Louisville makes national news again, but not in a good way

My point ...

Merry Christmas, Steve. I hope you guys have a good one.

Merry Christmas to you and Mary as well Robin...Peas on earth, Gouda wheel, two men,

Wow, a lively debate here and one we as a community need to have on a regular basis.

A few quick thoughts - From purely an economic standpoint, while I understand the Cordish Company's desire to make sure their attraction appeals to the largest possible market with the highest disposable income, I take issue with how they implement it.

In their view, their demographic is the young/middle-aged suburbanites who tend to be white and travel into downtown for a night out. As mentioned above, the appearance of a certain sub-culture threatens (in their mind) the desire of their target clientele from showing up. Cordish has been fairly up-front that the sub-culture in target is the hip-hop scene. My guess is that hip-hop isn't the problem, but that they can't figure out how to define the difference between hip-hop and the thug life / gangsta crowd.

My take on it is that if you can't sustain your product without discriminating against an entire racial group on a fairly regular basis (including their Kansas City property which tells me it's a corporate policy, not local management) then maybe it's time to rethink your business plan. Maybe you need to find a new market.

Having said all that, I'm not going to pretend to be oblivious to the realities of business and of personal feelings in this. I confess to feeling a certain level of discomfort in the presence of those who choose to identify with thug or gangsta life. While that group can be those of african-american descent, it's certainly not exclusively and my response isn't based on that. When I first moved to Louisville 18 years ago, it may have been. I came from the corn fields of Indiana after all, where my first personal exposure to another race happened when I was a sophomore in high school with my first african-american classmate and our exposure to other cultures was interacting with the Amish. Moving to Louisville taught me a LOT about interacting with people from backgrounds different than mine. We now live near the Beechmont neighborhood which is as diverse as almost any place in the country and we've learned to love and respect the many people groups around us.

Since moving to Louisville, I've learned and grown a lot. I'd hope that Cornish could do the same. Until then, they won't be receiving any of my dollars or recommendations.

Welcome, Rob!

That was a very nice post. Way to come in swinging...

Having been an employee of a business in the Galleria for years, and a current employee in 4SL, I prefer the way things are now. I won't argue the hows and whys, I'll just say it is now a much better environment to work in.

Having been an employee of a business in the Galleria for years, and a current employee in 4SL, I prefer the way things are now. I won't argue the hows and whys, I'll just say it is now a much better environment to work in.

Gary...With no desire or intent to draw you into an argument of the "hows and whys"...Merely asking out of curiosity, how are things different now than they were in the recent past. I don't get down to 4SL that often and when I do it's usually on a warm summer (early) evening...What changes can I expect on our next visit ?

Having been an employee of a business in the Galleria for years, and a current employee in 4SL, I prefer the way things are now. I won't argue the hows and whys, I'll just say it is now a much better environment to work in.

Gary...With no desire or intent to draw you into an argument of the "hows and whys"...Merely asking out of curiosity, how are things different now than they were in the recent past. I don't get down to 4SL that often and when I do it's usually on a warm summer (early) evening...What changes can I expect on our next visit ?

Well if you've been there recently I wouldn't expect much difference. I am referring to the difference between the downtown scene in the late 80s/early 90s and now. So lets look back.

At that time 4th Ave was just a mess of wig shops, sneaker stores and knock off jewelry and accessory stores. The Galleria had many national retail outlets although their pricing seemed to be higher than their other locations in the city. Therefore there was really no reason to travel downtown to shop and the location really only served any purpose to people who either worked downtown or lived in close proximity.

As a result the Galleria became more of a place to hang out rather than shop. You also have to remember that the Galleria was enclosed and therefore not subject to seasonal traffic. Loitering was the order of the day. Shoplifting was always an issue. Constant harassment of employees was the standard. The homeless and mentally ill were always on hand if only to seek shelter during the cold months.

People always talk about how well the city has done revamping downtown. Whether it be 4th St Live, Waterfront Park, NuLu, the Yum Center or the 100 other minor things they have done to improve the area. To me the best things they did don't get talked about. The first, biggest thing was making 4th St Live open air. That eliminated a lot of loitering through almost half the year. The city also shut down a lot of the crappy little strip clubs that were dotting the area. They also shut down and moved two of the worst project developments in the area.

It's been a systematic process of removing bad elements from the area in an attempt to draw new businesses and clientele. And in most forms it has worked.

Heh. So much for not getting into the hows and whys.

Good Lord, I just read the comments on the CJ article. Serous question...when did the comment section become a hotbed for skinheads?