Texas Street development a sign of progress

Take a drive down the 700 block of Texas Street in downtown Shreveport, and you'll see progress. The Downtown Development Authority says 75 percent of the buildings there are under construction. A salon is near completion and much more is still to come. DDA has the help to speed up development through a $250,000 grant awarded last November. The cash will be used to promote downtown.

"We've not ever had that much money to market downtown," DDA Director Liz Swaine said. "We're in the process now of coming up with a one year and long range game plan on how to best spend that money."

The grant comes from the Deep Water Horizon fund, which was one result of the gulf oil spill.