re: Folks here love shitting on Shreveport.

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Which is kinda sad, because Shreveport was a retirement haven a few decades ago. The Base had a lot to do with that too.

I go back every few years and its always even more disappointing. I was one of Shreveports biggest cheerleaders in the 80's.

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I was born and raised in Shreveport. I used to be proud to be from there. When Fair Grounds Field opened it garnered national attention as one of the best minor league stadiums in America. It's now an abandoned ruin in a neighborhood you'd rather not venture into. Shreve Square was great as mentioned by others. Cedar Grove was a great blue collar neighborhood in which to raise a family but is like the Southside of Chicago today.

Shreveport began to rapidly deteriorate with NAFTA. So many manufacturing plants closed and middle class families migrated out. Casinos filled the vacuum. This attracted low-skilled labor. Then Katrina/Rita refugees came and stayed. Democrats took most elected city offices around the turn of the century and that means failure. With the right leadership, Shreveport could have been great.