Shreveport City Profile

[dimebag1980]

SHREVEPORT, Louisiana

FOUNDED

1836

POPULATION

City population (Census 2000): 200,145

Metropolitan area population: 392,302

Overall trade area population: 800,000 (includes Texarkana, TX/AR metro area.)

PORT OF SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER

The Port of Shreveport-Bossier is a 2,000-acre inland port located on the Red River just outside of Shreveport's southernmost city limits, and serves as a Foreign-Trade Zone, Enterprize Zone, and U.S. Customs Port of Entry. The port is located off LA Hwy. 1 and is easily accessible from both I-20 and I-49. In addition, the future I-69 (Canada-Mexico) corridor will run just south of the port for easy access to such major markets as Houston, Memphis, and Indianapolis. There are currently 10 companies doing business at the port, and many more in the works. The port continues to mark milestones in tonnage, and is on its way to becoming one of the busiest inland ports in the country.

HISTORY

Shreveport was founded in 1836 by the Shreve Town Company, which was established for the specific purpose of building a town on the Red River. The company and town were named for Captain Henry Miller Shreve of the US Army Corps of Engineers, who accomplished the enormous feat of clearing a 180-mile log jam, making the Red River navigable. The original site of Shreveport (Shreve Town) was contained within a parcel of land sold to the Shreve Town Company by the Caddo Indian tribe. When built, the original boundaries of the town consisted of only 64 city blocks, which today make up the city's central business district. This area of modern-day downtown Shreveport is listed as a historical district in the National Register of Historic Places.

SHREVEPORT TODAY

Today, Shreveport is a much different place. The city limits consists of more than 100 square miles, stretching from the Red River on the east to near the Texas state line on the west. The entire Shreveport/Bossier City metro area is in the midst of a huge growth period. The majority of Shreveport's growth is to the south and west, and Bossier City's growth is mainly to the north and east. This means the city limits are gwoing away from one another, creating urban sprawl like this area has never seen before. Because of the urban sprawl, the traffic of the inner city is beginning to push farther out into the suburbs to the north and south creating the need for wider roads and easier access to the area's freeways.

The suburban areas of Shreveport/Bossier City are growing at a rapid pace, with numerous neighborhoods popping up containing 500-1000 acres of homesites and amenities.

Just this year the new 350,000 square foot Shreveport Convention Center opened, replacing the city's old convention center, Expo Hall. The new center is three times the size of the old one and is the second-largest convention center in the state of Louisiana. Later in 2006, an adjoining 12-story Hilton hotel will open, putting over 300 hotel rooms on location for conventioneers.

Shreveport has finally caught up to the rest of the cities its size as far as shopping and dining options are concerned. Large-scale shopping centers are popping up along all corners of the metro area, as well as in the once-blighted inner city. The best example of a large-scale shopping center for this area would have to be the 750,000 square foot Louisiana Boardwalk. The Boardwalk's largest tenants are the Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, the Regal Cinema multiplex, King Pinz bowling alley/nightclub, and the Cumulus radio station complex. Big-name restaurants in the Boardwalk include Joe's Crab Shack, Hooters, Saltgrass Steakhouse, IHOP, and Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro. Still proposed for the Boardwalk are two hotels and many more stores and restaurants.

Casinos also make up a large portion of the local economy. The area casino market consists of five riverboat casinos and one land-based casino. The only casino in the market without an on-site hotel is Harrah's Louisiana Downs, but a hotel is set to break ground for this property in May, 2006. The two larger casinos in the market, Sam's Town and Horseshoe, both have hotels over 20 stories and with over 500 rooms each. These hotels add a little spice to the downtown skyline as well as give the riverfront area a skyline, which it had never had before. The casinos in Shreveport/Bossier City lure the majority of their gamblers to the market from Texas and Arkansas, with the Dallas/Fort Worth area providing the highest concentration of gamblers for the local market.

Edited July 24, 2006 by NCB

[NCB]

Great job on the profile, supkof!

[dimebag1980]

Great job on the profile, supkof!

Thank you!

[breaux]

Thank you!

Looks good. I've never been in Shreveport except to drive through, might have to go do some exploring in the northernmost reaches of our state.

[richyb83]

Great job Supkof . You are representin' !

[richyb83]

Hey Supkof , I moved us out of the Lafayette tread .

Shreveport's I-20/ I-49 Fly-overs were really impressive . It reminds me of the one in downtown Ft.Worth .

I realize Cross Lake Bridge is longer than any on the Miss.River . I am not sure how they compare in difference to the $price tag ?

BR is a deep-water port....huge ships pass thru there . I imagine at the peak of the span ,the cars are at least 150 'ft. aboved the water . Massive pilings deep into a treacherous flowing river .

I-110 in BR is about 80% elevated from Downtown to the Airport, about five miles , then ties in to Hwy.61 that takes you to Natchez Ms. They just did not seem to plan very good in BR ,it is an overgrown country town now becoming a nice mid-size city . Things around here seemed to be backwards around here sometime . But I have noticed a trend that things are changing around here . BR just implemented the Green Light Plan , it is the largest roads project in the history of the city . It was begining to happen even before Katrina ; now there is more of a sense of urgency .

[NCB]

BR just implemented the Green Light Plan , it is the largest roads project in the history of the city . It was begining to happen even before Katrina ; now there is more of a sense of urgency .

Hey richy, do you think you could highlight some of the major things going on under the Green Light Plan over in the Baton Rouge G&D Thread? I'm interested in what's going on with that in Baton Rouge.

[dimebag1980]

Hey Supkof , I moved us out of the Lafayette tread .

Shreveport's I-20/ I-49 Fly-overs were really impressive . It reminds me of the one in downtown Ft.Worth .

I realize Cross Lake Bridge is longer than any on the Miss.River . I am not sure how they compare in difference to the $price tag ?

BR is a deep-water port....huge ships pass thru there . I imagine at the peak of the span ,the cars are at least 150 'ft. aboved the water . Massive pilings deep into a treacherous flowing river .

I-110 in BR is about 80% elevated from Downtown to the Airport, about five miles , then ties in to Hwy.61 that takes you to Natchez Ms. They just did not seem to plan very good in BR ,it is an overgrown country town now becoming a nice mid-size city . Things around here seemed to be backwards around here sometime . But I have noticed a trend that things are changing around here . BR just implemented the Green Light Plan , it is the largest roads project in the history of the city . It was begining to happen even before Katrina ; now there is more of a sense of urgency .

Thanks for moving this on over.

Very true about the depth of the river and the height of the bridge... I hadn't taken those things into consideration. Of course the bridge must be higher, as it must allow ships to pass underneath. I don't know why that didn't cross my mind... nor the depth factor. That all makes a huge difference in cost.

[dimebag1980]

Another tidbit about Shreveport that many may not know...

Reading about the USS Kidd in the Baton Rouge subforum got me thinking how cool of an attraction that is for a city. Then I realized, Shreveport has its own U.S. Navy ship even though it's not docked here. It's called the USS Shreveport and I'm proud it carries my home city's name. This is actually the second ship the U.S. Navy has named after Shreveport. I certainly wish the Red River were wide and deep enough for the USS Shreveport to be docked here in the event it's decommissioned someday. For now, all I can do is wish...

On that note, here are a few websites with information about this mighty ship which carries my home city's name:

http://www.answers.com/topic/uss-shreveport-1

http://www.shreveport.navy.mil/MAIN.htm

http://navysite.de/ships/lpd12.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Shreveport_(LPD-12)

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/age...navy/lpd-12.htm

The current U.S.S. Shreveport

[richyb83]

Thanks for posting that. Very interesting ! Wow, two different ships were named Shreveport. That's a HUGE ship ! It actually went to the Persian Gulf too !

Does anyone have an idea of how deep the Red River is in SBC ?

Edited June 26, 2006 by richyb83

[dimebag1980]

I just found this new page on Centenary College's website showing what all there is to do in Shreveport-Bossier as the local economy continues to boom (BOOM stressed for those still infected with Shreveportitis.)

I figured this would make a nice addition to my Shreveport City Profile, so here goes...

http://www.centenary.edu/about/shreveport/

Edited August 1, 2006 by SBCmetroguy

[dimebag1980]

Right after I made the post above, I found something else I'd never seen before. It's a PDF file put together to show local shopping options:

http://www.shreveport-bossier.org/travelplanner/shopping.pdf

Note: you'll need Adobe Acrobat to view the above link if you don't already have it...

[NCB]

I just found this new page on Centenary College's website showing what all there is to do in Shreveport-Bossier as the local economy continues to boom (BOOM stressed for those still infected with Shreveportitis.)

I figured this would make a nice addition to my Shreveport City Profile, so here goes...

http://www.centenary.edu/about/shreveport/

Wow, that's a great rundown of Shreveport on that site, and they make it seem very welcoming to an outsider.

[dimebag1980]

Wow, that's a great rundown of Shreveport on that site, and they make it seem very welcoming to an outsider.

The one thing I noticed immediately was how colorful the page is. That's a huge bonus, because it's eye-candy to the reader. Bright colors trick your mind into making you feel happy; and if you're looking at a website like this and you're happy, you're more likely to think that place would be fun and want to visit.

[fridayinla]

The one thing I noticed immediately was how colorful the page is. That's a huge bonus, because it's eye-candy to the reader. Bright colors trick your mind into making you feel happy; and if you're looking at a website like this and you're happy, you're more likely to think that place would be fun and want to visit.

Brian, are you saying we need to trick people into visiting SBC?

Just kidding

Of course we don't!

[dimebag1980]

Brian, are you saying we need to trick people into visiting SBC?

Just kidding

Of course we don't!

Of course not!

But it never hurts to try.

[NCB]

Of course not!

But it never hurts to try.

You can always just tell them "I've got candy!"

[dimebag1980]

You can always just tell them "I've got candy!"

Yeah, that tends to work quite well. It just didn't work for Rod... yet.

[richyb83]

That's really nice shopping run-down. The Louisiana Boardwalk is a premeir destination. I like the brick-lined street with the trolley. I am glad the developers were bold enough to pull that off. The Shoppes at Belle Meade is a really nice looking upscale place.

[dan326]

I have to admit, I was impresed with Shreveport the first time I saw it. I've never actually been there, but I was googleing city's skylines and I did Shreveport and it was nice. Then later on I discovered this site and learned all kinds of things and realized that the city was worth a lot more than I gave it credit for.

[dimebag1980]

I have to admit, I was impresed with Shreveport the first time I saw it. I've never actually been there, but I was googleing city's skylines and I did Shreveport and it was nice. Then later on I discovered this site and learned all kinds of things and realized that the city was worth a lot more than I gave it credit for.

It's kind of hard when you're young and haven't been to a certain city. You hear things and form judgements based on having never been there. I've done that myself. I know Shreveport doesn't get much credit in south Louisiana, especially from our state government, but it is a great area with a lot to offer. I hope you get a chance to visit sometime, man. You'll enjoy it a lot as a teen or as an adult.

[dan326]

It's kind of hard when you're young and haven't been to a certain city. You hear things and form judgements based on having never been there. I've done that myself. I know Shreveport doesn't get much credit in south Louisiana, especially from our state government, but it is a great area with a lot to offer. I hope you get a chance to visit sometime, man. You'll enjoy it a lot as a teen or as an adult.

I think that's problem, I never heard anything about it. It was kind of like a mythical land. Thanks though. I'm surely going to have to visit the boardwalk.

[dimebag1980]

I think that's problem, I never heard anything about it. It was kind of like a mythical land. Thanks though. I'm surely going to have to visit the boardwalk.

The Boardwalk, Sci-Port, the Multicultural Center, the Air Force Museum, the Antique & Classic Car Museum/Shreveport Firefighters Museum, Riverview Park, etc. There are a lot of things I'd recommend to you.

[richyb83]

I like how compact Shreveport's skyline is. Back in 04' when I was driving to Jordan Street from I-20, I would always glance over to the left and see a dense urban core. I wish BR would have kept more of it's high-rises in the heart of the CBD instead of being so spread-out everywhere. Both cities have very close to the same amount of high rises. But Shreveport just has more appearance of being a city than sprawling BR. I also have always noticed an impressive amount of street grid Shreveport too.

[dan326]

I also have always noticed an impressive amount of street grid Shreveport too.

Shreveport dose have a nice grid system. It seems like a lot of Baton Rouge was just lied down any old kind of way.