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| “I don’t think my poor old sign had another month left in it,” says Pat McDonald, a founding member of Save the Horse Farm |
It’s time for some attaboys in the successful effort to ‘Save the Horse Farm.’
By Leslie Turk
July 11, 2012
For almost seven years, I’ve dreamed about writing this column. It feels as good as I’d hoped it would.
I’ll never forget Danica Adams coming into The Independent’s office one Friday afternoon in October 2005. She wanted everyone in this community to know what the 100 acres of undeveloped UL Horse Farm property meant to her and her fellow students, informing us they had an 8-foot tall “Pavement or Paradise” sign making its way through Downtown Alive! When she asked for our advice on where to go next, I suggested she head to the property on Johnston Street, where she’d likely get lots of exposure. It was a little awkward suggesting ways to drum up publicity, but by this time The Independent was clear about where it stood on this issue. We had been first to the story involving the suspect land swap between the university and attorney Jimmy Davidson’s Girard Park Drive property, and we were turning up disturbing new details about those orchestrating the deal and the transaction itself, principally how UL appeared to be leaving millions on the table. We were quickly becoming advocates for preserving the space, so much so that we pleaded in an open letter to UL President Ray Authement to kill the deal.
But back to that Friday afternoon. Adams took the advice a step further, placing an anonymous call to local TV stations to tell them students were on Johnston Street protesting development of the property. They made the afternoon and evening news, giving birth and momentum to a grassroots effort, Save the Horse Farm.
Last week Adams, “EB” Brooks, Pat McDonald and hundreds of others across the city and parish who took on this preservation project accomplished their mission. Their voice had been heard years before by City-Parish President Joey Durel and UL President Joe Savoie (even before he could warm the seat of his new chair in the president’s office), but last Tuesday afternoon seven wise men sealed the deal — and their place in Lafayette’s history. Don Bertrand, Kenneth Boudreaux, Jay Castille, Andy Naquin, Kevin Naquin, Keith Patin and Brandon Shelvin voted to buy the Horse Farm from UL in a cash and land swap transaction valued at $6.6 million. The deal is made all the sweeter by what it means for landlocked UL — potentially a down payment on the old Lourdes property near campus.
After the vote, Durel had hoped to thank those involved, but with discussion shut down, council Chair Jared Bellard refused to recognize him (though he certainly could have). “This is your finest moment, your proudest hour,” Durel planned to tell the council. “Your vision in going forward with the comprehensive plan will reap rewards for Lafayette for years to come, but nothing will define your tenure, so visibly, than what you have done tonight. Ninety-nine percent of what you do as a councilman will quickly be forgotten, [but] preserving this beautiful piece of property, for future generations, will never be.”
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| Photo by Robin May |
| Danica Adams |
We’re confident he made the rounds to thank the others on his list.
Note to Dumb and Dumber (our council chair and co-chair, respectively): When that plaque goes up thanking those who preserved this space, we will make sure you’re not on it. It is obvious that you do not share our values.
There is still much work to be done. But we’re well on our way. Lafayette, you did good. We’re getting our “Paradise.”
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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