Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Happy Friday.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
That's right, we've made it here to Friday, and is
Kentucky and his morning News Coffee and company here on
news Radio eight forty whas Nick coffee with you, and
we have Mayor Greenberg here in studio.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
How we doing. Happy Friday, sir, Happy Friday. Hope you've
had a good week and ready for a good TBT weekend.
See those cards back on the floor, ad Freedom Hall.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
It is awesome. I've been sharing this here and there
throughout the morning, and I hadn't even thought of this
until recently, but there are players that I got to
watch play that clearly had a big impact on me
being a lifelong Louisville fan, and I now realized, oh yeah,
my son, who wasn't alive when Montrez Harrald was breaking backboards,
he got to see that last year. He loved it,
and now we're going again this year. And just you know,
(00:40):
it's not just it's one thing to go back and
watch old games. He's able to experience it. And I
think one thing that stood out to me is these
guys as they get older and become successful and whatever
it is they're doing, still playing professionally or just professional
and just doing well in life. They've had life experiences,
they've mad sured to where they have the ability to
appreciate the life and support they get in Louisville more so.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
And it's absolute to see when you see folks like
Russ and Peyton that are there and they do so
much for our city and this is just wonderful and
you can tell how much they love it, how much
the fans appreciate them, and how much they appreciate the fans.
It's really something special here in Louisville.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
It is, and the TBT is one of the many
events that we have here when it comes to sports
where I feel like the city looks good when those
events take place. This past weekend, the ESCO Championship.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Could that have gone any better? Now? It was a
home run success. I mean, the rain could have held
out for an extra about fifteen minutes at the end.
We had to move the trophy presentation ceremony indoors, but
they got their final putts in right before the rain started.
But it was a wonderful event. I'm excited for bringing
the PGA Tour back year after year. Now is a
regular stop here in Louisville. The city showed up for that.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
So when it comes to like how do we recreate that? Obviously,
I know you're very It's been clear that we love
to show what we can do. If you want to
bring a big event to Louisville, we will will embrace it.
We'll have good attendance. That's been proven for a while now.
But when it comes to I guess you know, making
your case for is it bringing up previous events that
have that have done well?
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Yeah? Absolutely, I mean particularly in the sports area, where
we've got great practice at it. We host the Derby
every year, so we have one hundred and fifty one
years of experience. Our hotels, our restaurants, our transportation companies,
our retail establishments. We are prepared to host the world
in our city and we were great at it. Whether
it's for sports, or whether it's for events like Bourbon
and Beyond and Louder than Life in the Fall, whether
(02:24):
it's you know, upcoming we're going to be a base
camp city for the World Cup. We are really good
at hosting special events. You actually saw it. I know
it had an unfortunate one day on Sunday with the
with the Active Aggressor scare, which turned out to be false,
but still caused a big understandable scare to people who
(02:44):
were at the tournament. Did you know, Nick, that that
run for the Roses tournament that was here in Louisville,
that is the world's largest basketball tournament.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
I did not realize the the men or women.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I mean, it was a new of three basketball courts
under one roof twenty six hundred teams, tens of thousands
of amazing young female players and coaches, and it's great
for our city.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Of course, I knew of the tournament. It's been going
on a long time. I didn't realize that it had
grown that much, But before the situation on Sunday, that
of course led to me just getting more info about
the event, how long it's been going on, and the
amount of teams. Just in the Kentuckyana area, you couldn't
go anywhere without seeing what clearly was a girls basketball
team and all the parents and families, and that speaks
(03:30):
to just that that's tourism, dollars coming in for our
restaurants and whatnot, and those are just things that I'm
not sure a lot of people really realize, but it's
become one of our biggest isn't it as far as
just the amount of people who come here?
Speaker 1 (03:42):
And yeah, absolutely, some of the events that bring people
into town. I mean we're having events every month that
are bringing tens of thousands of people into town. It's
great for our local economy. It's great for local businesses,
local stores, local hotels, and so that's what we're going
to keep doing. I've had a couple of meetings this
week about bringing some potential sporting events here or some
(04:03):
new teams here that are forming in different leagues. We
next week where we're recruiting some big events that we'd
love to secure here in Louisville. I think this is
one of the things that makes Louisville special, and we
are all in on doing more recruitings.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
So now you've got to be excited, stay tuned in
this May. I don't know how this came about. It
might have been because of flooding in the river. But
I was on the bell of Louisvie a couple of
weeks ago for River Cruise and I noticed the big
the big ship that was that was the American Cruise Line.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
The bike I can't get the name of right, the
passenger cruise We're seeing more passenger cruises on the Ohio River.
They're stopping here in Louisville. They're hopping on buses, they're
going to Churchill Downs, they're doing bourbon tastings, they're going
to Slugger Museum. They're spending time and money in Louisville.
It's great.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So how does that how do they end up here?
I mean, does it go?
Speaker 1 (04:46):
They just well, I think the I'm not exactly sure
the itinerary, but I'm pretty sure that it starts down
on the Mississippi, comes up through the Ohio and then
ends probably in Pittsburgh or somewhere on the East coast.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
On that I got to see it firsthand. By the way,
those those aren't the cruise ships that you see on
the ocean, but they're massive compared to what you typically see.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
You don't have water parks going off the side, but there.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
On TV there are still humongous for being right there
on the waterfront, and they're nice. And I saw so many,
so many people just out enjoying that area there, And
if they didn't, if they'd never been to Louisville and
didn't know much about it, I just I'm thinking to myself, Wow,
that could be. That could be something experience people get.
It's not it's not a long stay necessarily, but they
certainly gonna.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yeah, there are a couple of different companies that do that.
One of them is sort of the oldest steamboat that's
still in operational paddle wheel that comes through. Another one
is the Viking comes through now. So they have different
types of experiences, but it's great to have them in Louisville.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Mayor Greenberg is with us here on news radio eight
forty w h as let's talk about the Louisville Metro
park projects. I know that's been a big emphasis for
you guys, and it's certainly the new Algonquin Park Pool
that opened up in May and right, clearly a big
emphasis see from you and your team.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Just like sports, parks are so important to our community
as well. They get people out, they bring communities together,
They give people a safe, fun, healthy place to go
and be outside. And so we're all in on parks.
And in the past six months, we have opened more
new park projects in our city than any point in
time in our city's history. So you take the Algonquin
(06:16):
Park Pool, which is the biggest and best pool that
we have in the entire city in the Algonquin neighborhood.
You look in the south end of our city, the
Tom Wallace Recreational Area, we just opened right next to
Jefferson Royal Forest, a brand new park, Nick Rodman Legacy Park.
We've opened. I'm drying. I think it's over thirty five
new pickleball courts that we have opened from east to
(06:37):
west and north to south in our city. And we're
still building more pickleball courts. We've improved restrooms and other amenities.
We've improved the mowing. So if you haven't been to
one of our parks recently here in Louisville, I would
encourage you to check it out. The playport here with
the westward expansion of Waterfront Park just opened. It's one
of the coolest playgrounds you'll ever find for kids anywhere
in the country. So we've got wonderful parks here. I
(06:59):
encourage people to check it matter if they haven't been recently.
Good stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
So you referenced the situation that took place on Sunday
at the Exposition Center. What did we chalk that up to?
Just coincidences that it did just I mean, it's it's
great that there was not an active aggressor and everybody
was safe, and it seems as if clearly L and
PD was was there to do what they're supposed to
do during that situation. But it just seems like, I
(07:23):
mean the way, this is my words, nobody else does.
It just seemed like really bad luck for things to
turn into what it turned into.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
I think that's it. I think it's a combination of
the world we live in today with a little bad
luck at you know, at the wrong time. What happened,
it's pretty simple. What happened now that we know the facts,
is there was a censor malfunction in a small part
of the alarm system there, so there was an audible
alarm that was going off in part of the area
where those eighty three basketball courts were. A couple people,
(07:51):
for reasons we don't know, started running and screaming that
there was a shooter, and that then incited panic, which
just can take you to grow. And then once the
police showed up because of we got seventy two phone
calls to nine one one in a four minute period. Wow.
And so once police showed up with their guns ready
for you know what, they're trained to do in response
(08:13):
very quickly to an active aggressor call that then incited
even more panic. And so, uh, the good news is
there were no injuries, there was no gunshots were fired.
I know it was an incredibly scary situation for those
young women and their family. It also spread to Kentucky Kingdom.
There was a concern there understandably as well. But the
(08:33):
good news is nobody was injured. LMPD did what they're
supposed to do. The tournament was able to get back
going on Monday. Kentucky Venues was great to work with,
and so you know that. And I think part of
that is people are on heightened alert of course, in
this world that we.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Live in today, and I think when things like this happen,
you want to know, Okay, well, who do we blame?
What caused this? I just think it was bad luck.
But again, to go back to what you said.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah, there's no one to blame in this case. I
don't know. It's unfortunate that people thought there was a
shooter when they're wasn't. But that's the world we live.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
In, Yes, And I think that to see people collectively
have that reaction and peer in fear and panic. It again,
it just speaks to just the realization that that those
things do happen. And I know when it comes to
gun violence, there are people who of course who have
they're victims of it and for clearly like you know,
you know that firsthand, but you can also have that fear.
(09:24):
And even though it didn't end up happening, there was
a moment in time for those individuals there forty thousand
people roughly that the fear and helplessness is something that
I've they probably experienced that maybe hopefully for the first
time in their life, and I think that for the
only time. Yeah, yeah, that has an impact on people,
I think more than mokes realis Again, the great news
is that nothing happened, everybody was safe and they're real
That's an experience though that'll stick with people.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Improving public safety is my number one responsibility as mayor,
and I'm incredibly proud that in our city this year,
homicides and shootings are down over thirty percent. You look
at carjacking's assault, look across the board, and we're headed
in the right pa direction. Crime is going down, public
safety is going up. That is great progress, but it's
(10:06):
nothing to celebrate because I know that it's not just
being more safe, but it's feeling more safe. And so LMPD, myself,
all of our partners that we have throughout our government
and in the nonprofit world, we need to keep building
on this progress every day because it's that it's that feeling.
You want people to feel safe as much as be safe,
(10:28):
and we're still going to continue to work on that.
That will be my number one priority as long as i'm.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Mayor last question for you, and you may not have
a great answer here because I'm sure it's a combination
of things. But with the improvement that has been made
in regards to keeping the community more safe with less violence,
what stands out to you is maybe a big factor,
and again not celebrating it, but clearly heading in the
right direction.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
While then there are a few things. One, our police
are out on the streets doing their job. They are
working to prevent violent crime from happening. They're back out
on the streets getting to know the communities that they serve,
being visible presence, and when there is a response needed,
they are rapid and they are prepared to enforce the
law and hold people accountable. We have our largest recruiting
(11:10):
class that we've had in years at LMPD right now,
thirty three people. I just was with them and did
some running with them a couple of years ago. I'm
excited for them to graduate and get back on the street. Now.
We still need about two hundred more, but we're making
progress and the numbers are going up. At the same time,
we're doing a lot of things like opening up new
parks and having programs in our libraries and community centers.
Just this week we launched a new RFP for a
(11:32):
program to reach out to middle school students to try
to reach out to young people before they might ever
pick up a gun, to get them on the right
path in life. So we have a whole host of
things that we're doing. We're going to keep doing all
of that. We're still gathering new ideas. We're going to
do more and work even harder and faster to keep
this positive progress going. Good stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Mayor Greenberg is always appreciate you, Tom. I know you're
pretty busy you're the mayor, but always a pleasure when
when you can stop buying chat with us and joy
your weekend. We'll talk soon.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Thanks. I have a great weekend.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Alrighty, that is Mayor Greenberg. Let's get a quick update
on traffic and weather as we keep this thing rolling along.
It is Kentucky at his morning news coffee and company
here on news Radio eight forty whas