Can anything alter Lafayette’s rosy trajectory? Well yes, a sustained slump in oil prices certainly can, along with a lack of opportunity for all of our citizens.
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Any day now the Future Needs/ Funding Sources Committee will make its recommendations to the City-Parish Council about how to pay for the many services Lafayette Consolidated Government provides for its roughly 190,000 residents (not counting about 35,000 who live in the smaller municipalities; see our story on consolidation for why this is even a thing).
A recent City-Parish Council meeting once again put the lie to the idea that “consolidated” government serves the city of Lafayette’s interest. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
It All Goes Back to the Charter
We probably wouldn’t be having this discussion about redevelopment of the old federal courthouse if the city of Lafayette were autonomous like the five other municipalities in Lafayette Parish.
Buckle up for the next eight months, Lafayette, it’s gonna be a quick ride down the rapid economic expansion highway. A cursory drive around town shows a lot of green space on the expanding city limits to be realized into a new crop of nationally anchored retail and shopping developments.
The Lafayette city marshal’s Feb. 29 contempt hearing — for failing to turn over court-ordered documents responsive to a public records request — could be just the beginning of his legal troubles.
MOUTONS COME IN ALL SHAPES, SIZES AND COLORS
Recent plans to renovate the small triangular green space Downtown in front of the former Lafayette City Hall and to name it Place Mouton — and The New Orleans City Council’s December decision to remove four Confederate monuments from places of prominence in the Crescent City — have offered our community an incredible opportunity: to ask important questions, seek meaningful answers and benefit from a larger dialogue about our shared histories and the things we hold dear.
In a reversal of fortune, the city marshal charged with hauling people to jail awaits possibly the same fate.
Of Public Records and Public Corruption
Transparency and accountability are both the means and the end of public records law.
The district attorney’s suit against LCG underscores the unforeseen problems created for the city of Lafayette when consolidation was approved in 1992.
Long before coming under criminal investigation and getting slapped with more than $100,000 in civil fines and penalties, City Marshal Brian Pope mastered the art of political patronage. Just ask his legion of reserve deputies.
Drainage issues in Lafayette Parish underscore why “our parish government” is failing everyone.
Lafayette has relied on a bar moratorium to control nightlife Downtown; our failure to address the issue with best-practices ordinances has come back to bite us.
The April 29 tax votes demonstrated a disconnect between the city of Lafayette and the rest of the parish.
What Waitr’s Explosive Growth Means for Lafayette
Corporate moves for the dynamic dining app put the Hub City at ground zero for an ambitious expansion campaign.
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