LEM: Louisville's Eccentric Mayor

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Anybody still heralding car culture, let alone celebrating the opening of a parking garage, in the 21st Century is a clown, in my opinion. So, yes.

I thought Louisville promoted itself as being weird. What's wrong with some rich folks having fancy digs in which to park their expensive automobiles? I do not envy those people nor do I want to be like them, but if that's what they want, then more power to them.

So, the affair was a little over the top. Big deal. I am sure the rich people who will park in the luxury "spaces" paid for the entire gala.

Okay, this is totally weird, but I'm with Doogy.

Okay, this is totally weird.

Okay, this is totally weird, but I'm with Doogy.

[Robin Garr]

Okay, this is totally weird, but I'm with Doogy.

Okay, this is totally weird.

So weird that you might want to rethink this, Marsha. You know this stuff turns up on Google!?

I....have been holding this back. I think Jerry's actually been a good Mayor. I should disclose that he appointed me to a very un-glamorous (vacant property review board) committee once a dozen years ago, which I served on happily for free, and that he was a client of the bank I worked for before I went to culinary school.

That being said, I think he's been a pretty good - scratch that - great Mayor and a great advocate for our city. I am totally prepared to take my lumps for saying so.

I'm not angling to be his spokesperson, but I have felt very itchy about all the Jerry-hate lately. I understand the stuff about the firehouse in Old Louisville and the Otter Creek Park issue and the take-home police cars and what have you, but...I guess I don't understand exactly what it is that everyone wants him to do? We're out of money! He's furloughed his staff and done a lot of other things to try and make up the shortfall. And I'm a giant liberal! I'm to the left of Dennis Kucinich! I'm not nominating him for sainthood...I just think he's been good for our city and now he's desperately trying everything to try and keep us from drowning in a deficit. We can't print "Jefferson County Dollars".

I'm really sorry. I just have to be honest. And I think a little garage-love-ceremony, in the vein of trying so hard to encourage people to love downtown, is the least of our problems.

There, I said it. Hopefully I won't get run out of HotBytes on a rail. *sniff*

I hope the slings and arrows don't hurt too much *squints eyes*

I'm actually with you Marsha. While I don't always philosophically agree with his positions, I really do believe that he works very hard to make Louisville a great place to live. As for the Otter Creek issue, I thought his response in LEO was very logical, and it showed the amount of thought that went in to that decision. I do disagree with his various positions regarding Cordish, but overall I think he's positively affected the city.

Oh, yeah - I should have made clear that I definitely part ways with him on the whole 4SL/Cordish deal, so we're in agreement there, too, Paul.

s

[Robin Garr]

I....have been holding this back. I think Jerry's actually been a good Mayor. I should disclose that he appointed me to a very un-glamorous (vacant property review board) committee once a dozen ye

Marsha, I agree too, mostly. I've known Jerry since there was a Louisville Times and since he was First Ward Alderman. He's a nice guy and has been a great cheerleader for the city.

The only negative I see is that the cheerleader style works better in good times than it does in hard times.

I also wish, although this isn't Jerry's fault, that the Binghams were still alive and still owned the daily newspapers. In tose days, aggressive news coverage and thoughtful, informed editorial policy helped maintain a nice balance. The paper didn't run the city, but its moral vision helped point a direction for city policy, and officials listened. Sometimes.

The new gang, with all its antics over merger, the Museum Tower (will we ever see it?) and, perhaps worst of all, downtown development from Cordish sweetheart deals to the Arena, not only doesn't have the ethics and the vision to state a consistent and progressive editorial policy about the city's long-term vision, it's actually gone to the sleazy side, getting directly involved and losing sight of its commitment to the public and to public service.

I agree with you as well Marsha. I'm not an economics major or even extremely astute as far as big business goes but it seems JA has being doing a pretty good job. I guess there will always be detractors. The thing is, for all of those people that think he is a bad mayor why isn't someone standing up and running against him? He's been re-elected how many times now? 46 or 47 times, what? And you have to admit, no other politician has been as accessible as JA always seems to be. I used to always see him out at a Kroger store and he never failed to stop, say hello and chat for a few minutes. If nothing else he's got to be the best with PR.

So what? The Mayor makes a myriad of appearances at lots of events all over the city, including other ribbon cuttings for small local businesses. I don't see it as weird, I see it as active and varied. Would you rather that he was a cookie cutter mayor who made the same tired appearances just for the sake of a photo-op? As far as I remember, Waterfront Park Place is a significant marking point of a shift of resources to the downtown area and that, to me, is a good thing. Besides, those people paid PLENTY for their fancy condos; it doesn't surprise me that they want a nice parking spot to accompany their digs. There are plenty of condo/apartment buildings with nice parking garages; ever been to 1400 Willow? They have a pool on top of theirs. Besides, if the building is still needing to sell 25% of its untis, this seems like good PR - perhaps some people shied away due to the lack of parking options.

Well, I feel a little better - I thought I was gonna get a spanking over that post. So, good.

Joel, I know you're a thoughtful and intelligent person so I'm cool to agree to disagree with you on this one thing or these couple of things. I know you are in Detroit or headed that way, so I hope you have a great weekend.

Michael, I will see you at the duel. You should read the Flabby's offline thread and help me choose our weapons.

What Marsha said.... I already said as much elsewhere, in particular regarding the garage event, which the article itself noted was not just about the garage but the building and the potential opportunity for business there. It has occurred to me lately that as much as we love to trash corporate America and business, that hey, guess what? they tend to support most of this country. It's not perfect, it's not all good, and they need to watch-dogged and monitered, but without big business most of us would never have had health insurance, pension plans, better-than-minimum wages, etc. I was surprised to hear myself saying as much to my husband a couple of months ago, being the flaming liberal I am.