Meeting and defeating the enemy
The timing of things is always interesting and sometimes downright spooky.
Just last week, I was talking to a developer from South Louisiana who is intrigued with downtown Shreveport.
We chat every three months or so about things going on downtown. I encourage him to make a move before all the best buildings are gone, and we talk about how so many local people are interested in downtown living, how cities across the country are reinvigorating their urban cores, how a strong downtown can help an entire region.
In the middle of our talk, he became serious and said, “Do you know who your worst enemy is?” A lot of things fly through your mind when someone makes a statement like that, and I definitely wanted to hear what he thought. After all, he’s a businessperson who develops multi-million dollar projects in cities around the Southwest and has more than a passing knowledge about Shreveport. “Your Realtors. They don’t have much nice to say about downtown.”
I was shocked, irritated and wanted to know who in particular needed either additional information or a one-way ticket to somewhere else. After spending a few minutes unsuccessfully trying to coerce the names out of him, I picked up the phone to a local Realtor friend.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “That developer is right. Realtors I know use downtown to poach businesses and then move them to the higher rent districts in south Shreveport and north Bossier.
You can make far more money on Youree Drive than in downtown.”
“You don’t do that, do you?” I managed to fume. “Oh, no,” he said.
“It makes me really angry.” Good answer, my (still) friend.
A couple of days later, I discovered Shreveport has something in common with charming Menomonie, Wisc., population 16,000. The Main Street manager there posted to a downtown email forum asking for help.
“Wondering if anyone has ever had this happen,” she posted. “Yesterday I had two of my downtown businesses tell me they were recently asked/recruited to move elsewhere.” The forum boards lit up with similar stories from downtowns across the country.
“As a former (and still recovering) mall manager,” one downtown director wrote, “I can verify that this happens all the time.” And yet another, “I hope this is a wake up call and something all of us as a whole can work on to overcome.”
It made me think of the saying, coined by a cartoon character years ago “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Pretty profound and in some cases completely true. I can’t fault Realtors for working hard to make money or businesses for making strategic decisions. I also can’t fault the guy who posted to the forum that these Realtors and mall managers “are doing what we should always be doing, looking to recruit new businesses that are successful” although I can curse him under my breath for breaking up our pity party. What we can do is try to improve our efforts to show people why a strong downtown is vital, why Downtown Shreveport’s history can help us create a wonderful future and why the benefits of a vibrant, lively, livable downtown are about more than just higher rent. We know that closing the deal is what pays the bills, but a viable downtown will help Youree Drive keep its appeal and attract even more businesses to Shreveport. So to those of you who work hard for downtown’s success, we say a hearty “thank you.”
Henry Ford was on to something when he said “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”
Downtown’s success, and indeed Shreveport’s future, depends on all of us.
Liz Swaine is the executive director of the Downtown Development Authority. She can be reached at liz@downtownshreveport.com.
