Heart of the Piney Hills
Examining ways to improve our community with our own thoughts and ideas.
Category: Uncategorized
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This article was first published in the Lincoln Parish Journal, Sept. 30, 2025 Part 1: Urban Green Spaces Not long ago, a number of mature trees were removed from a downtown lot in Ruston. And boy was there a hub-bub about it. While the strong reaction came as a surprise to some, others understood both sides of…
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This article was first published in the Lincoln Parish Journal, Sept. 19, 2025 Part 1: How Connectivity Empowers Communities When Shel Silverstein wrote, “There is a place where the sidewalk ends,” he was whimsically referring to a place where our imaginations can run free. In the real world, however, fragmented sidewalks trail off into wild grasses, crumbling…
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Last week, I wrote about heavy trucking in our downtown. This week, let’s talk about everyone’s next favorite noisy visitors; trains. Each year, Ruston endures over 160 hours of blowing train horns; the equivalent of a full week of nonstop noise. They roll through like clockwork, sometimes adding a bit of charm, and sometimes perfectly…
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For generations, the prevailing wisdom was simple: if the highway bypasses your town, your town dies. That belief took root in the 1950s and 60s, when the interstate system cut new ribbons of asphalt across the country. Many small towns, unprepared for the change, lost their passing trade almost overnight. Shops closed. Gas stations shuttered. But it…
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I want to spark the question, “How can we do this better, together?” while sharing information that empowers everyday citizens to feel informed and confident enough to take part in community conversations, right here in the pine-covered hills of north Louisiana. In doing so, my goal is to show that we as locals have the intelligence and…
Heart of the Piney Hills 