Some of the finer points of Trump’s first term may not have been known by the populace, but here are some facts and figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2019, the last year before the Coronavirus disrupted the world’s economy: in November, the U.S. unemployment rate was at its lowest in half a century at 3.5%, seven million people were lifted off food stamps (SNAP). Seven million jobs had been added to the economy. The average annual income for American households was also the highest ever recorded, at $68,700 a year. The DOW Jones repeatedly set record highs, which were over 20,000 and 30,000 back then (and has continued climbing through the Biden administration, likely because of Trump’s deregulations and Tax Cut sand Jobs Act of 2017 that was still in effect, which Trump is looking to extend beyond its original sunset date of 2025 in his next term), along with the S&P 500 and NASDAQ. Within a week of Trump’s reelection, the DOW Jones set a new record high, without him even being in office yet: Wall Street knows what a Trump presidency means.
Observing what happened during the Biden administration also tells us what not to expect from the upcoming Trump administration. Inflation (which Ronald Reagan once called “the cruelest tax on the poor”) was immediately felt by all Americans after President Biden took office: he shut down the building permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline on his first day in office, which was a 1,200- mile pipeline designed to transfer 35 million gallons of crude oil a day from Western Canada to Nebraska, and then to oil refineries on our Gulf Coast. When energy became scarcer without demand going down…

prices for everything went up: as of this year, grocery prices have risen by almost a third and gas prices by 50%, with a 20.1% increase in prices overall as of this summer, while prices only rose slightly under 7.8% over Trump’s presidency. This inflation peaked at a 40-year high in 2022. Biden cited climate change concerns as the cause for shutting down the pipeline. This move cost Americans dearly with cost-of-living increases in every sector: the Senate Joint Economic Committee, using data from the Consumer Price Index and the Consumer Expenditure Survey, compiled a report in November 2023 showing that American households needed an average of $11,434 more in November 2023 than they did in January of 2021 to maintain the same standard of living (Louisianians needed $9,594 more). Inflation was only at 1.4% when Trump left office.
What are some of the “human costs” these policies have had? Because of the most rapid increase in mortgage interest rates since 1981 (peaking at 7.79% in October 2023), monthly mortgage payments were 96% higher in November this year than in January 2021. By March of 2023, Americans delinquent on their car note reached its highest level in 17 years and jumped 20.4% from the previous year. Businesses? Retail stores are closing or have closed by the thousands: 900 CVSs, 1,200 Walgreens, and 600 Family Dollars, to name a few, and major retail chains like Bed Bath and Beyond have gone bankrupt.
Nearly half of small businesses surveyed in July said they wouldn’t survive a second term under Biden, and since Kamala Harris said “There’s not a thing that comes to mind” that she would do differently than Biden, those businesses would have failed had she been elected, businesses like Maxwell’s Market in Shreveport that closed in January this year. Maxwell’s likely wouldn’t have closed under a second Trump administration.

So, what is Trump proposing for his second term? More of the same: he wants to extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (which was going to sunset at the end of 2025), bring back SALT deductions (they’ve been capped at $10,000 by the TCJA), reduce the corporate tax rate even further from the 21% rate he lowered it to previously to 15%, “Drill baby drill” (which brings down the cost of domestic energy), and perhaps his personal favorite…tariffs. Much ado has been made about how tariffs will affect the price of goods for the American consumer. After living four years under Trump and Biden, judge for yourselves which administration goods are cheaper for you to buy. That is the actual effect of tariffs. What could all this mean for Shreveport-Bossier? Well, Shreveport’s newest investor and currently the secondlargest property owner in downtown Shreveport, “50 Cent,” posted a selfie with President Trump on Instagram shortly after Trump’s win congratulating him. Mr. Jackson’s enthusiasm is likely linked to Trump’s economic success in the past, which could help his future pursuits (he wishes to become Shreveport’s top property owner). The old GM plant that was shuttered in 2012, which at one point had 3,000 employees, has been running in a limited capacity since, with Glovis America using 125,000 square feet of the 3.1 million square foot facility. The plant recently had a new tenant come in, an energy innovation company named SLB (a shortened version of “Schlumberger”), occupying another 1 million square feet for its operation, bringing in almost 600 new jobs. 

But long before any of the development you see now was there, there was a neighborhood that is the anchor of it all…Southern Trace. Southern Trace is likely Shreveport’s most lavish neighborhood now, but it started with humble beginnings in 1987 with someone who could be considered the granddaddy of Southern Trace: Johnson Ramsey. Johnson, who insists the neighborhood’s development is a “miracle,” inherited 250 acres…the 250 acres that would become Southern Trace today. “I would have to worry about pigs crossing the road at night back then because it was just farmland,” he muses.

The pig-crossing days are long gone: after years of development and further expansion, Southern Trace now stands at an official 599 acres of idyllic suburban sprawl. Replete with all the amenities one would expect of a gated community of this stature, like a country club, tennis courts, pickleball courts, a pool, and fitness center (not to mention a couple of neighborhoods flattering Southern Trace with imitation named “Oakwood Trace” and “Hidden Trace” across the street), the crowning jewel remains the golf course. This neighborhood beginning as Johnson’s inheritance could explain why he’s been known to be such a good steward of the land from the beginning, and the golf course was the beginning. Wanting nothing but the best for his pride and joy, Johnson outsourced the project to a world-renowned golf course designer from Toledo, Ohio at the start of the neighborhood’s design, with the designing of homes secondary.

“I wanted a nationally renowned golf architect, Arthur Hills, because that would speak volumes of the quality golf course project we were undertaking.” 

“Everybody loves trees, but retailers are attracted to rooftops,” says Roger DeKay, a commercial real estate agent with Sealy Real Estate Services (also the one who pegs Southern Trace as the “anchor” of the subdivision). About 20 years ago, Roger spoke with the corporate director of real estate for Brookshires in Tyler, Texas, about potentially building a store on the sight it now sits at the intersection of Southern Loop and Norris Ferry, convinced he had found a hidden gem. To his surprise, the director said every real estate developer in town had already tried getting him to build a store. However, Roger gives a pivotal lesson about retailers: they want rooftops and disposable income; seclusion alone wouldn’t do it.

On the other side of Southern Loop are many available office spaces for lease from Sealy Real Estate (Roger has been involved with those properties for about ten years), as well as an Anytime Fitness, a Johnny’s Pizza to go along with two Pizza Hut’s on the street (including one at the Brookshires that you can even sit in…heady stuff these days), Counter Culture, Corks and Cuts, and a Daq’s Wings and Grill. Other assorted businesses and restaurants round out the Southern Loop’s offerings, but these establishments are about more than being a good place to eat or shop; they are a sign of something, a sign that this is one of the fastest-growing areas in town, one that finally became appealing to Brookshires’ corporate. “It’s a classic example of a local retail services center that was a response to the rooftops and the disposable income,” says Roger, and that was not something the Southern Loop had 20 years ago.

Mayor Arceneaux (who publicly shared his fond memories of attending Fair Grounds Fields’ groundbreaking and first game) responded to the delegation with a letter of his own on August 30th explaining his administration’s side of the case. The four criteria that must be met by Friends (or whomever they may find to participate) for the administration to consider their proposals would be: for the city’s contribution to not exceed the estimated cost of demolition, a party other than the city financing the entire restoration of Fair Grounds Field, somebody besides the city maintaining and operating the stadium at no net expense to the city, and the $600,000 must be put up by somebody in escrow in case the plans fell through. This has been Mayor Arceneaux’s position since he was campaigning for mayor in 2022, when he and Friends first had the aforementioned contact (through counsel). As far as Friends’ position that the stadium is not beyond repair, Mayor Arceneaux maintains that the stadium is “beyond its useful life,” “beyond rehabilitation,” not to mention an “eyesore.” As aesthetically pleasing as the artist renderings of the refurbished Fair Grounds Field look, Mayor Arceneaux has told local media outlets that it still “…would not meet minor league requirements,” and requirements mandated for minor league stadiums by the MLB would cost “… millions and millions of dollars.” Mayor Arceneaux also says the subsidies required by the city (without a self-sustaining tenant) for maintenance and operation would divert funds away from youth and other programs related to SPAR that are “…a higher priority for my administration.” His goal is for the stadium to be demolished prior to the Independence Bowl, which this year is December 28th. However, the Louisiana State Fair may disrupt that goal, as demolition could not proceed during the fair. The delegation has not responded to either party’s letters.

In the early morning hours of August 9, 1969, four perpetually drug-addled members of Charles Manson’s “family” would amble over to the house at 10050 Cielo Drive in the Benedict Canyon region of Beverly Hills with absolutely no idea how much of an indelible mark they were about to make in the annals of American history. The four in question were Charles “Tex” Watson, Susan “Sadie” Atkins, Patricia “Katie” Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian, who had no family moniker since she had only been involved with the family two weeks but was sent on the mission because she had the only valid driver’s license in the clan. They were ordered by Manson to go to that house and “totally destroy everyone in that house, as gruesome as you can,” and to “leave something witchy.” In a trial that would later include defendants who shoved the prosecutor’s papers off a desk, wore acid-laced dresses to court, and lunged at the judge while he was talking, six innocent lives were lost that night, including an unborn baby. History has recorded the details of these crimes for the last 55 years; for this story, “something witchy” indeed was left: the blood of slain, pregnant, 26-year-old actress Sharon Tate was used to smear the word “PIG” on the front door of the house, Tate was an up-and-coming actress of the day who was not the “It” girl of Hollywood, but close to it (think Olivia Wilde or Blake Lively, not Jennifer Aniston or Julia Roberts). However, she was married to the “It” director of the day, Roman Polanski, the Quentin Tarantino of the late 60s. She was also the unofficial inspiration for the iconic “Malibu Barbie,” a character that recently had a successful run in theaters, after playing a character called “Malibu” in a 1967 film named “Don’t Make Waves.” Ironically, “Barbie” is played by Margot Robbie, who played Sharon Tate in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” a 2019 film directed by Quentin Tarantino whose plot spun a fictionalized account around the night of the Tate murders After the murders at Cielo Drive, time seemed to stand still for the next 20 years. Previous residents had included Cary Grant and Dyan Cannon, Henry Fonda, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and other assorted figures of the day who came over to hang out. The owner of the house, Rudolph Altobelli, a manager of different stars of the day in Hollywood, had been leasing it to Tate and her husband at the time of the murders.

After the murders, Altobelli just moved in himself, locating a tenant being a new challenge, and something he would continue to be unsuccessful at for the next 20 years. Finally, in September 1988, Altobelli sold the home, and its ownership would change hands again in less than two years to investor Alvin Weintraub, who would try to sell the house himself a year later, to no avail. Defeated, Weintraub eventually tore the house down and had a new property built in its place after the last tenant left.

So, the door to the “Manson Murder House” has had an interesting path following its original home, but whatever came of some of Manson’s followers? Was it worth it? Mary Brunner, Manson’s very first “family” member, who bore him a child, participated in another murder the Manson family committed and even went to prison for committing armed robbery as part of a ploy to get Manson out of jail in 1971. Here were her final words about Manson. “If you never mention him again to me it will be too soon. I can’t stand him, and I don’t want to talk about the (expletive) creep; you understand?” She was paroled in 1977, changed her name, and has not been seen or heard from in the public eye since.

Susan “Sadie” Atkins was the most infamous female follower of Manson’s. At her trial for the murders, an LA Times reporter quipped, “…I get the feeling that one day she might start screaming, and simply never stop.” She was sentenced to death along with her three codefendants but had her sentence commuted to life in prison after the California State Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in February 1972. In 1974, Atkins gave her life to Christ in prison, and in 1977 wrote an autobiography about her life from her childhood up to her post-conversion life, entitled “Child of Satan, Child of God.” She died in prison on September 24, 2009, of brain cancer. In a television interview with Dianne Sawyer in 2002, over 30 years after the murders, she said Manson was “…the most difficult person in my life to forgive.”