While it’s highly likely 2009 may throw all of these numbers out of kilter, it’s now clear that before the economic slowdown hit this year, Louisiana had the fastest growing median household income in the country. CNNMoney reported that this increase, from $40,926 in 2007 to $43,733, may be the result of federal dollars still flowing into the state from Hurricane Katrina. The U.S. Census Bureau released the figures last week.
Maryland was tops in the country with a median income of $70,545, though keep in mind it has a high cost of living. And while Louisiana’s income was growing, the state remained part of a cluster of southern states — including Mississippi (which was last), West Virginia, Arkansas, Kentucky and Alabama — comprising the group of lowest-earners.
David Calhoun and Elizabeth “EB” Brooks are the first two employees of Lafayette Central Park Inc., the nonprofit charged with turning Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 100-acre Johnston Street Horse Farm property into a passive public park. Calhoun was named executive director, and Brooks is director of planning and design.
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
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