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.