Wednesday, September 1, 2021 … 7:00 P.M. I write to report on two subjects I continue to research.  I believe you and other responsible Shreveporters will likely see the data more than merely interesting.  At issue are … … the now-official 2020 Census population data for Shreveport, and … the related Shreveport City Hall attempt to hugely increase our property taxes in the election called by Mayor Adrian Perkins for November 13, 2021. Most directly notable are, I believe, these two findings: The U. S. Census Bureau’s every-ten-year national census of 2020 confirms a worst-ever decad ..read more

​Posted 12:03pm – 4-11-21 A few days ago, I wrote and posted my final article on Facebook.  Here it is for those who may have missed it: http://realshreveport.com/my-sabbatical-the-one-that-never-was/ ​Many of you contacted me after that article, and your very kind words mean more to me than you likely imagine. ​I did not explain in that article the details of my exit from the Facebook platform, and neither will I belabor those points here.  I will, however, share this:  it is clear to me that Facebook has been far, far more offensive in lying to its users than other Big Tech la ..read more

Monday, April 5, 2021 … 11:00 A.M. * * * * * * * * This article will be posted on RealShreveport.com for any who care to read it there. As always, I thank that website’s owner and sponsor, Will Broyles, for his unflinching, stellar support of my work here on Facebook over the past six years. * * * * * * * * As I wrote in my last post on February 9th, I am supposed to be on sabbatical leave from this page. It never happened. As is its way, life intervened. In the mere two months I have been absent, our family suffered the loss of a cherished man, our home area suffered epic damages from a snow ..read more

As some readers know, I have been promising myself a long vacation – a sabbatical, I call it – for years. Somehow, I never managed to do it. It was eight years ago that I began writing / posting these articles as the core of my work, first by use of email lists and a shared blog. Then, since mid-2015, I have posted 525 of my articles here on Facebook, with simultaneous posts on the RealShreveport.com website. In addition, this work requires my time as necessary in meetings, phone calls, public speaking, correspondence, etc., etc. Usually, that part of this work focuses on defeating tax increas ..read more

Late last evening, a person posing as a new FB “Friend” used his moments on my page to chastise me for my recent use of the term “the Shreveport exodus” in one of these articles. As many readers know, I began banging this drum here going on four decades ago. I do so both because it is data otherwise hidden in our city’s normal course of business, and it is an easily understood barometer of Shreveport’s health / sickness. For the record, below is the official data. I have broadened the time period to fully demonstrate the point, beginning the year before I was born in Shreveport. The U. S. Cens ..read more

I hope everyone in Louisiana (and elsewhere) fully understands this. If not, we’d better educate ourselves and others. Our friend U. S. Senator John Kennedy is all over this, especially including his new U. S. Senate bill filed yesterday. There is a video of comments from John on his Senate website, and here is the narrative from that site: https://www.kennedy.senate.gov/public/press-releases?id=C5831C02-4D0E-45E7-AD48-96B7ECDA126C © 2021 Elliott Stonecipher … ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ..read more

To open, let me (very) quickly acknowledge the no-news announcement by Caddo Commissioner Jim Taliaferro that he will yet again run for Mayor of Shreveport … yep, in two years … by which time many who are reading this piece will certainly have joined the Shreveport exodus. One of the 2018 mayoral candidate losers against Adrian Perkins, and a former Shreveport Police Department administrator, Taliaferro’s early-bird-gets-the-worm hoopla seems pointed at the supposed like mayoral candidacy of Caddo Commissioner Mario Chavez. Presumably still planning on running as a Republican, Taliaferro would ..read more

I want to thank everyone who has contacted me about the “sudden” decision by City of Shreveport officials to withdraw consideration of the $207,000,000 bond issue. For those who do not know, Mayor Perkins made that decision “official” earlier today. There had been no official / news media opposition to the bond issue until my articles posted on this page. The first of those was Wednesday-a-week-ago, the 13th, and the second was yesterday after lunch. Two City Council members finally spoke publicly earlier today, followed later by Mayor Perkins. To put it mildly, my first article was responded ..read more

It was just over a year ago – November 16, 2019 – when Shreveporters went to the polls to say “NO” to Mayor Adrian Perkins’ attempted, whopping $188,000,000 bond issue. It was, after all, unthinkable for any city in Shreveport’s on-the-ropes condition. Perkins intended to score a $220,000,000 bond package, but the City Council shaved the would-be money grab to the “mere” $188,000,000. As we know, Shreveporters have suffered mightily since then, as have all others, worldwide: Covid-19 began its killing spree only two months after Perkins & Friends tried and failed to soak us with that bond ..read more

It is a not-at-all funny fact that in yesterday’s City Council meeting, Mayor Adrian Perkins tried to sneak through a vote on his proposed – and whopping! – $207,000,000 bond issue. Instead, his stinking attempt was exposed. Regardless, there is NO mention yet of how much our property taxes are set to rise if this makes it to and passes the intended April 24th citizen vote. Here is how the broader point is made in today’s Shreveport Times: “Shreveport City Council Clerk Danielle Farr-Ewing brought the matter up saying Resolution 7, which calls for the special election, was incorrectly placed u ..read more