Three years ago, candidates for Monroe City Council and Mayor all sang a song of working together to build a new Monroe, most notably a united Monroe. Even though we’d heard that song before, for some reason, people believed Mayor Oliver Friday Ellis would do just that, build his “#oneroe.”
The campaigns began in earnest in the spring of 2020, and now in the spring of 2023, it seems that the Ellis administration has made strides in one area but hasn’t had much success selling his “#oneroe” idea to people in South Monroe.
Three years into his administration, Ellis’ “#oneroe” theme is about as empty as the “One city, one future” theme of his predecessor Jamie Mayo.
Mayor Ellis promised a massive overhaul of Monroe’s Downtown; to his credit, he’s doing that. Under Ellis’ leadership, the city has infused millions of taxpayer dollars into making the Downtown Dream a reality.
The city has spent over a million dollars buying an old asbestos-filled building, $300,000 in studies, $2.5 million to underwrite private investment, $12.5 million to fund the downtown projects, relaxed zoning rules to promote growth, and extended downtown boundaries by nine blocks.
It’s a lot in just three years.
Unfortunately, just like Mayo, he can’t tick off a list of actions he has done to help promote the Southside Dream. While he has plans for high dollar band-aid maintenance projects in South Monroe, there is no plan for major city investments needed to make South Monroe a part of his “#oneroe” efforts.
It’s tough to deal with the Southside Dream because it requires the city to rethink its attitude about South Monroe and will require ten times the effort and money invested into downtown.
Since the white community moved out of South Monroe in the late 1980s, the city shifted its emphasis to follow them. Downtown and development of areas North of Lousiville toward Sterlington became the city’s priority.
The city’s strategic plan reflects that trend, and there are no city plans to attempt to do much more than maintenance in South Monroe.
Developing #oneroe will require a serious commitment of mega dollars to developing South Monroe with safe neighborhoods, good schools, economic promise, and excellent quality-of-life features.
Instead, this administration is doing the same as the Mayo administration regarding South Monroe; it generally touches up, patches up and cleans up a few areas but has yet to make plans to invest the millions necessary to reverse the trend.
To reverse the trend, the city needs to commission studies that will chart ways to reduce crime, develop safe neighborhoods, improve schools, and incentivize investment.
At some point, it will also require more public dollars. The mayor is tapping every public dollar to promote the Downtown Dream but is adamantly opposed to investing significant city dollars or allowing Southside residents to tax themselves to save their own neighborhood.
This time next year, the Ellis Adminstration will stand for re-election. Foremost on the minds of Southside voters will be whether he and Southside Council members kept the pledge to create “#onerow.”
He’s spent most of his term promoting “#onerow,” but Southside residents don’t feel included.
Many power players in South Monroe are hoping the mayor has a change of heart, but are searching for an alternative, whether black or white, just in case.
