Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning. I'm Tony Cruz and it's glad. I'm so
glad to have the Louisville Mayor joining us, Craig Greenberg,
and Mayor Craig. First of all, Happy Hanukah and happy holidays,
and it's the end of the new year, and it's
I think a pretty historic year. Let's talk a little
bit about it.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah, it's been a wonderful, great year. Happy holidays to
you and everyone at eight forty and all your listeners.
It's really we have great momentum going on across the
city and that's what I'm so thankful for this holiday season,
and that's what gets me so excited about twenty five
and beyond and all the areas that we're making great
improvements on.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
You know, a lot of this has to do with
policing this year, in particular, the murder rates down. One
murders too many that we all know, but right now,
what we're about thirty three murders away from what we
were last year or the last couple of years anyway.
And you know you hired Chief Paul Humphrey, you sworn
(00:57):
him in to lead the LMPD. And my question to
you is, what's the difference that you have seen with
his policing style and what he's the infrastructure he's created
as opposed to what we've seen in the past.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I think there are a few differences under Chief Humphrey's
leadership that are really moving LMPD in our city in
a new direction, in a positive direction. One is the
culture of LMPD is changing. The morale hasved, training has improved,
just the camaraderie and the relationship with the community has improved.
And I think a lot of that has to do
(01:33):
with the officers. No, Chief Humphrey, they've worked with him
for eighteen years that he's been on LMPD. They respect him,
he respects them, and they know that he loves this department,
he loves this city and he wants to and that
he'll support them as we keep moving forward with our
focus on accountability, transparency and reducing violent crime. Of course,
(01:54):
so it just you can tell that there's a different
feeling and different vibe, a different culture, and that's going
hand in hand with all of these improvements. Until the
Chief was made the chief, he was our lead negotiator
with the Department of Justice working on the consent decree
and all of the improvements that we needed to make,
So he understands this. He's leading that charge as well.
(02:16):
And where really any good places we entered twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
This is kind of, I guess, a weird question, but
there's been mixed results from the US Justice departments over
the decades, and the man kind of mixed when it
comes to particularly in policing. What do you feel about
the decree that we have here? Can it be? Can
(02:42):
it be something good? And will it really? A lot
of people say it restrains police too much?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Well, yeah, our consent decree is unlike any other that's
been signed in the United States. Ours builds on the
work we've done the past two years, and it gives
us clarity on exactly what we all agree need to
be done and clarity on how to get out. Plus,
in five years, we expect to be able to exit
(03:09):
this agreement, where some of these decrees have gone on
for ten or more years. We've also capped the costs
that we're going to have to pay on outside monitors
so that we can invest in LMPD right here in Louisville,
because long after the consent Decree is over, we want
to continue to make improvement at LMPD. At every department,
we're always going to strive to be better, So this
(03:30):
one is very different than others in the past. We're
really focused on reducing violent prime as we have the
past year, while at the same time treating everyone fairly
and protecting everyone's rights.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Let's talk about the first year of Attorney General Russell Coleman.
You've developed a pretty good relationship, it looks like, with him,
and how has his office been helping LMPD in Louisville
at large.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yeah, this is one of the things where partnerships are
really helpful, and in the past, I felt like Louisville
didn't have enough partnerships with other elected officials around the
state when it came to the General Assembly, when it
came to folks like the Attorney General. Of course, we
have a great working relationship with Governor Basher, but now
we're working closely with also the General Assembly and Attorney
(04:17):
General Coleman. And one way that we're working closely with
him is for the first time ever, the city has
given the Attorney General's office some space to use in
downtown right across from the courthouse, and he has three
dedicated prosecutors that are prosecuting some of the fust violent
criminals violent crimes here in our city. So it's adding
(04:37):
capacity to what our Commonwealth Attorney GREENA. Weathers is doing
to help her office prosecute more individuals that are committing
crime that will help reduce violent crimes. So that's just
one of the ways that we're partnering with Attorney General Coleman. Also,
his office is very involved in group violence intervention, which
is working to get people out of gangs and on
a positive path in life. As necessary, cracked down on gangs,
(05:02):
and you saw this year that we that we that
we really did crack down and basically took out one
entire gang here in Louisville.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Mayor Craig Greenberg joining us here. We'll take a break.
We'll come back and wrap things up with Mayor Craig
Greenberg next on news Radio eight forty w h as well.
The end of the year is coming up, and we're
talking to bear Craig Greenberg. I'm Tony Cruz along with
the mayor. Appreciate your time, Mayor Greenberg. Let's talk a
little bit about some of the things that's been a
(05:29):
priority of yours. That's housing and trying to correct a
lot of some pretty poor housing that have been here
for over a decade in some places.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, we're really trying to make sure that everyone has affordable, safe,
quality housing, whether that's owning your own home, whether that's
an apartment, a town home at Duke Plus, you name it.
We need more housing all over our community. That's the
foundation for families. It's also the foundation for growth, and
so we're doing a lot. We're doing a lot in
some of our lower income families with a new code
(06:00):
enforcement Lean waiver program to help get new families to
own what had been vacant and abandoned homes that are
bringing down neighborhoods. We're trying to make it easier to
build homes. When people want to invest in Louisville, build
new homes, create new jobs, we want to make it
easier for them to build. And also, you know Louisville
Metro Housing Authority that was mismanaged for a decade. We
(06:22):
now have new leadership, and under our new leadership, we're
going to tear down and rebuild doscer Manor. We're to
repair Avenue Plaza, We're rebuilding a new neighborhood in Iroquois Green.
We're going to get the Parkway place next year, and
we're improving the lives of some of those in our
community who are most vulnerable. So we're really doing a
lot to improve the amount of housing in our community.
You know. In speaking of housing, we also have to
(06:44):
deal with our homeless crisis, and we've made significant progress
on that. And just like filing crime, there's no cause
for celebrating progress because you always have more work to do.
But we are focused on safe and healthy streets and
people who are living on the streets neither safe and
they're healthy, healthy for them. And so I want to
thank our Public Works team, our Homeless Services Division team,
(07:06):
the folks at l MPD that all do this work
to get them into individuals who are living on the street,
to provide them with services and shelter, and also for
dealing with many of the camps that have been cleared
under overpasses downtown and neighborhoods across the entire city. We
are we are working to make progress on that issue.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
It does look like the General Assembly has cast a
pretty good light towards Louisville, and Louisville is important to
the entire state financially for sure. And with that one
billion dollar investment by the Kentucky General Assembly, and I
think that that says a lot about, uh, you know,
the relationships that you've curtailed with some of the General Assembly,
(07:49):
because I've had I've had members from the Republican Party
tell me, you know that we've got a mayor that
will work with us.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Right now, I think relationships and partnerships are critically important.
Just as we were mentioning with Attorney General Coleman, the
same goes for the General Assembly. And now we have
record breaking investment, over four hundred million dollars invested in
University of Louisville's future, two hundred million dollars in the Fairgrounds,
which brings people from around the world to our city,
one hundred million dollars in downtown Louisville to help revitalize downtown,
(08:18):
to transform the Belvidere, to build more housing downtown, to
build the Community Care campus, to build more attractions, and
then Jefferson Memorial Forest and other places around the state
as sorry at the city have all benefited. Excuse me
from this, the General Assembli's investment in our city and
I expect that to continue. That means more job creation
(08:38):
in Louisville, more growth, more funds for services that we
all want to need, and better infrastructure too.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
So what's the future this year? What are the main things?
What are your goals for the city this year?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Well, several things. I think the plans are there, and
so we're going to continue to execute on these same plans.
We're going to continue to improve public safety and reduce
violent crime to bring Pete more people downtown. I want
people to start seeing these projects that are underway come
to life. That will be important. From parks and libraries.
You're going to see new libraries open. We're having two
(09:15):
new libraries that are getting ready to open. You're going
to see a Fern Creek library that's under construction. You're
going to see all of these tens of millions of
dollars that we've invested in parks starting to come to life,
whether it's new pickleball courts, whether it's other new amenities.
We're gonna have two new pools open next year. The
best pools in a city are going to be in
Algonquin Park and Camp Taylor. Phenomenal new public pools that
(09:36):
we're opening, so a lot of these things that we've
been doing over the past year or so are now
coming to life while creating more jobs continuing to attract people.
It was a record breaking year this year, Tony. We
had the historic Kentucky derby one point fifty. We had
a record breaking PGA championship, we had record breaking Bourbon
and beyond and Louder than life. And now we're going
(09:57):
to end the year with the Louisville Cardinals that women's
volleyball National championship on Sunday. The last night's game was
awesome and I can't wait to close out the year
with a national championship for the Cards.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
I can't. I wish I could have been there. I
was watching it as much as I can.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
The Young Center was rocking, Tony, it was amazing. It
was just great to see downtown alive. You know, Downtown's
alive many nights, but you know, particularly when you have
something as special as to have to cheer on the
women who were just fantastic and it was a really
wonderful event.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Well, we do appreciate you spending time with us every
couple of weeks. I really do thank you for that
and best wish is best luck, and let's look forward
to a great new year.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Likewise, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year to you and all
your listeners. And I'm really excited about continuing this positive
momentum into twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
All right, Mayor Craig Greenberg, thanks for your time again
Good morning. I'm Tony Cruz and it's glad. I'm so
glad to have the Louisville Mayor joining us, Craig Greenberg,
and Mayor Craig. First of all, Happy Hanukah and happy holidays,
and it's the end of the new year, and it's
I think a pretty historic year. Let's talk a little
bit about it.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah, it's been a wonderful, great year. Happy holidays to
you and everyone at eight forty and all your listeners.
It's really we have great momentum going on across the
city and that's what I'm so thankful for this holiday season,
and that's what gets me so excited about twenty five
and beyond and all the areas that we're making great
improvements on.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
You know, a lot of this has to do with
policing this year, in particular, the murder rates down. One
murders too many that we all know, but right now,
what we're about thirty three murders away from what we
were last year or the last couple of years anyway.
And you know you hired Chief Paul Humphrey, you sworn
(00:57):
him in to lead the LMPD. And my question to
you is, what's the difference that you have seen with
his policing style and what he's the infrastructure he's created
as opposed to what we've seen in the past.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I think there are a few differences under Chief Humphrey's
leadership that are really moving LMPD in our city in
a new direction, in a positive direction. One is the
culture of LMPD is changing. The morale hasved, training has improved,
just the camaraderie and the relationship with the community has improved.
And I think a lot of that has to do
(01:33):
with the officers. No, Chief Humphrey, they've worked with him
for eighteen years that he's been on LMPD. They respect him,
he respects them, and they know that he loves this department,
he loves this city and he wants to and that
he'll support them as we keep moving forward with our
focus on accountability, transparency and reducing violent crime. Of course,
(01:54):
so it just you can tell that there's a different
feeling and different vibe, a different culture, and that's going
hand in hand with all of these improvements. Until the
Chief was made the chief, he was our lead negotiator
with the Department of Justice working on the consent decree
and all of the improvements that we needed to make,
So he understands this. He's leading that charge as well.
(02:16):
And where really any good places we entered twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
This is kind of, I guess, a weird question, but
there's been mixed results from the US Justice departments over
the decades, and the man kind of mixed when it
comes to particularly in policing. What do you feel about
the decree that we have here? Can it be? Can
(02:42):
it be something good? And will it really? A lot
of people say it restrains police too much?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Well, yeah, our consent decree is unlike any other that's
been signed in the United States. Ours builds on the
work we've done the past two years, and it gives
us clarity on exactly what we all agree need to
be done and clarity on how to get out. Plus,
in five years, we expect to be able to exit
(03:09):
this agreement, where some of these decrees have gone on
for ten or more years. We've also capped the costs
that we're going to have to pay on outside monitors
so that we can invest in LMPD right here in Louisville,
because long after the consent Decree is over, we want
to continue to make improvement at LMPD. At every department,
we're always going to strive to be better, So this
(03:30):
one is very different than others in the past. We're
really focused on reducing violent prime as we have the
past year, while at the same time treating everyone fairly
and protecting everyone's rights.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Let's talk about the first year of Attorney General Russell Coleman.
You've developed a pretty good relationship, it looks like, with him,
and how has his office been helping LMPD in Louisville
at large.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yeah, this is one of the things where partnerships are
really helpful, and in the past, I felt like Louisville
didn't have enough partnerships with other elected officials around the
state when it came to the General Assembly, when it
came to folks like the Attorney General. Of course, we
have a great working relationship with Governor Basher, but now
we're working closely with also the General Assembly and Attorney
(04:17):
General Coleman. And one way that we're working closely with
him is for the first time ever, the city has
given the Attorney General's office some space to use in
downtown right across from the courthouse, and he has three
dedicated prosecutors that are prosecuting some of the fust violent
criminals violent crimes here in our city. So it's adding
(04:37):
capacity to what our Commonwealth Attorney GREENA. Weathers is doing
to help her office prosecute more individuals that are committing
crime that will help reduce violent crimes. So that's just
one of the ways that we're partnering with Attorney General Coleman. Also,
his office is very involved in group violence intervention, which
is working to get people out of gangs and on
a positive path in life. As necessary, cracked down on gangs,
(05:02):
and you saw this year that we that we that
we really did crack down and basically took out one
entire gang here in Louisville.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Mayor Craig Greenberg joining us here. We'll take a break.
We'll come back and wrap things up with Mayor Craig
Greenberg next on news Radio eight forty w h as well.
The end of the year is coming up, and we're
talking to bear Craig Greenberg. I'm Tony Cruz along with
the mayor. Appreciate your time, Mayor Greenberg. Let's talk a
little bit about some of the things that's been a
(05:29):
priority of yours. That's housing and trying to correct a
lot of some pretty poor housing that have been here
for over a decade in some places.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, we're really trying to make sure that everyone has affordable, safe,
quality housing, whether that's owning your own home, whether that's
an apartment, a town home at Duke Plus, you name it.
We need more housing all over our community. That's the
foundation for families. It's also the foundation for growth, and
so we're doing a lot. We're doing a lot in
some of our lower income families with a new code
(06:00):
enforcement Lean waiver program to help get new families to
own what had been vacant and abandoned homes that are
bringing down neighborhoods. We're trying to make it easier to
build homes. When people want to invest in Louisville, build
new homes, create new jobs, we want to make it
easier for them to build. And also, you know Louisville
Metro Housing Authority that was mismanaged for a decade. We
(06:22):
now have new leadership, and under our new leadership, we're
going to tear down and rebuild doscer Manor. We're to
repair Avenue Plaza, We're rebuilding a new neighborhood in Iroquois Green.
We're going to get the Parkway place next year, and
we're improving the lives of some of those in our
community who are most vulnerable. So we're really doing a
lot to improve the amount of housing in our community.
You know. In speaking of housing, we also have to
(06:44):
deal with our homeless crisis, and we've made significant progress
on that. And just like filing crime, there's no cause
for celebrating progress because you always have more work to do.
But we are focused on safe and healthy streets and
people who are living on the streets neither safe and
they're healthy, healthy for them. And so I want to
thank our Public Works team, our Homeless Services Division team,
(07:06):
the folks at l MPD that all do this work
to get them into individuals who are living on the street,
to provide them with services and shelter, and also for
dealing with many of the camps that have been cleared
under overpasses downtown and neighborhoods across the entire city. We
are we are working to make progress on that issue.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
It does look like the General Assembly has cast a
pretty good light towards Louisville, and Louisville is important to
the entire state financially for sure. And with that one
billion dollar investment by the Kentucky General Assembly, and I
think that that says a lot about, uh, you know,
the relationships that you've curtailed with some of the General Assembly,
(07:49):
because I've had I've had members from the Republican Party
tell me, you know that we've got a mayor that
will work with us.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Right now, I think relationships and partnerships are critically important.
Just as we were mentioning with Attorney General Coleman, the
same goes for the General Assembly. And now we have
record breaking investment, over four hundred million dollars invested in
University of Louisville's future, two hundred million dollars in the Fairgrounds,
which brings people from around the world to our city,
one hundred million dollars in downtown Louisville to help revitalize downtown,
(08:18):
to transform the Belvidere, to build more housing downtown, to
build the Community Care campus, to build more attractions, and
then Jefferson Memorial Forest and other places around the state
as sorry at the city have all benefited. Excuse me
from this, the General Assembli's investment in our city and
I expect that to continue. That means more job creation
(08:38):
in Louisville, more growth, more funds for services that we
all want to need, and better infrastructure too.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
So what's the future this year? What are the main things?
What are your goals for the city this year?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Well, several things. I think the plans are there, and
so we're going to continue to execute on these same plans.
We're going to continue to improve public safety and reduce
violent crime to bring Pete more people downtown. I want
people to start seeing these projects that are underway come
to life. That will be important. From parks and libraries.
You're going to see new libraries open. We're having two
(09:15):
new libraries that are getting ready to open. You're going
to see a Fern Creek library that's under construction. You're
going to see all of these tens of millions of
dollars that we've invested in parks starting to come to life,
whether it's new pickleball courts, whether it's other new amenities.
We're gonna have two new pools open next year. The
best pools in a city are going to be in
Algonquin Park and Camp Taylor. Phenomenal new public pools that
(09:36):
we're opening, so a lot of these things that we've
been doing over the past year or so are now
coming to life while creating more jobs continuing to attract people.
It was a record breaking year this year, Tony. We
had the historic Kentucky derby one point fifty. We had
a record breaking PGA championship, we had record breaking Bourbon
and beyond and Louder than life. And now we're going
(09:57):
to end the year with the Louisville Cardinals that women's
volleyball National championship on Sunday. The last night's game was
awesome and I can't wait to close out the year
with a national championship for the Cards.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
I can't. I wish I could have been there. I
was watching it as much as I can.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
The Young Center was rocking, Tony, it was amazing. It
was just great to see downtown alive. You know, Downtown's
alive many nights, but you know, particularly when you have
something as special as to have to cheer on the
women who were just fantastic and it was a really
wonderful event.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Well, we do appreciate you spending time with us every
couple of weeks. I really do thank you for that
and best wish is best luck, and let's look forward
to a great new year.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Likewise, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year to you and all
your listeners. And I'm really excited about continuing this positive
momentum into twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
All right, Mayor Craig Greenberg, thanks for your time again
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