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(10/21/26) BATON ROUGE, La — With the Mississippi River and its boat traffic as the backdrop, leaders from 11 communities across southern Louisiana gathered at the Water Campus in Baton Rouge to discuss a different type of traffic — safe transportation routes for cars and pedestrians on their main streets.
The LSU AgCenter held a Complete Streets Summit with the Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX) and Well-Ahead Louisiana, an initiative started by the Louisiana Department of Health. At the summit, the communities received hands-on guidance from experts in planning, transportation and community development to advance local projects.
The summit was one of two recent gatherings led by LSU AgCenter nutrition and community health faculty and staff aimed at helping Louisiana towns identify changes that would make areas more pedestrian friendly, improving residents’ health and strengthening local economies.
“Our goal for hosting this summit is to enhance equity and access to funding, planning support and technical assistance while creating opportunities for communities to learn from one another, build partnerships and move their vision for healthy communities forward,” said Jamila Freightman, the program manager for the LSU AgCenter Centers for Disease Control and Prevention High Obesity Program.
Alex Hobdy, a design associate with the Center for Planning Excellence, right, works with community members from Donaldsonville during the Complete Streets Summit held Oct. 15 at the LSU Water Campus in Baton Rouge. The team was looking at ways to advance local projects to improve mobility and accessibility. Photo by Tobie Blanchard/LSU AgCenter
Leaders with the city of Franklin attended the first summit held in 2022. Ed “Tiger” Verdin, public relations director and Main Street director for the city, said participation at the first summit helped Franklin secure Transportation Alternatives Program funding for improvements in heavily traveled pedestrian areas.
City officials were back this year to continue the progress they made including adding a pocket park downtown and plans to upgrade their Bayou Teche boardwalk into a more family-friendly, accessible gathering space for their town.
Verdin said Franklin balances the needs of residents and visitors as the city continues its revitalization efforts.
“We have a high impoverished community, but we have a very high tourism,” Verdin said. “We’re making sure that both communities can be taken care of together where we’re feeding in economic development through our tourism, through our increased tax revenues, but we’re also giving quality of life with our community that’s living there.”
Ternica Williams, a registered nurse and quality/compliance professional with West Ascension Parish Hospital, described the significant health and transportation challenges facing residents in the rural Donaldsonville area.
Williams is not from Donaldsonville, but she said she is a champion for the community where she works.
“We’re here to see what we can do to help move the community forward,” Williams said. “I don’t want to have the conversation if we’re not going to move forward and do something about it.”
The summit, held on Oct. 15, was a week after Freightman and other AgCenter experts joined the Kentwood community for a visioning session at the Kentwood Library on Oct. 7.
LSU AgCenter nutrition and community health agent Isabel Zebrick organized the session, which she said could be a catalyst for community-led projects that reflect residents’ priorities and lead to a healthier, more vibrant Kentwood.
“My hope is that this will be the beginning of forming actionable change that’s reflected in what they are seeing, what the needs are in the community,” Zebrick said.
Freightman helped lead the session and explained that community visioning sessions allow the AgCenter to understand the community needs directly from the people who live there.
“If we’re going to try to make any type of actionable change, or work toward actionable change, having an understanding from community residents is essential,” Freightman said.
Kentwood resident and police chief Michael Kazerooni participated in the session and said he valued the opportunity to bring together people to identify strengths, weaknesses and shared goals. He highlighted Kentwood’s close-knit, family-oriented culture, and expressed the need for changes to move the community forward.
“As a community leader or as an elected official, I felt it was important for me to be involved,” Kazerooni said. “It was good to see folks from other areas of town, other vocations in town, get together and collaborate.”
Resident Ronald Harrell grew up in Kentwood, moved away, but has returned to the community. Harrell was vocal about concerns about jobs, the economy and transportation. He said he hopes the session will result in tangible improvements in town.
“I’m interested in making our community better, more livable, more accessible, more inclusive, prosperous,” Harrell said. “Wherever I live, I want it to be the best it can be.”
