The green economy.

For several months I have been wrestling with this idea of Green Jobs and the Green Economy. Specifically, how can these jobs benefit me and my community? I also wanted to know what are green jobs. I hear politicians talk a lot about the green the economy, but nobody ever says what the green economy is.

If it's building solar cells and wind turbines, well, that sounds a lot like the old Blue collar economy except we are building "green" things. I've read hundreds of articles on the green economy, but nothing that has really addressed my questions. Then I cam across ARC. ARC is the Applied Research Center. Their focus is on "racial justice through media, research, and activism." while reading their website I came across a report/ call to action they did called "Green Equity Toolkit: Advancing race, Gender, and Equality in the Green Economy." This was exactly what I had been looking for.

Not only do they define what a green job is, but also how people on the lower end of the income scale, and in neighborhoods like mine, can get these jobs and how they will benefit the community as a whole. It is a good read and I suggest you at least glance over it.

If this is the green economy I can get behind. This is what we need.

PS. They define a green jobs as: Well paid, career track jobs, that contribute directly to preserving or enhancing the environment. If a job improves the environment, but does not offer a family-supporting wage or a career ladder to move low-income workers into higher skilled occupations, it's not a green job.

Russell Fall Festival

The Russell Neighborhood Fall Festival

Saturday Nov 21st 5-9PM

18th and Madison.

(right behind West Chestnut Baptist Church)

Live Music and Free Food!

Come and here one of Louisville's Best Jazz/Funk/R&B bands 502

Can we do this in Russell and or downtown Louisville?

Sorry for the long time between postings, but my radio show has been taking a tremendous amount of my time. But I'm back and will be posting more often.

I'm pretty sure getting a developer to build something like in Russell is pretty much nil to none. However, I would love to see new housing built in Russell that really resembles the style of architecture that is already here. Something that would really convey the urban feel of the neighborhood before Urban Removal..I mean Urban Renewal put the wrecking ball to Russell's eastern half. Here is an example of what I'm talking about in New Jersey. Can you imagine something like this on Market Street. How cool.

Speaking of new developments I was reading one of my favorite blogs Broken Sidewalk and cam across this post on Big Box living in the city. I've seen a couple of these in Chicago, but this article reminded me of what Louisville could do. We all know that there is a serious lack of retail in downtown Louisville. We also know that if we were to get any big box retailer they would need a ton of space and parking. In other cities they solved this problem by putting the retailer inside of these large condo/office buildings. Parking is located either underneath the building or a garage is built in the structure it self. Take a look at the pics below. The first pic is of another condo/office building in Vancouver. As you can see there is a Home Depot and a grocer on the ground floor. The really cool thing is that there is rooftop garden/ green space on the roof. The second pic is from Broken Sidewalk and features a condo office building with a Whole Foods on the ground floor.

KC arena makes money, Louisville economic trends, and transportation around the country

This is pretty interesting. Most of the arguments against sports arenas is that they don't make any money. Well, the Sprint center in Kansas City just did. I wonder if our arena will do the same. Here's the link, and some of what the article says.

"Kansas City is expected to cash in on a rocking year of concerts and events at the Sprint Center to the tune of $1.8 million.

The surprise boost comes from a profit-sharing section in the development agreement between the city and the arena’s operator, Anschutz Entertainment Group.

It specifies once that AEG turns a 16 percent profit at the building, the city gets half of any additional proceeds."

If you are interested in how Louisville is doing economically then check out Bureau Of Economic Analysis website they have some very interesting stats. If you don't feel like combing through all of the charts and then analyzing the data then read this post from the Urbanophile. He does a pretty good job for you.

Last but not least. Here is a list of all US rail transit projects from 2000-2009. I wonder what city we all know and love is missing from this list?

The New Economics of the New Economy Pt 1

I've been reading with great interest about the state of the economy. I, like most Americans, are worried about what's going to happen. Will these jobs that were lost going come back? If they don't what will take their place? There is a lot of uncertainty out there and it makes me nervous. I was reading this article on MSNBC.com titled the Great Recession transforms the workplace. The article talks about how many of the jobs that were lost aren't coming back. Most of them have been outsourced to other countries where the labor is a lot cheaper and many environmental and workplace regulations don't exists. It then goes on to say how American workers will need to be retrained for the specialized jobs that will be created. However, it really doesn't say what jobs will replace the ones that are lost. From my experience (and from what I have read) these new jobs wont pay as much as the ones they are replacing and the benefits will be much worse.

If you do a little research several things become very apparent. Things like real wages have been on the decline or either stagnant for the past couple of decades while inflation has steadily gone up. The income gap between the bottom 99% and the top 1% is wider than it has ever been in the US, and it's getting wider. New housing sales plummeted, and prices tumbled with them. Then the foreclosure and banking crisis have driven many people to economic ruin. So much so that the poverty rate in America has skyrocketed. I could go on and on but I think you get the picture.

Amid all of the horrible economic news our cities, Louisville included, are struggling to stay afloat. The future also doesn't look bright either. Once this recession is over I think you will see some major differences between this recession and past ones. The biggest differences will be that real wages will continue their downward trend and more people will be out of work. A lot of the jobs that were cut during this recession will be lost forever. When people do find work they are going to be making less money. In a lot of cases a lot less money. We are getting poorer as a nation. We are getting to a point where even with 2 incomes it wont be enough for most people. Cities (and states, but my focus is on cities) are going to have to restructure their entire tax systems or find ways to expand their economies in such a way that it will encompass a majority of their populations.

As you may have figured out by my previous post I don't like to dwell on the negative to long. i want to find some solutions. One place I don't think we will find any solutions is the federal government or our state government. There is just to much lobbyist money in Washington and Frankfort for their to be real change. We are going to have to figure this out on the local level. Which is hard because as we get poorer we are going to put more of strain on our social services. Which happen to be funded to a large extent by the state and federal governments. So, what should we do?

The first thing we need to do is recognize the problem and develop a comprehensive plan to deal with it. We then need to follow through on that plan. This is something we haven't to well as a city. Case in point. When Dave Armstrong first came up with 4th Street Live, and put it in motion he also had a large part of money for the re-development of the rest of 4th street going south. That money was for the development of local business to compliment the national chains. The plan was never really followed. We need to follow it.

Here is what I would do.

1) Keep Louisville weird, but expand that thinking to west and southwest jefferson county. If one part of the county is behind it slow down everything else. I would do this by setting money aside for micro loans. Loans in the amount of $500-$2500. I think there is also room for innovation here as well.

If you drive through western Louisville there are a lot of abandoned lots especially streets that should be business corridors like Market St and 18th/Dixie Hwy, Using some of the Hope IV grant money I would build multi-use building like the ones in Park Duvalle. Retail on the bottom with mixed-income units above. Parking in the rear. You can do this because if you tear down a "housing project" you have a place for the old residents to live. Some of these retail spaces would be offered "rent free" to entrepreneurs who go through a business class and qualify for the micro loan. The city will furnish the space and credit card machine/cash register. For the cities effort the city will take a percentage of everything made. If the business fails no biggy. The city just finds a new tenant and reuse the same equipment. The city doesn't have to use new computers or credit card machines. Louisville could use some of the surplus equipment that is just sitting in a warehouse someplace.

2) Like I said in my past blogs I would also push for Louisville to expand it's economic sectors. I believe the film industry is a natural fit. I would also make a big push for minor league or lessor known sports. I don't mean just getting big sporting conventions or NCAA tourneys, but try and become a "mecca" in an alternative sport. A good example would be wrestling. Louisville is home to one of the best wrestling schools in the nation. We should work on getting some of the smaller wrestling promotions to call Louisville home. Why not. Another big one is MMA. We could be the mecca the MMA in the midwest/east coast. That would mean thousands of young men and women training and living Louisville. Thousands of young professional MMA fighters making a decent income living here. using our airport to travel to fights all over and visa versa.

I think this is enough to chew on for part 1. In part 2 I'll touch on density, transportation, other sectors Louisville can look into.

Wouldn't it be cool is TARC busses looked like this...

High Speed Rail and Louisville

I have been reading a lot lately about the potential high speed rail routes in the US. I paid particular attention the midwest plan. In the original plan Louisville was left out. However, due to some great internet heat provided by the Urbanophile (check his blog it's one the best I have ever read) and others Louisville was included. When you look at the map do you notice something?

Louisville is in a great geographical location to connect the Chicago/Midwest hub to the Atlanta/Chattanooga hubs. We are also in a great position to become a sort of mini hub. This is pretty cool stuff and should be a big win for the city. I'm not going to get into the details of the proposed high speed rail speeds and what really constitutes high speed rail. Well not now I wont. I will a little later. What I want to focus on is what is Louisville's take on high speed rail.

If you go to the Midwest High Speed Rail Association website and click on state proposals you will notice something. Kentucky is missing. That's right. Nada. The high speed rail lines are going to be built using 80% federal funds. We should be on this like white on rice. We should be very proactive in lobbying for HSR and how we want it operate in Louisville. We should also push for Louisville to be that mini hub I spoke about earlier. If nothing else we should at least make sure that we are mentioned in everybody else's study.

Now for the part about speed. I've seen some conflicting numbers so I'll go with the speed as posted on the MidWest HSR site. Right now Louisville is suppose to get the 110 MPH tracks. If we want to be that connector I talked about (If we are the connector hub/city that would also connect us to Nashville and Chattanooga) we need the 220MPH tracks. This would provide travel times from Louisville to Atlanta that are competitive with air travel, provide a fast connection with us and Nashville that is not currently served by airplanes, and provide trips from Indianapolis and most midwestern cities to Atlanta that would be either faster than air travel or very competitive with air travel.

I wonder if Kentucky isn't all over this because all of our state transportation funds are tied up in the bridges project? If we adopted 8664 we could not only pay for our 20% of high speed rail, but also add our first light-rail line as well. Hmmm.

I think with some aggressive lobbying and partnering with cities and states we need to connect with like Nashville we could get the fastest of the high speed rail lines. We could be that mini hub I talked about earlier. Union Station could once again be a fully functional passenger rail station. Our HSR line could connect to our light-rail line. If we get the mini hub we would need hotels and other amenities around Union Station. That should, in turn, bring economic development at least to the eastern half of the Russell neighborhood.

This is something that we should really push. maybe even more so than the bridges project.

The next Mayor of Louisville

What do I want to see from the next mayor? I want to see someone who has a clear and concise vision for the city. Not just downtown, the highlands, and the East End, but the entire CITY. I want to know what they think Louisville's brand is or should be and how are they going to make it happen. You know. The basic stuff. But this is probably the hardest question to answer.

I haven't heard to many people really articulate what Louisville is and have it encompass the entire city. I've heard some people say Louisville is progressive, but that really only encompasses the Highlands, downtown, and the Frankfort Ave. area. Parts of Eastern Jefferson County and Southwestern County are pretty conservative.

Once we get that out of the way then I want to know how they are going to make their vision happen? How does the west end fit into that vision? The South End? At this point in the discussion we may need to use the "no politcal Cliche' " rule. Because when we talk about any type of re/economic/ or any kind of development in the West End most politicians usually something along the lines of we need to lower crime first. Cool, but what that translate to for many West End residents is "We need even more cops on your streets, because we haven't apparently arrested enough of you guys yet. "

I want to hear something different. What plan/s do you have to reconnect my community back to the rest of the city? How are you going to improve economic development in Western Louisville? When I say improve economic development I don't mean more light industrial. Most of the light industrial businesses in Western Louisville don't employ residents from Western Louisville. They're great for the tax base of the city, but don't do anything for the community.

My next question would be about the future. How are you going to prepare Louisville for the future? What do you think the future holds? What is the future? This is another important question because the answer will tell a lot about where they plan to take our community. If you think the future is about finding niches and exploiting those niches then the focus of the next administration should be in that direction. There should be a clear and concise plan to get us from point A to point B. If they think the future is in Green jobs then there should be a plan to get us from where we are now to that point.

Basically, you can sum it up like this. What is Louisville, where do you want us to go, and you how do you plan to take everybody there? That shouldn't be to hard. Should it?

8664. What should be the next step?

Before I get into the meat of my post I just want to say that C.A.R.R. hasn't taken an official position of 8664. This is all my opinion. Now, that we have gotten that out of the way, what should be 8664's next move? They may have already done some of the things I'm about to suggest. But just in case they haven't I hope they like my ideas.

8664 has gained a lot of traction among the general population. Every poll I have seen about 8664 has been pretty positive. However, they haven't swayed many of the power-brokers in town. Most of the metro council members, the mayor, and top business CEO's favor the downtown bridge. That needs to change.

It was a good move to spend money on creating images and videos to show people what Louisville would look like without I-64 as it passes through downtown, but that's not enough. More needs to be done. 8664 needs to show how their idea will benefit people in the South-End and the East End. Currently many residents think that we have spent to much time and resources in downtown Louisville. I get the feeling that most East-Enders don't really care either way. Many of them don't come downtown and if they did I would imagine what they really want is re-designed Spaghetti-Junction.

I think the folks at 8664 need to reach out to the people in the south end and fiscals conservatives in the East-End. It's going to have to move beyond it's base in the Highlands if it's going succeed. I think they will find a very receptive audience if they focus on the fact that 8664 will save money, free up funds for transportation improvements for the South-end, and improve congestion downtown. I think they should set up a meeting with South-End leaders Chris Thieneman, and Dan Seum. I think they can find some common ground.

I think the same fiscal argument will work in the East-end, and as well as a message that includes how 8664 can improve their commute to and from downtown. They will need a facts based argument, and pound home how this will save everybody money.

I would take a page out of the republican handbook. The republicans (on a national level) may not be good at coming up with alternative ideas, but they sure are good at killing one. Just look at the healthcare debate. I'm pretty sure 8664 wants to take the "high ground" but they can still use a couple of plays from the republican playbook. One is to scare people with the prospect of paying up to a $3 toll to cross the bridge. Once you find out how much would that cost the average citizen every year I would call it a bridge tax. When the mayor elections come around you can say things like " So and so wants to tax you $1000 a year just to go to Indiana."

Maybe you can have people protest outside of city hall or the Mayor's community conversations. Either way you are going to have to put pressure on the establishment. Pressure they can't ignore. This means that 8664 will have to reach out to people they may not have other wise.

They can do it, and I think they can be successful. We need them to be successful.

Pro Boxing is Back

I am happy to announce that pro boxing has come back to Louisville. It may not have the luster it once had, but it is definitely back. Resurrection 2 promises to be an exciting event. There will be 7 fights and they all promise to be pretty good.

If you come to the fight you can see Derico Murray is considered to be an up and coming Welterweight. He's a local guy who is looking forward to making a big name for himself. He's long and a little lanky, but he's fast and has some decent power. It's good to see the city produce another good pro prospect.

Another interesting fighter to look out for is Alex Medina. He's originally from Mexico, but fights out of Lexington. He' another nice heavyweight prospects. I have seen him fight several times before and this guy never ceases to amaze me. He can really take a punch as well as give it. He never seems to get tired. He keeps coming and coming. He's one tough hombre as well as a really good guy.

Also look for Liborio Solis. He will also be in action. He wont be fighting Derico like the flyer says (there was delay on paperwork so we had shuffle some fights around), but he will be there. This guy came all the way from Venezuela to train and fight for Dennis Page in Louisville. He doesn't speak a word of English, but he wants to learn from one of the best trainers in the game. he is also considered to be a really good prospect.

One of the best things about these club fights is that you get to meet all of the fighters. They all hang around after the fight and are usually really approachable. Coming to the fights would be a great way to get introduced to the local fight scene, get to know some great guys, and see a good night of boxing. Once again the fight info is:

Resurrection 2

August 14th

Expo 5 (flee market on 7th street)

Doors open at 6 fight starts at 8PM

$20 in advance (ticketweb.com)

$25 at the door.

There's a Riot Going On!

I wanted to wait until the dust settled before I commented on the "riots" that took place in downtown Louisville. I think the media may have blown this out of proportion a little bit, but this still underscores a societal problem.

For the record I wasn't there. Everything about the event I learned from news reports, listening to Mark Gunn and Russ Parr on the radio and from some of my friends and neighborhood kids that did attend the event. Based on all of that i have come to some conclusions.

I think the media may have blown it our of proportion a little bit. There were several arrest and there were thousands of kids block several streets, but there wasn't the chaos and mayhem that you would have thought went on if you watched the news.

I think the promoters and sponsors of the event should have had more security on hand. Especially, since they have had problems in the past. 12 cops was nowhere near enough for the amount of kids that attended the event.

I'm not downplaying what happened. I just don't think it was the menacing situation the media made it out to be. However, I wanted an eyewitness report so I talked to some of the kids that attended the event. They couldn't understand why the cops got so physical, the media portrayed it as a near riot, and the general amount of negative press the event had gotten. Where was the positive press about the event ( a point Mark Gunn had also brought up)?

I told them that you have understand how things work. As young black kids you are not going to get the benefit of the doubt. When you have thousands of kids leaving an event the police and everybody else will be nervous. They are waiting for a fight to break out or for you guys to act like little thugs, and you didn't disappoint. You did exactly what people expected young black kids to do.

They shot back that it was just a handful kids that got into a fight. So. You are held to a different standard than other kids. If one of you guys do wrong then the entire group is wrong. If one of you guys act up and are bad then the entire group is bad. If one thing at an event where it is a majority of blacks kids there goes bad the whole event is bad. I told them that I know that isn't fair, but that's just the way it is.

Why do you think that in the Civil Rights movement Dr. king advocated a non-violent approach? If we had fought back, even if it might have seemed the right thing to do, the media would have branded the whole movement as violent and not worth a damn. the movement would have died a slow and painful death.

I then went on to explain to them just how much damage was done. B96.5 will loose some advertisers over this. Those majority white businesses that would have never considered advertising on an Urban station wont now. The ones that have just signed up to advertise on the station in the past 2-3 years might stop, and you can't blame them. Would want kids that are going to start fights patronize your business.

I told them I know it's just a small number of bad apples, but you all will be painted with the same brush. It's not fair, but life isn't fair. I also told them don't be surprised if Russ doesn't come back to Louisville, and if he does it wont be downtown.

The kids were a little hurt, but they understood. I told them to keep their chins up. I went through the same-thing as kid myself. They should join a neighborhood youth board or work with neighborhood association. There are others to get events in Louisville that you want. You just have to work it.

All in all it was an unfortunate event. I would like to see the Russ Bus comeback to Louisville, we shall see what happens.

Segregation, Why Should I Care?

I was talking to one of my friends about my latest blog post and he said something interesting to me. "Why should I care about Western Louisville?" He liked what I wrote, and he understood where I was coming from. He just didn't see why he should care. So, I thought I would explain why he should care, or at least take an interest.

I can some up why you should care in one word. Demographics. If you care at all about this city then you should care about where the demographics and what they mean. In the not to distant future there will be more Black and Brown folks than White folks. The vast majority of kids under 13 are either Black or Brown. That's even true in Jefferson County. Did you know the US is the 5th largest spanish speaking nation in the world?

The city can't keep ignoring the neighborhoods in which the vast majority of these populations live. Why? Because they are the future of the city. The future of the country. If things don't change then more and more young Black and Brown will do like most of friends have already done. Move.

Almost every black kid I knew growing up has either moved to Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, and Chicago. Most of them to Atlanta. They moved because they wanted to be around other young black professionals. Something that you really don't see a lot of in Louisville.

I know a lot of young white kids move as well. We need to keep all of our young, bright, and talented professionals. The only problem is that the pool of young white talented kids are shrinking while the pool of young black and brown kids are growing. We can ignore the black and brown kids like we have been, but that would put us at a serious disadvantage going forward. Why do that yourself?

The other problem is that we don't treat all people the same. The years of racial and economic segregation have taken their toll on the Black community. This means it's going to take great resources to improve those communities. These are resources that we are going to have to spend if we want to remain competitive. Not just Louisville, but the nation as a whole. If Louisville can start now then we will have a HUGE leg up on every other community.

It's not hard to attract to young black professionals. You just have to make us feel wanted and that we have the same opportunity as everybody else to compete. The city may have to start to black chamber of commerce, or an arts center in Western Louisville. We have to do our part as well. It can be done.

When I was in high school and college all of my friends were telling me that Atlanta was the place to go. When I went to Atlanta for college i could see why. I had never seen so many young black professionals in one place. A few years later the hot cities were Charlotte, Houston, and Dallas.

Louisville can do the same thing. The West-End is a beautiful part of town. It doesn't have anywhere near the blight that black communities in other cities have. The foundation is here or are we afraid that Louisville may become to poor, old and black?

Are we a segregated city?

We form like Voltron....

GZA

Member of the Wu-Tang Clan

The quote I used above has been said by at least 3 different Wu-tang members. It refers to how the 9 members of Wu-Tang (each with completely different rhyme styles and on different record labels) work together as a single unit. Hearing that quote got me thinking about Louisville. How strong could our city be if its neighborhoods worked together as a single unit?

I'm not sure in my life time if I will ever know the answer to that question. I've been to every corner of this city and county. Prospect, West Point, PRP, Shawnee, Pee Wee Valley, and Shively. You name it and I've been there. From my travels around the city and county I can say one thing about us. We are still a very segregated city. I would even say hyper-segregated.

The West End is almost all black. Russell, Shawnee, California, Park Duvall, and Chickasaw are pretty much all black neighborhoods. The only West End neighborhood that is still predominately white is Portland. When I was a kid when you crossed Market street (the traditional dividing line between Russell and Portland) the neighborhoods went from all black to pretty much all white. It was literally that dramatic.

The same can be said for Eastern Jefferson County as well. You can almost the number of black families in Anchorage on one hand. But on the border of Middletown and Anchorage sit 2 small almost all black communities. Berrytown and Griffytown. NewBurg is almsot all black, while the surrounding neighborhoods are almost all white. Schnizelberg is almost all white while just a block a way Fort Hill is almost all black.

Don't get me wrong. There are semi-integrated neighborhoods. You're not going to find to many, if any neighborhoods with a 50/50 mix. Then again you wont in most cities. All of this segregation leads to an out of sight out of mind mentality.

The neighborhoods west of 9th street tend to get left behind when it comes to economic development. Left behind is putting it nicely. Usually, the only time the city talks about redevelopment of the west-end is when they want to move more light industrial into the area. Tear down whole blocks of housing and build chemical plants or warehousing. If you want to see an example drive South down 13th street (from Broadway) and take a gander. You'll see a big Porter Paint warehouse, and Sud Chemical among other businesses. When I was in high school this was once neighborhoods. I had several friends that lived on these blocks. Now, it's all warehouses and other such businesses. It wouldn't be as bad if most of the businesses employed people from the area. To bad they don't.

Living in Western Louisville is sometimes like living in a separate city. Every year Crusade for Children collects money on every major street corner in Louisville. Except the West End. There were zero Forcastle posters west of 9th street. IF it weren't for the handful of LEO newsstands in the West End we would have no idea what happens in the rest of the city.

When I was president of YPAL's diversity committee I would sometimes hold meeting Nia Center on 29th and Broadway. Out of a committee of about 100 people how many do you think showed up? 1. 2 if you count me. The most people I ever got was 5 at Expressions of You coffee house. I could go on and on, but I think you see where I am coming from.

You would think in 2009 things would be different. Not only is Western Louisville segregated by racial make up from the city of Louisville, but it is also segregated financially as well. If you don't believe me take a look at this study here.

There is a lot of potential here in Western Louisville. A lot. If the city would just help in the re-development of Western Louisville the city as a whole would benefit. If property taxes go up in the West that means more money for schools. If the residents can find better jobs then the tax base goes up. You get the idea. Unfortunately, Western Louisville is just the dumping ground for the city's poor, drug addicts, and other people that the East end doesn't want. Maybe one day the city honestly will try and reconnect the West-end and it's other minority communities to the rest of the city. Maybe.

Lights, Camera, Action!

I was reading PageOneKentucky today when I cam across several articles about jobs in Kentucky. One is from Huffpost and it list the cities hit the hardest by unemployment. If look at the map they provide you notice that Jefferson, Co and some of it's surrounding counties are in the hardest hit section.

The next article I read was about where Kentucky ranks compared to other states on wide swath of health issues. I'm sure it doesn't surprise anyone that we are near the bottom in most categories. We are #1 in smoking, 7th fattest, #2 when it comes to adult physical inactivity, and #6 when it comes to over 15% of kentuckians living in poverty. The original article can be found here.

If you read the entire article and scroll down to the bottom you find something very interesting. It list the states top 5 industries. #1 manufacturing, #2 government, real estate (rental and leasing), health care, social assistance, and retail trade. A very interesting mix. i was surprised that none of the Kentucky's signature industries were listed. Horse industry. No. Bourbon. No. Coal. No.

Looking at the list of Kentucky's top 5 industries it's no wonder why we are in the shape we are in. It's also no wonder why Louisville is in the shape it is in. Louisville is still grappling with the transition from manufacturing economy to the new age/information/service economy. We are still trying to use our geographical location and our history as a transportation hub to our advantage. We are trying to become the logistic hub of the south/west/ and midwest. That's not a bad idea, and it's one that should be a top priority for the city. However, the city should also find a way to transition and brand itself for the new world.

We are Possibility City. I think that is a perfect brand for the city, now we just have to live up to the hype. I think the city should set aside $200,000 and start the Louisville Film Commission. There are a lot of filmmakers here in Louisville, and they could use our help. I think the first thing the film commission should do is just get a handle on what exactly is going on in and around Louisville. I don't think there is one agencies in city government that can tell you how much is being spent on film in Louisville. That needs to change. Once we get a handle on how big the industry is then we should try to expand what we have. The commission could hold workshops on how to get financing from venture capitalist. Walk them through pitching their ideas to the Venture Club of Louisville. The commission could then help raise money for Fund for the Arts, as long as the funds raise go towards filmmakers. These are just the initial steps. As the commission gets a handle on the local scene then we can look to attract outside filmmakers, and starting a film school. I would also advise the commission to advertise Louisville in indy film magazines.

I like the idea of the film industry a lot in Louisville because it's such a natural fit. We have one of the best theater companies in the world with Actor Theater of Louisville. Film would be a great tie-in. The Film industry also needs carpenters, caterers, tailors, electricians, drivers, and a ton of other skilled/non-skilled jobs. It touches so many other industries that Louisville already has.

The Film industry also has something else going for it. It attracts creative people. Creative people attract other creative people. Painters, musicians, directors, tailors, chefs, 3D computer artist, and many other creative sorts attract each other. We each feed off of the creative energy of other creative people. The film industry would be another piece to Louisville's creative puzzle. I think it could be the biggest piece over time.

Revitalizing Russell Pt 2

Times are rough and tough like leather...

C.R.E.A.M.

Raekwon the Chef

This has been much harder to write than I had initially thought. In part 1 I gave you a short history on how we got to where we are. In this part I wanted to give some concrete solutions about what can be done. I was going to write a long piece about what should be done, but because of my radio show and other events we are doing I didn't have the time. Instead I'm going talk about a couple of ideas that I had.

1) 8664

I can't speak for CARR on this one, but I can speak for myself. We need to tear down 64 as it runs through downtown, and create waterfront park west. This would help to reconnect Western Louisville to the rest of the city and would also help to spur redevelopment dollars west of 9th street.

The reason I like the 8664 plan is because it reconnects our city back to our biggest resource. The River. It would save Kentucky almost $1 Billion. Build the East End bridge, tear down 8664, and expand Waterfront Park west.

2) If you are going to build low income housing and apartments all over Russell at least make them mixed income. If you are going to build a low income apartment complex make it mixed income. Have 1/4 for residents of public housing, 1/4 for senior citizens, 1/4 income based, and 1/4 market rate.

This brings the diversity that a neighborhood needs in-order to re-stabilize itself. If the city is going to build apartment buildings they should also look at building a mixed use building. Apartments above and retail below.

3) Bring back the forgivable second mortgage. When we purchased our house we used the forgivable second mortgage and it was a big help. However, that money was just for new construction. We should expand that to include rehabbed housing. That way we could save some of the older houses that are still in the neighborhood and keep our identity.

Although the housing market is relatively weak, I think having a second forgivable mortgage, the one time $8000 first time home buyer, and the recently passed tax breaks for building/remodeling green we should be able to move some houses.

4) If we build these houses and apartments then we should look at partnering with Youth Build to build some of these units. That way we can train kids in the area to build houses in their/our neighborhood. They would learn not only how to build houses, but to build green. Thus preparing them for the future, and hopefully providing a financial foundation on which the community can grow.

These are just some of my ideas. More to follow.

Should Louisville Grow Up?

 Should Louisville grow up? I have been reading about vertical farming and I think this is something that Louisville could implement, on a small scale. For those who don't know, vertical farming is basically farming in a skyscraper. There are many reasons to consider vertical farming. One of those is that by some estimates crop yields will be down 20% because of global warming. By the year 2050 the world will have at least another 3 billion people to feed. We just don't have enough land to do it. 

Those are fine stats, but is this something Louisville should even consider? Afterall we aren't exactly a huge city with millions of people we have to feed. Most vertical farming buildings I've seen are 30 story skyscrapers with all sorts of super cool ego tech built in. Solar panels, rain water catch basins, wind turbines, and the best of hydroponics. I'm not sure Louisville is ready for that. A 30 story building would be one of the tallest buildings in the city. 

If Louisville was to take on a project of this nature I would suggest we go in one of 2 directions. The first is ti build a 15 story tower like the one pictured above. This building will not only have the hydroponic farms, but it would included housing as well as retail. It would have to be a true multi-purpose building. I'm sure there would be no shortage of places to sell the food that was grown. I just wonder if we could make it economically feasible. I think we could make it feasible if we had a physical location to hold a year round farmers market. I think there is also a market for some of our local restaurants and home grown organic food stores. 

The second possibility would be to offer tax breaks for people to install rooftop gardens, and to coordinate a series of urban gardens . The food raised here would follow the same economic model of the vertical farm. 

If these models could produce cheaper produce prices I would like the city to set up a fund to entice our local organic grocery stores to open up stores in Western and Southwestern Louisville. These wouldn't have to be full fledge grocery stores, they could be small neighborhood stores or bodegas. They would use/buy the produce produced from the vertical farms. This should prove cheaper especially in the winter months. 

For more info on vertical farms you can read here and here. 

JCPS students exposed to dangerous chemicals daily

I ran into this study while I was reading news on the net. JCPS ranked last out of 736 counties in the southeast for health risk from air pollution. The study was conducted using the latest available data possible which is 2005. The Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District refutes the study finding because the data used was a year before the S.T.A.R. program started. S.T.A.R. program is designed to tackle Louisville's historically bad air quality. 

I can see the Metro Air Pollution districts point, but lets be honest. How much ground can you make up in 4 years? Louisville could have gone from last to what middle of the pact at best.  That's good movement, but is it really enough? Here is a link to the article. Enjoy.

What's that smell in the air?

Derby Cruising Pt 2

Another Derby has come and gone. I must admit that this was one of the best derby's yet. Well, at least for me. As far as Derby Cruising was concerned it was pretty much a non-event. It turned out pretty much like I had predicted except they didn't close Broadway. I would say that would made it a pretty good derby.

Louisville has lost a champion

Yesterday morning Louisville lost one of its heros. Former Heavyweight champion Greg page passed away. He was partially paralyzed from injuries he suffered from a fight in 2001. He will be missed. 

City to enforce a "relaxed" version of it's ban on Derby Cruising

It's that's time of year. Derby Time! That means the city will be cracking down on Derby cruising. However, according to the Courier-Journal this year they will "relax" enforcement of the city bans. Basically you will be able to drive on Broadway, the West Ends main business artery, this year. In years past they have blocked all access to Broadway from around 9th street to about 34th street. Which means that you had to drive blocks out of the way to do things like buy groceries, because the only grocer in Western Louisville is the Krogers on 28th and Broadway.  

I almost forgot. We will be able to use parks this year. This is the first time in years that we will be able to use the parks during Derby Weekend. Massa sho is kind.  

I'm interested to see how this turns out. Every year it's a little different. I remember one year when they completely blocked off the West End during Derby. It took me almost 2 hours to find my way home. I don't think I have ever been as mad before in my life. I know the city would never block off the Highlands or Middletown like they did the West End. 

Even with the relaxed standards I'm pretty sure that some things wont change. There will be at least 300 police officers on or near Broadway. They will wind up closing some parts of Broadway or some side streets. Like every year the police helicopter will be a near constant presence.  Starting Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon the Ghettobird (urbanslang for police helicopter) will be in the skies 24-7. There will be police on the tops of the tallest buildings overlooking Broadway. They will wind up closing Chickasaw Park at least twice over the weekend. Last but not least. You wont be able to drive 5 blocks without seeing the police pull someone over. 

I live about 2 blocks from Broadway on a busy street that feeds Broadway. Personally, cruising never really bothered me.  I just did like everybody else. Set up tent and sold food from in front of my house. The cruisers pretty much stayed on Broadway, so getting around wasn't that bad. I could just take the many side streets to where I wanted to go. 

I can understand the city wanting to stop Derby because it was a "problem." The main problem being that it didn't fit in with the image of the Derby. Yeah traffic was really bad on Broadway, but like I said most of the side streets were open.  All the LMPD had to do was call the Daytona or the Panama City police departments and get some ideas on how to effectively "police" cruising, but I digress.

Now that Derby Cruising is no more, I'm at least happy they opened Broadway and the parks. However, there are several night spots on broadway that can now operate normally on Derby weekend. The problem is that like most night spots in urban neighborhoods parking is limited. Usually that's not a problem because you could just park on the street. However, you can't park on the street. I wonder how that will be resolved? 

We will see what happens. Here is the link to the Story in the C-J.

Bringing Boxing back to Da Ville

Back in the 50's, 60's, 70's, and early 80's boxing was a major sport in Louisville, KY.  We had a local television show dedicated to local ametuer boxing, the mayor had a big tourney, and ever community center had a gym with a paid trainer. All of this investment in boxing paid off. Louisville produced 3 heavyweight champions in that time period. Jimmy Ellis, Greg Page and Muhammad Ali. For the record, Louisville has been home to 4 heavyweight champions. No other city on the planet has had more heavyweight champions! The first one was Marvin Hart in 1906. When you think about it that's amazing considering the size of Louisville. 

Unfortunately, sometime in the early 80's the funding dried up. When the funding dried up so did the talent. Why not bring boxing back to Louisville as part of the city's overall economic development strategy? You would think a city with such a rich history in the sport would try and revive it. Luckily for us a group of people are trying to do just that. I'm happy to say that I am one of them.

For those that don't know me my name is Haven Harrington, and I am the host of the Main Event Sports Show. I'm also a member of CARR and the guy behind the blog. Several months ago we at the Main Event Sports Show got the idea that we want to resurrect boxing in Louisville. We just weren't sure how we were going to accomplish that goal. Then last week we got an e-mail about a boxing match taking place last Friday. The fight was being put on by Dennis Page, the brother of ex-heavyweight champ Greg Page. We contacted Mr. Page about the fight and decided to go. We had a blast. More importantly we ran into someone who wanted the same thing as us. To bring Boxing back to Louisville in a major way. 

Dennis Page has a deep love for boxing and is putting on a series of fights to determine the Kentucky champion. This is the first time in years that local professional boxers will be able to fight in their home state. He is also heavily involved in ameture boxing as well and will soon be putting on a tourney for them.  His gym, Baxter Memorial Gym , will be home to both pro and ameture fighters. This will give kids a chance to see how their workouts now could become careers of the future. They will be exposed to all sorts of tourneys, AAU boxing, and even collegiate boxing. If nothing else they will learn discipline and how to keep in shape. However, this is just the first step. We have to reintroduce boxing to Louisville. We also have to introduce the local fighters to Louisville as well. People us to know the local fighters. Their fights were in the paper, and most people knew where the local gym was. 

There are only 2 boxing gyms in Louisville. 2. In it's heyday the city use to have about 15. To add a little perspective on this subject, St. Louis has about 40 gyms, Indy has close to 25-30, Ashland, Ky a city of about 22,000 has 7 gyms, and the midwest boxing mecca Cincinnati has about 30-40 gyms. Granted, not all of these are pure boxing gyms. Some of these gyms also serve as MMA gyms, but they have a strong boxing training. Louisville has about 4-5 MMA gyms that also have boxing trainers, but it's mainly boxing as it relates to MMA and not the complete sport. This puts Louisville at a serious disadvantage. The city has also lost its Golden Glove membership. However, with only 2 gyms it's  not really worth the effort to get another one. There aren't enough fighters or fans to support one.

So, where do we go from here? I think the first step has already been taken. We have to put on fights. No matter how small they are. We also have to be consistent. The fights need to be on a regular basis. We need to get people use to going to fights. I honestly don't think that will be a big problem. Louisvillans love sports. We supported boxing once before and I think we will again. 

I think we can build on the first fight and make them bigger and better each time we will begin to get some of those old fans back and also attract new ones. Once awareness has been raised it will make it easier to recruit kids. Especially if they can see an upgrade path. Then maybe we can open up another gym. we will also do our part by trying to get sponsors and using our Sports Talk radio show to introduce the public to boxing. 

These are just the first few steps. We have an idea on where we want to go from here and how to do it. But we have to get started first. Check back for updates. I'll keep you posted.

Inner City Blues Pt 2.

I've been giving a lot of thought as of late on how to revitalize Russell and for that matter other inner-city neighborhoods. What's the best way to reinvigorate an inner-city mostly minority community? Should we push for lower taxes? A special financing district? Honestly, I don't think any of those will work in the long run. What will happen is what has already happened in Russell. You get a lot of light industry that moves in to take advantage of the tax breaks, but they never hire anybody from the neighborhood.  Hence the neighborhood doesn't get any better. It looks good in the paper, but the community stays the same.  Louisville has tried to revitalize Russell. Tearing down dilapidated homes and building new ones. The City has gone as far as tearing whole blocks to build a new neighborhood called the Ceder Street Development. I haven't seen the master plans for the development, but the few that have been built so far look like those in another western Louisville neighborhood called Park DuValle.  Personally, I think the architecture is a bit out of character for neighborhood, but it still works. Currently, they only have about 6 houses sold. 6 out of about 40. Once the housing market picks up hopefully more houses will be built.

I think there are several avenues that cities can pursue to revitalize these inner-city neighborhoods.  I know I said tax breaks may not be the way to go. And I agree to a certain extent. I think there should be a certain conditions on the tax breaks like the business (especially if they employee more than 25 and indeed are the warehouse/light industrial type) have to hire some people from the community. 

I would also like to see the use of forgivable 2nd mortgages.  I know when we purchased this house in Russell we were given a forgivable second mortgage. We were lucky, because the program we used was only for new construction. Our houses isn't new. However, we qualified, because we complete gutted the interior of the house. So in essence it was like a new house. I would like to see that program expanded to also included rehabbed houses and not just new construction. We still have a lot of old homes that need a lot of TLC. A program like this might help to save some of these houses. This program was federally funded, and the funds have dried up. I know Louisville has a severe budget shortfall so I don't expect this program to be reinstated, but it should be reinstated as soon as things turn around.

I also think cities have to do a much better job of reaching out to the community, and let people know that it is a priority that we revitalize Russell and neighborhoods like it. Take the forgivable second mortgage. If the city sent a representative to the area churches, civic organizations and actively told people that we have up to 15k in a forgivable second mortgage I think the city might be surprised at how many people would bite. The only way we found out about it was because we dug through the city's website and happen to stumble upon it. It shouldn't be so difficult. A revitalize urban neighborhood can only benefit the city in the long and short run. Why hide such a valuable tool?

One big mistake I see cities do all of the time is that they tear town whole sections of their inner-city neighborhoods, and then replace them with suburban style infill. A neighborhood that once had a lot of density and alleys now has a lot less density, no alleys, and a form factor that doesn't fit the character of the surround neighborhood. What usually happens is that the neighborhood gentrified. Hence reformed. But what happens to the poor people who use to live there? You can only reshuffle the chairs on the deck so many ways.

I'm not advocating that cities shouldn't try this sort of gentrification. I'm just saying that there are better ways to do it. I'm not against having poor people stay in the neighborhood. Quite the opposite. I think any infill projects such as these need to keep the density that have always had. instead of kicking all of the poor people put build a mix use/ mix income neighborhood.  Build apartment buildings that have market rate apartments, income based, and public housing in the same building. It's been done before, and it seems to have worked. an example of this would be Park Du Valle and Liberty Green.   

I would also like to see cities advocate urban gardening and famer's markets in poorer inner-city neighborhoods. Urban neighborhoods tend to be food islands. That means that residents usually don't have that many options for buying food. Take the west end of Louisville. Louisville's West-end comprises several neighborhoods and has about 75,ooo residents. There are only 3 grocers to service the community. To put it another way. Louisville averages 1 grocer for ever 12,500 residents. In western Louisville it's about 1 grocer for 25,000 residents. I would bet that it's about the same in most other urban neighborhoods across the country. I think this is one area where cities can provide some assistance. Urban gardening and farmers markets may not be the answer, but they are a piece of the answer. Cities and community agencies have to do a better job of explaining the "urban market" to large retailers. Most chain retailers are set up to cater to the suburban customers. Hence, they chose to place stores based on number of cars passing a certain point, and number of credit card transactions. That works well in a part a town that is geared toward automobiles. In a poorer part of town it doesn't work so well. In poorer urban communities people tend not to drive and pay for a lot of items with cash. Cities have to advocate building smaller stores. They all don't have to be huge big box retailers to serve urban communities. Smaller stores will work and would be just as profitable. I don't expect this change to come quickly if at all. Which is why I think farmers markets are the way to go. Maybe cities can offer grants and other incentives to local non-profits/businesses to open up small store farmer market grocers. Like this neighborhood stores of the past century.   

These are just some of the things I think cities could do to revitalize their urban neighborhoods. If nothing else this might help stabilize them. I don't think any one person or group has all of the answers. In the end, the community itself, with help from city government will be the best course of action.

 Earth day is fast approaching, and CARR along with the families , teachers, and Staff on Byck Elementary plan on doing our part. On Saturday, April 18 we are going to have a community clean up. We will begin gathering in the playground area of Byck Elementary (2328 Ceder St.) at 10:00 A.M.

All volunteers will be assembled into various groups and disbursed around 10:30. We will all meet back at Byck at noon for a FREE lunch. 

I know this is Thunder Over Louisville Weekend, but you can give up your morning for such a worth while cause. Operation Brightside will provide gloves, garbage bags, and everything else we may need. All you have to do is show up.

You don't have to RSVP, but it would be appreciated. That way we can make sure we have enough food and supplies. If you have any questions or just want to RSVP contact the Angela Zito at 502-259-8490 or e-mail her at Zito.Angela@hotmail.com

An interesting look at who is getting hit hardest by the economy

In a previous post I talked about things Louisville could do to boost its economy and to make it a more competitive city. I was planning on writing a follow up post when I ran into a article in the New York Times entitled "How Some Places Fare Better in Hard Times" . 

The article is by Harvard economist Edward Glaeser. When he compared unemployment statistics across metropolitan areas and he found an interesting pattern. Cities that tended to have high unemployment rates shared similar commonalties.  The cities had a reliance on manufacturing, most of their employment was outside of the city center, and they tended to have low share of their adults with college degrees. 

While most of the cities that are really doing poor have unemployment rates well into the double digits, Louisville's is at 9.2%. We aren't as bad off as some of the other cities, but we have a lot of the problems that they do. we use to be a heavy manufacturing town.  Most of that has left, but Ford and GE are still here. We also trail most of our competitor cities when it comes to percent of population with college degrees. However, we have made great strides in that area. As far as being centralized. That's a good question. A lot of the jobs either have moved or are moving to east end of town, but with the resurgence of downtown that may be changing. 

I think Louisville has been going through the transformation from manufacturing to service economy. We have just been doing it at a very slow pace. I think we will weather this economic downturn without losing to many more large manufacturers. But their days are numbered. Ford, GE, and the plants that make up Rubbertown wont be here to much longer. DuPont has already closed. I'm sure others are next. 

Louisville is trying to be a medical and distribution hub. I think that's nobel and something we should pursue, but I don' think that's going to keep us going. We have to embrace our artsyness, and push forward with creating a truly creative economy. We can continue to try and prop up manufacturing (which in the case of Ford and Ge we should until we can replace those high paying jobs), or we can reach for the future with something that will differentiate us from the pack. 

What Louisville should do

Economic development is tricky. How exactly do you set your city apart when almost every other city is trying to do exactly the same thing that you are doing? Every city has something unique about it. Indy has the Indy 500. Louisville has the Derby. Nashville has country music. Those are very unique things that each cities leverages to its advantage. However, it's not enough. You still need more. You have to be diversified. Especially in our increasingly global economy. Cities are no longer just competing against each other for business HQ. They are also competing for talent. Talent that isn't afraid to move at the drop of the dime from city to city or even country to country. 

According to Greater Louisville Inc, the metro chamber of commerce, Their focus is on building Louisville niche growth markets. Logistics and distribution, and health related enterprises, and  entrepreneurism. Health related enterprises would be things like going after the biomedical industry. Entrepreneurism is pretty much like it sounds. making it easy for people to start small to medium sized businesses. Which is a pretty good strategy. Louisville is known for being a place where its pretty easy to start your own biz and be pretty successful. Tumbleweed, Papa John's, Ralleys, Chi Chi's, KFC, and many more had their starts in Louisville. 

Going after the Biomedical industry is going to be an uphill struggle. The hardest part is that we just don't have a prestigious top tier research university that would attract the type of talent needed to keep something like that going. The university of Louisville has come a long way. The medical school has grown by leaps and bounds. The number and size of the National Institute of Health of grants have grown every year. However, we still lag far behind our competitor cities and regions. Louisville's biggest problem is that the state of Kentucky will never adequately fund its universities.  The other problem with going after biomed is how many jobs would it actually create. I'm sure there would be a lot of jobs for scientist, but what about the average folk. Will people with regular degrees be able to take advantage of the growing Biomed sector? I know the high paying jobs will do a lot for the cities coffers, but what about the vast majority of the populace? The other downside is that most biotech firms seem to almost always get taken over by Big Pharma. Usually once that happens Big Pharma buys all of the intellectual property dissolves the company and moves on. What would Louisville have left? The guys who started it would make a killing, but what about the city in the long run? I'm not saying this isn't a worthwhile goal. It is a very worthwhile goal. It's just going to require a lot of work, and take decades before we can really start to reap the benefits.  

Louisville should keep pursuing those economic development strategies. I just think that Louisville should just take advantage of its other strengths. Strengths, I think once properly cultivated, could lead to greater prosperity for the city. It would also help to Louisville to stand out amongst its peers. What are those strengths. Simple. The Arts. 

Louisville is a quirky artsy town. Why not take advantage of that. The city with the help of Greater Louisville Inc.,  should start a film commission. Like most film commissions they should try and recruit hollywood films to be shot in and around Louisville. However, I think their biggest function should be to cultivate the local talent that's already here.The film commission should educate the venture club (local meeting of venture capitalist in Louisville) about investing in low budget movies. Then educate local filmmakers on how to present their ideas to the venture club. The Film commission would keep track of all of the movies made in Louisville so we know just how much the local film industry is contributing to the local economy. I would also like the commission to sell locally made movies on it's website. This would be a way for the commission and local filmmakers to make a little bit of money. The commission would also fund education programs for youth. You always need to groom the next generation of talent. 

As you can tell I'm pretty high on the local filmmaker angle.  I think this would be a natural fit for Louisville and something that can honestly be done in short order. The reason I would concentrate most of the commissions energy on local films is because I think they offer the greatest return on investment.  If you're lucky you might attract one medium budget hollywood film to your city. A film that has the budget of say $40 Million. However, most of that money will not be spent in Louisville. They might higher drives, rent some homes, get hotels, catering, and the like. But as soon as filming is wrapped up they are gone. That's not a bad thing, and if Louisville could do it great. However, if Louisville could produce 10 $1 million dollar low budget movies a year the money would have a greater impact in the community. First, most of the people who worked on the film will most likely be from Louisville. Their wages would stay here. Second, you will be building up a film workforce that will make attracting bigger budget movies easier since you would have built up a talent base. It's a win win. Thirdly, the education barrier isn't as high and the pay is usually above average.

I also think the city needs to get more serious about cultivating local businesses. 4th street live is great. The Center City project looks cool. However, Louisville has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to prop up an out of town company. Why not put several million dollars in a fund to try and lure local businesses to finish building out the rest of 4th street. You could make the money forgivable loans up to $250,000. If you could add a lot of local flavor to say several national chains I think it would do a lot for the city. you can go to any city and go to a HardRock Cafe. You can't get Wick's pizza everywhere.

Louisville should also try and become the green capital of the Midwest. We should have the most LEED certified buildings in our region. We should have more bike lanes, houses with solar panels, and first rate mass transit. While this may not be "economic development" per se it does create a progressive environment. That progressive environment is what will attract the younger (and young at heart) talent. People want to believe that they can make a difference in their hometowns. Even if they they really don't have voice they need to believe that they do. Being a progressive town that is a quirky artsy place gives people the feeling that they can make a change or try something different. If a town can tolerate and even cultivate it's funky, quirky artsy folks, then it will also do the same for the straight and narrow guys. It makes everybody feel like they can fit and that they do have a place. More importantly, it makes people like you have their back. Which means, that I'm not as afraid to try something new because I have support. 

This might be the biggest economic development tool Louisville has. Making people feel like they belong. 

What's going to happen to Market Street?

What's going to happen to Market Street as it runs through Russell? I took some pictures last year of west Market as part of our historic preservation efforts. Now as I go down Market Street I noticed that several of the buildings have been torn down. This bothers me. Older urban neighborhoods like Russell need their older building. 

These building are very flexible and can/could have a variety of uses. Besides, it's usually cheaper to rehab one of these older buildings than to build new ones. It's already hard enough to convince someone to come and start a business in Russell. It's going to be even harder to convince a business to build a brand new structure that fits in with the urban character of Russell that will most likely cost several million dollars. Besides these older buildings give Russell it's character. 

Here are a couple of photos of some of those older buildings on Market that still stand.

Revitalizing Russell Pt 1 Inner City Blues

One of the main missions of CARR is to revitalize the Russell Neighborhood.  We want to bring it back to it's former glory. I know that is a very lofty goal. Very lofty. And, to be honest, I'm not sure how achievable it really is. It is really difficult to revitalize an urban neighborhood. Like most predominately inner-city African-American neighborhoods, Russell is usually ignored by the rest of the city. We have become a place to warehouse the city's poor, and a good depository for it's halfway houses. 

I could go on and on about the problems and hurdles that Russell faces, but I'm not. I've always been the type of guy to focus on solutions. I believe in order to find a solution you first must know what the problem is, but more importantly, the root cause of the problem. That's why this first installment deals so much with Louisville's history. You have to know how you got to where you are if you plan to move forward. In the following installments I'm going to talk about plans that we have come up with to try and revitalize Russell. I'm also going to talk a lot about how to get the ear of your elected officials. To get them to pay attention to you and act on your proposals. Maybe you might be able to learn something that could benefit your neighborhood or city. We could also learn a thing or 2 from you as well. Let's start with a brief history lesson. 

 I'm not going to go in-depth into the history of Russell and the history of African-Americans in Louisville, but I will give you a brief overview. I believe this is essential because some of the things that have happened in Louisville's past is directly affecting what's going on today. But you can say this about almost every city and it's relationship to it's majority African-American neighborhoods.   

First lets look at the history of Louisville and the history of race relations in Louisville. In the early years Louisville was a key player in Slavery in the United States. After the United States outlawed the importation Africans, Louisville became the central distribution point of slaves being sold to the south.  The term "sold down the river" was first coined in Louisville. Slaves, like horses, were bred on Ky farms, and brought to Louisville to be "sold down the river" to plantations in the south.  At the same time Louisville was also home to free Blacks. Free Blacks who had the right to vote. In fact, were encourage to vote. This is quite odd. In every other city in Kentucky the opposite was true. In fact, many of the cities free blacks lived in houses in predominately White neighborhoods. Now, these houses fronted the alleys and were very small, but they were still in wealthy White neighborhoods. Louisville really wasn't segregated until the Black population crossed the 10% barrier. Until then Blacks could go to movie theaters and sit in the front row, sit anywhere on street cars, and the like. This again, is the exact opposite of what happened everywhere else in Kentucky. 

Louisville has always been a city where the main populace never really wants to ruffle any feathers. A go along to get along type of city. It always has been and it still is. Don't get me wrong. Blacks may have had it a tad bit easier in Louisville than in many cities in the south and north, but there still was a lot of racism in the city. Louisville still had it's share of violent protest and riots. 

Another major influence on race relations in Louisville and on the psyche of the city as a whole is it's location. Louisville was once known as the gateway to the south. All Ohio river traffic had to stop here. Most railways ran right through Louisville. However, if you look at the map, Louisville is in a kind of no mans land. We aren't the South. We have some southern ways, but we're not southern.  We're not exactly in the Midwest. We have some midwestern architecture (just like we have a great mix of Southern architecture), and we have some midwestern attitudes, but we still aren't quite midwestern. We have a little East Coast attitude, and some of that western frontier spirit. However, we are neither east nor west. Louisville has an identity crisis. We can be very progressive and we can be very conservative all at the same time.  That's why Blacks always had the right to vote, and were encourage to vote. But, there was still rampant racism. That's why we propose these grand building projects, but then we fight them tooth and nail. 

With the history of Louisville as a backdrop lets look at a brief history of Russell. Russell was originally one of Louisville's first "suburbs." The neighborhood that would become known as Russell was founded around the 1870's. It was a place where the city's wealthiest citizens would call home. They moved to stately victorian mansions on such grand streets as Jefferson, Walnut (president day Muhammad Ali Blvd.), and Chestnut. The streets in-between these, Madison, Ceder, and Magazine is where the working class lived. Behind the Mansions there were small shotgun houses that fronted the alleys. In most of these houses is where some of Louisville's Black population lived. As the Black population of Louisville started to rise they slowly moved into Russell. As more and more Blacks moved in the white population started to move out. White flight. By the early 1900's Russell was pretty much an all black neighborhood. 

Russell was the center of African-American life in Louisville. It was the Harlem of KY. Russell was a mix of some of the wealthiest African-Americans , the working class, and some of it's poorest citizens. The settlement pattern pretty much followed that of the previous inhabitants. The wealthiest African-Americans lived on Jefferson, Walnut and Chestnut. the rest on the streets that fall in-between those.  

Russell also boasted a rich business district known as Old Walnut Street. Old Walnut Street was home to several theaters, restaurants, night clubs, roller rinks, homes and schools. It was the heart of Russell. It was also Russell's connection to the heart of the city.  If you look at a map of the City Russell is pretty much shaped like a square. The original neighborhood was bounded by 6th street on the eastern edge, Jefferson street on the northern edge, Broadway on the Southern edge, and 32nd street on it's western edge. 

Russell's declined followed that of many inner-city neighborhoods. First, the end of de-facto segregation meant that Russell's wealthiest residents could move out of the neighborhood. Which they did. Urban Renewal did the rest. Under Urban Renewal's watch Russell lost it's connection to the heart of the city. Everything from 6th to 9th street was torn down. Everything on Old Walnut street except two buildings were razed. In fact, they razed almost every structure in Russell to 13th Street.  Russell was effectively cut off from the rest of the city. 9th street now became Russell's western edge. Then when 1-64 was being built the 9th street exit became of 4 lane boulevard with a tree lined center median. 9th street went from your typical city street to what was described above.  All in all Russell lost over 5000 businesses, and homes. It was replaced by approximately 500 low income housing units. Most of what was razed was east of 9th street was turned into surface parking. All of this took about 30 years, and Russell has never fully recovered. 

Now what? How do we go about revitalizing Russell? In the next installment I'm going to talk about how we can revitalize Russell. Why some of the city's best half-hearted efforts have failed, and why should we even care.