The goal of the [Imagine Downtown] Lafayette competition is to bring forward new and innovative ideas for invigorating Lafayette’s urban core while also uniting surrounding neighborhoods and producing a 24-hour community. Entrants may choose between six sites, each with a unique set of assets and challenges. Participants must select one of these sites and propose specific solutions. Site considerations include increasing affordable residential and mixed-use density; accommodating parking needs; reinforcing existing plazas, parks and streetscapes; strengthening pedestrian and bikeway connectivity to surrounding neighborhoods and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s main campus; facilitating public transportation; and developing a sustainable urban condition.
The [Imagine Downtown] Lafayette project is comprised of a partnership between Creative Action, Urban Land Institute Louisiana, AOC Community Media, UL School of Architecture and Design, and the Acadiana Center for the Arts. This partnership of organizations is working closely with Lafayette Consolidated Government to use this competition in part to help build public interest in Lafayette’s ongoing comprehensive planning process.
[Imagine Downtown] Lafayette, through its partnership with Urban Land Institute Louisiana, is the recipient of a $10,000 grant from Urban Land Institute (National). “This competition is the first of its kind in Lafayette, and the support we have received from the community and incredible organizations like the Urban Land Institute is absolutely flattering and energizing for all of us who are involved in [Imagine Downtown],” said Colin Miller, Creative Action founding member and Chair.
All entries for the competition must be received by January 15, 2013. A single winning design will be selected for each of the six sites, with each winning design receiving a $1500 cash award. There will also be a public exhibition following the competition in the spring of 2013 featuring the top-rated designs. Jurors will include local, regional and national architects and urban designers.
Those encouraged to participate include individuals and interdisciplinary teams of students, architects, urban planners, landscape architects, designers, real estate developers, artists, creative professionals, and entrepreneurs. Entry fee is $30 per submission. Full competition guidelines are available for download through the Creative Action website, www.creativeactionacadiana.org.
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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