Louisville’s Vision – weak and self contradictory

Under the mayor’s direction, Louisville launched a Sustainability Plan, Trees Louisville, Move Louisville, Cool502, renewed the city’s commitment to the Climate Protection Agreement and signed Climate Compact of Mayors. Examination of these acts as a  ​unit quickly reveals fundamental and self defeating contradictions and weaknesses (the word ‘acts’ was intentionally chosen). The weaknesses begin with the Sustainability Plan. The Sustainability Plan was immediately upon release ​declared unambitious in scope and timing.

​​Trees Louisville, a non-profit raising money to plant trees, cannot compete with the destruction wrought on forests by ‘developers’​. Nor can Trees Louisville compete with the destruction wrought on urban trees by cars and trucks​.

Cool502, the Climate Protection Agreement and the Climate Compact of Mayors​ all three contradict Move Louisville,  the city’s transportation (and land use) plan. This is no surprise as Move Louisville contradicts itself with its ​new Urton Lane ​and​ Oxmoor Farms​ projects bumping up against Move Louisville’s ‘Fix it First’ priority​.

Move Louisville’s Urton Lane​ and​ Oxmoor Farms ​projects will result in ​clear cut​ting​ forests and paving fields​ while draining resources that create a more population-dense, walkable and cooler​ Louisville.

Move Louisville​ also commits nothing significant to public transit​.​

Several proposals should be adopted and aggressively pursued if the city’s sustainability acts are to move beyond mere play acting. The city should purge the Urton Lane and Oxmoor Farms projects and shift funding from those projects to public transit, concentrating additional TARC service (strategically and temporarily) within the Watterson.  For the sake of ​neighborhoods, ​pedestrians and trees, the city should reduce ​and enforce ​urban speed limits to a safe speed. And the city should lead the community by​ beginning to re​-​purpos​e the city owned surface parking lots as housing, retail,offices, parks, community gardens, solar farms or parking garages. ​