Catfish

My bad, I was talking about the city alone, but I guess you do have to factor in the rest of the metro area. City stats lie when you've got suburban areas adding to the population. That said, that does make metro BTR twice as large. But it definitely makes a difference. That explains why it reminds me a lot of Oklahoma City.

This is NOT my photo... but I did Photoshop in the awesome night sky.

Mardi Gras in Shreveport-Bossier. Hey, who says NORTH Louisiana can't party Mardi Gras style!? This scene stretches for MILES from downtown Shreveport, down the Clyde Fant Parkway, then onto Shreveport-Barksdale Blvd, where the party gets WILD. Finally, it ends near the duck pond on Kings Highway. What a party!!

Richy, I didn't realize Perkins Rowe didn't build everything they had planned. It's still very nice. I saw another photo looking down the main street with palm trees lining it... looks like something out of California or Florida. Very nice. And about the state capitol being the tallest building... who knows what the future will bring. Just think, at one time people in Austin probably had similar thoughts, but now look at it! That said, however, I often think the same about our tallest building... will it forever be the tallest? It was built in the early 80s before the big oil boom of the 70s and 80s went bust around here. Had that not happened, I wonder how many more big buildings would have been built downtown. I try not to think in "what ifs"; sometimes you just can't help it, though. It pains me to admit this, but I honestly believe Baton Rouge has a lot more potential than Shreveport. Already it seems much larger, when the population really isn't that much higher. But it just has a much larger city feel to it. Be it the traffic, Perkins Rowe, the nice LSU campus, or whatever, I'm not exactly sure, but something about it just feels a bit more "metropolitan", for lack of a better word. That said, I'm still a "homer" and wouldn't trade my hometown for anything. But if I had to move to Baton Rouge for anything, I don't think I'd be disappointed. However, I don't see myself moving south but I may be moving out of state eventually, to the upper Midwest to be closer to my wife's father. I have no more ties here except for my brothers. Both of my parents died a few years ago, and they were honestly the only reason I had to stay here, except for my fondness for my hometown and state. Anyway, chin up dude... like I said, I really think Baton Rouge has a lot of potential, and I really think it's a more forward-thinking city than my own hometown. And again, it pains me to think that but I can't help it; it just seems true.

I love this view. I like the historical blended with the modern. That's a look I really dig and like to use in my design concepts.

I found this online when I searched Perkins Rowe. Is this photo actually of Perkins Rowe? It's very nice! I'm getting ready to do some AutoCAD drawings of some mixed-use building concepts I have in my mind (nothing that will be built, just some concepts I'd like to draw up), and this photo gives me inspiration for that! I especially love the curved building on the corner here.

Ran across this photo... for something different. Stoner Skatepark (that's the real name, named after Stoner Avenue which crosses right there). It was featured a few years back on an MTV show where they rebuilt it to make it a better skate park. Not sure if this photo is before or after. It's right next to the Stoner Boat Launch and the newly opened dog park. When the river floods, you can even fish from the sidewalk at the skate park.

I wanted to mention this while I was thinking about it. The old Doctors Hospital, which stood for decades as a fixture in downtown Shreveport, next to I-20, finally closed down a few years ago. Then, Willis-Knighton purchased it and added to their local hospital lineup as a rehabilitation hospital. Here are some BEFORE and AFTER photos... I think they did a great job raising this place from the dead and modernizing it. BEFORE AFTER

A different type of angle. Once again, not my photo... if I knew the photog I would give credit where it's due. Looking up Texas Avenue at night, from the Texas Street Bridge to the church at the end of the road.

Very dramatic aerial photo with downtown Shreveport in the foreground.

Not my photo!! But a very nice one I recently found in an online Shreveport-Bossier photo contest. A very dramatic evening sky overlooking the Louisiana Boardwalk, Margaritaville, Sam's Town, and Eldorado along the Red River... Shreveport-Bossier riverfront.

Before I moved back to Bossier City from Haughton, a large wooded area along Highway 157 was stripped of all trees, roots, etc to make room for a new development right next to the Waffle House and the Pilot truck stop. This development, which is called Legacy Pointe, was to eventually include a Holiday Inn hotel, a Cracker Barrel, a bank, and other restaurants and stores. Not much detail was given at the time of the announcement, but they did mention a residential portion of the development to include an additional 300-350 homes. This is big for Haughton, which is a very small town that has literally doubled in population over the past decade. This development is also to re-align the existing highway from the corner by Waffle House and Pilot, and also include a center main street called Dak Prescott Drive, named for the town's most recent hometown football hero, Dak Prescott. Here's a page from LoopNet promoting the project to potential tenants, and it includes a site overview map: http://x.lnimg.com/attachments/5CB2ECB1-7F58-4F26-93D5-D6C6AB5E44F5.pdf Additionally, here is a KTBS 3 news spot done about the town's growth: https://www.ktbs.com/news/growing-into-a-city/article_5f5c7c5e-6e37-57d8-ae9a-5a420bf199b1.html

Article in today's Shreveport Times about the GOOD and BAD of Bossier City's continued growth. In my opinion, the GOOD would be that almost everything that we once had to drive to south Shreveport for, now exists in Bossier. The BAD... well, taking 30 minutes to go between I-20 and I-220 during rush hour traffic down Airline Drive or Benton Road. http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2017/08/04/good-and-bad-bossiers-growth/514580001/ Bossier City's population is now around 70,000 and Bossier Parish has surpassed the 125,000 mark. This is not the sleepy, seedy little town next to Shreveport that I grew up in back in the 80s and 90s. If Shreveport continues losing population to Bossier and Desoto Parishes, among other places in the country, Bossier City WILL one day surpass Shreveport in population. With the continued growth of the tech sector, with the National Cyber Research Park now being home to 3 large buildings, with more potentially in the future, and other visible economic growth in the city and parish, I don't see it slowing down anytime soon.

Bossier City with Margaritaville to the left, and Shreveport to the right.

Nice aerial view...

Today's "photo" is actually just an architectural rendering, but I'm excited about this project... the Shreveport Aquarium, which opens on August 31.

I haven't represented Shreveport-Bossier in a while. I found these two dramatic photos online and loved them. A downtown/riverfront aerial and a shot looking over the Louisiana Boardwalk at Eldorado, Sam's Town and Margaritaville. I love these photos.

Well with all this flooding closing major roads like i220, I guess we all see now why we have i220. Traffic on i20 sucks right now. I'm glad it's only temporary. Now I see how a loop would help down in Baton Rouge. I never saw the value of loops until i220 closed this week.

Nice. I never even knew that page existed. The most recent project announced on that page, which they call an "exciting project" isn't all that exciting to me really. It's just another Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. I saw the plans a while back for that location and that exact building footprint. The rendering for the new Wal-Mart supercenter store under construction in north Shreveport looks nice, though. I-49 barely exists up there yet, and already they are building a Wal-Mart supercenter there. I think that's just a drop in the bucket as to the future of retail along the new I-49 North corridor in north Shreveport/Blanchard.

I've got a buddy from Houston who lives here now for work. When he first got moved here, he didn't like it... it was too small for him, real estate prices are far more expensive than in the Houston market, and so on. But it's really grown on him and he now calls Shreveport home. He loves it here. One day when we were driving past downtown on I-20, he said to me, "You know, this place has grown on me. It just doesn't seem so small anymore." And he's always talking about how much it's grown since he's been here. It's too bad there hasn't been much population growth, but the retail sector sure has grown and continues to do so. Plus, new apartments and neighborhoods all around south Shreveport where he lives. Shreveport converted a hardcore, lifelong Houstonian... that's quite a feat in itself!!

That makes sense, given the size of the building. And although there are many other hotel chains that we don't have (like W Aloft) that I'd love to see there, Hampton isn't bad. I know we have one in Bossier, one by the airport, and I think maybe one somewhere else already, so this will make a nice addition to their family in this market. The Hampton I recently stayed at in Dallas was truly top-notch.

So, does anyone know what is being built in front of the Horseshoe on Traffic Street in Bossier? They are 4 stories up, and it looks like that may be the top floor. It appears that it's going to be some kind of boutique hotel like the one at the Boardwalk and like the new-ish Wyndham hotel a block down Barksdale Blvd from there. But if it's going to be a hotel, it actually looks like it will have quite a few rooms. It's only 4 floors but it's pretty long. As you drive toward the Horseshoe from the Boardwalk, you can't miss it as it sits just back from the railroad bridge. I know for years the Horseshoe has said that it will build another hotel "tower" but I wonder if they decided to do something smaller instead? Or if they did like they did at Louisiana Downs and sold that parcel for someone else to build a hotel. That way, it's a win-win for Horseshoe... they make money off the land and they lose nothing because they then lure those gamblers with the fact that the hotel is literally right across the parking area from the casino complex. Any thoughts? It's being built by Lincoln Builders but I can't find anything about this project on their website. Also, our area's first Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market store is shaping up quite nicely across from Stockwell Place Elementary School in Bossier. Plus, Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill is coming along at Pierre Bossier Mall. This is a good time to live here. There's quite a bit going on for an area that has been sleepy for so long. Whole Foods/upscale shopping development, Camp Forbing shopping development, Bossier Kroger Marketplace shopping development, north Shreveport is finally building up thanks to the recently opened I-49 North stretch, plus I-49's final stretch from Hwy 1 to I-220 is getting underway. Expect major freeway construction in that area over the next few years as they work to tie in both freeways and build new lanes as well as new flyover ramps. We will have a new "mixmaster" of overpasses, as some call it, at that location.