Hometown Pride Still Louisville's Best Asset

(To those of you who have continually checked for new posts or updates, I appreciate your diligence.  My three month absence has been a product of laziness as much as anything, but I'll divert some blame to a new job and an understandable winter lull in the news cycle in order to save at least a touch of face.)

The former "Bridge to Nowhere" finally has a purpose once again. 

The calendar page-turn indicating a new year has not slowed down the momentum that Louisville has created over the last 24 months.  In fact, a brief hiatus from anything out of the ordinary only helped drum up some excitement and anticipation for what should be considered a very successful first six weeks of 2013 in the Ville.  With the triumphant opening of the new Big Four Walking Bridge spanning the Ohio River (although the Hoosiers to the north are preventing a full circumvent of the waterway), the successful execution of the World's CycloCross Championships, and the buds of spring slowly making their way out of winter's dreary slumber, Louisvillian's are once again showing that hometown pride is still one of the city's best assets.

The Waiting Game

The Big Four Bridge Project had been in the works for nearly two decades, but had only really come to fruition since 2009.  The former "Bridge to Nowhere" (currently a fitting moniker considering the lack of an exit to the Indiana side) has been recommissioned as a pedestrian walking bridge, and really represents the forward thinking, progressive attitude that many in Louisville have taken on.  The unveiling of the bridge naturally fits in with the attitudes that led to the development of NuLu, the creation of the Yum! Center, and the renaissance of Main Street - the continual asking and answering of the the question "How can we take the city, as it currently stands, and make it better?".  The result?  A line of nearly 500 people, waiting on a brisk February day to enjoy the city's newest attraction.

A New Plan for Economic Success in Sports

With grass-roots groups such as Bring NBA2Lou and the newly formed Bring NHL2Lou, there is obvious interest in trying to lure a professional sports team to town.  However, since the departure of the Kentucky Colonels basketball franchise in 1976 and the Louisville Colonials baseball franchise in 1962 Louisville has been little more than a AAA sports town.  One thing the city has never lacked, though, is a thirst for competition, and a reason to show off our town in anyway possible.  With that knowledge the Louisville Sports Commission, an organization formed in 1999 to be the sports-themed arm of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, has effectively aggressively pursued many of the traveling championship events this country offers.  Without their leadership and guidance Louisville would not have hosted the Ironman, the recent CycloCross Championships, the Ryder Cup in 2008 at Valhalla, the National BMX Championships, and many of the other events that you've seen and heard about over the past several years.  What the city previously lacked in facilities it has made up for ten-fold, and our best asset is versatility.  With long stretches of both flat, and hilly spaces, along with both parkland and waterways in ample supply, we can handle nearly any event that doesn't require a domed stadium or a 70,000 seat attendance minimum .  These events draw local interest both far and wide, and also bring in tons of visitors through fan patronage and family involvement.  While they might not all have the panache or economic impact of the Derby or a Ryder Cup, they do all serve to enhance the intrinsic value of the city from an outsiders perspective, and thus, raise Louisville's brand value nationwide.  All positives for a city that is still trying to climb the ladder in terms of sporting prestige and professional athletic credibility.

Home is Where the Heart Is

Native Louisvillians, for the most part, are a very loyal bunch who want nothing more than to see their city thrive.  Even inside its borders, residents of the various neighborhoods are constantly hoping for growth and progress nearby their own homes, not just county wide.  That's why it is no surprise that long-time stalwarts  of our town continue to grow, change, and thrive, despite the continual sprawl, and redistribution of development around it.  The article in today's (Feb. 18) Courier about the overall growth of Middletown speaks to this very point.  Neighborhoods like Middletown, Northfields, Prospect, Shively, Okolona, Jeffersontown, and even Fern Creek have all experienced their own spurts of re-generation and creativity, as those folks who reside outside the Watterson find the desire to get in on the act that is 21st Century Louisville, and keep up with the Joneses in the way of providing something new and/or exciting.  The fact is that when someone in Mt. Washington sees a new restaurant downtown, they not only say "Wow that's a great dining room", they inevitably also reply "I wish it was a lot closer though", and thus progress begins - even if in only an infantile way.  Folks around town love all of the new creations that have come their way over the past few years, but will always continue to support the new fish place that opened on the corner, or the deli that changed owners and added a patio out back.  No one wants to see doors boarded up or "For Lease" signs out front, and most will do their very best to keep that from happening.

Community First

Louisville will always be the biggest small town this country has to offer.  It's just a different feel here.  Recently I spent a month living in Cincinnati, and I was struck at how disconnected the city was from itself.  People on the east side didn't want to go to the west, even for a new restaurant or attraction, and frankly didn't care about it.  People to the north didn't want to go downtown, even for a Super Bowl celebration, or a concert on the river.  That's not how it is here.  People care.  Those of us in the East End hate to hear about violence and disarray in the West End, and want to help do something about it.  People in Buechel get excited about the prospect of a new restaurant or jazz club opening in the Highlands, if it provides something different or exciting amongst the options currently present.  Just as the people of New Orleans go all out for events like Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest, Louisvillian's will always be unapologetically proud of the Kentucky Derby, the Ironman, a Ryder Cup, and the Bourbon Trail.  For us these events aren't just a reason to get out of the house, or another nuisance that adds to our ever expanding traffic patterns, these are reasons to get excited and to celebrate our city.  For good or bad, no matter your age, Louisville is our home, and we should all have pride in it.  When we all come together and support its upward improvement we will see growth that we never thought possible, and we will truly make Louisville Major League.

Why the NBA Should Be Important to Louisville

***Note***

This entry was composed before the release of the article discussing an independent economic analysis that was done to judge the potential impact an NBA team would have on the city.  This analysis stated that the city would see only a $2.4 million increase to the local economy.  Not only is that embarrassingly low, it stinks of being incorrect.  With a salary cap of $58 million plus salaries of executives and other workers, the local payroll tax revenue alone would equate to nearly $5 million annually.  And this doesn't even begin to include increases in revenue from merchandise sales, taxes on lease revenues to the Yum Center, and increases in spending in the Special Tax District which surrounds the arena downtown.

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I've written in the past that I thought the NBA in Louisville might be far-fetched, slightly off-based, and a stretch for the city to truly pursue.  But the day I wrote the post "Oklahoma City vs Louisville: A Basketball Case Study" I must have been drunk or high, or both.  I was being a moron.

When I met with the city's Director of Economic Growth and Innovation last winter he stressed to me that the city's main focus was trying to attract as much outside investment as possible that made sense for it to pursue.  Things where infrastructure might already be in place, but more development was needed.  Businesses that Louisville already participated in on some level, but might need a slight kick-start to improve upon.  When considering all of these facts, and the economic impact various industries might have, why an NBA franchise would ever be overlooked is beyond me.  We already have the infrastructure: a great NBA-ready arena (the Yum! Center), a plethora of 5-star hotels and restaurants for NBA opponents to stay at and chose from, and a concentrated amount of nightlife options within walking distance of both said hotels and the arena for players and coaches to frequent (because we know that Ballers gon' Ball).  And we have a huge fan base of basketball lovers within a 100-mile radius; one might even argue that it's the biggest basketball fan base in the country.  Sure the population of Louisville might not be big enough in-and-of itself to support a franchise, but when you consider the basketball lovers in Southern Indiana and the entire state of Kentucky you now have a population of followers that would be as big as any large market team in the League.  And we have capital.  With Papa Johns, Yum, Humana, Anthem, and UPS all headquartered within Jefferson County we have the start of a sponsorship base that would be as good as any around the country.  And what we lack in that area could easily be made up through partnerships with national firms that have a presence here such as Northwestern Mutual, United Healthcare, Kindred, and PNC Bank.  We aren't far off.

The arguments against a team are numbered and poignant: people who would support the NBA franchise aren't likely to also buy their season tickets to UL, UK, or IU games - hurting the already established college teams.  Attendance would be so low that the team would quickly be delegated to the annual conversation of contraction.  Local media outlets wouldn't have the capital to adequately support and market the team's games.  The Yum Center would need major renovations to house a team.  The University of Louisville, specifically, would be murdered by having to split dates with the team, and for having to share sponsorship dollars.  So on and so on.

Listen, these are all small items that, if people would really work together for the greater good of the city, would easily work themselves out in a positive way over time.  Starting with season tickets and attendance.  I am a UK fan.  I do not have UL or IU season tickets, and, while I'd love to have the opportunity to go to all of Kentucky's home games, I do not own those either.  But if an NBA team came to Louisville I would jump at the chance to support them because of the talent that would come through the arena, and the quality of basketball that would be played.  Fluff games like those that occur with the Long Beach States, Quinnipiacs, and Monmouths of the world would never take place.  Each of the 41 games played would be competitive, and would matter.  And even if the team were bad, how excited would people be to watch Kobe, Lebron, or Kevin Durant perform in our fair town?  Thousands of people would be interested in this spectacle!  And what if one of those guys were to say "Hey, Louisville is really cool!" wouldn't that just make our day?  On a pure numbers basis, the Yum! Center holds 22,090 folks (per their website).  Most nights there might only be 12,000-14,000 people in the stands depending on the opponent.  However, if the team is successful or the game is big this number could easily climb to 20,000+, allowing the team to average somewhere around 16,000 fans a game - and the average NBA game attendance last season was 17,273.  Not too far off.

Oklahoma City cited a statistic that attendance to nearby Oklahoma Sooner basketball games fell by 15% or so after the Thunder came to town, however this is in a state that is extremely football crazed and whose population isn't nearly as dense as ours in the immediate outlying areas of the city.  If UL were to see any drop in attendance after a franchise entered the picture I believe it would be minuscule as it is much more likely that the NBA team would suffer the loss of a patron if that person was given a choice between their longstanding favorite team or the new thing in town.  And while TV rights could be an issue, as there might not be many big dollar contracts available between a team and any of the local stations, I would guess that a regional institution like Fox Sports could be an option.  Or if the team wanted they could start their own station, keeping all the revenue from ads and television buys from Insight (Time Warner) that would ensue.

That leaves us with the issue of how they would fit with the University of Louisville.  And this really is the weakest argument in my opinion.  In my previous blog I did an analysis of the game schedules between UL's Men's and Women's programs and that of the Oklahoma City Thunder in order to see what the possibilities are for conflict.  And while there would be some, the reality is that only a few games a year (less than 10 total between all three teams) would really have to be moved around.  Something that is more than easily doable, to the point that that is really a non-argument.  And besides, with all that has come out on how little the University pays to rent the arena for a game, they should be more than willing to be flexible on dates when given the choice of that or paying a higher cost to put on their contests in the Yum Center.  Beyond that, imagine the synergies that could take place with a franchise and UL as students in their Sports Marketing, MBA, Sports Medicine, and Design programs might all have the opportunity of internships, temporary jobs, and other learning opportunities.  For students looking to gain a foot in the door to the ultra-competitive job market that exists within Professional Sports Franchises, this would be huge boon!  It would be a win for the University without a doubt.

At the end of the day, if the city wants to look for a way to increase payroll tax, increase its brand, and continue to push interest in a Downtown area that needs more consistent traffic, then an NBA franchise is the instant fix for all of this.  Millions of dollars would pour into city coffers through ticket sales, increases in tax revenues (from the added $58 million+ in salaries that the team would bring in), and increased foot traffic downtown.  This is something that would bring instant credibility to our city, and would go a long way towards re-establishing ourselves as the preeminent town in the South.  We'd have the best 2-minutes in sports, the best 2-week festival in America, the best college sports, and (potentially) the best NBA franchise in the country, to go along with all the other new and spectacular developments that have already begun coming to fruition throughout the past five years.  While it could take years and years to acquire, it's time for our city's leaders to stop being divided, to stop saying why we can't, and start realizing why we should.  In the 1960's and 1970's Louisville had two opportunities for Major League Sports teams, and has admittedly paid the price for ignoring them.  Please, for the sake of our town and the momentum we've developed, lets not do that again.

NuLu: A Louisville Renaissance

Blocks like this one in St. Matthews are becoming common place in Louisville.  Former centers of commerce that have fallen into disrepair, but are being redeveloped for the greater good.

If you haven't noticed Louisville has been going through a quiet renaissance over the past decade in the areas of new building and redevelopment.  Louisville has long been considered a very suburban town with many people traveling into the Central Business District during the day, only to head for the hills (or Prospect) after the whistle blows, and leaving Downtown like a scene in an old western movie at night - tumbleweeds and all!  For decades the story around town was that development was hard to come by more or less because of the rigmarole that was required by the old, un-merged city and county governments.  If you wanted to get zoning rights in St. Matthews you potentially had to have it cleared by three or more municipal bodies - the city of Louisville, Jefferson County, and the City of St. Matthews, not to mention any other neighborhood associations that might be involved.  As you might expect this kept a lot of interested parties away.

Beginning in 2003 with the merger of the city and county governments into one Louisville Metro Government (what a funny idea that was - it only took 205 years to accomplish!) the narrative began to change.  One of the first announcements of then-Mayor Jerry Abramson's new term was on the partnership with the Cordish Company and the redevelopment of the old Galleria Mall into what is now Fourth Street Live!  This broke the chain of unimaginative thinking that had plagued the city throughout the 1990's, and earlier, as it proved that national development could happen in Louisville on a grand scale.  Once Fourth Street came to fruition in 2004 the city began seeing a slow and methodical transformation of downtown as people started to come back to the hallowed grounds of the old city, either to visit the new restaurants and bars that were now present or to take in the new landscape provided by the completion of phase one of Waterfront Park which was occurred in 1999.  This created exactly the buzz that was needed at the time to spur development and get people talking about Downtown Louisville as a destination again, as opposed to the ghost town that it was previously associated with.  Once plans for the KFC Yum! Center were finalized, and new hotels and offices began coming to fruition, the bar had been set - Louisville could successfully spur development and improve its status as a deteriorating city, and it had much more capability to do so than even it had thought possible.

Since 2004 we have seen an outburst of building and redevelopment in and around Downtown Louisville.  Main Street and Market Streets have been revitalized by developers seeing the value in acquiring historic buildings with old-world facades.  The former projects on the east side of Downtown have been transformed into brand new, bright and clean residential complexes.  And Old Louisville has regained much of its reverence as a place of history and dignity within our city.  But it hasn't stopped there.

With the East Market corridor serving as guide, the neighborhood of Saint Matthews has seen a remarkable change over the past five years as developers have been able to transform old, outdated retail spaces into new restaurants and bars that serve the young professionals that live in the area.  In that time upwards of ten new establishments have sprouted up and taken firm root in the city as demand for "new and fun" places to go has steadily increased.  Similar development has been seen in the Bardstown Road / Highlands corridor, as well in the Eastern Parkway / Germantown Area; although not nearly as concentrated.

The driving forces behind these developments are all different and varied in several ways, but there are a few underlying factors which we can attribute towards their creation.

1. Demand - As I've written about before, Louisville is booming in the 35 and under population segment.  These folks are largely college educated, have often lived outside of Louisville for an extended period of time, and want more and varied things to do around town.  They also have larger disposable incomes which they enjoy using to consume food, drinks, and more specialized items that their parents may have previously thought of as frivolous or outlandish expenditures.
2. Availability - If you take a once great metropolitan area (at one time in the top-10 in the country in population),  diminish its occupancy, and move half of those remaining to an outside suburb, you're going to have a high vacancy rate.  Over time these vacancies create blight, and blight offers opportunity for those creative visionaries to turn an old warehouse into new condos, or a vacant lot into a LEED Certified office space.  This is at the forefront of the development in NuLu (the East Market District), Butchertown, Germantown, and other parts of the Central Business District.
3. Capacity - While many people have bemoaned the old guard that formerly ran the city from the C-Level suites in the penthouse floors of the Aegon Building (as opposed to City Hall), what Louisville's power brokers have left behind is a population of wealthy individuals who want to reinvest in the city they love.  These folks are taking on projects like there's no tomorrow, and trying at all cost to put their stamp on the town.  As each has had more and more success, it has only created more excitement and buzz as everyone anticipates the next great development coming to Louisville.
4. Re-Urbanization - In previous decades Downtown Louisville was a place people wanted to get away from, and stay away from at all costs.  However, now that many of the once-downtrodden areas of the Central City have been dramatically revitalized, Downtown is a place that people want to be and be seen.  Condo developments are sprouting up like weeds, and demand for luxury living quarters within the boundaries of the Watterson Expressway is increasing at a rapid pace.  This puts a premium on new retail and commercial development in these areas as new residents want places to go and things to do without having to drive across town.

So where does all this leave us?  On his radio show this past week local sports personality Bob Valvano said, in reference to Louisville attracting a National Basketball Association franchise (or other major sports team for that matter), that Louisville often thinks of itself as the Chicago Cubs of cities - a decent place to live, a fun place to be, but not capable of really doing special things.  And for the most part I would say that this is correct in a lot of ways, currently.  But as I alluded to in my last entry ("Why Louisville Will Be Great"), the young people of this town have big dreams for the city and want to see them fulfilled.  There are going to be bumps along the way and convincing to be done - and it will not happen overnight - but we will slowly get there.  With each new string of development that has arisen over the past decade people have constantly said "That won't last" or "I'm not sure why that's being built", but more times than not these projects have been a success.

As the current leadership in redevelopment has shown, if you build it they will come.  From downtown condos to restaurants to new bars and clubs, if there's a demand for it around town - no matter where that demand is coming from - it will not go unrequited.  It all started with one string of legislation, and then a development downtown, and then another and another.  As the city grows, improves, and redefines itself it will become more and more attractive for outside investment and corporate ventures.  Once that happens then we will really see the fruits of our labor and begin to get the credit we've deserved for the last fifty years as being one of the most progressive cities in the South.  To this end, that is how we will continue to make Louisville Major League.

Why Louisville Will Be Great

Disclosure:

Most of my blog posts are usually pretty random in nature - short bursts of thought based on a topic that is trending around our city at a given time.  This entry, however, has been much more thought out and contemplated than any other.  The premise, as broad as it might sound, came to me in an epiphany-type moment, and its doctrine is something I am trying to spread to as many people as possible.

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Why Louisville Will Be Great

A friend of mine once described Louisville as a sort of suitcase town for young people:  Hundreds of children with great ambitions grow up here and leave for college, ultimately landing in one of our country’s great cities (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, D.C.) where they spend their 20’s climbing the corporate ladder until they eventually get tired of their toil and return to Louisville to marry and have children in their middle-aged years.  “If we could only keep those kids here after college,” he’d lament, “we’d really start to be something.”

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the vibe around this town is changing.  The aura of mediocrity and stagnation is starting to be swept away and we actually are progressing – a word many people might not understand around here considering it took 50 years to decide on an east end bridge and 30 years to merge our city and county governments.  And while currently most of this progress has been driven from the top there is a new wave of enthusiasm coming down the proverbial pipeline as a perfect storm is taking place locally.

With the recent decline in the economy, and the subsequent lack of new jobs being available to recent college graduates, many more individuals who previously would have moved to much larger cities after their schooling are now returning to Louisville to start their adult lives.  This has created a swell of young people who are educated, hungry for success, and eager to make their own way in life.  What’s interesting, though, is that Louisville currently doesn’t have the capacity to employ all of these people so many of them are literally having to find their own path – via startups, self-employment, and the chasing of dreams.  The result of all this has been a generation of kids who all grew up together, went their separate ways during college, and have now recongregated to begin their lives in the city that they love.  This has created an undergrowth, beneath the large influxes that the Mayor’s office has generated, that is spawning and searching for greatness.  What’s awesome is that, since Louisville could probably be considered the largest small town in the country, everyone knows everybody and we see each other constantly, creating a type of synergy that this city has not have experienced since the 1920’s and 30’s.  And Louisville is the benefactor.  This synergy has only been aided by the fact that this is the age of technology and Louisville’s young people are a mobile and energized group who will get behind any and every cause they deem worthy, with organizations like YPAL, The Bachelors Club, GLOW, and Junior League leading the charge.  And with social media accelerating the flow of ideas and thoughts, people around town are meeting and interacting like never before.  Gone are the days of having to use cocktail parties and other social gatherings for the purposes of networking.  You now can meet someone and know their entire life story in a matter of minutes using Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.  In fact, my company recently hired someone who we found on linkedin by simply doing a search of our competitors and messaging anyone we thought we might have a connection to.  This type of job search would have taken several months 10 years ago, but it lasted about 2 weeks given the technologically advanced climate we currently find ourselves in.  On any given night around town I can talk to a friend about their personal training business, their new boutique clothing shop, or the climate of corporate lending at area banks.  For any given need that I have in business and in life I know a person I can go to immediately an get it taken care of.  Any idea that I have that I think could be successful or meaningful, I know a person I can talk to about bringing it to fruition.  That’s not just me either, that’s anyone who’s a young, engaged, and interested business person around the city, and our ranks are growing!  These interactions will only continue to grow and become more meaningful over the coming decades as we all progress and become executives, leading entrepreneurs, and nationally renowned in our fields.  Imagine the topics of discussion that will enhance our city in 10-20 years when our conversations occur in City Hall or a board room on Main Street, as opposed to Molly Malones or Heine Brothers .  That’s when we will really make strides, and THAT’S why Louisville will be great!

The foundation has already begun to be laid too.  With the approval and ground breaking of the Ohio River Bridges Project, the completion of the KFC Yum! Center, and the revitalization of Downtown we have shown the naysayers and doubters that “YES!” we can get things accomplished.  We had our doldrums of the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s, but this is a new era.  No longer are the old aristocratic powers in charge.  No longer will the many be controlled by the desires of the few.  That is what held Louisville back.  Organizations like River Fields, which uses environmental servitude as its guise to stall advancement in the east end, and people such as Barry Bingham who, for all his good, used his newspaper to control the thoughts of the local population, will no longer be tolerated and they will be eradicated.  The new wave of Louisville’s power brokers will be progressive, tolerant, and hell bent on seeing the city succeed, not just focused on their own interests because what our forefathers somehow missed is that the city’s success is everyone’s success and when the pot gets bigger your slice of the pie will as well!

Louisville’s future is bright and full of potential.  In the coming decades we WILL have light rail, we WILL have an NBA team, we WILL be recognized for our greatness.  These days we think it’s so cool that we get mentioned in a magazine as being the “Best Town For Men” or “A Top Weekend Getaway” – why can’t that be the norm?  I don’t know about you, but I think we’re BETTER than Indianapolis.  I think we’re BETTER than St. Louis.  And I think we’re BETTER than Cincinnati.  It’s time we realize our full potential and begin achieving it.  For the past several years the Mayor’s office, GLI, and the local tourism boards have branded Louisville as “The Possibility City” as a way to lure outsiders.  But that should really be the message to our own constituency!  It is possible for us to compete with the who’s who of cities in the south because we have more to offer and, at our core, are much more progressive.  This new wave of Louisvillians are out to prove that, and I can’t wait to be a part of it.

The day is coming when Louisville will be great again and it's because you and I want it to be.  The train is leaving, folks, and I hope you're on it because Louisville will once again be Major League.

Louisville's Rotting Asset

Kentucky Kingdom has been closed since the summer of 2009, and  it is unclear if it will ever reopen.

There's an age-old question that many people ask when considering the assets they own: how do you really value it?  Some things, such as cars or other durable goods, are sure to depreciate and are at their peak value the day they are purchased.  Other items, such as homes, jewelry, and fine art, can appreciate and gain  enormous amounts of value through either time-based valuation or a large increase in demand caused by an incident in time.  But another category of goods is tougher to pin down, and those goods are things that are only really valuable if they are being used to generate some type of intrinsic worth; and when they aren't in use, these items are simply losing value and being a drain on resources.  Such is the case for the theme park formerly known as Kentucky Kingdom.  Like the ice cream machine you bought back in '93 when you thought you were going to hit it big in the gelato business, but is now dust-covered in the garage, unless the theme park is open and generating revenue then it is essentially a worthless use of some very prized real estate at the Kentucky Fair and Expo Center.  And it is absolutely dumbfounding that no government agencies have stepped up the plate to ensure it resumes business in the near future.

Consider this:  in the winter of 2010 when the Kingdom officially closed its gates it was reported that over 1,000 part-time summer jobs, 55 full-time positions, and an estimated 10,000 hotel stays would be lost annually.  Not to mention the millions of dollars of taxable revenue generated from cotton candy and stuffed animal sales.  On top of that, the fair board alone lost nearly $2 million in now unpaid rent and parking fees that the park brought into their coffers every summer.

The unfortunate part of the entire situation is that it was something that could have potentially been avoided.  Being mired in a large corporate bankruptcy, Kentucky Kingdom's operator and parent company, Six Flags, simply decided to pull the plug and cease operations at the park.  Leaving behind in its wake 58-acres of roller coasters and thrill rides that offer no benefit to the city if they aren't in use.  Twice now independent investors have attempted to purchase the park and restore it to some semblance of its previous glory, but these attempts have been futile at best.  Original owner Ed Hart tried to purchase the park with the help of some tax forgiveness and commercial loans from the State of Kentucky, the City of Louisville, and the Fair Board.  This deal ultimately fell through when tough economic conditions and shrinking municipal budgets caused those lending options to fall through.  And this past spring the owners of Indiana's Holiday World attempted to reclaim a portion of the park - saying the major roller coasters such as the Vampire, T2, and Thunder Run were too far in disrepair to make them feasible for re-opening.  This deal ultimately fell through when the Koch Family claimed the Fair Board was being too short-sighted in its lease agreement, and felt there would be nearly no way to make the project profitable.

So where does this leave us?  Mayor Greg Fischer has repeatedly said that it's his goal to continually be growing the economic base of our community, and has shown as much in his efforts to expand the presence of both Ford and GE here locally.  So why not reach out to try and lure an investor for this park locally?  Or approve a corporate-friendly tax package that would make a deal worth doing for Ed Hart or another local fan?  With 1,000 part-time jobs literally sitting dormant on the sidelines, what better way to jump start the local economy?  If you figure those jobs pay minimum wage at 20 hours a week for a seasonal six-month period that equates to over $300,000 annually in payroll tax alone that the city is losing out on, not to mention the other, probably, $200K lost without the park's full-time staff.  In total, there is an asset worth  near $500 million in annual economic impact (this is not an official statistic) that is simply being left to rot.  And each that passes by the memories of gleeful children frolicking, hundreds of teenagers celebrating a weekend at Day Five Alive, and throngs of adults soaking up rays in the lazy river simply fade into oblivion.  All while the thoughts of what could have been continue to mount as Louisville loses yet another piece of itself in the puzzle of what could make it great.

Oklahoma City vs Louisville: A Basketball Case Study

The Kentucky Colonels once dominated the sports landscape in Louisville.  Why hasn't a modern revival happened sooner?

With the NBA Finals starting in earnest last night the question has been repeatedly floated around the air-waves and blogosphere of Louisville "If Oklahoma City can have an NBA franchise, why can't we?"  And it's an interesting question because on the surface so many things would seem to shift in the favor of Louisville being a viable home for a professional basketball franchise.  Why is it then that Louisville is often overlooked in that discussion?

When you examine the peripherals, again, it appears that Louisville should hold its own in any NBA argument.  Louisville ranks higher than OKC in terms of population and size of media market (42nd vs 43rd), Louisville has a higher median annual household income than OKC ($39,457 vs $34,947), and Louisville has more Fortune 500 companies from which to draw sponsorships than OKC (3 vs 2).  But the turning point really comes when you consider the mobility and hunger of the two fan bases.  First of all, Oklahoma City, while it is close to Norman and not far from Stillwater, has no specific ties to a particular college sports programs, and has no significant major sports franchises other than the AAA Baseball OKC Redhawks.  Beyond that, the closest major sports town to OKC is Dallas and its over 200 miles away - a further distance than Louisville is from Nashville.  The next closest bastion of top level athletes lies in Kansas City which is nearly 400 miles away, and more than a 5 hour drive.

How do these folks get their sports fix?

Louisville, in contrast, has major college sports littered all throughout its community fabric with the University of Louisville competing at a high level in all its major sports, and Bellarmine University competing extensively as well.  When you throw in the University of Kentucky, which is a mere 75 miles away in Lexington, the picture gets pretty cloudy when you consider which entity is going to get your entertainment dollar.  Beyond that, Louisville is within 250 miles of four major sports towns in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Nashville, and many people around here already have deep ties to teams in those locales because, frankly, they've had to find somebody to root for all these years.  When you add to that the Kentucky Derby, and horse racing in general, along with the Louisville Bats.  You have a sports landscape that pretty well ties up the demands of any fan's tastes all year round, not to mention their dollars.

But OK, I love Louisville, and Kentucky in general (that's what this blog is all about right?), so lets say that the fan bases are equal and the penchant for spending on sports is equal.  Basketball is obviously king in the KY right?  So what are the hold ups?  Well first, the University of Louisville is the primary tenant for the KFC Yum! Center which would house any professional team that were to grace our presence (has anyone been in Freedom Hall lately?  It's a leper colony down there), and has two basketball teams (both men's and women's programs) housed there.  The powers that be, including Men's Head Coach Rick Pitino, set things up this way as a deterrent to any pro franchise who might want to split time at The Bucket.  Upon further evaluation, though, this really isn't such a big drawback.  When comparing the 2010-2011 schedules of both UL men's and women's basketball to that of the OKC Thunder (just for sake of example) we find that only 9 dates in their schedules from October to March overlap.  This problem would be easily solved, mainly on the professional team's end as their 82 game schedule could easily be back loaded with home dates during March and April when college basketball is in the midst of their tournaments.  Problem solved.

The bigger issue, though, appears to be a willing party to sponsor such an undertaking.  The Oklahoma City Thunder were purchased in 2006 by Clay Bennett, an experienced NBA minority owner with the San Antonio Spurs, who pounced on the opportunity to buy the then Seattle SuperSoincs after seeing the outpouring of support for NBA basketball during Oklahoma City's housing of the displaced New Orleans Hornets from 2005-2007.  A sports fan his entire life, he was able to pair the team with other equally interested owners from large nearby companies, who provided more than adequate support.  This is where Louisville really falls short.  While the town has plenty of money and talented individuals who control it, most of the prominent individuals who would have the resources to do something similar to Mr. Bennett are either very old and unmotivated, or simply not interested.  And while Mr. J. Bruce Miller, the local attorney who has made it his life over the past decade to seek out an NBA franchise for Louisville, thinks that he can attract a foreign investor to line our pockets with basketball bucks, it just doesn't have the same cache and weight that someone fighting directly for our city might carry.

At the end of the day Louisville is a growing metropolis that is slowly catching up to its neighbors in terms of overall competitiveness and metropolitan attraction.  And while many of us would love to see a pro sports franchise be a part of our cities landscape, the truth of the matter is that in this case it would be better for us to never love at all than to have loved and lost.  Eventually it will come, people.  If we continue to take the steps necessary to grow employment, population, and wealth in this city we will continue to grow and continue to gain notoriety.  And when that day comes that we can see the first pitch, kickoff, or tip for a major sports team in Louisville, then it will be ever sweeter.  In the meantime, just root for the Thunder, Spurs, Kings, and other small-market teams who will one day aide in making our dream a reality when we finally make Louisville Major League.

The West End: What to do with Louisville's Troubled Soul

With the increase in violence we have seen over the last few weeks in West Louisville it's pertinent to discuss what things could be done, from an economic standpoint, to help reclaim the area that is traditionally west of 9th Street and bordered by the Watterson Expressway.  The city has already seen several great neighborhood renaissances over the past decade with NULU and Liberty Green transforming the formerly blighted East Market and Clarksdale Neighborhoods.  Eastern portions of downtown as you head into Butchertown are now bright, buzzing and remarkably removed from the fear and uneasiness that previously might have come over someone who may have walked through those neighborhoods at the turn of the century.  In short, neither were places you especially wanted to be after dark.

Neighborhood revitalization does work and needs to be employed much more rigorously throughout Louisville. The city has already announced the future transformation of the Smoketown Neighborhood as its next targeted project for improvement, but this is another area that is generally bordered by much nicer surroundings, as Old Louisville and its stately homes are just a few blocks away.  What is to be done when you enter an area that is completely ensconced in blight, poverty, crime, drugs, and hopelessness as much of West Louisville is?  We should use Richmond, Virginia as a case study.

In 1999 Richmond started the Neighborhoods in Bloom program that aimed to target specific blocks within the city that had the utmost need for revitalization.  They combined both local and federal funds and identified 300 blocks to begin assisting and improving.  They concentrated on four main areas of improvement: focused code enforcement and improvements, repayment of back property taxes and the sale of some delinquent homes, increased historic home review and preservation, and focused infrastructure improvements in these areas.  The city gave itself a time span of 5 years to do these things.  What happened was quite phenomenal.

At the end of the project the city had invested $21.3 million in total funds (again spread between local and federal sources) with a median investment of $21,000 per block.  And the results that occurred were almost unimaginable:  housing prices in these previously blighted areas increased at an exponential rate (outpacing the rest of the city) beginning in 2001; community ties were strengthened as neighborhood coalitions were created to see the projects through; and private investment into these areas increased to levels never before seen in the history of these neighborhoods.  New jobs were created and people actually began moving into these areas again.  Beyond that, it is expected that the increase in property tax revenues over the next twenty years will cause the project to eventually be cash-flow positive for the city as a whole.  And at the root of all this was a sense of pride and ownership because people were being treated fairly and given positive options.  Self-worth was enhanced because people's surroundings were vastly improved, and morale in these neighborhoods skyrocketed.

So what does this mean for West Louisville?  The city completed the Liberty Green project for over $200 million and it encompassed just six city blocks, with a few additional spillover areas.  And while this transformation is clearly evident, it is still too early to tell how long-lasting it might be.  For a fraction of the cost the city could make a true, total transformation in West Louisville by specifically targeting their investment; starting with the most dangerous, blighted areas, and moving into their surrounding blocks after that.  Studies show that one of the great prevention tools of crime and drug abuse is simply giving people hope by improving their surroundings or providing them jobs.  As I wrote about in an earlier post, it is well past time that we stop avoiding the West End by circumventing it with highways and interstates.  Redeveloping the city's most dangerous neighborhoods will spur job growth, quell crime, and increase morale across the whole city.  And opening West Louisville for enhanced through traffic will only increase interest in its success.  At the end of the day, we should always be looking for ways to improve our current tax base as opposed to always looking for new taxpayers to flow in.  There are only so many Fords and GEs in the world.  (My old argument of growing the pot vs improving the soil).

In July 2007, while on the campaign trail, now-President Obama really said it best: "If poverty is a disease that infects an entire community in the form of unemployment and violence; failing schools and broken homes, then we can't just treat those symptoms in isolation.  We have to heal that entire community.  And we have to focus on what actually works."

Lord knows our community can't endure violence like what was seen last week.  We're better than that.  And if it was possible in Richmond, it sure as hell should be possible here.

Richmond, Virginia should serve as a model of how to  reduce crime through neighborhood revitalization.