Somewhere along Creswell Avenue right now, a section of sidewalk that has been buckled by tree roots for years is either gone or about to be. The same is true a few blocks over on Gilbert Drive, and eventually on Highland Avenue and Centenary Boulevard. This isn't a routine pothole patch. It's the first year the city has actually put equipment on the ground to answer a request Highland residents have been making for a long time: let us walk from one end of the neighborhood to the other without stepping into the street.
That request has a name and two endpoints. City Attorney Marcus Edwards described it plainly when Phase 2 of Shreveport's Block by Block initiative launched in July: residents wanted to walk north to south, basically from Highland Park to Columbia Park. Not "better infrastructure" in the abstract. A specific route between two specific parks that already exist and that Highland residents already use. The city is now building the sidewalks, curb cuts, crosswalks, and lighting to make that walk possible on four streets: Highland Avenue, Creswell Avenue, Gilbert Drive, and Centenary Boulevard, all between Olive Street and Kings Highway.
What Residents Actually Asked For
The project didn't start with an engineering study. It started with the city sitting down with the Highland Neighborhood Association and listening. Charlotte Russell, the association's president, described the state of things bluntly to a local TV crew this summer:
"So, the sidewalks are overgrown vegetation like into the sidewalks that are impassible or have been broken up and not replaced and then also streetlights were something that we brought up."
That's the starting condition. Sidewalks swallowed by vegetation or cracked apart and never repaired. Streetlights that residents had to specifically flag as missing or broken. Walkability wasn't a talking point in these meetings. It was the literal, physical ability to get from a front porch to a park without walking in traffic.
The Four Streets, In What Order
The city says the work will be staggered, one street at a time, specifically to keep the disruption from hitting the whole corridor at once. Here's what's changing and where:
| Street | Segment | What's changing |
|---|---|---|
| Highland Avenue | Olive Street to Kings Highway | Sidewalk repair, ADA curb cuts, lighting |
| Creswell Avenue | Olive Street to Kings Highway | Sidewalk repair, crosswalk restriping |
| Gilbert Drive | Olive Street to Kings Highway | Sidewalk connection and extension |
| Centenary Boulevard | Olive Street to Kings Highway | Streetlight upgrades with SWEPCO |
The city is also restriping intersections and bike lanes and installing ADA-compliant curb cuts along the way. Because it's one street at a time rather than a single four-street closure, residents should expect rolling detours through the rest of 2026 rather than one contained disruption. The city has said it expects the Highland work to be finished by the end of the year, though staggered municipal projects have a way of running past their own deadlines once weather or utility coordination gets involved.
Where the Money Actually Came From
One detail that separates this from typical city messaging: there was no new bond, no special assessment, no tax increase attached to this work. Mayor Tom Arceneaux was direct about the funding source when he explained it to the city council. The money is coming from budget lines that already existed, just redirected. As he put it, the funding is "cobbled together from funds that were available in other places," dollars already allocated in the budget but landing in a different spot than originally planned.
Together, the Highland sidewalk work and a companion project in Mooretown represent an estimated $2.5 million to $3 million in investment. That's not new revenue. It's the city choosing to spend existing money on sidewalks and streetlights instead of wherever it was originally parked. For a resident wondering whether this shows up as a new line on a tax bill, the answer based on what the city has said publicly is no.
The Centennial That Bookends the Project
The southern anchor of that Highland Park to Columbia Park walk just had its biggest year in a century. Columbia Park turned 100 in 2026, and the Highland Neighborhood Association marked it with a rededication ceremony on June 13. Mayor Arceneaux spoke at the event, Shreveport music historian Chris Brown put together a playlist tracing a century of the city's sound, and Shreve Memorial Library brought its Make & Go-Mobile Makerspace for hands-on activities. The event was framed as honoring the neighbors and partners who've helped keep the park alive for a hundred years.
That timing isn't a coincidence worth ignoring. The same year Columbia Park hit its centennial is the same year the city started building the physical connection between it and Highland Park to the north. One end of the walk just got a hundred-year rededication. The other end is a park residents have been trying to reach on foot without hazarding traffic on Kings Highway or Olive Street.
The One Piece Not Everyone Agrees On
Not every change moving through Highland this year points in the same direction. At 3100 Highland Avenue, right at the corner of Kings Highway, sits the site of the old Don's Seafood, vacant since 2021. A developer proposed Southern Stop Market there: a gas station and convenience store with beer and wine sales from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Metropolitan Planning Commission approved it on March 4 with stipulations, but the plan drew real pushback from Highland residents concerned about traffic patterns and property maintenance on a corridor the city is simultaneously trying to make more walkable. Later that month, the Shreveport City Council sent the project back to the MPC for a further traffic study, with the commission expected to take the case back up that spring.
No public update on how that traffic study came out turned up in the reporting available for this piece, so residents who care about what eventually lands on Kings Highway should check directly with the MPC for the current status. Whatever the outcome, it sits at the same intersection the city is trying to make easier to cross on foot a few blocks away.
What This Looks Like on a Given Block
Walk the corridor today and the texture is already there, even before every sidewalk is finished. Bear's, in the historic Alvin Building at Fairfield and Southern, is the kind of neighborhood staple that gives Highland its character. A few blocks over, Ki Mexico on Gilbert has built a following among neighbors who treat it as a regular stop on the same stretch of walking. Fat Calf Brasserie, led by Chef Anthony Felan, brings French-inspired Southern cooking into the mix. Strawn's Eat Shop has been serving Kings Highway across from Centenary College since 1944, longer than most of the sidewalks currently being replaced have existed in their current form.
None of that changes because of new concrete. What changes is whether a resident can actually walk between those places, and between the two parks that bracket the neighborhood, without the sidewalk disappearing into a hedge or the streetlight going dark halfway down the block. That was the ask. This is the year it started getting built.
If you're watching how Highland's daily patterns shift as this work rolls out street by street, or you have questions about what any of it means for a specific address in the neighborhood, Murcia & Co. keeps a close eye on this corridor. Let's Connect.
