Louisville, Kentucky: Impossibility City Part Three

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 Louisville 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.

Louisville: Impossibility City Part 2- Modern Day Louisville 2017

I love how Louisville has all kinds of signs around the city painted on buildings or hung on the buildings with these big placards stating how its Mary T's Louisville or someone else around the city that got some claim to fame even though most of them left Louisville to do so. In fact, some of them including Muhammad Ali spent decades away from Louisville despite it supposedly being such a great first class city. Just in the last 40 years or so before he passed, Ali lived in Detroit, Phoenix, and elsewhere but not in Louisville until he bought a place in Anchorage that ended up having mold issues and other problems.

Ever notice, that a lot of these luminaries don't stay around Louisville after they've made it big time. Even the formerly esteemed Louisville basketball coach left Louisville as soon as he got canned by the university because there's nothing all that special about Louisville and the surrounding area. It didn't take him more than a week or two to put up his home for sale and sell it off and then he was already in Florida ruminating whatever the hell else he's going to do with the rest of his life. I'm sure he won't be hurting though financially running away to the bank with all his money.

I've noticed this constantly over the years that all these people are from Kentucky but they've moved far away from Louisville and Kentucky in general because there is nothing really all that redeeming either in the state nor in Louisville. That's why Louisville and the famous horse racing organization and its subsidiaries and community supporters have to recruit celebrities to come to Louisville during that famous horse race in May. They actually have to pay appearance fees to famous sports celebrities, movie stars, B listers, etc because there isn't anything else in Louisville that really is culturally redeeming enough to really visit there. Its nothing more in many areas than a skidmark on a pair of tighty whiteys.

Look at downtown Louisville how it empties out after the latest concert or U of L game at the big chicken bucket on the Riverfront. Hell, Louisville couldn't even get an NBA/NHL team while even smaller cities and metro areas outside of Louisville have teams including real pissholes like New Orleans, Memphis, etc. Even minor ass cities like Salt Lake, Nashville, Buffalo, Raleigh, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Jacksonville, etc have some sort of professional sports or some other civic pride accomplishment.

What does Louisville have? Not much unless you're into shopping at shitty strip malls and other outfits. Museums? Ali and Frazier? Nothing much there either. The only real attraction Louisville has going for it is the Zoo and I'm not talking about the crime infested West End which is a totally different issue.

You call Standiford Field an international airport? Really? Despite the fact that it probably doesn't even have an international flight that goes anywhere directly out of the country. Even UPS about pulled out of Louisville back in 1994 because the local city government led by light in the loafers former Mayor Abramson couldn't even get the snow moved out of the city streets and highways around Louisville. Add in the incompetents of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet not being able to properly clean roadways off and UPS your biggest employer would have been gone a long time ago.

It continues to get better though because the truth is that Louisville was going backwards for decades and if you look at the history of Louisville, for those of us smart enough to know the difference and reading, you'll find that Louisville once had opportunities at having much more but they passed up on all kinds of opportunities such as NFL teams in the 1960s which went to Atlanta. The Colonels in the 70s were a big draw but the city of Loserville and the owners couldn't and wouldn't come up with 3 million dollars to pay for the franchise fee to join the NBA. Despite in 1976 having a pretty good basketball arena already there at the Fairgrounds that would eventually have to be replaced. Even the dirtball Charlie Finley wanted to move the Kansas City Athletics to the Fairgrounds old Cardinal Stadium but was rebuffed so Louisville didn't have anything to actually get its shit together.

So its gotten better over the generations as one Democratic mayor after the next continued to ignore the problems in Mayberry as the local population continued to decline in intelligence and quality. It started with Harvey Sloane from 1973 to 1977 and again from 1981 to 1985. Then 13 years of Democrat Abramson first from 1985 to 1998. Followed by David Armstrong from 1998 to 2002. Then again followed by Abramson again from 2003 to 2011. Now you have Fischer who looks almost identical to his wife. Just to have to wonder if its a Kentucky trait to look like brother and sister?

Louisville likes to talk big and deliver little. Which is why Louisville compared to other sister cities in this region of the Ohio Valley, Upper South, and Midwest is totally a joke and a farce of a city. Louisville acts not much bigger than say a dump like Owensboro or Bowling Green and maybe that's because its in Kentucky and they have nothing better to look up to. Even smaller cities like Nashville have long ago passed up Louisville in arts, entertainment, culture, sports, business opportunities and much more.

Louisville still thinks its a bunch of great neighborhoods when in fact most of them from neighborhood to next look and act all the same. Add in all the run down buildings and crappy infrastructure in Louisville that looks like it was built about 100 years ago and more. Roadways with bike lanes that are so narrow that I'm surprised that more bike riders haven't been killed by the SUV driving public and those driving large trucks. All the while the streets look like someone forgot to pave them at any time this century. What's up with Dixie Die-way which was the roughest stretch of crappy road south of the Watterson for years. No one knows how to properly pave and structure a roadway?

Louisville streets are an abomination for a city of its size and have been for years. It looks like something you would see in a run down city like Detroit or Cleveland neither of which are terribly well off or economically prosperous. At least they have much more bad winter weather for 5 months out of the year with freezing weather from November through March. Even the inner city of Cincinnati has better streets that Louisville and minus its crime issues, Cincinnati has more going for it than Louisville. Same goes for Indianapolis, Columbus, most of St. Louis metro minus the Central City of St. Louis, etc.

Nashville is a nicer city than Louisville and much more clean as if people can understand basic trash disposal and pickup. That's another thing about Louisville that's amazing is that you can drive in the West End or Dixie Highway and find trash everywhere along the streets and roadways. We're talking about glass bottles, needles, fast food bags, plastic bags, cups, etc. As if none of the Kentucky hilljacks actually understand waste removal and disposal in trash cans. Maybe they're too stupid to clean out their cars at a gas station or when they wash their jalopies.

However, the trashiness isn't just in the West End or Southwest Louisville. Its down roads like National Turnpike, the Outer Loop, Preston Hwy, Bardstown Road, Newburg Road, etc. As if no one in Louisville bothers to clean anything during winter or around any other time of the year except for the world famous horse race which is Louisville's only real claim to fame. I remember countless times being on Preston Hwy and stopping at various places along the way and the whole roadside looks like a garbage can exploded with cups and cigarette butts everywhere. Kentuckians don't obviously understand cleanliness or being able to pick up after themselves.

Its snowing again in Louisville and they've already got tens of slide-offs in Louisville because idiots drive way too fast. Watching this on the net and its laughable how bad Louisville drivers really are despite the fact that the city gets about 3 months of real inclement weather in an entire year. Especially from the first of December until March when it finally starts to warm up. I remember a couple of years ago watching the Louisville TV stations and how the morons in Louisville couldn't handle an inch of snow without having hundreds of wrecks because the inbred idiots aren't intelligent enough to drive slower and leave just a bit earlier to get to work, home, shopping etc.

It can't even be the excuse that these are people from California or some other Southern state with dozens and hundreds of these slide-offs and wrecks.

Anyway, back to Greg Fischer's Louisville and how badly the place is ran with criminal morons and degenerates being able to commit crimes and acts of violence then handled with kid gloves by the local police forces. All the while the criminal enabling mayor and his handpicked butt kissing police chief allows the criminal trash, violent thugs, and lifelong losers to continue to have a free pass. Not to mention every time one turns around and watches some level of gang violence and losers harassing tourists and walkers at Waterfront Park or around the Big Four bridge.

Add in the fact that the Louisville schools are so pathetically bad that it creates generations of these useless eaters and lifelong morons incapable of holding even the most basic and menial jobs. Not asking a whole lot there but when about half of Louisville students can't even spell, read, and do mathematics at grade level when they leave school says a lot about what a totally fucked up system that is. When your metro schools in Louisville are so bad that you're 122nd out of 159 Kentucky schools including hillbilly schools in Eastern Kentucky and Southern Kentucky. That speaks volumes.

In fact, I've been about everywhere in the United States or at least have talked to people from every state and generally every region and I've never seen people as dysfunctional as in Kentucky and Louisville especially. The sad thing is that this isn't just a few morons causing problems and being illiterate dirtbags but a large percentage of the local population. Every state has its scumbags and hicks and ghetto bangers, its just that Louisville, Kentucky and environs in the state of Kentucky has more illiterate morons than just about anywhere and that's in comparison to other states that have some major league horrible cities which are carbuncles on the ass of humanity.

Kentucky could do so much better to at least keep the damage to its worst of the worst areas especially in places like Louisville Metro and even parts of Lexington. Instead it exports its crap to the rest of the world because eventually some of these morons leave Kentucky and end up populating other states around Kentucky which don't need the additional white trash. However, at least in our states, these people are seen and known as undesirables and scorned by the locals that live here. Where I live at now, if someone sees a Kentucky plate they got a good clue there are people either fleeing Kentucky or are up to no good and if you pull your Kentucky shit here you'll end up in jail. It doesn't fly here nor in surrounding counties and you would be welcomed if you acted like sensible and intelligent people but not if you're white trash morons from Kentucky.

Another thing about Greg Fischer's Louisville is the rotting economic structure and increasing impoverishment of the local population which ends up only benefiting those in the higher realms of economic power. Kentucky has long allowed this crap to go on where its smaller communities lose massive amounts of population to Louisville, Lexington, etc. Essentially exporting people to other states and municipalities because the local yokels in places like Central Kentucky, Appalachia, Southwestern Kentucky haven't done anything for generations to create good paying jobs and they won't as long as they keep producing generations of morons incapable of being productive and intelligent citizens. That's why Kentucky continues to fail economically and have budget deficits, economic problems, government waste, and massive corruption.

You're fooling yourself if you think that Kentucky doesn't have corruption in government and the local chieftains and family member running your various counties while the infrastructure and tax bases around you are collapsing. All the while more businesses and factories continue to escape the state or end up going broke themselves. Its like Louisville and why it looks like a bombed out post industrial mess in so many places because they've not bothered to keep up infrastructure and business development. I was once a member of Young Professionals of Louisville when I lived there and it was nothing more than a social networking organization that did very little that actually pushed for more growth and development in the Louisville region. They were more worried about pushing for ultra liberal feel good crap like smoking bans and social issues.

Sorry but that doesn't take care of the economy, education system, or pay the bills to keep a roof over your head and your finances well off. Not to mention that doesn't help your state economically and socially progress into more intelligent and worthwhile endeavors and pursuits. That in a nutshell is why Louisville is a joke compared to many other metro areas that not only work on economic development and better wages all the while Louisville worries about left wing liberal crap like bike lanes, smoking bans, and other crap. All the while its roadways, infrastructure, business development are totally backwards and the city has nothing to really get and keep more people.

Louisville though doesn't think that way even though their city has went backwards over the last 35 years or so. Once it had 36 percent of its jobs tied to manufacturing products which is a noble enterprise and should be encouraged. However, its now only about 10 percent of the jobs in Jefferson County, mirroring other cities in the United States especially in the Rust Belt as jobs have fled those formerly prosperous areas. However, where Louisville really fails is in its ability to attract and retain bright people because they end up running off to other neighboring cities and regions. Indianapolis and Cincinnati are prime examples where the best and brightest in Kentucky run off to in order to make a living and find decent employment and career opportunities. Every time I go to Indianapolis on business, I usually meet someone from Kentucky or Louisville proper and many of them would like to return home but they know that they would have problems getting suitable employment even in Louisville and especially in a harsher economic climate like what happened from 2008 to 2013.

Even those people would wish to live in the Louisville area but they know that they would be economically deprived and held back by the horrid local Louisville economic structure where jobs for their skill levels and skill sets are often nonexistent. It reminds me of a friend from Southern Indiana that lived close to Louisville but refused to move back to his home area because of the local economy in the Louisville area and he decided to stay in Indianapolis and then later transfer to Colorado. Louisville doesn't value education, common sense, and basic intelligence in its businesses and companies. Which is why Louisville remains an economic backwater in the Midwest/Ohio Valley/Upper South.

When dealing with the rest of Kentucky outside of part of Lexington, Louisville, and Cincinnati Metro, they don't anything to majorly look upward towards with the decrepit Kentucky educational system not to mention the poverty stricken state of Kentucky. A state that cannot even fund police cruisers and proper weapons for law enforcement which is an essential part of governmental activity. All the while, they can fund needle addicts and drug users with needles for them to shoot up with that end up in the roadways around Jefferson, Bullitt, Shelby and Oldham counties along with other Kentucky counties including parts of Southern Indiana where drugs have taken over now.

Kentucky doesn't give a damn about education and it shows when the state ranks in the bottom third in public education and has for decades despite the fact that they currently spend 10,192 for every student every year. Even more ridiculous is that they spend more money than my local school district in the north but have worse economic and educational outcomes than my semi-rural district where at least the average high school student graduates with a decent educational background and basic set of skills they can move ahead for technical school, trades, colleges and universities or end up doing military service. In Kentucky, the state could give a damn less about educating its citizens because if Kentuckians were actually educated they would start fleeing the great trailer park on the Ohio River and leave for better ran states. Therefore, that would leave Kentucky with a larger percentage of its population being morons even more than now because they smart people would readily flee Kentucky knowing about the economic deprivation they face daily.

Greg Fischer's Louisville brags about attaining 55,000 new college graduates by 2020 but there is little evidence that has occurred much less that they will stay in Louisville to be successful and intelligent people. In fact, as soon as they see the crappy work environment and the crappy pay for jobs in Louisville they flee to other cities. In fact, years ago former Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson was running around to other cities across the country trying to recruit people to come back to Louisville. Most of them were polite but said no thanks because Louisville had very little to offer former residents who chose to stay in Texas, Atlanta, San Francisco, Denver, Phoenix, and many other locations. That's why Louisville had to do their publicly funded Impossibility City campaign properly called Possibility City which is laughable at best. Its so laughable in light of the economic and job opportunities in Louisville and even parts of Southern Indiana directly across the river. Louisville had to pull that sort of gambit in order to try to attract people back but as of 2006 to now in 2018, its pretty much been a failure as people with intelligence are fleeing Louisville and Kentucky in generation

In essence, Louisville is failing because of the stupidity of its population, its horrible educational environment, and the fact that its economy is essentially upside down. A true banana republic type of government on the Ohio River along with an incompetent state government ran by rubes and vacuous boobs incapable of creating the conditions that would make their state successful. A state which has 120 counties and various chieftains called state legislators who are provincial at best and just totally ignorant at worst. Which are elected into office by a population that is one of the worst educated in America to the point that even foreign students and residents of other countries have an education level in many cases much superior than the residents of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.