The Effects of "Merger" in Bon Air and Some Possibilities

When I first came back to Louisville in 2000 the talk was about Metropolitan Consolidation or "merging" the city and county.  I got an intensive education in it at the University of Louisville School of Urban and Public Affairs to the degree that I was having dreams about the stuff (pathetic huh?).

Anyway the argument was that Louisville would be better off if the city and the county was merged. The Louisville Area Development Association (the forerunner of Greater Louisville Inc) had their eyes on merger back in the 1940's.  Merger had been turned down three previous times starting in 1956.  It finally got passed in 2000 and everything in the Bon Air Neighborhood became Louisville.

Why did it finally pass? Hard to say.  My guess is that the motivation was the 2000 census report, which only highlighted the formal city limits of Louisville as having only 256,000 people while Lexington had 267,000.  Yes, on paper Louisville was smaller than Lexington and we did not want that now did we?

So, in 2003, Louisville joined the likes of Nashville, Tennessee, Jacksonville Florida, Baton Rouge Louisiana, Indianapolis Indiana  and San Francisco, California in having a city-county consolidated government.  Like Jacksonville Florida, Louisville created the Urban Services District and the General Services District.

The Urban Services District was the old city limits.  It maintained the higher taxes but got more services (garbage, recycling, city lights).  The General Services District was the old county area and it did not get any of that.  It was painted as a daunting and expensive task to provide equality of services to the rest of the General Services District.

The apparent line between the General Services District and Urban Services District goes through Bon Air.

This map, which is available at https://apps.lojic.org/neighborhoods, shows that the majority of the traditional Bon Air Neighborhood (which would include the Highgate Springs Neighborhood Association and Bon Air Estates  Neighborhood Association districts) is in the Urban Services District as colored in orange.  A portion of the Bon Air Neighborhood in green is still in the General Services District. 

This is reflected in that some residents on Terrier Lane, Autumn Lane, Heather Lane, Willow Way and Stratford Avenue (and maybe a few other streets) have to pay for private garbage pick up while their neighbors get city services including recycling, junk day, and city lighting. If they want junk picked up they have to pay extra.  It also means that they are in the Buechel Fire Protection District.

How it got this way from my understanding is from a story by Jeff Noble that the residents at that time in the 1970's got asked whether or not they wanted to be annexed into the old city of Louisville. Some said yes, and some said no.   Merger of course simply created the Urban Services District and the General Services District (like the other metro areas did) to avoid the outlay of cash it would take to give everyone the same level of services.

The General Services District still exists 52 years later in Jacksonville Florida (they merged in 1967).  From what I can tell Louisville Metro Government does not have parity or equality of city services across both the General Services and Urban Services Districts as a priority.

One Bon Air resident whom I talked with had looked into getting his property moved into the Urban Services District.  It would require a referendum which means the getting the necessary signatures and then approval by the precinct at the next election in 2020. For specificity the precinct is "C-129."  If you want to figure out what your precinct is you can go to https://mapit.louisvilleky.gov/.

The con of coming into the Urban Services District is that those residents will pay more in property taxes. The possible benefit is that they may pay less overall (than paying both for private trash collection and taxes) and get more services.

I cannot think of anyone who wants to pay more taxes, but it seems to be a worthwhile discussion if it meant that their overall bottom line is better and they get more value in terms of more services.

The Bon Air Neighborhood Association could be a facilitator of this process.  The next meeting will be Monday, April 8, 2019 at 6:30 in the community room of the Bon Air Library.  I hope you join us.

Bon Air History: The Mystery of 3327 Bon Air Avenue

The city and the land tell a story.

When I first came to Louisville in the early 1990's as a graduate student I was taken aback about how curvy the streets were and that the streets were leading to other cities such as Bardstown Rd, Taylorsville Rd, Lexington Rd, and Shelbyville Rd.   It was very different from Minneapolis, Minnesota where I had moved from where everything was in a cartesian grid and the cities were almost purely alphabetically ordered such as Aldrich, Bryant, Colfax, Durant, Emerson, Fremont up and down from the northern suburbs such as Fridley, Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park all the way down through Richfield, Edina, and Bloomington (you know where the Mall of America is).

 When I returned to Louisville in 2000 and entered the U of L school of urban and public affairs, I appreciated that Louisville developed the way it did around the trolley system and the streets were like branches of a tree. Buechel was a stop on one of those branches and local farmers could put produce on to be sold at the downtown Haymarket.

That history lesson aside, you can tell that the majority of the Bon Air Neighborhood grew up like a weed between 1952 and 1957 around the farm land of one of the Hikes Homes, the Bray Mansion, a horse farm, and other older structures.

So, the fact that Goldsmith Lane goes in an crooked L pattern has intrigued me, especially where it crosses at Bon Air Avenue.   You know, this is the part of Goldsmith that always seems to develop potholes every two years like right now.

Why was it this way? What was so special about the land that it would be a triangle and not just a line of houses.    The reality is that part of it is a cemetery.  There is actually a plot of land that is owned by no one, but it has an address of 3227 Bon Air Avenue.

The other is owned by a party that has no other land in the neighborhood. According to land records he has owned it since 2005.   We will not mention his name here,  I am surprised that the party just did not try and give the land over the to City of Louisville or the State of Kentucky for historical perseveration.

My source, who values privacy said that there was a grave marker there at one time that no longer exists. There is a question as to who or what was buried there?  Was it a horse? Was it the graveyard for slaves when slavery was in practice?

So the story is that the roads were routed around the cemetery as reverence for the sanctity of humanity.   The sad part is  that we do not know who is there.

Panhandlers

On Monday, I drove to the corner of Old Bardstown Rd and Hikes Lane, right by the White Castle and across from the Chili's.  The same guy was there that has been there practically every time I come home from a particular store.  He has a sign that says that he is homeless and that anything helps.  He is the guy who has the eye contact, smile,  and wave technique.

About one month ago  I was driving home south on Bardstown and I as I am at the stoplight just before the I-264 underpass and I see a guy in the dark cross from the west side of Bardstown, onto the median and purposely walk up towards the end of the median with a sign in his hand.  As I passed by him he was wearing one of those black coats with florescent green stripes for visibility purposes.

We in the Bon Air Neighborhood and surrounding areas have seemed to have an epidemic of panhandling over the past three to four years. It has slowed down over the past several months except for the guy mentioned above at Old Bardstown and Hikes Lane.

I can say I have been approached by panhandlers in numerous places around the neighborhood.  They have approached me up and down Bardstown Road from the parking lot of the Highlands Kroger to the parking lot of Buechel Bypass Kroger. I have been approached in the parking lot of the Kroger on Breckinridge Lane.  I have seen them at multiple corners.  The brazen ones have approached me inside Walmart. 

Really, as long as I have had contact with the Bon Air/Bashford Manor area, I have seen panhandling. When I was a grad student in 1993, I remember seeing panhandlers at the Watterson/Bardstown Rd Exit.  I remember seeing one guy walking from the former Economy Inn down to the Eastbound Bardstown Road exit unfolding a sign.

 For all practical purposes there is no law for them to be on street corners with signs.  However, they cannot be doing it on private property like store parking lots, and in stores.

There is a part of me that still has some emotional struggle because the Bible tells me things like
Proverbs 21:13:
                  Whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor will also 
                  cry out and not be answered.

However, there is also the question of whether they are just trying to con us out of money, and just pretending to be poor? Or they are panhandling to support a drug habit?

I will not argue with anyone who decides that they will continue to give to the panhandlers.  It is between them and God. However, I have resolved years ago that I will not give money to panhandlers.  In my work as a social worker I have had a number of clients who admit they panhandled to feed a drug and alcohol addiction.   I have seen a few of them both on the streets and coming in for services (one carrying the sign as he was coming in the door).

I hold that the increased prevalence of panhandlers relates to both simple economics and the heroin and methamphetamine epidemics.  Drug use tends to make people homeless because the addict's life centers around acquisition and use of the drug regardless of the consequences.  Second, the panhandlers go to where the traffic is slowed down and there is an audience for the sign.

If we stop giving to panhandlers the supply of money dries up and the word gets out eventually that no one is giving money, and they try elsewhere. I think that the guy who is at the corner of Hikes and Old Bardstown continues to gets money and objects of some value so he is rewarded or reinforced to stay there.

A moment should be given to homelessness. I think that there is a difference between homeless and chronically homeless people.  I have met numerous homeless people in the past few years.  People who merely fall on bad luck and lose their residences find ways to work, get back on their feet and leave homelessness.   Taking advantage of the available services, they take responsibility and they stop being homeless.

However, the chronically homeless tend to have a high prevalence of mental illness, sociopathy, a lack of compliance with medication in addition to addiction issues.   They are not functioning, but they also have free choice not to comply with treatment recommendations.  Some of them have a legitimate fear of going to some of the shelters because of the dog-eat-dog behaviors of stealing from each other and fighting. Some of them also just do not like or follow the rules that are involved in staying in the shelters.  It can be concluded that many of the homeless are doing it to themselves, and they want the power to make their choices . . . even if they are making bad choices . . . it's their decision.

 Not that I am trying to give excuses for avoiding helping them, but I would say if you are feeling moved to help the homeless, giving your donations to the current agencies downtown like the St. John's Center, Wayside, Salvation Army, St Vincent DePaul, Recenter (formerly Louisville Rescue Mission) and the Healing Place would be more effective in helping than giving your money to a panhandler.

Walking the Bon Air Neighborhood

Today was my day off from my job and I had a goal to walk just a few blocks distributing a handbill encouraging people to follow the Bon Air Association on Facebook. 

Our current plan for out reach is to leverage our Facebook page and link this blog to it so people can see and hear what is going on with our association and read (hopefully) useful information about the neighborhood.  

So, I went for an urban hike down Rio Rita, Rosalee, Kings Bridge, Ramona, Boaires, Dell Brook, Del Rio Place, Fureen, and Sharon Circle.  I was the one who probably woke up third shift workers whose dogs stirred when I came to the door. I imagine that I showed up on home security cameras.

Anyway, if you are reading this because you "liked" this on Facebook, you have my thanks. Hopefully, we keep your interest in the betterment of the neighborhood. If you are interested in coming to our next meeting, it will be Monday, April 8, 2019 at 6:30pm in the Bon Air Library.  

The Streets of Bon Air

In the cracks and crevices of my busy life, I have started to do research on Bon Air housing. My goal is to compare rental housing versus owner-occupied housing.  This current information is more trivial at this point, but I thought why not share it on a Monday morning?

There are more streets but they are in the Highgate Springs and Bon Air Estates sections, and they will be included in the eventually completed research, but  in the official territory of the Bon Air Neighborhood Association as originally set up by the Department of Neighborhoods there are 39 streets.  These are:

1.       Rio Rita Ave

2.       Talisman Rd

3.       Boaires LN

4.       Somber Way

5.       Dell Brooke Avenue

6.       Mina Ct

7.       Commander Dr. (South of RioRita)

8.       Kings Bridge Rd

9.       Ramona Ave

10.   Flora Ave

11.   Rosalee Ave

12.   Del Rio Pl

13.   Masemure Ct

14.   Goldsmith Lane

15.   Wyckford Way

16.   Downing Way

17.   Terrier Lane

18.   Medford Lane

19.   Glen Creek Lane

20.   Lisbon Ln

21.   Autumn Way

22.   Meadow Dr

23.   Cornelia Dr

24.   Maxon Dr

25.   Wellingmoor Ave (South of Goldsmith)

26.   Charles Ct

27.   Proctor Knott Dr

28.   Willow Way

29.   Heather Ln

30.   Green Meadows Dr

31.   Gerald Ct

32.   Liverpool Ln

33.   Paris Dr

34.   Bashford Manor Ln

35.   Rowena Rd

36.   Bon Air Ave

37.   Stratford Ave

38.   Sharon Circle

39.   Fureen Drive

If you life on any of these streets, you are definitely in the Bon Air Neighborhood Association area.  But if you are not, and still want to come to the meeting and become a member, you are welcome to come to tonight's meeting at the Bon Air Library at 6:30 pm. 

The Ebb and Flow of Neighborhood Block Watches in Bon Air

Every time I drive into the Neighborhood on Kings Highway and Hendon when I come by Furman, I see a sign from long ago that says "The City Wide Awake."  It was a sign that said there was once a neighborhood watch program before I moved here.   

Neighborhood watches have been tried and they have fizzled in the Bon Air Neighborhood.  In more literary terms, they have ebbed and flowed.  In today's post I am reviewing the recent history of the neighborhood watches and I am throwing a proverbial bone.

The Attempt of 2009

Back in 2009 there was a sexual assault that happened at the corner of Radiance and Herb that brought all kinds of attention from the media and it certainly had awakened the community.  People were even more awake when there was a second report of what was believed an attempted attack by Seneca/Goldsmith and Rio Rita Avenue

There were a ton of people who crowded the Highgate Springs Neighborhood Associatoin meeting coming to hear the LMPD Chief at the time, Robert White    The community room of the Bon Air Library was beyond capacity. The crowd had came because someone (I know now who it was) put flyers all over the streets in the Highgate Springs area and that appeared to get out to the media. 

I remember a flustered-looking Raymond Fehr coming out to the larger crowd waiting out in the main area of the Bon Air Library announcing to the crowd that there has been some misinformation about what the meeting was about.   The person who put the flyer out was not on the Highgate Springs board and Robert White was not on their meeting agenda that night.

There was a temporary, reactionary group called the "Ticked-Off Moms" who had marches down Rio Rita for a time.  They got a few days of media coverage and then they went away.

The LMPD Sixth District did start to organize a neighborhood block watch.  A guy named John Paul agreed to take the helm.  At the risk of sounding pretentious, I had just graduated with my last graduate degree, and I was hoping to get that next level job teaching at an institution of higher learning and I was planning on moving, so I said no, I could not take leadership.

The concerns fizzled away as one of the alleged perps was in jail for something else, and it was never clear what happened to him, but I was aware that LMPD had the place staked out for awhile.  

Likewise, the block watch was started but it was like a balloon with several pin-holes in it; it never got off the ground and it died as soon as it started.  People just stopped being interested as the concern went away.

Next Door

The Next Door Social Media Platform has served some neighborhood watch functions, and can be useful, if you take the time to read it, and if you are on it.   I would say that it is not an easily acquired app, because someone in your neighborhood has to vouch for you that you live in the particular neighborhood (for example Furman to Rio Rita).

My criticism of the way Nextdoor is setup as it pertains to Bon Air is that it is too segmented: it will not let you know what happens in other parts of the neighborhood. If you life along Radiance, you are not going to know what is happening along Terrier, or Wyckford.  Conversely, if you live on Fureen, you are not going to know what is happening on Aries or Somber, Dell Brooke, or even Boaires. (For the record, they are streets in the neighborhood/I was a geography nut for a few years about this stuff)  It has some use, but it is limited.

Is there interest in them again? 

I think the Bon Air Neighborhood Association can be a launching platform for Neighborhood Watches again if there is interest.  We can facilitate the Louisville Metro Police Department to come in and help organize the watches, and we could help form a standing committee or delegate leadership to a board member.   The question is whether or not there is interest.

BANA serves the neighborhood, and a good neighborhood association should reflect what the people of the neighborhood are concerned about.   If this is something you are interested in, and taking leadership in within the Bon Air Neighborhood, I hope that you will join BANA and come to the next meeting; it is scheduled to be March 11, 2019 at 6:30 pm in the community room of the Bon Air Library.  

A Brief Crime Report and Analysis for the Bon Air Neighborhood March 1, 2019

In my last incarnation of this blog, I would go through a crime data base and count out the crimes that happened in the Bon Air Neighborhood. I looked for that crime database and I believe I have found it on the Louisvilleky.gov website.  It is a Microsoft Excel file that requires just a touch of manipulation but there is some useful information.

There were 97 police reports from January 1, 2019 and Febuary 26, 2019 within the historical Bon Air Neighborhood.  This area is being defined as being within the boundaries of Bardstown Rd on the west, Hikes Point on the south, Furman on the east and Taylorsville Rd and the Watterson on the north.  The file does not give precise addresses, and so the information can reflect on incidences on the other side of the boundaries.

The most commonly reported type of crime was  "TBUT OR DISP AUTO. $500 BUT < $!0,000. Basically, this is people stealing from cars.  There were 16 of these incidents or a little more than 16 percent of the crimes.

The location with the highest amount of crime was the 3300 block of Bardstown Rd.

This area had 13 police calls or 13.4 percent of the police calls during the observed time period. This area has not really skilled a beat.  When I did the analysis the last time I did the blog, there was a much higher number of incidents.  While not a crime per se, the most shocking reports at this location included a death investigation on 2/15/19 and a suicide on 1/24/19.  I would be willing to bet a shiny penny that those events happened at what I will playfully call the mint-green motel with the relatively newly minted brand name.

As I remember the last time I did the blog,  besides the 3300 block of Bardstown, there was a higher incidence of crime in the southeast part of the neighborhood around Noe Way, and then the south west part to include Paris and Liverpool.  We will see what happens this time.

When it comes to the Bon Air Neighborhood, police officials and other city officials have repeated over the years that the big problem is that people do not lock their cars and leave valuables in those cars which make them crimes of opportunity. It still seems to be true given that people are not getting it. 

In coming posts, I plan on increasing the sophistication of the analysis.

A neighborhood association can be a partner with the police in addressing crime.  We hope that if you are not a member of the Bon Air Association, we hope that you join us.  Our next meeting will be Monday, March 11, 2019 at the Bon Air Library at 6:30pm.