Social media influencer Marie Brown is calling out the city’s public works department, saying Southside neighborhoods are being neglected when it comes to grass cutting and right-of-way maintenance.
On Tuesday, Brown staged a symbolic social media live feed protest at the corner of 8th and Orange Street, donning gloves and using scissors to clip back vegetation she says blocks drivers’ views of stop signs. She argued that neighborhoods in Districts 3, 4, and 5 are suffering from overgrowth, while city crews spend their time in other areas.
Brown pointed specifically to Young’s Bayou and the large drainage canal near Texas Avenue as examples of neglect. “It has been left so long that trees are growing in the canal,” she said.
Her frustration grew when she noticed city crews maintaining grass along Highway 165. Brown said the Louisiana Department of Transportation pays the city nearly $90,000 annually to cut grass along state highways within Monroe. She suggested that if manpower is the issue, the city should consider contracting with local lawn services the same way the state does. “If the state contracts it out, then the city could do the same thing,” she said.
District 5 Councilman Minister Verbon Muhammad echoed Brown’s concerns, saying he frequently contacts public works about the same issues. He has long pushed for Young’s Bayou to be dredged, but said the canal flows into parish jurisdiction, making progress difficult. “It won’t do any good to dredge out our part and then when it gets to the parish everything stops,” Muhammad explained.
Muhammad said he has had some recent success convincing public works crews to clear intersections, including spots along Orange Street and at Oregon Trail and Martin Luther King Drive. Still, he agrees that much more needs to be done.
Brown said she attempted to call the public works director or staff to point out areas, but Mayor Friday Ellis sent a memo to council members to alert staff that no one should contact department heads about problems.
“Since I was told not to talk to department heads about problems I see, when people call me I give the city CEO Jimmy Bryants’s phone number,” Brown said. She said, city department heads are shielded from hearing from the people directly.
Brown, who is a city council employee, says that her live feeds give the public a way to speak to department heads because they are prohibited from reaching them by phone. She said her live feeds, which reach thousands, are done on her own time.
Brown said her message is simple: Southside residents deserve the same level of maintenance and safety as every other neighborhood in Monroe.
