Great wall of Alexandria.

Greg at Central La. Politics did a short story on the Stockyard “Mall”

http://centrallapolitics.blogspot.com/2011/02/i-wonder-why-i-didnt-know-that.html

Looking at it from a broader prospective, all of a sudden I see part of the

great wall of Alexandria.

problem to several things.  (Click on map to make it bigger.)

Forget about a half circle. You really have just 1/3 of one.

Access to the entire area is maintained by only two major  roads.

One access from the North.

One from the West.

The land between the population area is barren and is blocked b y the Interstate.

We do not even count the road to Marksville. (That is only an exit.)

Any corporation planner will see that traffic access to the area is minimal at best.

Would you place a store in this area that even required  a medium flow of traffic?

The river is a wall.

The interstate is a wall.

Access is severely limited.

Population is small.

Add it up and what do you get?

This may be part of the problem with the old  town section of Alexandria also if you look at it from a wall prospective.

 (Going back to the argument: Do you run an interstate through or around a town?)

Alex

A photo of Alexandria, La’s flood plain. Circa 1930.

I did a little research the other day on flooding in Alexandria and came up with the photograph below. It appears to be from late 1920′s or 1930.

 

The upper area of the photograph shows Bayou Rapides. Looking down 3rd Street, with 2nd Street on the right .. Flooding appears to come up to  past Rapides Avenue.  How far to the West it  flows, we do not know.

But with the parking lot break at Rapides General, you would have the same scenario.

The above photograph shows a view looking South from the same time period.

Interesting….. But that could never happen today.

 Or could it?

Alex

Our Alexandria City Government.

                                      Alexandria, La. city government.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It broke.

 

                                                Those who run it.

 It looks pretty much like that to me.

 As if we do not have enough problems,

 without everyone sniping at each other!

 Why is it, no matter how hard I look,

 all I see is a bunch of non productive,  self serving creeps or clowns?

 Business as usual.

 Alex

 

We need more reporters. (Real one’s that is.)

 

What ever you say.

I fondly remember when the reporters for the local paper and the electronic media did their job. They dug for facts and reported them.  Now they just  smile and parrot whatever is told them, never bothering to check the facts or dig deeper into anything that just sounds too good to be true.  Might as well just pay them minimum wage and concentrate on commercials and advertisement. I do not know of a real reporter left in town. They all have left for greener pastures.

Oh well, what the hell do I know?

You would be suprised.

Alex

Alexandria’s 1 + 1 = 7 outlook. Supreme stupidity.

Normally I try to take the high ground. (Whatever that is.)

But I have to say, something stinks here in my home town.We have put on a set of jackass blinders that are leading us off the main road.

Why are  we focusing on Hotels, apartments, sidewalks and parks?

Where is the population base or tourism influx to fill this excess?

Why are we focusing on the film industrys , wham bam, its been  fun , by-by money?

We know that the majority of young people leave Alexandria.. when given the slightest reason.

What in the hell happened to trying to bring business and industry to town?

Our population is by my standards   pretty stagnant.

I  think the last major industry I heard of coming in was a tire recycling plant.

( I would be suspect about the pollution factors involved, but we need anything we can get at this point.) Beggar’s can’t be chooser’s  in this case.

Do not get me wrong the film industry is money, but it is ONLY temporary, sporadic money. Lets encourage it any way we can.

Lets get serious about educating our children past the 10th grade.

Let’s set our sights higher.

Let’s start to encourage tourism and take advantage of the draws we have here in Central Louisiana.  (We are not taping into 1/3 of what we could.)

We have a mayor and city council that are totally devoid of business sense and have no social  graces whatsoever.

You really can not argue that point, they prove it every day by their  disconnected actions.

I have said it before. They are clueless….Period.

Grand  schemes seldom succeed.

You  can not fill rooms when there are no people to use them.

Get the people first, the rest will come after.

Where in the hell is common sense when you need it??

Disgusting, is it not?

Alex

Beautiful old home on Jackson Street.

 

The landmarks of Alexandria are disappearing one by one. Soon the stately mansions will all be gone. I stand and watch as tears run down my face.

I know there are reasons some of these homes can not be maintained.

The cost of  restoring is high. I hate to see them go. Is there something we can all band together to do? A coat of paint on this one would turn it into a sparkling gem once again. Instead of just talking about preservation, lets do something. There must be a program somewhere that would help or even a grant of some kind.

Why?

Alex

Ghost Hunter news on Alexandria, La. program.

The season premier  of the Ghost Hunters program on the Si-Fi Network will feature Alexandria, La. on the evening of  Wednesday..February 23.

Just received that information…

Alex