I have been a steadfast critic of the project to build two new bridges across the Ohio River in Louisville for over a decade. In fact, my first critical post on the bridges proposal was put up in 2007 less than six months after starting my original Urbanophile blog. The end result was even worse than I anticipated. The project has proven to be a money waster of the highest order, and in fact by far the biggest American transportation boondoggle I can identify in the 21st century so far. Part of the agreement between Indiana and Kentucky … [Read more...]
Creating Fertile Soil For Innovation
I was privileged to give the opening keynote at Governing Magazine's Summit on Performance and Innovation in Louisville last week. Not only was it great to get to speak there in its own right, it's particularly special for me because Louisville is my hometown. My talk was on innovation, the imperative for innovation today, the barriers to innovation, and how to create fertile soil for innovation to flourish. The video is embedded below, but if it doesn't display for you, click over to watch on You Tube. … [Read more...]
Why Does Louisville Have Better Restaurants Than Indianapolis?
I was briefly back on the homefront earlier this month to check out the now fully opened Big Four Bridge pedestrian path across the Ohio River in Louisville. While there I spent some time in NuLu, a retail and restaurant district centered on Market St. just east of downtown, and had dinner at a French bistro type place called La Coop. This place focuses on what I'd call the basics - it's not trying to be a super high end kind of place. But I'm not going to lie, the undistinguished frites aside, the meal was spectacular front to back, and my … [Read more...]
On the Riverfront
Thursday I took a look at my "Cincinnati conundrum," namely how it's possible for a city that has the greatest collection of civic assets of any city its size in America to underperform demographically and economically. In that piece I called out the sprawl angle. But today I want to take a different look at it by panning back the lens to see Cincinnati as simply one example of the river city. There are four major cities laid out on an east-west corridor along the Ohio River: Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis (which is not on … [Read more...]
The Urbanophile Interview: Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer
I recently sat down to talk for about half an hour with Louisville, Kentucky Mayor Greg Fischer. We had a wide ranging discussion that ventured from branding to globalization, regionalism, talent attraction, legacy, and more. If the audio player below doesn't display, click over to listen on Soundcloud. Mayor Greg Fischer. Image via Wikipedia. Here are some edited highlights of our discussion. For those who prefer reading to listening, a complete transcript is available. On an economic development partnership between Louisville and … [Read more...]
Louisville Bridges Project Proceeds From Tragedy to Farce
I've written a lot about the $2.6 billion boondoggle project to build two new bridges across the Ohio River in Louisville (see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). A new East End river crossing is without a doubt necessary and adds regional value, but the rest of the project is basically bad news. But no matter how crazy this project is, it always manages to find ways to show that it's even more wacky than I thought. The latest installment comes from the so-called "investment grade toll study" that was conducted in order to set … [Read more...]
Hoosiers to Pay 80% of Local Tolls for Ohio River Bridges Project
Update 4/6: The organization behind the polls has put up a web site with raw data and more findings from their scientific survey. Update 4/6: Later reports with more specific data from this poll show that the actual ratio is 74% of the local traffic is Hoosiers, not 80% - still a stunning ratio. The pollster estimates a slightly lower ratio of toll revenue to Indiana - 70%, though it's not clear how they did this math. And finally it looks like Southern Indiana officials are waking up to the fact that they are going to get pimped on this … [Read more...]
Facing Tough Facts in Louisville
Some of you know that I'm originally from Louisville, Kentucky. I grew up in rural Southern Indiana just across the river (inside the Louisville MSA), but also had family in the South End and spent a lot of time as a kid stomping around the neighborhoods near Iroquois Park. I love Louisville and it will always have a special place in my heart. I don't write about it much these days because as the blog has progressed, I've been forced to trim back my reading of local news sites and Louisville web pages were on the cut list. So I'm not as plugged … [Read more...]
Indiana’s Bridge Deal Boondoggle, Part 4 – A Better Plan
In the first three parts of this series, I discussed how Indiana so badly botched its negotiation with Kentucky on the Louisville bridges project that its share of the project went up by $200 million at the same time the total project declined in cost by $1.5 billion, how this will result in $432 million being drained out of regular highway funds to cover a resulting tolling gap, how tolling likely results in Indiana paying even more, and the significant risks Indiana has taken on by agreeing to build a tunnel in Kentucky. Amazing as it sounds, … [Read more...]
Indiana’s Bridge Deal Boondoggle, Part 3 – INDOT’s Mini-Big Dig
In previous installments in this series I highlighted how Indiana managed to increase its share of the Louisville bridges project by $200 million even as it bragged that the total price tag had gone down by $1.5 billion, how this led directly to Indiana having to allocate $432 million in regular highway funds to the project, and how tolling puts Indiana at significant risk of paying an even greater share of the project. Today I'll highlight how Indiana is stepping into a potential quagmire by agreeing to take responsibility for building a … [Read more...]