A symbolic act at a Southside intersection has sparked real action from Monroe’s public works crews.
Last week, social media influencer Marie Brown live-streamed herself clipping weeds with scissors around a stop sign at 8th and Orange Street. The demonstration, viewed by thousands online, was meant to highlight what she described as the city’s neglect of basic grass-cutting and right-of-way maintenance in South Monroe.
The very next day, city crews arrived to mow and clear intersections along 8th Street and elsewhere.
“It’s a shame that citizens have to take to social media to talk to city department heads because the mayor has instructed them not to talk to city council members or their staff,” Brown said. She added that since she cannot contact department heads directly, she now uses her live feeds to broadcast issues that residents call to her attention.
Brown has frequently pointed to overgrowth in Districts 3, 4, and 5, citing Young’s Bayou and the large drainage canal near Texas Avenue where, she said, “trees are growing in the canal” due to years without dredging.
Her frustration grew when she noticed city crews maintaining grass along Highway 165. She noted that the Louisiana Department of Transportation pays Monroe nearly $90,000 annually to mow state highway rights-of-way. “If the state contracts it out, then the city could do the same thing,” she argued, suggesting local lawn services could be hired if manpower is short.
District 5 Councilman Minister Verbon Muhammad echoed Brown’s concerns. He said he regularly presses public works about neglected areas and has urged dredging of Young’s Bayou, though the canal’s tie to parish jurisdiction complicates progress. “It won’t do any good to dredge our part if it stops at the parish line,” Muhammad said.
Both Muhammad and Brown acknowledge some improvements, such as recent intersection clearings, but insist much more remains undone.
Brown said her message is simple: “Southside residents deserve the same level of maintenance and safety as every other neighborhood in Monroe.”
