Monroe Mayor Jamie Mayo wants to build a civic arena, but he’s having a hard time selling the idea. It’s undoubtedly a hard sell, but a peek into our local history might give him a few hints.
In 1956, W.L. Howard was elected mayor of Monroe. He was a businessman who owned Howard Brother’s Jewelers and later a chain of department stores that spanned several states called “Howard Brothers.” His vision to build Monroe was tied to urban renewal, reinvestment, and tourism.
He saw Tourism as Monroe’s future. In 1959, he was inspired by investor friends who were planning a large theme park in Arlington; they called “Six Flags” with tourism as its magnet. When it opened in 1961, he visited the opening and came back to Monroe hell-bent on shaping Monroe into a tourism-based city.
He put together a full package that he claimed would turn Monroe into the Pacemaker City of the South. It included a Civic Center Complex, City Hall, and a theme-parked based zoo that he would call “Louisiana Purchase Gardens and Zoo.”
It was a hard sell. Monroe was a small town, and many felt it was unable to support a 7,000 seat arena. They were right if the Civic Center was the entire project. However, his major selling point was “tourism” that would pay the bill.
He refashioned the old Bernstein Park Zoo in the Louisiana Purchase Gardens and Zoo. The “Gardens” were tourist attractions as visitors flew into the city from all across the nation to view the various botanical specimens growing in its gardens.
A master promoter, he booked big shows at the Civic Center and packed the center, and local businesses smiled from increased sales.
Still, people were not entirely sold. So, he loaded up two private planes of people who influenced the community’s vote and carried them to Dallas. I was among the minorities in the group, even though I was his fiercest critic in the Black community and extremely vocal at 21 years old.
I led marches against him; he jailed me repeatedly. I wrote about him in my newspaper, he jailed me and called me a trouble maker. However, when he wanted to sell his plan, he included other black community critics and me on the airplane.
In Texas, he treated nearly 50 people to an excellent steak dinner at the Luxurious Cattleman’s Club. He then treated the entire entourage to a Dallas Cowboys football game with 50-yard line tickets.
Afterward, he shuttled us to the Texas wonder, “Six Flags.” That’s where he sold his vision to his critics. He said, “This is what I want for Monroe. We won’t pay for it; tourists will.”
He came back stepped up his promotion of the Civic Center and Zoo. He bought advertising in Texas, Mississippi and Arkansas. He promoted the zoo-like it was Six flags and began an urban renewal project to build roads to the zoo, straight down a new, paved, and well lit Wilson Street.
The City bought a riverboat, the “Twin City Queen,” and promoted the museum and everything else that would bring tourists.
What’s the point? Howard built the civic center as part of an overall package that would benefit businesses in Monroe. He sold the idea, even to his political enemies.
Mayor Mayo wants an arena, but there is no big picture tied to it. Communities our size have built the arenas, but they have failed. To sell it, maybe he needs to take a planeload of people somewhere to see how a city, just like ours, built an arena and made it work.
I was sold on his city-wide plan, but I still protested against the racism imposed on Blacks by the Howard Administration.
I ate the steak, saw the game and agreed with his big picture; but protested against everything else.
He had me arrested nine more times.
Seventeen in all.
But he sold his plan.
