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Harvard fellow urges data integration and coordinated code enforcement to speed revitalization
Summary
Rachel Fisher, a Harvard fellow working with the mayor—s office, presented findings from a 10-week fellowship and recommended integrating data systems, monthly interdepartmental coordination, and incentives to support maintenance and redevelopment.
Rachel Fisher, a Harvard University graduate-school fellow placed in the mayor—s office, presented a report to the Shreveport City Council on July 22 outlining findings and recommendations intended to speed property repairs, reduce blight and streamline code enforcement.
Fisher said her fellowship work focused on how the city—s property-standards and code-enforcement processes intersect with vacancy, adjudication and redevelopment. "Blight, as we know it, it's technically a legal term, but what I like to say and what I've heard a lot is you know it when you see it," she told the council, characterizing blight as persistent and often subjective.
Fisher said her team conducted 39 interviews with local officials, community leaders and stakeholders, attended public meetings and analyzed quantitative and geospatial data. From that work she distilled three core recommendations: integrate data and technology tracking systems across departments; promote departmental collaboration and shared performance metrics; and incentivize maintenance and rehabilitation rather than defaulting to demolition.
On data and technology, Fisher recommended that parcel, ownership and violation data be accessible to all city departments and that the city—s MyGovernmentOnline system be used to track demolitions and contract activity to speed environmental-court processes. She recommended Port City 311 and other public-facing tools be used as single-entry points for residents.
On collaboration, Fisher urged regular cross-department check-ins and shared priorities so that residents "do not feel like there's divisions among the departments in the city." She recommended common training for inspectors and front-line employees so they can serve as "ambassadors" who explain resources and next steps to homeowners.
On incentives, Fisher suggested supporting owners with deferred maintenance through coordinated repair programs, simplifying permitting where feasible and working with historic-preservation partners to favor restoration when appropriate.
Fisher cited out-of-state precedents she reviewed, including the Tennessee Neighborhood Preservation Act and neighborhood-preservation work in Kansas City, as examples of legal and operational tools the city could study and adapt. She said the longstanding pattern of blight first identified in a 1956 plan shows the problem persists across administrations and will require coordinated, sustained action.
"This is an issue that supersedes administration and it supersedes boundaries," Fisher said, and she closed by urging the council to sustain momentum for cross-departmental work. "Don't let the momentum stop with me or any 1 person," she said.
Council members and the mayor thanked Fisher for the work; Fisher said she will publish a fuller report with specific process and technology suggestions for staff review.
