a 15 foot baseline, we’ll mark the depth up or down from there.
Caesar’s Entertainment, parent of Horseshoe and Louisiana Downs, just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with the help of debt defense lawyers for hire, but state officials are pushing the corporate line that it’s all business as usual at the two Bossier properties. When a casino (A CASINO!, AN ENTERPRISE THAT EXISTS ONLY TO MAKE OBSCENE AMOUNTS OF MONEY) can’t pay its bills, do you think they screen incoming calls too? This can’t be good news long term. – 2 ft
BPCC is one of the fastest growing community colleges in the nation, despite being the lowest funded college in the State of Louisiana. That’s saying something, seeing how the education budget in this state has been decapitated at the ankles in recent years. + 1 ft
Gov. Jindal extends the state of emergency for Camp Minden for another 30 days. At least he’s identified an actual “no-go zone” at home, and not an imaginary one in England. Or Iowa. + 1 ft
According to The Urban Institute, the Shreveport metro area will experience a paltry 3.37% popultion growth between 2000 and 2030. This matters because there will be few new taxpayers to counterbalance the 65+ age cohort surpassing the number of peak-years earners in the 49-64 bracket by 2023. This town is getting old fast, but there is still time. – 1 ft
FORECAST: Down to 14 feet, and the change is hardly noticeable. Little chance we’ll run aground any time soon, but we’ve only just embarked. We’ll check in at the next port of call.