Moving Acadiana Forward: Vibrant Community
LAFAYETTE, La (KLFY) -- Community leaders gathered for two days in Downtown Lafayette to work on ways to bring more life to our region, hoping to attract more businesses and talent.
Troy Wayman with One Acadiana said, “we wanted to find out how do we make our community more vibrant. How do we make our community a place where capital and people want to be. We want people to invest capital, we want people to live here, and we want people to come home that have moved away. So how do we make our community one of those places?”
Guest speaker Quint Studer says the heart of your community is downtown. He gave Lafayette’s downtown a 6 out of 10.
"It’s really charming and it has a lot of really great things going on but you have a lot of gaps,” says Anita Begnaud with Downtown Lafayette Unlimited, “We need to figure out a way to bring the right people together to build the plans, come up with the ideas, and fill the gaps."
Another way Studer suggested injecting vibrancy into downtown is to offer space to UL Lafayette. He says this could keep younger talent in the heart of our town.
“If we win, then others can win. If we raise the Tax base in downtown Lafayette, there will be more resources to go around throughout the city in the parish," Begnaud said. "Supporting those things, and rallying behind us can help make Lafayette an even better place to live, to work, and to raise your family. It’s something that will attract talent here and something that will hopefully attract talent who has left to go and work and live in other places back home."