Buchanan Garage

September 14, 2020

Council Preview 9/15: Overriding mayor’s veto of a lawyer for the City Council, money for rental assistance, controversial “no standing” law

The gist: While Tuesday’s meetings shouldn’t hit marathon status, there’s still a lot to cover including some brewing controversies: a parishwide “no standing” ordinance fought by advocates for the homeless and the ACLU, a proposal to spend $3.5 million in parish dollars to fix a dilapidated garage, and a public hearing for 16 different properties […]

News + Notes

September 1, 2020

COLUMN: The troubling economics of fixing the Buchanan garage

The Buchanan garage is a dilapidated property on prime real estate Downtown that’s been condemned because of government neglect. While it’d be great to get it back into commerce, the economics of Mayor-President Guillory’s plan don’t add up and they risk the financial health of the courthouse and the jail.

News + Notes

August 31, 2020

Council Preview 9/1: Higher taxes, fighting for city autonomy, millions in new spending, new restrictions on citizens

The gist: Tax increases, budget battles, new restrictions on citizens, short-term rentals, millions of dollars being spent on parish parks and the Buchanan garage are just some of what the councils will work through at tomorrow night’s meetings. All of this is set against a backdrop of rapidly deteriorating race relations and an increasingly embattled […]

News + Notes

September 4, 2019

LETTER: The cost of doing nothing on the Buchanan garage

Our inability to work together has slowed and stymied progress in the city of Lafayette, while spurring much more expensive growth in the outskirts of our parish.

News + Notes

August 28, 2019

LETTER: Spend public dollars on a new parking garage, not new office space

Over a month ago, I went on KPEL to make the case that the Lafayette Economic Development Authority and the Lafayette Public Trust Financing Authority should use the $30 million they have in combined cash to rebuild the Buchanan Street parking garage — currently set for redevelopment — instead of using public money to build […]

News + Notes

July 10, 2019

How not to sell a parking garage

When the Buchanan Street parking garage was condemned last October, it caused a series of problems Downtown. There have been complaints on social media of courthouse employees feeling unsafe walking longer distances to their cars at night, of defendants being late for trials because it takes so much time to find parking, and of businesses […]

Vision 2020

May 1, 2019

VISION 2020: Tear down the parish jail and courthouse to make room for Lafayette’s future

To regain the ground our economy’s lost, we need to take bold swings at projects with catalytic potential. That potential exists in a waterfall hidden under the parish jail and courthouse.

Vision 2020

April 10, 2019

VISION 2020: Let’s prove our faith in Downtown by investing in it

My dad is a preacher. A good one. His sermons, whether delivered from the pulpit, at home or as a prelude to my being grounded, taught me a lot about life. And because we went to church whenever the lights were on — and because I’ve been grounded often and for a variety of reasons […]

News + Notes

November 1, 2018

LCG balances the budget and avoids cuts with plan to sell Buchanan garage to private interests

The council and administration patched an unexpected hole in the current budget with a windfall of sales tax collections and a new solution to the the Buchanan garage problem: sell it to private interests.

News + Notes

October 24, 2018

The Buchanan garage problem

It’s a microcosm of the state of our current affairs — a parish asset, that’s really a liability, decaying from neglect with no solution in sight.

News + Notes

October 3, 2018

Robideaux’s move to sell a parish parking garage to the city fails, sending next year’s parish budget into deficit

▸ The gist: Next year’s budget was balanced assuming the parish would successfully sell a Downtown parking garage to the city for $770,000. On Tuesday, the City-Parish Council voted down the mayor-president’s proposal. Opponents argued it was a bad deal for the city that amounted to a bailout for the cash-strapped parish.

News + Notes

Large piggy bank broken with a piece laying on a person

August 8, 2018

The parish is broke, and it’s a drag on the city’s finances

In the upcoming fiscal year the city general fund will bring in just over $100 million and end the year with a fund balance of almost $40 million. The parish general fund will bring in less than $12 million and end the year with a fund balance of about $100,000.