Bon Air . . . Future Setting for Storage Wars Kentucky

There is really no quasi-tasteful sarcastic remark that can be made here, self-storage facilities are increasing in density in an approximately four mile radius in and around the Bon Air Neighborhood.

The one that sticks out the most is the self storage in the old Bardstown Centre office building. I cannot miss it when I get my Starbucks or my Mexican Food fix at El Caporal. 

The latest is the one on the old Rose Bowl site off Goldsmith Lane.

We have been made aware of its coming for about two years.  

When you go down Old Bardstown Road you see the two Public Storage units. One of them used to be the "502 Storage" facility.   

Go further down back on the Buechel Bypass/Bardstown Road between Fegenbush Lane and Watterson Trail and what are the new construction projects?  That's right two more self-storage facilities.  

R. Christian Sonne (Sonne, R (2013) Self Storage Economics The Appraisal Journal.)  noted that the number of storage facilities in the United States have more than doubled  from 23,972 facilities in 1992 to 50,048 in 2011.  It is also a relatively stable real estate sector and demand has grown with supply as Sonne said, "Even while supply doubled, national occupancy ranged from 82.9% to 89.4%, with an average of 86.72%."   It appears to be a stable type of investment that Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and other investors can depend on. 

Despite its dependability as a stable investment, not all neighborhoods want them.  In a simple Google search there are various neighborhood groups throughout the US who do not want these facilities as a foreseen drain on property values and a detriment to aesthetics. 

In a grand sense, while I would have preferred the bowling alley to be restored, or an office building to be built, or Sullivan University to have purchased that land and expanded its programs on that site,  economics are economics, and it just does not seem to fit anyone's current program plan, or agenda.  

Within its capability, the local government and chamber of commerce generally have a plan to create an economic engine with the infrastructure, existing institutions, and other amenities that makes land attractive for the desired development.  Often it compounds or builds on what is there.   The University of Louisville has been an instrument of economic development.  

For instance, in James Ramsey's day, U of L (especially the Medical School) was supposed to be an economic driver through the Nucleus Innovation Center in which they were going to grow the medical sector in Louisville (go figure that the Nucleus website has not been updated since 2017).   

Earlier in the 1940's and 1950's U of L was used start the Louisville Medical Center. Jewish Hospital was coaxed downtown to be a teaching hospital for the Med School.  At its zenith in the late 1980's the Med Center had six hospitals. 

Anyway, in today's situation, the bowling alley site has been a reputed site of a homeless camp and a new GoStoreIt site is a secure improvement.and should encourage those parties to return to the available services downtown.  I just hope that the other land speculator who wanted to put a lower cost chain hotel across from where the storage facility is being built continues to be discouraged from building. 

This is where I plug in that the Bon Air Neighborhood Association seeks to guide development in the neighborhood. .We want to have development plan that improves the liability of the neighborhood. Our art development strategy aims to beautify and makes the neighborhood a destination in addition to enhancing the art economy in Louisville.

But maybe if the producers of Storage Wars are looking for new places to shoot episodes, Bon Air could be a great location. 

Olá (That's Portuguese for Hello) Lisbon Lane

It has been a minute since I have been in the frame to post and with a day off I thought I would finish the last of the streets that had not the distribution of handbills and that was Lisbon Lane.

Other than the usual stirring of dogs and risking waiting up night shift workers, I was going to stay that it would have been an uneventful event but I had a most interesting conversation with Patsy who told me about her website www.hisreturn.org.  (I spared her my memories of reading Bass, Boettcher, Fuller, Hoekema, Fuller, Ladd, Ryrie and Walvoord 30 years ago . . . and I spared asking her about Harold Camping.)  Anyway, it is a website focused on Christ's return. I must compliment Patsy on her religious fervor.

I will thank the Bon Air Board members for taking different streets to divide up the tasks. Our hope is that people will follow our page and the blog to learn what is going on the neighborhood and what the organization is doing.

We hope that you will be come a member.  Our annual dues are $20.00 that helps pay for the organization maintenance costs of a mailbox, website, annual state filing fees and liability insurance for the organization among other incidental operating costs.  If we have 50 dues-paying members we essentially cover the costs.

We advocate for the neighborhood and we seek to improve the neighborhood through reasonable development, a bigger bundle of amenities and beautification.  We want this to be a neighborhood that attracts home buyers. . 

As said elsewhere in this blog, our continued development focus is that of art development. We are primarily focused on building a stage in Farnsley Park, but our other ambitions include an art hall in the Bon Air Library and installations of public art.

We are also interested in hearing from you and what you are interested in. We seek to be responsive to neighborhood concerns and be an effective conduit between the neighborhood and Metro Government.

Our next two events are:
1) Our next board meeting on Monday, September 9 at 6:30 pm in the Bon Air Library and
2) Our Membership Lite meeting on Monday, September 30, 2019 (The 5th Monday) at Buechel Park Baptist Church. (I am excited about that one) Where Brent Ackerson or a representative will have Q and A and a representative from LMPD will also be present to answer questions.

Saluting the Friends of the Bon Air Library

For some time now, I have been wanting to write about the Friends of the Bon Air Library.

It is an organization that advocates for and supports the Bon Air Library and the Louisville Free Public Library as a whole.   They work closely with the library staff to meet unfulfilled needs.  They have been quite active if not vigilant about what was going to happen to the library during this year's city budget rowdy-dow.

They meet the third Monday of the month at 5:45 pm in the community room of the library.   The basic membership costs $15.00 per year and more information can be found at https://www.friendsofthelfpl.org/store/c1/join.html.

The friends will be having their annual book sale on Saturday and Sunday, August 24-25, 2019.  The proceeds of this sale will go towards supporting the library.

The Bon Air Friends also host a community forum with a number of elected officials every year that is extraordinary. They host the state representatives and metro council members.

While we would like you to join the Bon Air Neighborhood Association as a member, the Friends of the Library is also worthy of your support.  If you cannot be a member, consider visiting the book sale this weekend and buy a used book to support the Bon Air Library. 

National Night Out. You Never Know Who You Will Get to Meet.

At the risk of beating a dead horse into dog food, I felt moved to do one more post on National Night Out.  We had a great showing at all three locations. 

This is how it looked at Glencreek Lane.

This is how it looked at Bashford Manor Lane

Lastly, here is a view at Commander Drive

At Commander Drive I had some interesting conversations.  I met someone who was raised in the neighborhood in the late 1950's and early 1960's.  His mother bought the house he was raised in in 1958.  He came back and bought his mother's house from the estate. He told stories about the DX gas station that was where the public housing is, the activities at Farnsley Park in the 1960's and the swim club. 

What was interesting is that he had some back ground on the building of the public housing---it took longer because someone or people would come and tear down the progress made during the day and they eventually put a fence around it.  Originally the Bon Air Neighborhood did not want the public housing and some of the people I talked to back in 2003 about it said that it was forced on the neighborhood despite the legal fight that was put up.  .

On a funner note I also met a newcomer to the neighborhood who drove a hearse to the gathering and talked about his hobby of ghost hunting.  He said that his ghost hunting services are in big demand at Halloween.  He has moved next door to his mother-in-law on Doreen, which some may literally believe is scarier than the paranormal, but he has been married for 25 years to his wife and I would      bet he has a great relationship his mother-in-law to make this commitment. 

Lastly we also had the chance to meet two younger couples with small children where both husbands are students at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. One will be leavng soon to go back to Washington State, but I also enjoyed the conversation about my experience in the MSW program when it existed at SBTS.

One more matter of note: thanks to Jeff Noble, Legislative Aide to Metro Council member Brent Ackerson for making the rounds.

I can say that I am glad that we hosted National Night Out.  I am hoping that the Bon Air Neighborhood Association can do this again on Augutst 4, 2020, which is the first Tuesday in August.      .

Bon Air Crime Analysis for July 2019 (and a reminder of National Night Out)

This is an analysis for July, 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. 

The amount of crime was about the same from June.  There were 52 police reports and 51 reports in June. Again, this is still what I will call a favorable trend given that there were 73 reports in May. 

There were 31 reports in the 40218 area of the neighborhood and 21 reports in the 40220 portion, which would suggest a diminutive increase in the 40220 section from 19 in June. 

As what is the usual, the 3300 Block of Bardstown Rd was our location of most police reports in the neighborhood with seven (7) reports . I have decided to add the 2200 block of Goldsmith in this number from here on out because they are one particular area with two (2) reports, so this area had nine for almost 20 percent of the police reports.  

What happened in this area was: 
Burglary

• 2 Vehicle Break-ins
• 1 Burglary
• 1 Vehicle theft
• 1 death investigation
• 1 person identified as failing to comply with the sex offender registry
• 1 theft by unlawful taking
• 1 cold check charge
• 1 assault

The death investigation was reported to have been in an apartment/residence and not a hotel/motel.

Other areas of higher police report activity include:

• 3700 Bardstown Rd =4  (This is the intersection of Bardstown and Hikes Lane)
• 3200 Commander Drive =4 (but there were four charges at one time)

Otherwise the breakdown for the different sections were as follows:
For the 40218 section of the neighborhood there were:

• 2 assault events
• 3 burglary reports
• 2200 Goldsmith
• Fureen Drive
• 2300 Terrier Ct (apartments)
• 2 fraud reports
• 3 motor vehicle thefts
• 5 theft/larceny reports
• 2 vandalism reports
• 7 vehicle break-ins

                 These vehicle break-ins were spread out throughout the 40218 section at

• 2200 BLOCK GOLDSMITH LN                                    
• 2200 BLOCK LIVERPOOL LN                                    
• 2500 BLOCK MEADOW DR                                       
• 3300 BLOCK BARDSTOWN RD                                    
• 3400 BLOCK BARDSTOWN RD                                    
• 3400 BLOCK BARDSTOWN RD                                    
• 3600 BLOCK DOWNING WAY                                      

For the 40220 section the breakdown was: 

• 4 assault events
• 2 burglary reports (these were at)
• Maxon Drive--a garage not a house
• 2600 block of Meadow Drive
• 4 drug and alcohol violations
• (3 of these were around the Bon Air Manor 3200 Commander and 2800 Del Rio and one of the charges was for possessoin of heroin). 
• 2 motor vehicle thefts
• 1 vandalism complaint
• 1 vehicle break-in/theft
• 3 weapon charges (it looked like one person was given three charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. 

There was one death investigation on the 3000 block of Nadina, but nothing more appeared to become of that in the media. 

It is a good that many home owners in the neighborhood have alarms and the special doorbell cameras that go to their smart phones.  I do believe that those systems/devices deter crime.  I would say that burglars/thieves look for crimes of opportunity.

That being said, school starts on August 14, and it is important to make sure you lock your car and do not warm up your car with the doors open. We have had a history of car thefts by adolescents looking for an easy way to get to school when they do not want to walk. 

Lastly, the Bon Air Neighborhood Association is hosting three National Night Out locations at 

• 2227 Bashford Manor Lane (the Bed and Breakfast)
• Glenbrook Lane and 
• Commander Drive. 

It will run from 6 pm to 8 pm.  Come and get to know your neighbors.  It is a great way to fight crime. Bring a chair and maybe a snack to share.

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Bon Air History. Commander and Doreen (Formerly Betty and Joan) Home of the $99 a Week Millionaires

I was walking the block passing out handbills for National Night Out next week in my immediate part of Bon Air which is Commander Drive and Doreen Way.   These blocks are distinctive from the rest of the neighborhood as they have "Levittown" properties.  It seems to be an interesting story to tell.

With the exception of the three houses at the south end along Farnsley Park, these houses were measured and cut in a factory/production facility and brought to the sites and assembled.  They were not brought wall by wall like the US Steel houses on Johnston Way, but brought board by board and assembled on site.

The houses are of three cookie-cutter styles: ranch, cape cod, and what I will call "A-frame."  They were among the last built in the area in 1956.  On one wandering trip home, I discovered that there is a bunch of these same housing models on the other side of the Watterson on Betty Lane.

I did an ethnographic research paper on Doreen and Commander as a neighborhood back in my U of L days in 2003. John Gilderbloom gave me an A on it.  I had a chance to talk with four original owners of the houses before three of them passed away.

Commander Drive was originally going to be Betty Lane and I understood Doreen was to be called "Joan."  As noted above, Betty Lane and Joan  are still there and would be Commander and Doreen on the north side of the Watterson.   My conclusion is that the same developer went with the same plan for the same type of house on both sides of the Watterson.

I learned in my interviews that the upstairs of the cape cods and A-Frames were originally unfinished.  (There is still one of the cape cods on Doreen that was not totally finished.)  It was incumbent on the owners to finish their houses. Indeed they did finish them and some of them were very creative in building additions and making the upstairs into bedrooms. Some of the additions obviously were amateur in nature and some of them were very good.

I learned that the houses on Doreen and Commander were distinctive efforts to take advantage of the VA housing program to provide houses for World War II veterans. They cost new about $17,000 apiece.  The first owners of most of the houses on Doreen and Commander were Louisville Police Officers and Louisville Fire Fighters.

Anyway, the residents of Commander and Doreen jokingly called themselves $99.00 a week millionaires because moving out to the East End of Louisville was something the rich people did. They at one time had numerous social connections and would sit in their front yards talking to each other because they had a lot in common, especially four men that would sit in one of the yards daily and became known as the four-old grumpy men.  They appeared to be outsiders to the rest of the East End, but they appeared to have a wonderful community among themselves.

Right now from what I can tell, there is only one original family occupying one of the houses. Their parents bought the home.  They grew up in it and they continue to live in it.

The Neighborhood Today

I would say that Commander Drive is much more intact than Doreen is today.  As I walked along Doreen this week, I discovered five empty houses.  One of the websites I looked at a few weeks ago said that one of them is in foreclosure.  There are two houses with dumpsters outside going through apparent renovation and two that are obviously for sale.  From what I have learned over the years, a number of the houses on Doreen have been rental properties.

I would hope that Doreen draws some first time home owners who see the opportunity for an affordable starter home in a surprisingly fantastic location.  We are so close to hospitals, shopping, Farnsley Park and  all the other amenities of the East End.  Yes, Commander and Doreen are not the most glamorous blocks of houses in Louisville, but they are good housing values and a good place to set up house and raise a family. . If you are looking for a good home value in Bon Air, take a look at these streets.


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BANA Minutes for July 8, 2019.

We decided to start posting our minutes on this blog and show the neighborhood what it is we do every month. Notice, we will not post the names of the attendees out of respect for privacy. 

We hope that you become a member of the Bon Air Neighborhood Association. We seek to be an effective advocate for the neighborhood. 

Bon Air Neighborhood Association (BANA), Inc.

July 8, 2019, 6:30 - 7:45pm

Bon Air Library

Call to Order at 6:30pm — Agenda copies distributed

Review of Minutes — Copies distributed as well as emailed; motion made, seconded & approved to accept

Treasurer’s Report — No additional income received as of July 5, 2019; one expense of $47.50 for insurance through June 25; balance of $613.08 as of 7/5/2019 (will be $521.08 after $92 PO Box rental check clears); FYI, debit card numbers (that Patrick Carrico thought might work with the new debit card) did not work; per phone call to Park FCU, Charlaine needs to come in to get the card activated; will do ASAP after meeting in case anyone has cash or a check for her to deposit

Ad Hoc Committee — Per July 7 informal meeting with Lois Judd, David Houvenagle prepared a Membership Spreadsheet which needs to be updated to indicate those who’ve paid dues

BANA President’s Blog Report — Google website called blogger.com provides statistics of views; noted negative news gets the most interest, e.g. recent murder got over 500 of 2627 total page views; next 2 blog posts will focus on National Night Out;  blog linked to BANA Facebook page & Nextdoor; will post Minutes (without attendees’ names, out of respect for their privacy concerns)

National Night Out — Tues, August 6, 6-7:30 (annually 1st Tues each Aug) — So far, sites include Glencreek Ln, Bashford Manor Bed & Breakfast, & possibly Commander Dr;  media will be notified

Goldsmith Ln Area Fire Hydrant Art (paintings) — Stephen Scott King (Bon Air resident) followed through with getting info about hydrants’ painting requirements (color & type of paint); brain-stormed painted hydrant ideas/themes (e.g. Dalmations, other dogs, etc.)

Buechel-Bon Air Business Networking Meeting — Initial interest meeting, sponsored by IPM Services & Age Transitions, to be held at 2300 Meadow Drive on July 31, 8:30-10AM; promotional flyer to be posted on BANA blog

Tax Forms — Charlaine will check into any forms due from BANA

Fundraising Possibilities — Charlaine’s list of ideas include 1) All-in-One Security’s offer to donate $200 to BANA for each new customer referral;  2) follow-up with past & current members to renew dues for 2020 from this point forward;  3) newsletter with ads from local businesses (noting there are expenses with that) or direct appeals to area businesses;  4) sell promotional &/or other items (e.g. Bon Air T-shirts, coupon or recipe books, etc.);  5) Pampered Chef fundraiser with 10-15% of sales going to BANA;  6) local restaurants’ fundraising night;  & 7) yard sale &/or indoor craft sale with fee to rent tables; pros & cons of these ideas were discussed but no decisions were made, noting the importance of promoting the value of BANA membership, both tangible & intangible (e.g. opportunities to meet w/ LMPD, Brent Ackerson or Jeff Noble, responsiveness to neighborhood problems & improvements et al benefits)

Adjournment at 7:45pm; next meeting Mon, August 12, 6:30pm at the Bon Air Library