video length is approx. 10 minutesthis video is well done and features footage inside the hotel bentley which makes us sick right now because its closed, sacked and looted. why isnt something being done about the hotel bentley anyway? which brings to mind although it wasnt mentioned in the vid the storied spa and mineral healing waters of the hot wells near boyce, louisiana under the control of the louisiana department of health and hospitals of all people and sits abandoned for years. w.t.f.
anyhoo this vid contains great location shots as well as aerial ones the red river, downtown alexandria, frogmore, kent house, arna bontemps, alexandria's zoo, natchitoches including cane river and christmas lights, hodges gardens, marksville and a lot more. you will probably see something familar.
click the link if you have a few minutes and you want to check it out. click again where it says on the screen "view alexandria-pineville's online video." when you click that a survey window will also pop up inside that frame on the right; you can take the survey or ignore it you can also navigate around inside that frame while the vid is playing. it doesnt interfere with the video playing. its best seen in internet explorer and although when you first click that link the vid screen looks awfully small - to enlarge it on the video player see the arrow button on the extreme right hand side opposite where it says "default" ? click that and the player will undock and go to about double size then click the square [top right inbetween _ and X] in the vid player screen and it will enlarge to about 3/4 your monitor screen.
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hot wells resort picture courtesy of alexandria postcard collection a feature of alex-retro
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edited 11:31 pm cdt wednesday 09 august 2006
hot wells resort picture courtesy of alexandria postcard collection a feature of alex-retro
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edited 11:31 pm cdt wednesday 09 august 2006
Alexandria could revamp the downtown area with a plan similar to The Landing in Branson, Mo. They made a promenade along the river with retail shops, restaurants, pubs, etc., about a mile long. There is a beautiful fountain display complete with music about midway down the "street". There are even street performers at different times during the day. Downtown Alexandria already has the mini-park and amphitheater that could be utilized in this theme. Bass Pro Shops built an anchor store at one end of The Landing. Since Alexandria is in the middle of the "Sportsman Paradise", maybe they could be convinced to open a store here. Branson Landing will also include hotels, residential condo, etc. when completely finished. It's a destination all it's own, and the same concept should work for downtown.
ReplyDeleteoh we agree absolutely with your vision. of course the main thing is getting started. perhaps, if we start small say with a downtown "pier" which should be a lot cheaper and a heck of a lot more advisable than a sports complex that maybe we could get some traction.
ReplyDeleteThat's why so many projects fail...it has to be all or nothing. Why not spend some time on smaller projects, ie. marina, pier etc, while working on the larger picture...when the 'big' thing finally comes through...all the other smaller 'detail' are already in place.
ReplyDeletewell the mineral water will always be there its just a matter of building the pools etc. we dont know for sure if there is anything to the healing bit of the mineral waters (placebo effect etc) however, we do believe that it was the mineral waters at the hot springs pool at glenwood springs, colorado that healed our um little acne problem.
ReplyDeleteHot Springs Arkansas proved what you could do with clear running hot water from the ground. There's no better time than now to get into the whole "SPA" "Healing" thing.
ReplyDeletewe agree. this is something that the state could do that would have a real benefit to the people: healthwise, economy wise and so forth.
ReplyDeletehow absolutely ironic that this invaluable natural resource is under the control of the louisiana dept of health & hospitals! also in this years capitol outlay expenditure bill the legislature was scheduled to appropriate $500,000 for the demolition of hot wells.
The Bentley has been treated poorly for far too long.
ReplyDeleteI would think that in most cities, if a historicalbuilding such as the Bentley suffered the same fate...the city would see that as a great opportunity to begin a downtown restoration plan with a key element to the restoration already in place.
ReplyDelete