Late in his life, my father refused to comb his hair after he got out of bed in the morning. It wasn’t that he couldn’t do it, he just didn’t want to, even though it was a mess and ascending the back of his head like a volcano. At that stage of his life, he didn’t care how he looked. He was tired, and it showed.
I share this because my beloved adopted city of Alexandria, where I have lived for nearly 50 years, is looking tired. I wasn’t thinking this until a friend who also loves Alexandria opened my eyes last week to how much evidence there is for this. He even invited me to ride around parts of the city with him.
“We have one chance to make a good first impression on people who are visiting Alexandria or maybe just driving through the city,” he said, “and I think we’re failing, and I don’t like that. I think we can do better.”
We drove some of the well-traveled roads of the city – Jackson Street from Masonic to the Horseshoe Drive roundabout was the first – and – oh, my – the things I have been overlooking or looking at but not seeing.
One sore spot after another.
The Vac Shack sign is torn and has been torn for quite some time.
The tall Emerald Plaza signboard is so faded at the top, it’s hard to make out the “Emerald” atop the sign, and one of the stepladder signs within the signboard is a bit torn and fading.
The canopy above a Cajun chicken place in the same shopping center is fractured and needs repair.
Another business’ roof extension is falling apart. The electronic message boards for both CVS and Walgreens weren’t working. Burger King is closed and its parking lot is now a parking lot for buses.
By the time we got to the roundabout, we counted 19 eyesores. Some were signboards with empty spaces. “There’s nothing happening here, what it is, ain’t exactly clear” could be the theme music by Buffalo Springfield.
Now, not to be entirely negative, the roundabout at the end of Jackson Extension is attractive and efficient, and the neighborhood ride from Horseshoe Drive to Masonic is lovely: it has a great Louisiana feel with big oaks, lawns nicely landscaped, ducks swimming and fountains flowing.
But then take a left on Masonic, and it’s not long before you’ll see the infamous run-down (but improved, believe it or not) Greenbrier Hotel, rusty pole out front; and there’s a carwash that needs a sign on the empty sign pole out front. Juxtaposed in this mostly business area are some houses that appear to be abandoned and have terminal cancer.
As we approach MacArthur Drive, we’ve already counted just over 30 eyesores.
We drove down southward on MacArthur Drive and a lot I could report is rinse and repeat. We flipped around after a while to drive to the other side of MacArthur heading north, crossing Jackson Street. The P in the sign above the Pecans shop looks like a capital T with no left wing.
Then we drove down Coliseum Boulevard to Vandenburg Drive. When we finished, we had close to 60 sore spots.
Yet, to be fair, Coliseum Boulevard to Vandenburg Drive showed itself well, and Vandenburg Drive leads to Alexandria International Airport, a classy, welcoming first-impression for people flying into the city. That whole area, especially at night in December leading up to Christmas, is wonderful.
Another positive is that most areas were clean. Litter was not a problem.
I took an informal poll of some out-of-towners last Friday and asked them to rate Alexandria, 1 to 10, on a general, first-impression basis. I got a 5, another 5 and an 8. OK, you might say, that averages out to a 6. And you might shrug and think, “That’s good enough.”
Come on, really? Do you think Joseph A. Bentley, the lumber and banking mogul who built the iconic Hotel Bentley, was satisfied with “good enough?’ How about Arna Bontemps, the famous poet, novelist and librarian from Alexandria? He wasn’t satisfied with being “good enough.” Juan Pierre, the Alexandria native who went on to base-stealing fame in Major League Baseball, wasn’t satisfied with “good enough,” Newly minted Louisiana Sports Hall of Famer Warren Morris of Alexandria, owner of the College World Series’ most-famous winning homer from LSU, has never been satisfied with “good enough.”
The guy who gave Alexandria an 8 had a telling answer: “I give Alexandria an 8 because I love the people. Everyone is so friendly and ready to help. You don’t get that at a lot of cities. It’s the people that matter, regardless of what it looks like.”
Regardless of what it looks like. He said that without my saying anything to him about the city’s appearance.
It can look better. It should look better. We are friendly and ready to help, but we’ve gotten too lazy and too tolerant about this.
We’re going to do something about it. The Central Louisiana Community Foundation, recognizing the need for an improved look around town, is inviting the community to help bring new life to Alexandria through “Signs of New Life: Let’s Refresh Alexandria.”
“Thank to the generosity of a local donor,” CLCF president and CEO Emily McGruder said in a statement, “we’re encouraging residents, businesses, nonprofits, churches and civic groups to refresh faded, damaged, or outdated signs that make our community look tired. Every fresh coat of paint, repaired letter or updated sign helps create a more welcoming and vibrant Alexandria.”
This is a competition, too, with the first prize being $5,000, $2,500 for second and $1,000 for third. A committee will decide the winners at the end of September.
To participate, you do four things:
Refresh, restore or take down an existing “tired” or fading sign in Alexandria;
Take a before photo before you begin. Priority will be given to major entry points into Alexandria to include Jackson Street, MacArthur Drive, Masonic/165 South;
Take an after photo once the project is complete. We encourage a refresh of the exterior with a power wash, fresh paint/striping of parking lots if needed, etc.;
Email both photos to cenlacf@clcf.net with your name, the sign’s location and a brief description of the project.
Don’t procrastinate or delay. You’ve got 90 days.