421 Lake Street, Shreveport LA 71101

7 December 2023

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact Jason Cram, 318-990-9029

SHREVEPORT – An organized effort is forming to create a railroad “Quiet Zone” in Shreveport and reopen the critical Lake Street entrance to downtown from Clyde Fant Parkway.

Organizers are targeting Mayor Tom Arceneaux’s proposed 2024 capital-improvements bond issue to fund an estimated $2 million in safety measures required by federal regulations so that motorists can again use Lake Street between the parkway and Spring Street (LA Highway One).

“Reopen Lake Street!” is the name and slogan of the new grassroots group pushing the street improvements. The group includes representatives of Sci-Port, the Red River Revel and business owners along Lake Street.

“Lake Street has effectively been closed since 2015,” said Jason Cram, owner of Vintage Design Group on Lake Street and chairman of the advocacy group. “Reopening it to motorists would help our growing Lake Street business community as well as Sci-Port, the Revel and all downtown attractions and businesses.”

Reopen Lake Street! is circulating a petition calling upon the mayor’s capital improvements committee and the City Council to put the issue before Shreveport voters next spring. In addition to Cram, other Lake Street business owners supporting the drive include The Agora Borealis owner Katy Larsen, architect Jeff Spikes, Lake Street Bar owner Frederick Ellis and Martha Russell of Silver Lake Ballroom.

The petition can be signed at The Agora Borealis. An on-line version is available through www.change.org.

Lake Street between Clyde Fant and Spring was closed by City ordinance in 2015. At the time City officials had reached agreement with the Holiday Inn Downtown, at Lake and Spring, to split the cost of an estimated $500,000 in safety improvements to the Union Pacific Railroad crossing at Lake.

City officials said the installation of crossing arms, lights and other safety measures would allow UP train operators to cross Lake without blowing their horns. Holiday Inn officials said the noise of the horn at all hours had disturbed hotel guests and threatened the hotel’s continuing operation.

After the original two-year street closure expired with no improvements to the rail crossing, City officials said additional railroad crossings near Lake Street required safety devices to establish a federally approved Quiet Zone. That raised the cost of reopening the street to almost $2 million.

“Nearby cities including Monroe and Longview have railroad quiet zones,” Larsen said. “This is a sensible and achievable goal for Shreveport.

“The mayor’s upcoming bond issue is a chance for us to persuade Shreveport voters to make this investment in our small businesses, our tourism industry and our downtown. We are asking for a chance to make that case.”

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