At a press event last week on the first day of the Forecastle Festival in Louisville, Ky., Mayor Greg Fischer noted that we were all standing on a site that was formerly “junk yards and scrap yards.”
The ongoing creation of Louisville’s glorious 85-acre Waterfront Park along the Ohio River is one of America’s great stories of downtown revitalization.
Over the years, City Talk has taken a quick look at downtowns in a number of southern cities, including Charleston, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Mobile, Asheville, Nashville and Chattanooga.
But is Louisville in the South?
I’m in the camp that thinks Louisville is more Midwestern than Southern, but the city has many elements familiar to Savannahians, including a slow-moving river vital for commerce, a downtown once largely abandoned, rich history and gorgeous architecture.
Like Savannah, Louisville changed traffic patterns to accommodate higher speeds, and the resulting maze of one-way streets has clearly contributed to downtown’s deterioration.
The construction of highway overpasses between downtown and the Ohio River sliced the city off from one of its greatest assets, but Waterfront Park is healing those wounds.
Louisville gets plenty of tourists, for sure, but tourism isn’t a part of the city’s identity as it is in Savannah.
But that might change with events such as Forecastle, which was headlined by Outkast, Jack White and Beck. Savannah has awesome music festivals, but we probably don’t have sufficient population to support something of Forecastle’s scale.
And our coastal location also poses problems.
United Parcel Service has long taken advantage of Louisville’s location near the middle of the nation, and tourists are increasingly discovering the proximity to other major metro areas.
Louisville is also exploring the value in a major cultural draw that Mayor Fischer called “bourbonism.” I’ve been racking (and wracking) my brain to come up with a similarly apt and clever “ism” that applies to Savannah.
Louisville has certainly made a few moves that Savannah should examine closely.
Like many other cities, Louisville has an interesting food truck culture. I had lunch every day of the festival from the Holy Mole’ Taco Truck.
I still have doubts about the viability of the food truck business model in a smaller city like Savannah, but it should be a simple matter to create a viable ordinance and give the free market a chance.
Downtown Louisville also has considerable, well-marked and inexpensive garage parking. I paid just $6 a day at a garage a few blocks from the action.
Louisville also boasts a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the Ohio River. We need to get more serious about such pathways that appeal to a new generation of both locals and tourists.
In the race to lure new residents and businesses, these things matter.
City Talk appears every Sunday and Tuesday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 E. 32nd, Savannah, GA 31401.