Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home

Episode 10 Kasie Mainiero - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Kasie Mainiero, Principal of University Elementary School, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development with the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
0:32 1. Kasie, if I’m not mistaken you have worked in Caddo Parish schools for 24 years. Talk to me about some of the positive changes you have seen take place in Caddo Parish schools during your career so far?
 
4:22 2. What are some of the biggest challenges you face as the principal at University?
 
6:12 3. You once said:
 
“I truly believe students cannot reach academic goals without having their basic needs like love and safety met first. We have to help them deal with the stress, pressures and trauma to build a positive relationship with them before we’re able to get them where they need to be. This is what elementary school should be about. Building trusting relationships with children, showing them that school can be a positive place where they can learn and grow.”
 
Talk to me if you could a little about the quote above.
 
20:58 4. University has formed a We Care partnership with Community Renewal. Can you speak a little about this program and what it is?
 
21:04 5. I assume that parents and schools form a crucial relationship, that parents play a major role in a child’s success at school. Can you speak a little about this? What are the key things a parent can do to supplement the work you and your staff do at University?
 
27:18 6. You are involved with the future kids of Shreveport-Bossier. As you look to the future of our community, what makes you optimistic?

Episode 9 Tom Harrison - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Tom Harrison, Executive Pastor of Broadmoor Baptist Church, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development with the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
0:34 1. Dr. Harrison, correct me if I am wrong, you did not grow up in Shreveport-Bossier but moved here in 1981 and have been here ever since. What did Shreveport-Bossier look and feel like when you arrived?
 
2:44 2. Can you talk about some areas of the community in which you have seen positive growth in the 41 years since you have been here?
 
9:30 3. From your perspective, where do we still struggle the most as a community?
 
10:44 4. You are the Executive Pastor at Broadmoor Baptist Church. Talk to me if you would a little about the church - its values and focus.
 
15:35 5. You have led and continue to lead a tremendous life of service. I asked a similar question recently at a panel discussion we hosted. If someone came to you and wanted your opinion on whether or not he/she is giving back to the community enough, how would you determine that?
 
18:58 6. In your career, you have done a significant amount of mission work all around the world. When you meet people during your travels and they ask you what it’s like in Shreveport-Bossier, what do you tell them?

Episode 8 Verni Howard - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Verni Howard, Executive Director of Providence House, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development with the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
0:36 1. You once said, “People have looked at community as just their neighborhood. Community is so much bigger than that. To be a part of a community means you don’t just live in a space. It means you take part in the political process. It means you take part in the service process. It means you take part in the engagement process to make your community better and stronger.”
 
Talk to me a little about this quote above. I find it so inspiring and aligned with what we are trying to help foster with the discussions like we are having today.
 
7:32 2. With this next question I’m going to cheat a little bit and steal something you told me when we last talked on the phone.
 
My question is…who is Shreveport-Bossier?
 
10:15 3. You have an interesting perspective, in that you are a graduate of Caddo Magnet High and now have a daughter who is currently a student at Caddo Magnet High. As you watch your daughter experience Caddo Magnet in 2022, what makes you concerned compared to the experience you had when you were in high school there during the eighties?
 
16:48 4. What makes you hopeful as you compare your high school experience to what you see your daughter experiencing now?
 
27:28 5. You do extraordinary work as the Executive Director at Providence House. Talk to me a little about the homeless in our community. Are most of the families who are homeless in our community struggling with issues around poverty, mental health, drugs? What are the main causses of creating homeless in our community?
 
44:39 6. What changes do you feel we need to make in order to make this community a place your two very bright kids want to return to, to live, after they complete their schooling?

Episode 7 Jamal Martin - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Jamal Martin, Documentary Photographer and Filmmaker, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development with the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
0:39 1. I recently was reading an interview with the writer William S Burroughs and he made the statement, “…dreaming is a very necessary function, and I think that’s something that artists do. They dream for other people.”
 
How do you feel about that statement? How would you describe what you feel is your role as a photographer and as an artist?
 
2:02 2. I’ve read that your stepfather is the one that introduced you to photography. Talk to me about his influence and how he inspired you to take photographs yourself?
 
3:20 3. Most of the photos of yours I have seen seem captured rather than staged. Talk to me a little about your process. Do you just always have your camera on you? What happens to make you decide to pull your camera out and start photographing?
 
6:03 4. I asked another guest a similar question recently. You have a friend come into town that has never been to the Shreveport-Bossier area before. He or she is only in town for one full day. Where do you go or where do you take him or her to give them a feel for your community?
 
10:00 5. You are a young, black man, a photographer that focuses mainly on the black community locally. From your perspective, is the black community unified with the white community in the Shreveport-Bossier area? And, if not, as you look around, what are some of the steps you feel could be taken to help bring these two communities closer together?
 
14:57 6. This new initiative we started at the Y, “Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home” has two components, the podcast interview series like we’re doing today and then a periodic panel discussion series. We have announced that our next panel discussion will focus on the issue of juvenile crime in the Shreveport-Bossier area. How do see the juvenile crime problem in our community? And do you see any steps we can start taking to help address the problem?
 
17:22 7. I’ve read that having people see black joy is important to you. Can you talk a little about that?

Episode 6 Dr. Kenna Franklin - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Dr. Kenna Franklin, Assistant Provost of Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development with the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
0:58 1. I read that you have been on the faculty at LSUS since 1990 and it made me think of a comment I recently heard. We recently conducted a panel discussion at the Y and someone made the comment that she had moved away for 17 years and that when she moved back in 2008, she couldn’t believe how many great strides we had made in a number of different areas of our community.
 
Yet from her perspective, the one area we had made no progress at all was with regards to our unity. From your perspective, have we made progress here with race relations in the 32 years since you have been at LSUS?
 
9:08 2. As I was doing my research on you, I came across something called the “Bi-Racial Undergraduate Learning Experience” that took place in 1993. Can you explain a little about what this course was?
 
17:37 3. I heard you reference a digital library the university has begun to compile as part of its Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement program. Can you talk a little about it? What is it and how can one access it?
 
30:14 4. Arthur Ashe, the great tennis player once was quoted as saying, “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
 
This quote seems to line up with much of what I have read about you and the way you think about and see the world. Can you talk a little about that?
 
32:54 5. I am embarrassed to admit that it was not until recently that I first heard the following to describe Shreveport, “when a majority becomes a minority.” Are there cities around the country where the white majority became a minority that Shreveport can use as examples of how to effectively navigate and manage this transition?

Episode 5 Graham Walker - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Graham Walker, President and CEO of Fibrebond Corporation, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development with the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions: 0:42 1. Graham, in 2018 you wrote an op-ed piece for The Shreveport Times in response to WalletHub ranking Shreveport 182 out of 182 places to find a job. I consider the piece you wrote as strong a state of the union on our community as I have ever read.
 
Here are the final lines for those who may not have read it yet,
 
“As a community, we must find a vision for Shreveport. The talented people of this city and region deserve it, but they will not wait forever. If we don’t start demanding more of our leaders and of ourselves, we’ll deserve to stay at the bottom of the list.”
 
I asked if you would be willing to come today and verbally update the piece you wrote in 2018 to what you now see four years later and you generously agreed to do it. So Graham, if you were writing an op-ed on Shreveport-Bossier in 2022, what would you say?
 
2:51 2. With this next question I'm looking to you for some guidance. Every resident of this area has been in this situation at one time and will inevitably encounter it again. You are at a dinner party or around friends and someone starts putting down or bad mouthing Shreveport-Bossier. What's the right way to react if we hope to correct that type of behavior moving forward?
 
9:35 3. Now I’d lie you to comment on some other quotes I have read from you through the years:
 
“If your expectations are not high, you’ll become what that expectation is.”
 
11:00 4. “We don’t make a great impression.”
 
14:51 5. “What this area needs and what’s currently lacking is a sense of hope.”
 
19:40 6. “It feels like, in a lot of ways, a very authentic, real place.”
 
21:56 7. “How do we create what’s happening in other cities? How do we do that here?”
 
24:40 8. “If we’re all too busy to do it. If we don’t see it as important to give back into the community and to try to do something. If we’re not going to do it. Who is going to do it?”

Episode 4 Ananya Bhatia - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Ananya Bhatia, Junior at Caddo Magnet High School, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development with the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
0:41 1. Generally, I don’t start an episode with a guest’s bio, simply because I expect the bio to emerge through the discussion. But the bio of my guest today is so extensive and so impressive that I would like to begin with at least the high points. My guest today is Ananya Bhatia.
 
Ananya is currently a junior at Caddo Magnet High. She is the president of GirlUp, the founder of Caddo Magnet High’s chapter of the Ted-ED Student Talks Program, secretary of National Honor Society, Service Coordinator of Key Club, Vice President of UNICEF, community outreach chair for Teen Advisory Committee of Northwest Louisiana, active member of Model United Nations and a member of the Legislative Youth Advisory Council. Ananya was accepted to the school of the New York Times where she had the opportunity to grow her interest in journalism and international affairs, and she has played the violin for 11 years.
 
Ananya, welcome and thank you so much for agreeing to come on our podcast.
 
We have a long history in Shreveport-Bossier of exporting many of our community’s best and brightest talents. They grow up here, go away to college, accumulate great knowledge, build powerful networks, and end up never returning to live here. With all of that said, would you ever consider living here after college? If not, how would Shreveport-Bossier have to change from what you see today to be a place you would want to return to, to live after college?
 
4:24 2. You are unusually involved, how did you become so service-oriented? Who taught you or inspired you to be such an activist in your community?
 
6:28 3. Let’s talk hypothetically for a second. You are in Washington DC for a national Ted-ED Student Talks conference and you are having lunch with a group of students from the east coast who have never heard of Shreveport-Bossier. They say, “Ananya, what’s it like where you live?” What do you tell them?
 
8:22 4. Let’s continue talking hypothetically. You become good friends with one of the students you meet at the Ted-ED Student Talks conference and he or she makes a trip to Shreveport-Bossier to come and see you. They are only in town for one full day. What all do you show or where all do you take him or her to give him or her a feel for your community?
 
10:38 5. Fast forward two years, you are hundreds, maybe thousands of miles away off at college. What are the things you miss most about your community when you’re away from it?
 
11:59 6. As you look around the Shreveport-Bossier community, what are the things you see that make you most hopeful that life is getting better here and that we are making progress as a community?
 
17:39 7. Lastly, what’s the community you want to see here?

Episode 3 Chris Dudley - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Chris Dudley, Director of Tennis at Querbes Tennis Center, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
1:08 1. Chris, you grew up in Rockville Maryland, lived and worked in St. Louis and Atlanta, before finally coming to the Shreveport-Bossier area at the beginning of 2020.
 
New people moving to a community are invaluable for so many reasons. Chief among those, in my opinion, is the fresh set of eyes they bring. It is hard to define oneself or even one’s community, you are too close to the subject. But the newly arrived, because they are viewing things from the outside, can often see more clearly.
 
So with all of that, what do you see when you look at Shreveport-Bossier? Or in other words, how do you describe this community to your friends and family who have never been here before?
 
3:16 2. Let’s talk tennis for a second. You are the Director of Tennis at Querbes Tennis Center which underwent an important and significant renovation a couple of years ago. I’ll go ahead and show my hand. I’m an avid tennis player and have been around the game my entire life.
 
One thing I’ve been most struck by since you came to town is the way you have transformed Querbes into being more of a community center than I ever recall it being during my lifetime. You clearly enjoy bringing people together and you have a way of making tennis and Querbes as a whole a very warm and unintimidating place for people.
 
Where does this desire to create community come from? How did you learn it?
 
10:24 3. What are some of the things in the community you like doing most when you’re not on the tennis court?
 
14:10 4. What have we yet to figure out compared to some of the other places where you have lived and worked?
 
19:15 5. What do we do better than the other places where you have lived and worked?

Episode 2 Gabriel Balderas - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Gabriel Balderas, Owner and Chef of El Cabo Verde and Zuzul, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development with the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
1:10 1. Gabriel, correct me if I am wrong, but you grew up in Oaxaca, moved to the States when you were 16, and have lived in Chicago, Kentucky, Birmingham and Washington DC. Can you talk a little bit about how you got to Shreveport-Bossier?
 
3:05 2. What did Shreveport-Bossier feel like or look like to you when you arrived? What did you notice?
 
4:23 3. You are Hispanic, one of Shreveport-Bossier’s numerous ethnic populations. Can you talk about the Hispanic population locally? Do you feel like it is a healthy population? Are the Hispanics locally unified?
 
7:20 4. Many people know you as the owner and chef of two great local restaurants, El Cabo Verde and Zuzul. But what most people don’t know is that you are also a board member of the Metropolitan Planning Commission. Talk to me about your work on the Planning Commission. How did it come about and why is serving as a board member on the MPC important to you?
 
12:05 5. You value this community and are often giving back, whether it is by committing to utilize ingredients from local growers or overseeing a garden at a local elementary school. How did you learn such a sense of community? Who taught you that or where does it come from?
 
14:56 6. What do you feel is holding us back from being one of the next, great cities in the United States? What are some areas of this community you feel can be improved upon?
 
17:55 7. As you look around, what makes you prideful of Shreveport-Bossier?

Episode 1 Al Childs - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Al Childs, Managing Partner of Vintage Realty Company, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
1:16 1. You have done something many others envy. You have some way, somehow, convinced all three of your kids to stay and raise their families in Shreveport? With regards to this, what do you attribute your success to and do you have any advice for others hoping to achieve a similar result?
 
4:08 2. Can you talk about some of the people in the community who inspire you? What business owners and/or organizations currently get you excited by the work they are doing?
 
7:35 3. You are the owner of Vintage Realty. Can you explain a little about the type of work that Vintage does? What are a few of Vintage’s current projects?
 
14:46 4. Are there particular cities around the country that provide examples to you of what Shreveport should aspire to in the future? If so, can you talk about a few of the cities and the characteristics of them you feel we should strive to emulate?
 
21:45 5. As a local employer, what are some of the challenges you face recruiting and retaining people?
 
26:18 6. I’ve known you for a long time and am always struck by your upbeat, optimistic nature. What makes you prideful of your community?
 
38:20 7. What is holding us back?
 
44:12 8. What will propel us forward?