Mundane but meaningful headline: Thanks Brent for making the extra pick up happen.

Late yesterday (June 24, 2019) Brent Ackerson sent out the following mass email.

Neighbors -

Later today - at my direction, Louisville Metro Public Works will be picking up the large quantity of junk and yard waste items they refused to collect last week. This abrupt change in enforcement left our neighborhoods in serious need of assistance.

Like many of you, I was appalled that there was no notice that many things routinely taken in past junk collections would simply be left on our lawns and streets this time. 

We began talking with Public Works almost as soon as your calls came in reporting enforcement change. Thanks to everyone who alerted our office, we had lots of evidence that things had changed. But we didn't know the extent to which pickup was inconsistent in our district or surrounding neighborhoods. 

So, this weekend Jeff, Michael and I drove the whole of the 26th District that is also part of the City's Urban Services District. It was clear that a lot of stuff typically taken was left - including things that probably should have been taken even under the strict guidelines.

After our review, we decided that we would make sure the administration finished the job and we're putting money where our mouths are. To that end, we are committing some of our district's neighborhood funding to having Public Works complete another pass of the district and pick the rest of the items up.

As always, please let us know if you have any thoughts or concerns, or if you have questions about this 26th-District-sponsored project. 

Thank you.

Brent T. Ackerson
26th District Councilman

 I can only say thanks, getting to Meriwether would have been pretty difficult for a lot of people. It was a good thing to do. 

Unfortunate Event Today in Bon Air, but Bon Air is still a very safe neighborhood.

As some of you early risers may have learned from the TV stations, there was a shooting death on Rowena Rd.  That is between Heather Lane and Meadow Lane behind the Starbucks, Penn Station and the new storage facility that used to be the Bardstown Road Centre office building.

Here are some TV station links to the story:

https://www.wdrb.com/news/louisville-metro-police-investigating-fatal-shooting-in-bon-air-neighborhood/article_3674d5be-959a-11e9-a17a-f7c2d2fc7e0e.html

https://www.wave3.com/2019/06/23/lmpd-investigating-fatal-shooting-bon-air-neighborhood/

https://www.wlky.com/article/lmpd-responds-to-fatal-shooting-in-bon-air-neighborhood/28151783

I will make the statement that I do believe that Bon Air is still a very safe neighborhood to live in.

While we are awaiting LMPD for the completion of their investigation and the answers as to what happened and why it happened, I will be brave to make the following statements:

Our violent events in Bon Air tend to occur more in areas where there are concentrations of apartment houses and around 3300 Bardstown Rd.   The last shooting was around the concentration of apartments on Noe Way.   Rowena Rd is one block consisting of all rental property or owned by commercial interests at the west edge of the neighborhood.

Historically, our other issues have happened around the intersection of Goldsmith and Bardstown where the motel is and were (prior to the old Holiday Inn/Quality Inn and Travel Lodge being razed).

If you have some kind of information that can help LMPD about the cases either from December 5, 2018 (the Noe Way incident) or today, please be a good citizen and assist them.

Otherwise, I would advise my fellow and sister Bon Air residents not to panic. We are a great neighborhood and a safe place to live.

Update 12:30 pm LMPD has a suspect in custody.  Here are some web links.

https://www.wdrb.com/news/update-suspect-arrested-in-fatal-bon-air-neighborhood-shooting/article_3674d5be-959a-11e9-a17a-f7c2d2fc7e0e.html

https://www.wave3.com/2019/06/23/man-arrested-deadly-shooting-bon-air-neighborhood/

https://www.whas11.com/article/news/crime/boyfriend-charged-with-murder-in-fatal-shooting-in-bon-air-neighborhood/417-36898fe9-9e41-471b-9f79-4d9fd275573b   (This suggests that this was a domestic violence matter).

Jeremy Semones, Art Treasure in the Bon Air Neighborhood

On my race to get the handbills out on Terrier Lane before the rain, I had the good fortune to meet Sculptor Jeremy Semones and learn about his art work.

Jeremy just got some attention in Louisville Magazine for his work on the Louisville Knot.  You can read about it here:
https://www.louisville.com/content/jeremy-semones-core-design-louisville-knot-art

Otherwise, what was really cool was Jeremy's work in his front yard that he made himself: the Cross with the mirror in it.  He gave permission for me to take this picture.

The cross that he has in his front yard is a very profound piece of art work.  I did not think to ask what he called it, but to me the Christian can see themselves in the Cross.  In a very historical sense, Jesus changed the meaning of the cross from a Roman horrifically brutal method of public execution to a symbol of hope. 

It was a great privilege to get to meet him and I hope he can be part of the art vision in the Bon Air Core development strategy.

With apologies to Rosemount Ct: I never paid attention that you were there

Tonight I put out handbills, talked to a few people and upset a few dogs.

I was planning on just doing Terrier Lane since it was such a long street, but as I was driving to one of the other Bon Air NA board members to drop off some of these handbills, I noticed Rosemount Ct.   I had to quickly go down and see what it was like.

It was a quaint little street with fairly well-kept up houses.   It runs into the South Fork of Beargrass Creek and there were two bachelor mallards enjoying the creek . 

I found the creativity on this block to be quite pleasant as shown by this little garden at the end of the street.

At the time that I am writing this, there is one house for sale on this street, and it is a nice looking house. If you are in the market for a house in the Bon Air Neighborhood, this could be your place.

But Rosemount Ct, I am sorry I never paid attention to you,  You are a nice looking street.

Some of Us Will Have to Figure out What to do with the Junk They Did Not Pick Up.

I, like some of you have stuff that did not get picked up during "Junk Week."

There are several houses on my block that still have construction material and clippings that did not get picked up.

Brent Ackerson put out this notice on his mass email:

In it, Brent wrote:

JUNK PICK UP PROBLEMS

Neighbors -

Through emails, phone calls, and other communications, we've learned from you, our constituents, of the change in practice with regard to Junk Pick-Up in the Urban Services District.  I very much appreciate hearing your concerns.  

For years we've come to understand what would or wouldn't be picked up and the Solid Waste Management team has done a good job of getting the work done. 

With this recent collection in our district, starting late on Tuesday evening, complaints have been made that items we have come to expect would be hauled away have been left behind.  In many instances, residents have been left with a notice from the Solid Waste Management Office indicating items were the homeowners' responsibility, items which have always in the past been taken in the Junk Pick Up collections.

My office was not made aware of this change in enforcement or we would have let you know about it ahead of time so as to prepare.  Let me repeat that.  No one from the Mayor's Office or Solid Waste Management indicated a change would be made in the practice of what was or wasn't collected or that the policy would be enforced in a manner which it had not been in the past.

Had we been notified in a timely manner, you would have been as well.  At this point, we have not been provided a solution from the administration on their change in how they are handling the Junk Pick Up service.  In the meantime, I am asking that you contact either the MetroCall service at 3-1-1 or the Mayor's Office at 502-574-2003.

Again, this was a decision made beyond our control.

Thank you.

  --- Brent  

Someone put this on my door yesterday: 

Now, I am not sure if this is an official action by a city department or one of my neighbors.  But it explains the policy.

Like many of you, I will be out cutting up and tying up and orderly laying out my branches for eventual pick up, and I will trust that the usual grass bag pick up will happen and take them away. . 

Otherwise, for those of you who present as being stuck with construction and other large items, you may have to take them yourself in small trips to the Louisville Metro Waste Reduction center at 636 Meriwether Ave, Louisville, KY 40217.   

If you have never been there before, the best way to go is probably west on the Watterson to Preston Highway. 

Go North on Preston and it becomes Shelby.  

Turn Left on East Burnett

Turn Right on Clay

Turn Left on Meriwether.

The place is a little intimidating at first, but stop at the booth and they'll tell you want to do with your stuff.

On the way back you will have to make a turn because Shelby becomes a one-way Northbound.  However, if you have presence of mind, and want to reward yourself for the hard work, consider stopping on Preston at Nords or Sunergos and the Christian Book Nook for a good cup of coffee, a good donut, and a religious or philosophical book. 

(Random thought: I would love to see a Sunergos in the Bon Air Manor shopping Center.) 

 

Graffiti in Bon Air: It's Not Art . . . It's Pollution

Growing up in rural Iowa I did not see graffiti except on the side of barns.

There was this particular barn where Oak Hill Drive ran into NE 23rd ST that introduced me to it. I saw this barn when we headed to church in Des Moines.  I learned from the big white letters on the side this gray, dilapidated barn that Dan and Kate were a couple and that Pigs eat S--t.  Later, I saw graffiti on Rock Island and Union Pacific railroad cars.

My hometown of Altoona Iowa and my high school,  took a hard line against graffiti.  A few girls a little younger than me spray painted their names or initials on the Highway 6 underpass and made the Altoona Herald as being charged with some kind of crimes.  During either freshman or sophomore years at Southeast Polk High School, someone spray painted the side of the gym with some kind of message I do not remember, but I remember Kermit Tannatt, the athletic director preaching that the kid who did it payed for the sand blasting and got charged to boot.

On a more serious note, as a social worker in North Carolina, I had taken interest in what graffiti meant given all the gang members I was getting as clients. It was the advertising of the streets and it marked territory.  One girl who I took back to her home for a family visit pointed out her own gang's graffiti on the side of a building marking out their territory.   Gang wars can be started when one gang "disrespects" another gang by graffiti or defacing the other gang's graffiti.

Otherwise, there is some graffiti out there that still makes me in awe of the crazy courage or poor lack of judgment that kids have in getting up on highway signs in the middle of the night and painting something that otherwise has no meaning to me.

Bringing it to the headline, there is some graffiti in Bon Air, and I am not exactly interested in knowing what it means.

A common place where there has been graffiti is on the wall along Brockton Lane.

The city has been through over the years and has painted over the graffiti.  Lately, they have not been through.

Another recurrent place for graffiti is the Farnsley Park bathroom building, but it is currently nicely painted.

However, the graffiti that has my attention the most is a serial excrescence in three places that is probably created by a party calling them selves: Punch.  It is the name on the dumpster behind the Bon Air Manor.

It may or may not be the name of the party, but it is the same color as the graffiti on the gray shed  on the other side of the Bon Air Manor.

What is more, this same picture is in two other places in the Bon Air Neighborhood. The second place is by Sharon Circle and Fureen Drive:

What makes me think that this party has real skills is that he or she did a miniature of this on the sign right in front of the Highgate Springs garden on Furman Blvd at Taylorsville Rd.

It is almost like they took the same mail order art instruction classes that Charles Schultz took from the magazines where you drew the picture of the pirate or turtle in a different size other than the picture in the advertisement.

While I am giving "Punch" some notoriety, I am also giving notice, that I am giving the location of the public tags to 311 and requesting that they get painted over.  It is up to Kyle Noltemeyer and his people whether or not they are going to do something about the tags on the out building behind the Bon Air Manor.

Since the Bon Air Mural under the Watterson got defaced in August, 2017 by some miscreant(s) I have came to see graffiti as pollution.  It has no aesthetic appeal to it and spoils the space where it exists. Graffiti left up shows social degradation of a neighborhood or a city.  It is created by people who lack civic pride and respect for social order.

In Louisville, you can report graffiti by calling 311/574-5000 or email a report at metrocall@louisvilleky.gov. Metro Government has painted over it in the past and I am hoping that they will take care of these.  Let's keep Bon Air clean and free of graffiti.

 

A Brief Analysis of Crime Reports in the Bon Air Neighborhood for May, 2019

This is a analysis for May, 2019 based on data posted by the Louisville Metro Police Department at and website website at https://data.louisvilleky.gov/dataset/crime-reports/resource/6d81fdf8-27e7-41ac-9ae4-1bfd8730f002 

It is a Microsoft Excel file that requires just a touch of manipulation and sorting

As usual it includes the crimes reported within the boundaries of the historical Bon Air Neighborhood as defined:
1) Bardstown Road on the West
2) Hikes Lane on the South
3) Furman Blvd on the East and
4) Taylorsville Rd and the Watterson Expressway on the North. 

Also as usual, the crime reports do not include precise addresses, so some of the information can reflect crimes happening just on the other side of the boundaries. 

Crime appeared to be up from April in that there were 73 reports in the defined area.

There were 47 reports in the 40218 area of the neighborhood and 26 reports in the 40220 portion. 

In terms of breakdowns, the 3300 Block of Bardstown Rd is the location with the most police reports of 15 reports. It had 

• two assault reports
• one disturbing the peace report
• one fraud report
• two motor vehicle thefts
• two robberies
• five theft/larcenty reports and 
• one weapons report 

I have been trying to keep more of an eye as to what happens at the Budgetel Inn, and only one report of a robbery could be confidently placed there.  A couple of reports are placed in a parking lot, but there are no parking lots that can be identified as autonomous apart from businesses. 

Otherwise, in terms of the 40218 area, the breakdown could be identified as follows

assault	7
burglary	2
motor vehicle theft	3
larceny/theft	10
robbery	2
vehicle/break-n	2
Weapons	2
Missing Persons	7

In the 40220 zip code Noe Way has made an undesirable comeback as the location with the most police reports with five reports.  Noe Way is pretty much all apartment complexes. 
Both 2900 Rio Rita Avenue and Masemure Ct (both apartment complex areas) had three reports each.   Otherewise, the breakdown for the month in 40220 is as follows: 

Vehicle break-in	5
Motor vehicle theft	5
Burglary	3
larceny/theft	3

One small trend that is disturbing to me is the increase in crime in the Bon Air Estates area where there were a series of vehicle break-ins on Shannon Drive around 5/26-5/28.  There was also a burglary in the area. 

As has been encouraged, keep your cars locked.  Bon Air has a not so good history of letting your cars warm up with the doors unlocked.  It is a crime of opportunity.

Otherwise, if you have any particular concerns to discuss, the Bon Air Neighborhood Association will have it's monthly board meeting on June 8, 2019 at 6:30 in the Bon Air Library Community Room. Hope to see you there.