A Competitive Vision for the Regional City of Louisville
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A Competitive Vision for the Regional City of Louisville T HE B ROOKINGS I NSTITUTION C ENTER ON U RBAN & METROPOLITAN P OLICY A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy has many people to thank for guidance and contributions to this report. This report would not have been possible without the generous support of a consortium of foundations con- vened by The Community Foundation of Louisville. In addition to the Community Foundation, the foundations that funded and participated in the project were the James Graham Brown Foundation, Gheens Foundation,The Humana Foundation,The C. E. & S. Foundation, and The Annie E. Casey Foundation. The Policy Board of The Greater Louisville Project, appointed by its foundation funders, commissioned and guided development of this report. Mr. C. Dennis Riggs, President and CEO of The Community Foundation, serves as Chairman of the Policy Board. Carolyn J. Gatz, an independent consultant in Louisville, serves as Project Director.The Policy Board’s unique perspective and intimate understanding of the Greater Louisville community are reflected throughout the report. We gratefully acknowledge and thank them for their service. Members include: Mr. Raymond M. Burse Mr. Michael B. Mountjoy Mr.Thomas T.Noland The Community Foundation of Gheens Foundation The Humana Foundation Louisville Mr.W.Barrett Nichols Mr.William E. Summers, IV Mr. Gordon R. Garner James Graham Brown Foundation Greater Louisville Inc. Retired Public Administrator Mr. C. Dennis Riggs Ms. Sylvia W.Watson Mr. David A. Jones, Jr. The Community Foundation James Graham Brown Foundation The C. E. & S. Foundation of Louisville Mr. Sammy L. Moon The Annie E. Casey Foundation Drafts of this report were reviewed by members of the Policy Board, as well as by Robert J. O’Neill, President of the National Academy of Public Administration, Elizabeth Reynolds, Senior Vice President of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, and Dr. Paul Coomes, Professor of Economics at the University of Louisville. We are grateful to all of them for their time, comments, and suggestions. This report results from the efforts of a team of Brookings staff and researchers who worked tirelessly to bring this project to fruition. Many thanks go to: Maureen Kennedy and Paul Leonard, independent consultants to Brookings on this project for their meetings in Louisville and for pulling the policy and trends sections of the report together; Benjamin Foreman, who provided additional research, and helped to bring the trends to life with his maps and graphics; Amy Liu, Mark Muro, and Bruce Katz who provided substantive contributions throughout the research and writing of this report and helped guide this project to completion. Thanks also to Jennifer Vey and Robert Puentes for their assistance in the final stages of the report. Finally, a particular note of gratitude and appreciation is due to Carolyn Gatz, of Gatz and Associates, for her invaluable assistance, advice and support throughout this process. Her boundless energy and enthusiasm for this project, along with her dedication to the Greater Louisville community were invaluable to Brookings and made this project possible. Thank you. The photographs in this report are courtesy of Dan Dry and Associates. We are grateful to Sese-Paul Design for the design of this publication. The views expressed in this report are not necessarily those of the trustees, officers or staff members of the Brookings Institution, nor of the boards, staffs, or foundations that sponsor The Greater Louisville Project. A Competitive Vision for the Regional City of Louisville P REFACE ..................................................................2 III. PULLING I T A LL TOGETHER ......................51 I. EXECUTIVE S UMMARY ......................................3 IV. BEYOND M ERGER:A COMPETITIVE V ISION II. LOUISVILLE AT THE M ERGER: FOR THE N EW L OUISVILLE ................................54 R EGIONAL R EALITIES ...........................................7 Fix the Basics.....................................................56 1. Population......................................................9 Build on Assets...................................................61 2. Employment ................................................12 Create Quality Neighborhoods ..........................65 3. Land Use .....................................................15 Invest in Working Families .................................69 4. Transportation..............................................18 Influence Metropolitan Growth .........................73 5. Age and Household Type.............................21 V. C ONCLUSION: 6. Income ........................................................24 O RGANIZE FOR S UCCESS ...................................77 7. Race ............................................................30 E NDNOTES .............................................................79 8. Housing .......................................................35 9. Education and Workforce .............................38 10. Economy .....................................................41 11. Downtown...................................................45 12. Neighborhoods ............................................48 © 2002 Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy B EYOND M ERGER:A COMPETITIVE V ISION FOR THE R EGIONAL C ITY OF L OUISVILLE P REFACE he City of Louisville and Jefferson the analysis adopts local researchers’ tradition of com- County will consolidate to form the paring the region’s progress to that of a number of 16th largest city in America in less than similar competitor regions. Throughout these analyses, six months. Starting now, a new leader- the assessment draws on a variety of federal data ship cadre will emerge from the ranks of sources, including the invaluable 2000 Census. In addi- Tthe forthcoming Regional City of Louisville, and this tion, the discussion draws heavily on the guidance of cadre will guide a large new city into its inaugural era. dozens of business and community leaders who were These leaders will require information, and they will interviewed for this project, as well as on the analyses of need vision. Many of them will hail from the private such outstanding local researchers as Paul Coomes, Ron and non-profit sectors and the neighborhoods—and Crouch, Michael Price, and the LOJIC staff at the may possess little formal government experience. All of Metropolitan Sewer District. them, including the professionals, will face a compli- Ultimately, the report builds on this substantial syn- cated array of challenges, some old and some very new, thesis of research to present a comprehensive policy as they steer their freshly invented municipality for- vision for Louisville’s emergence among the nation’s ward. Louisville’s new leaders, in short, will need to most truly “competitive” cities. This vision presumes think anew based on the best information available. that the achievement of key economic growth and For this reason,The Community Foundation of quality-of-life gains is inextricably related to the sup- Louisville organized a consortium of philanthropic port of families and neighborhoods. A second phase of foundations to create The Greater Louisville Project the project, organized by the National Academy of and underwrite an ambitious “research and develop- Public Administration, will present a more detailed sur- ment” project for the new consolidated government. vey of the best policy practices that the new Regional Intended to make the most of the first major municipal City can adopt to put this vision in place. consolidation in a generation,The Greater Louisville The pages that follow, in short, suggest an agenda of Project seeks to leverage this historic juncture by fos- transformation to a changing community—one with a tering a major new definition of the community’s resilient economy and high quality of life that are needs and vision. Ultimately, the project is committed increasingly imperiled by economic change, persistent to ensuring that Louisville’s entry into the top tier of racial divides, decentralization, and the relatively low American cities truly does improve the quality of life education levels of its people. This agenda charts how a and opportunities available to all residents of the new renewed Louisville can build on its assets, strengthen Regional City of Louisville. families, fix the basics, influence metropolitan growth, Beyond Merger is the first component of the effort. and sustain its neighborhoods in order to make itself a Prepared by the Brookings Institution Center on Urban top-rank “competitive city.” In doing so, it takes a and Metropolitan Policy, Beyond Merger uses text, deliberately broad view of “competitiveness”—one that charts and graphics to give the new Regional City of does not separate strategies to promote economic Louisville its first complete look at itself as it begins its growth from those that enhance the overall health of journey into the 21st century. the community in all its aspects. In the end, Beyond The report begins with a comprehensive review of Merger offers nothing less than an integrated frame- ongoing population, land-use, housing, workforce, work for thinking through what kind of city social, and economic trends in the region. Frequently, Louisvillians really want to live in as their hometown the discussion gauges the health of the new city in the graduates from the 64th to the 16th largest municipality