The Shreveport City Council meets today at 3 p.m.
On the agenda is Resolution 13 to authorize the mayor to execute an agreement for the use of Betty Virginia Park for a three day festival.
The agreement is for three years and it does NOT require the payment of rent. The promoter is a FOR PROFIT entity.
If the promoter staged this event at Festival Plaza, the convention center or Riverview Hall rent would be charged for each day of the festival.
If this agreement is approved, then the Council will, in effect, be discriminating against many NON PROFIT groups pay rent for use of public facilities including the following:
1. Rho Omega and Friends who stage Let the Good Times Roll at Festival Plaza
2. Robinson's Rescue who holds their fundraiser Best in Sheaux at Riverview Hall
3. Krewe of Sobek who holds their Mardi Gras Bal at the Convention Center
4. Downtown Shreveport Unlimited (DSU) who stages Mudbug Madness at Festival Plaza
5. Krewe of Harambe who holds their Mardi Gras Bal at the Convention Center
6. Volunteers for Youth Justice who hold their fundraiser Battle of the Gumbo Gladiators at Festival Plaza
7. Krewe of Oceanus who next year will hold their Mardi Gras Bal at Riverview Hall
8. The Red River Revel which is held at Festival Plaza
9. DSU who will stage their first St Patrick's Day Paddy in the Plaza celebration at Festival Plaza this year
Presumably each council member either knows some of the people putting on these events and/or has attended one or more of them.
The Council should consider Betty Virginia Park to be a Shreveport public facility much like Riverview Hall, Riverview Theatre and the Convention Center.
Each of these venues are owned by the city and maintained with public dollars.
The Council should also consider the Shreveport public parks in their district and/or that their constituents utilize both in and out of their districts.
These include but are not limited to Ford Park, Bilberry Park, Southern Hills Park, A.B. Palmer Park, Highland Park, Bill Cockrell Park and others. Should a FOR PROFIT promoter be allowed to take over one of these parks for an event and not pay rent?
The fact that tickets are being sold now for this event is a non factor. The promoter does not today have an agreement to use the park. Shreveport has a new mayor and any assumption that he would be given a sweetheart deal like former Mayor Adrian Perkins provided is on him, not the Council.
If the Council wants to approve an agreement for this event, it is suggested that the resolution include the following:
a. one year only (2023(
b. rent in the amount of 3 full days at Festival Plaza required of non-profits, or authorize the mayor to set a rental fee
c. that music stop at 6 p.m.
This Council and this Mayor are not bound by the fact the festival was allowed to use this park FREE by a prior administration.
