Liz Swaine's guest appearances

Liz Swaine

TheThree 180

The Strong Towns Podcast

Love Shreveport Podcast 

Majora Carter

Gracy Olmstead

James Howard Kunstler

Ben Hunt

Jason Roberts

Chris Martenson

Ben Westhoff

Russ Roberts

Patrick Deneen

Robert Moses

Chris Arnade

Sam Quinones

John Perkins

Jenny Schuetz

Tim Soerens

OwlTail

Another amazing woman that we are highlighting for Women’s History Month is Liz Swaine. She came to Shreveport from Florida; little did she know that the city would become her home. Her work career started in news at KTBS TV, where she was an anchor and special projects reporter, to the City of Shreveport as Executive Assistant to Mayor Keith Hightower. She worked as head of Corporate Communications for Calumet Specialty Products, and then took the job of Executive Director of the Downtown Development Authority/Downtown Shreveport Development Corporation.   As the head of the DDA, Liz works every day to make downtown the place we all want it to be while respecting downtown’s remarkable history along the way. “Our downtown tells the story of our past,” she says. “It can also tell the story of our future.” Thank you Liz Swaine for telling our stories through communications and development. Check out this podcast to learn more about Liz Swaine!

Another amazing woman that we are highlighting for Women’s History Month is Liz Swaine. She came to Shreveport from Florida; little did she know that the city would become her home. Her work career started in news at KTBS TV, where she was an anchor and special projects reporter, to the City of Shreveport as Executive Assistant to Mayor Keith Hightower. She worked as head of Corporate Communications for Calumet Specialty Products, and then took the job of Executive Director of the Downtown Development Authority/Downtown Shreveport Development Corporation. As the head of the DDA, Liz works every day to make downtown the place we all want it to be while respecting downtown’s remarkable history along the way. “Our downtown tells the story of our past,” she says. “It can also tell the story of our future.” Thank you Liz Swaine for telling our stories through communications and development. Check out this podcast to learn more about Liz Swaine!

Telling HERstory: Liz Swaine 

All too often, the national narrative portrays Louisiana as a backwater state. But we here at Strong Towns see things very differently. For example, we think Shreveport, Louisiana doesn’t get the credit it deserves for changing the local conversation around what will make the city stronger. We’ll go even further and say that Shreveport has one of the leading downtowns in the country—though too few people (including too few Shreveporters) are aware of it. On this week’s edition of the Strong Towns podcast, we explore why we’re so excited about what’s unfolding in Shreveport. In this episode, Strong Towns president Charles Marohn interviews Liz Swaine, the Executive Director of the Shreveport Downtown Development Authority. Marohn and Swaine discuss the incredible renaissance of Shreveport’s downtown and why it’s important that this renaissance has unfolded incrementally. They talk about “demolition by neglect” and a better use for incentive money. And they discuss the proposed Cross Bayou Point plan, an expensive (and decidedly un-incremental) approach to redevelopment—what it is, why it will make Shreveport weaker, and why the campaign to approve it has been genuinely offensive. In this episode, downtown advocates everywhere will learn how to better work with local officials to spur positive change in their own communities, how to make progress without burning bridges, and how to accept the inevitable defeats.Highlights:“It’s really important not to take things personally. You do your best, you fight your hardest, and then you shake hands and live to fight another day. It’s important for you to let those elected officials that you’re either with or against know that you’re with them or against them on this, but on the next issue you may be reversed.” “We had a situation here several years ago. There was a city councilperson and they were debating a project in a nice council district that’s a lovely place and people like to live there and shop there. There was a business that wanted to come in that was completely incorrect for that area, and the statement was actually made, ‘We can’t do any better than this.’ That made me angry because we can always do better. We can always do better. The minute we start thinking that we can’t do any better than this, that’s our future.”Show Notes: Shreveport Downtown Development Authority   Liz Swaine’s column on Cross Bayou Point (Shreveport Times)    A roundup of some of our previous article on Shreveport 

All too often, the national narrative portrays Louisiana as a backwater state. But we here at Strong Towns <a href="https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/10/4/afterword-satbook" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">see things very differently</a>. For example, we think Shreveport, Louisiana doesn’t get the credit it deserves for <a href="https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/1/8/the-struggle-for-a-stronger-shreveport" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">changing the local conversation</a> around what will make the city stronger. We’ll go even further and say that Shreveport has one of the leading downtowns in the country—though too few people (including too few Shreveporters) are aware of it. On this week’s edition of the Strong Towns podcast, we explore why we’re so excited about what’s unfolding in Shreveport. In this episode, Strong Towns president Charles Marohn interviews Liz Swaine, the Executive Director of the <a href="https://downtownshreveport.com/downtown-development-authority/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Shreveport Downtown Development Authority</a>. Marohn and Swaine discuss the incredible renaissance of Shreveport’s downtown and why it’s important that this renaissance has unfolded incrementally. They talk about “demolition by neglect” and a better use for incentive money. And they discuss the proposed Cross Bayou Point plan, an expensive (and decidedly un-incremental) approach to redevelopment—what it is, why it will make Shreveport weaker, and why the campaign to approve it has been genuinely offensive. In this episode, downtown advocates everywhere will learn how to better work with local officials to spur positive change in their own communities, how to make progress without burning bridges, and how to accept the inevitable defeats.Highlights: “It’s really important not to take things personally. You do your best, you fight your hardest, and then you shake hands and live to fight another day. It’s important for you to let those elected officials that you’re either with or against know that you’re with them or against them on this, but on the next issue you may be reversed.” “We had a situation here several years ago. There was a city councilperson and they were debating a project in a nice council district that’s a lovely place and people like to live there and shop there. There was a business that wanted to come in that was completely incorrect for that area, and the statement was actually made, ‘We can’t do any better than this.’ That made me angry because we can always do better. We can always do better. The minute we start thinking that we can’t do any better than this, that’s our future.”Show Notes: <ul><li> <a href="https://downtownshreveport.com/downtown-development-authority/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Shreveport Downtown Development Authority</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/opinion/columnists/2019/12/13/cross-bayou-point-opposition-liz-swaine/2640104001/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Liz Swaine’s column on Cross Bayou Point (Shreveport Times)</a> </li> </ul> <ul><li> <a href="https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/1/8/the-struggle-for-a-stronger-shreveport" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">A roundup of some of our previous article on Shreveport</a> </li></ul>

Liz Swaine: Bootstrapping Downtown Shreveport

Jordan Ring is a Shreveport native for the most part, starting the I Heart Shreveport blog earlier this year to help people remember all the great things we have to love about Shreveport. She wants people to dream big dreams for Shreveport.  When she's not blogging about Shreveport, she is the Associate Director of the MLK Health Center &amp; Pharmacy.Liz, a top assistant to former Shreveport Mayor Keith Hightower, was hired in 2010 as executive director of the city's Downtown Development Authority.  Since then, Shreveport's core has come alive.  She needs no further introduction of course, but this 2017 Shreveport Times article does a great job for us:  https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/life/community/most-influential-woman/2017/09/07/liz-swaine-if-im-not-willing-do-it-why-should-expect-others-to/618768001/

Jordan Ring is a Shreveport native for the most part, starting the I Heart Shreveport blog earlier this year to help people remember all the great things we have to love about Shreveport. She wants people to dream big dreams for Shreveport. When she's not blogging about Shreveport, she is the Associate Director of the MLK Health Center &amp; Pharmacy. Liz, a top assistant to former Shreveport Mayor Keith Hightower, was hired in 2010 as executive director of the city's Downtown Development Authority. Since then, Shreveport's core has come alive. She needs no further introduction of course, but this 2017 Shreveport Times article does a great job for us: <a href="https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/life/community/most-influential-woman/2017/09/07/liz-swaine-if-im-not-willing-do-it-why-should-expect-others-to/618768001/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/life/community/most-influential-woman/2017/09/07/liz-swaine-if-im-not-willing-do-it-why-should-expect-others-to/618768001/</a>

Episode 17:  Jordan Ring + Liz Swaine