CenLamar | Est. 2006

  • State Political Update – Jan. 11, 2006

    Republicans Building Party Machine The Louisiana Republican Party has worked diligently to develop the organization and the discipline it needs to go head to head with Democrats in an attempt to elect a Republican governor and to establish a majority in the state House of Representatives. Timing is right for the Republican Party due to outward population migration and legislative term limits. Republican candidates running for statewide office will benefit from Hurricane Katrina because it sent many Democratic voters out of the state. This will make an already tough re-election campaign even more arduous for Governor Kathleen Blanco. Additionally, the…

  • The Twelve Steps to Downtown Revitalization

    In 2005, the Brookings Institute published a study on downtown revitalization efforts throughout the nation. If you have the time, check out the full report here. The report mentions a number of things which are directly applicable to the market here in Alexandria, and it also debunks many misconceptions about downtown revitalization efforts– who pays for these projects, who benefits from these projects, and why this is a complicated and challenging issue. One of the most oft-repeated misconceptions about downtown revitalization efforts is that they are top-heavy with publicly-financed projects. Of course, there are a handful of things that a…

  • The Independent Weekly: Believe (in the Saints)

    The Independent Weekly, a news magazine based out of Lafayette, has a fantastic new story about the New Orleans Saints, written by Scott Jordan, a Connecticut native who,  since moving to Louisiana over ten years ago, has embraced the Saints as his team. Normally, CenLamar doesn’t cover sports stories, but this is such a well-written piece that it deserves everyone’s attention. Oyster, over at the Right Hand Thief, has been writing about what the Saints mean to New Orleanians during this trying time of reconstruction, and this article is written in the same spirit. Jordan takes us through the history…