Louisville, Kentucky: Impossibility City Part 3 (Louisville You're Getting Screwed)

Louisville likes to brag about how much of an economic progressive and improving place that it truly is. Nothing could be farther from the truth about Louisville which is why companies in the know such as Amazon are staying away from places like Louisville which is economically backwards and suffering from lack of investment in quality education and quality job opportunities. So now after decades of this rot and stupidity, Louisville's so called leadership is going to get on the ball and start doing something about it. The only problem though is that they've had decades to try to reform Louisville in their image and they've failed. All because they didn't want to give up the reins of power to people with more talent and ambition and less old world monetary influence. 

Which is why over the last 100 years or so, Louisville has went from being probably the predominant city of the Southern United States along with New Orleans to an economic basketcase with little to offer its remaining citizens and keep them there. At one time Louisville was a much larger city than other Southern cities like Atlanta, Nashville, Memphis, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, etc. The leadership of Louisville or what was called leadership never wanted the city to progress beyond the 600k to 700k level that it is currently at because that would have meant that they would have had to share power with the citizens and others in the community that wanted equality and an equal piece of the pie. 

The old world money folks of Louisville and you can guess the longstanding community names and icons of the community wanted it to remain under their ownership and control that way they could remain the prominent and prestigious families in the city despite any wishes of new money and smaller people to attain economic and political control. So over the years, the money people in Louisville desperate to retain their status decided that it would be best to control and stymie economic growth to some extent that otherwise Louisville would grow too large and outside of their control. It explains a lot of ways why Louisville, Kentucky is behind the times as well the as the fact that the old money Louisvillians didn't want change and a prime example of that was the Ohio River Bridges Project. Which was originally started during the 1960s when the Interstate system was being built through Louisville. 

The amazing thing is that they spent decades holding back economic and social progress in Louisville to hold control over the community. Same with how the West End and the Chestnut Street black business district was allowed to be red lined into poverty and turning what used to be a functional part of Louisville in the West End prior to the 1970s into a black ghetto. They succeeded in that quest because the well to do owned the land and was able to force the closure of those black businesses which were middle class but didn't own the land in Louisville's downtown area. So the message was sent out and then over a period of years the black business district ceased to exist and poverty increased greatly. Following the push of the upper crust to force blacks into the formerly White West End, the whites eventually left the West End and settled in Shively, PRP, Valley Station and the like. 

Meanwhile, the former residents of Smoketown and Chestnut Streets and other black corridors were forced and red lined into getting housing in the former West End white controlled areas which were promptly abandoned by whites due to white flight and racial issues. 

This has been repeated in Louisvlle over the decades including for years when the East End upper crust did everything in their power to keep jobs and economics from growing in Louisville including other businesses wanting to come in. One prime example is their opposition to the East End bridge which would finally link the area together when it opened in 2016. Despite the fact that the Interstate System in Louisville including I-265 was to have had a East End bridge planned as early as the 1960s and 1970s. 

So now, its 2018 and the Louisville so called leaders and power brokers are at it again proving they are still clueless about Louisville and what the city needs to move forward. They no longer hold all the levers of power but they still have great clout especially in the political machine, business community, and the like. Which is why this is even more laughable that they have formed their own steering committees for the power brokers and their pawns in city government, local business, and other organizations. All the while the people are again being ignored or are in some cases so chronically stupid that they enjoy being screwed over time and time again. This nice piece in the Courier Journal talks about the power brokers and their unannounced and planned committees. 

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2018/02/08/scala-louisville-powerbrokers-secrecy/310710002/

As usual, Louisville ends up proving that its not a major US city even though it probably does have the potential to be such. Its just that the local yokels end up finding ways to stub their toe and remain economically and educationally backwards. Almost to the point that Louisville and its residents and its resident power brokers aren't capable of maintaining some level of competence that would allow Louisville to advance from being now the 11th poorest city in the nation. A city that is economically backwards and increasingly unable to be competitive not only on in the world but also within its region in the United States. Add in a regressive tax structure in Kentucky which makes Louisville and the rest of the state suffer from 1950s era tax laws and the fact that many laws in Kentucky haven't been changed since the 1970s. 

However, the real blame goes to the so called upper crust of Louisville which has spent a generation mismanaging a city that should be a crown jewel in a state that really needs a lot of help economically, educationally and socially. They've spent years trying to keep Louisville backwards and the rot and disrepair is finally showing in the last several years. Especially considering that Louisville hasn't kept up with the times. Louisville in many areas looks like a post industrial economic apocalypse hit somewhere in the past few decades. As one well traveled gentleman told me once, he couldn't believe how bombed out Louisville actually looked and he had been to dozens of other cities that looked a whole lot better than Louisville. 

Louisville's so called leaders have spent decades keeping Louisville and the region from fulfilling its true potential which should be a massive economic jewel in the region. All because they couldn't get past their egotistical ways and lack of gumption to make the city and general area a much better place. Nowadays the rot is starting to be very evident as one can see the declining quality of life in the region and city as a whole. Evidence of this could be just going through the various neighborhoods of Louisville and looking at the degradation of the quality of life and economic conditions. Not only that but the increasingly rotting infrastructure and lack of development that is evident in Louisville. 

All the while the city tries to dress itself up for the famous May horse race it spends the other 10 months of the year not giving a single solitary damn about making its city look better. Trashy roadways, garbage everywhere, one of the highest rat infestation problems among US cities, bedbugs galore which indicates nasty conditions, etc. Add in the general disrepair of many areas of Louisville and the general economic disincentives such as high taxes and being the 4th highest taxed city in the nation. All the while remaining to be one of the poorest cities in the country now coming in at 11th place in the United States. 

Meanwhile, the power brokers continue to do what they've done for the past 100 years in Louisville which is why what used to be one of the largest cities in the South has been passed greatly by over the last 100 years by other regional cities as far as Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and other former Confederate states. Louisville has continually went backwards compared even to other cities in its local regions of the United States. At one time, Louisville was larger than Atlanta which now is the largest metro area in the whole Southeast. Louisville continued to go backwards because of the lack of intellect in its general population as well as the fact that the powers that be conspired to keep Louisville smaller and without other amenities and businesses that a thriving metro area would have. Add in the fact, that jobs in Louisville pay about 20 percent less than the US average and its not hard to see why Louisville now has so many economic and social problems despite the lower cost of living. 

Look at all of the other cities in the Southeastern US that used to be smaller than Louisville and have less opportunities and now are larger and more prosperous than Louisville. Not to mention those in the Ohio Valley like Pittsburgh and Cincinnati which are now much larger than Louisville. Or how other regional cities like Columbus, Nashville, Indianapolis, and Kansas City have long outpaced Louisville. Decades ago, Louisville was far the superior size of many of those cities but the backwards mentality of the local yokels and the political and economic kingmakers kept Louisville backwards and that way they could have an economically captive population. 

You would think that the citizens of Louisville would get tired of this shtick but they seem to be dumbed down to the point they can't mount an effective resistance to the power brokers control over their community. Its like they've lost all sense of right and desire to stand up for right. However, that somehow doesn't surprise me being that it is Louisville where mediocrity and being low mentality is readily acceptable.