3/9 Council Preview: New detention ponds, approving a contentious development and appointing board members
Here’s a selection of items on the agendas for this week’s meetings of the city and parish councils.
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News + Notes
Reflections on Race: Black Louisiana — remembering who we are
We were already radical. Louisiana has historically been at the forefront of change.
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Conversation: Can Lafayette thrive beyond oil?
A generational shift that raises an important question: How can we replace the jobs we’ve already lost and those we stand to lose in the future?
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Reflections on Race: Once it’s up there it’s stuck there
We can’t say Black lives matter and still support industries that are a part of the problem.
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Louisiana schools used federal coronavirus relief to buy up thousands of tablets for kids to use during the pandemic and beyond. Many school districts have more tablets than kids enrolled. Lafayette Parish, for instance, has 40,000 Chromebooks for its 31,000 students. Connectivity, however, remains a big problem. Not every family has home access to the internet. Mississippi used CARES Act allocation to address that problem directly and was pretty successful at it.
Acadiana ‘really responded’ during February freeze
Hotel rooms arranged by local housing advocates kept hundreds of people warm during last week’s crushing freeze. Donations poured in across the Acadiana region. But the makeup of people in need underscores rising housing insecurity in the area.
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Following Carencro’s Amazon announcement, major PPE manufacturing heads to Broussard
The gist: Personal protective equipment manufacturing is coming to Broussard, a project one economic development professional says may be “bigger than Amazon,” a reference to the fulfillment center the mega e-commerce retailer has under construction in Carencro.
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Reader Reactions: This is Lafayette
Overwhelmingly, respondents said recent press accurately reflected Lafayette and that our community is getting worse.
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Lafayette’s first Black woman school board president reflects on faith and community
Descended from pioneers in education, Morrison credits her success to the community she saw her family nurture.
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Reflections on Race: We are a resilient people
Every aspect of life in America is much better because of the talents, the work, the creativity and the culture of Black people.
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For two straight weeks, fewer than 5% of coronavirus tests performed in Lafayette Parish have come back positive, meeting the threshold to opt back in to limited indoor service for the first time since November. On Wednesday, Mayor-President Josh Guillory did just that, notifying the governor that he will allow Lafayette bars to re-open at 25% occupancy. Permitting loopholes and lax enforcement have kept much of Lafayette’s night life humming throughout the pandemic, with crowds piling up Downtown on weekends. But some big clubs will remain closed because of the low cap on occupancy.
