For more check out Rick Redding's take at www.thevillevoice.com.
Let's break the top ten down:1. New cars and trucks
Ford announced that it would invest at least $200 million to re-tool the Louisville Assembly Plant to build a new fuel-efficient car for the American market. Ford also announced it would move production of the Navigator and Expedition to the Kentucky Truck Plant.
This is laughable at best. Abramson had nothing whatsoever to do with this. As a matter of fact since 2006 he has ignored Ford until he could not afford to any longer. He ignored them with their concerns in regards to STAR in 2006, ignored them for 8 months when they announced their Way Forward plan in January of 2006, and had to beg for a meeting at least twice in the last 2 years. Pathetic example once again.
2. Overcoming adversity
The city hosted 1,200 evacuees from Hurricane Ike and, weeks later, a major windstorm knocked out power to more than 300,000 LG&E customers for days. A major economic downturn also required more than $30 million city budget cuts over two fiscal years – $13 million in early 2008 and $20 million in late 2008.
Seriously? Hurricane Ike gave Louisville something we had not faced before. I love referencing the 300,000 without power but neglecting to mention LG&E is trying to MAKE US reimburse them through higher fees. Nuff said.
3. A sports city
Louisville’s reputation as a sports center continued to grow, after hosting the 2008 Ryder Cup, viewed by 600 million people worldwide. The city also hosted its second Ford Ironman Competition and landed the Breeders Cup for a return engagement at Churchill Downs in 2010.
A sports City? This may well be the last time the Breeders Cup comes to Louisville thanks to some problems with CD ownership. We are on the hook for an arena NONE can afford. We are hemorrhaging good paying jobs out of the City in lieu of low wage service economy jobs.
Who will be able to afford the price of admission? Not many yet we will all pay through taxes for the dismal future we are headed towards.
4. Best in America
Louisville won several national accolades, including:
America’s Most Livable Large City, U.S. Conference of Mayors
One of America’s Most Improved Cities for Cycling, Bicycling Magazine
One of America’s Best Towns, Outside Magazine
America’s Best Tasting Water, American Water Works Association
There isn't enough room here for my rant on this. Check this out for more: Louisville News and Politics: LOUISVILLE #1? Remember Abramson essentially owns the Conference of Mayors.
5.Downtown growth
Construction began on the new $238 million downtown arena, and the city completed the deal to expand Fourth Street Live with the Center City project. Downtown’s newest high-rise, Zirmed Gateway Towers, started construction.West Main Street was named one of America’s 10 Greatest Streets by the American Planning Association.
The arena will bankrupt the City. Well that and MSD of course. Center City is a project that is unnecessary and possibly illegal as I have asked for an AG ruling on the legality of it. Oh and the Metro Council did too later. Louisville News and Politics: SHAME ON THE COUNCIL
6. Improving the environment
The city launched its Go Green Louisville initiative that includes the first green roof on a city-owned building, at the Metro Development Center, and the Kilowatt Crackdown to lower energy use in 230 buildings, including schools.Mayor Abramson switched to a Ford Escape hybrid for his work vehicle.By the close of 2008, the number of ENERGY STAR buildings doubled, from 5 to 10.
Interesting to try to use Ford Escape as a great example of going green. Abramson was called to task by local Ford employees for not supporting Ford and this is his payback to act like he cares. Pathetic display.
7. Creating new parks
The City of Parks initiative reached another major milestone – the opening of the first 25 miles of the 100-mile Louisville Loop.The city also purchased land in the Floyds Fork area for the greenway parks project, including a 98-acre walnut farm.
Another example of continual spending at a time when he says we are "broke."
The following are pictures from April 2008 depicting City problems with property in District 14.
While Mayor Abramson was bragging about the Louisville Loop, and one of his favorite rubberstamp Council members Bob Henderson was bragging about cleaning up District 14, this is what the residents had to look at on their part of the Louisville Loop. Building is one thing maintaining is another.
8. Improving public safety
The city invested in equipment and buildings to improve public safety including:
Twelve new communication towers were built or upgraded for the MetroSafe radio communications system, which will open in summer 2009.
Two new firehouses, one in Butchertown/Clifton and one in Portland, are under construction as part of the city’s 21st Century Fire plan. They will open in early 2009.
All of the city’s EMS vehicles have been equipped with handheld computers, called ePCRs, which record and disseminate patient information to hospitals in real time so doctors can begin treatment as soon as the patient arrives.
This would be laughable if it weren't totally necessary to emergency communications. Anyone care to guess or ask the question why it has taken so long to accomplish? Merger began in 2002 shouldn't this have been done years ago? Oh wait in 2006 myself and Kelly Downard, as Mayoral candidates, told Abramson it should be a priority and yet it still isn't accomplished. Perhaps it has to do with the funding problems by his administration. Yep.
Additionally, he has made a mockery of his public safety "improvements" of late with his stance on take home cars, furloughing emergency service personnel (of course saving ZERO dollars since the ones working will be on OT), his wasted money LOSING 8 different lawsuits against the firefighters, and the list grows daily. Buildings and equipment do not run themselves. Without people they are just buildings. He needs to remember that.
9. More visitors
The FFA Convention announced it would return to Louisville, starting in 2013. The convention, one of the largest in the nation, attracts 55,000 people and has an economic impact of $40 million.Tourism in Louisville had $1.4 billion in economic impact in 2008.
Good to see this but they should never have been allowed to leave. We had the chance to keep them and bumbled it. In the meantime this is one more example of relying on tourism dollars for local economy. This would be great if it brought in extra money but how much are we losing forcing jobs out that provide for us daily.
10. Better students
The city, in partnership with Greater Louisville Inc. and Jefferson County Public Schools, achieved its plan to raise $8 million to improve reading scores with the Every 1 Reads initiative.The city also reached its goal of 10,000 volunteers to read to students in their classrooms. When the initiative began, 18 percent of students – nearly one in five — were not reading at their grade level. That percentage has been cut by more than half. The city and school system also hosted a Dropout Summit to lay plans for reducing the high school dropout rate in Louisville.
And it only took roughly 20 years of his administration to address this growing problem. Funnily enough we will educate our kids then send them outside the City for good employment. Where has his interest been the last 20 years?
Really folks if this is the best he has got then we are in worse trouble then many of us even thought.
Continue the spin CJ. We are used to it.
I find it sickening how the Mayor has run down this city and allowed our police to take a back seat to crime. I have repeatedly asked on other sites why we need three Mayors? I have yet to get an answer or where the savings from the merged government are. We build downtown yet can't move traffic during Thunder. We have NO infrustructure downtown but we build when the middle class and our children leave to find jobs elsewhere. The Mayor compares us to Indy, St. Louis, and Nashville, but those cities have strong middle class base with decent middle class jobs. These cities have industry while we allow companies like MedVenture and others pass us by or move to Jeffersonville. And the citizens of Jeffersonville take note: while you are not a Metro citizen with rights to vote in the Metro, what happens on our side of the river ultimately affects you.
ReplyDeleteI want change also. And I would love to be part of that change and serve our community. I have never served in politics but I am serious about it now.
The shame is that so many people are still blinded by the nonsense and the idea that you cant fight City Hall.
ReplyDeleteWhich is why guys like Abramson continue to make a mess of things here. We are in a lot of trouble here because of our local economy, job creation problems, which I saw coming about years ago, etc.
It was all great while we had manufacturing jobs, professional jobs and everyone else had retail jobs. But now the manufacturing jobs have disappeared and the professional jobs have been stagnant and slow to develop or in many cases they have left town as well.
I could go on and on but you guys well know how many people and jobs have left here over the years that could have made the current situation better. I have a buddy who is 46 and just lost a job as a technician working on metal products. Made 16.80 an hour but now is working for 11 an hour and trying to support himself.
Its the real paying jobs that we are losing. We aren't losing as much of the retail and low wage service jobs now. Its a sector of the economy that might have some losses due to cyclical downturns but overall, those jobs can't be outsourced. Only the economy can take those jobs away.
Its beyond me why this community has encouraged disinvestment for the last 30 years and not kept up with the times and the industrial base including bringing the jobs that Indianapolis and Cincinnati have gained during those years. Its crazy that this city can't do better. I've often wondered what Louisville could be if we had the proper leadership and job creation.
If we spent the funds on correct infrastructure such as bridges, roads, schools, electric, sewers, etc. Instead what we get is a group of Jerrys and Buds and Joes running this town into the ground while businesses flee here and the state figures out ways to tax us more and hereby tax every business into the ground. Which explains a lot of why many are leaving, that and cheap labor abroad.
Just remember folks that lawyers never produce anything and as a consequence we can see that by having lawyers running this city, this city produces very little of anything lasting.
Louisville did not got the FFA convention back full time...it is on a rotating basis with Indianapolis.
ReplyDeleteI'll go one further on the public safety communications - anyone remember Goals for Greater Louisville? Back in the early 90s, the community placed merged communications as the highest priority, and 2008, and we STILL don't have it. But, at least, we are getting closer. What is the date for that, by the way, anyone heard? Will it be before Derby?
ReplyDelete"All of the city’s EMS vehicles have been equipped with handheld computers, called ePCRs, which record and disseminate patient information to hospitals in real time so doctors can begin treatment as soon as the patient arrives."
ReplyDeleteSounds great, but what about when the City passes the call off to Yellow Ambulance, as they do more and more often? Do THEY have this equipment, or is my ability to get to use this contingent on whether there are LMEMS trucks available?
"The city hosted 1,200 evacuees from Hurricane Ike and, weeks later, a major windstorm knocked out power to more than 300,000 LG&E customers for days. A major economic downturn also required more than $30 million city budget cuts over two fiscal years – $13 million in early 2008 and $20 million in late 2008."
ReplyDeleteUhhh, CJ, we took in GUSTAV refugees, not Ike - and we refused Ike folks because of Ryder Cup, not the power outage.
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ReplyDeleteThese rants on the police and public safety are getting old, it the local version of support the troops without the validity of the arguement. Please stop..................
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Mayor:
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect of your position, the citizens of Metro Louisville respectfully request total transparency to the budget, expenditures, and revenues of our community. We are the taxpayers that pay your salary. In a democracy, the citizens have the right to challenge and scrutinize documents relative to the actions and decisions made by our officials.
We, the citizens, do NOT live in a cave as you suggested to the media. Quite the contrary – we live in democracy and find it insulting that you would demean any constituent in such a manner. We find it scandalous that blame is placed on our law enforcement officers for your mismanagement of our tax dollars without total visibility of our budget at a time when crime continues to rise.
To publically announce, as you did this morning, that you fully intend to continue to spend on construction projects at the expense of public safety only shows your arrogance and places in question the real severity of the budget issues. Release the information, Mr. Mayor. We deserve no less! From what I see, here are the numbers as they stack up:
Truth is, from 2007 to 2009, the facts are:
• Total revenue UP 21 % ($122 Million +);
• Expenditures for Contractual Services up 30% ($36 Million + debt related);
• Expenditures for Interdepartmental Charges (nice catch all account!) up by 13% ($5 Million +);
• Metro Council expenditure UP 26% ($1.5 million);
• Finance and Administration Expenditures UP 78% ($10 Million +);
• Related Agencies (what’s this dark hole?) UP 159% ($65 MILLION +);
• and the real interesting one is expenditures for “Restricted & Other Project Expense UP $13Million + [Note: this expense was ZERO in the 2006-2007 budget].
So the poor economy has silver lined our Mayor’s office and his cronies to the exclusion of public safety. Nice job Mayor.
And the Mayor’s office wants to blame the poor economy on his budget woes. Convenient, none the less, since we [Citizens] cannot confront face-on this nebulous entity
Look…in the sky…it’s a bird…no a plane..no it’s super Jer.
ReplyDeleteAble to leap tall issues in a single bound. Faster than a speeding deficit …
Bozich parades the $238 million arena as if it were the last supper while the Mayor plays total disregard to the thousands of Metro citizens that need safety (go after those take home cars Jer) and jobs. Companies locate here to find quality people. Both the higher education system and vocational system play a critical role…not the stadium or the Ryder Cup. You want more tax revenue Jer, then bring in better paying jobs. Think of what could have been done with $238 million (that the taxpayers will pay for dearly over 30 years). Where did the craft labor go? Aren’t labor jobs important to you Jer, or just the service related jobs (KFC, Burger King, and Pizza)? Give the blue collar good jobs so everyone can enjoy your $238 million monolith that will no doubt bear your name somewhere.
And this morning the Courier reported the homicide rate “steady” with last year as if that were an accomplishment. Compare us [Metro] to Cincinnati and Nashville. There is no comparison here. These cities have real industry and real jobs and yes pro teams supported by the Budweiser Joe’s out there that have decent paying jobs.
The city’s ambition is to have us [Metro] be known as the “medical” Mecca and service town. Laudable goals if you exclude the under employed that are serving pizzas to the doctors, lawyers, and Indian chiefs. So what will the elite in this town do when their AC stops working, plumbing backs up, or electrical problems suddenly become an issue in their own little blue sky worlds? Will they call a Speed School graduate? I think not – these students will long be gone to silicone valley, Indy, St. Louis, Nashville, Charlotte, or Jacksonville.
So if we want honest leadership in this town, we will have to make that happen. We will have to question and investigate the facts. We will have to be the media’s worse critic and demand a “no spin” zone. And sadly enough the very people that are the least informed seems to be those affluent folks that shed no concern because “it doesn’t effect me.”