Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Happy Friday to you. It is Kentucky and it's morning news,
coffee and company with you at news radio eight forty
whas and we are now joined by Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg.
Good morning, mister Mayor. How how are we doing on
this Friday.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm doing well. Nick. It's great to be with you.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Always good to chat with you, and it's our first
chance to chat since the tragic plane crash that took
place a couple of weeks ago. Obviously that's been a
real point of emphasis for you and really a lot
of folks in the city of Louisville. And when you
have a crisis like this, it's obviously something nobody expects
and you really don't know how things are going to
react until you're till you're there in that situation. I
(00:35):
just wanted to get your thoughts on the leadership. Obviously,
you are the leader of Louisville as our mayor, but
there's other leaders when it comes to the Louisville Fire Department, LMPD,
Metro Services. It seems as if you guys collectively worked
really well together, worked well together to navigate what is
a tragic situation and something you never prepare for, but
these things do happen.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, Nick, I think you've seen that time and time again.
Over the past few years since i've in may Are
we Unfortunately, I've had to deal with several crises, whether
it was the Old National Bank shooting, or the historic
floods or this tragic plane crash. And this is what
first responders do. This is what we do, jump into action.
And what I've learned is that it's very important in
(01:17):
the early minutes after a tragedy like this, to let
the first profession the first responders, do what they are
trained to do do, whether it's police or in this
case fire, For the most part, let them do their job.
My job is to make sure people have the resources
that they need, get information, and then communicate to that community,
(01:38):
to the community at large. So keep people up to
date about what is going on. And that's what we're
doing in these early minutes after a tragedy hits our city.
I think communication is critically important to let people know
what's going on. I try to go by my heart
because I know in this situation so many people had
(01:59):
so many questions. That night of the crash. Was one
of my toughest nights ever is walking into a room
full of families that just had questions. You know, their
heart knew what the answer was, but no one had
given them confirmation yet. And just to let them know
where we are, to be honest with them, even when
I didn't have specific information to share, but to let
them know the process and to help manage expectations of
(02:22):
when they would get information. I think that's the type
of stuff that's important to do. But I can't say
enough about the great work of our first responders and
the other first responding agencies at the Airport Oklhona Fire
and others from around the county that helped.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So I'd like to think that everybody has a great
appreciation for first responders, because they should. But it is
things like this that really put it in perspective. When
you see the visual of it, and I'm just speaking
of seeing it on television as the fire is, it
just is something that doesn't even look real, and you
realize there are people that are leaving their families at
home to go run into that to try to keep
(02:57):
people safe and risk their lives. Again, these are things
that most people are well aware they should be well
aware that that's what the job is, but to kind
of see this situation play out, I'm not sure if
I can think of many instances where there's a better
example of just realizing the sacrifices that they make.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I think it's a great example. The last night, we
had a remembrance concert that the Louisville Orchestra and I
hosted at Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts. It was
a beautiful gathering to help mourn the victims with the families,
to help them heal and move forward. And when fire
Chief Brian O'Neill spoke last night, that's one of the
things that he spoke about was that that is their job,
(03:35):
that's what they're trained to do, that's what they want
to do, that's why they're in this career. And at
the same time, they performed exceptionally well. They put out
that entire blaze and had it under control in about
six hours. This was a half a mile crash site.
I was there two days later and there were still
some fires burning. It was very significant. And when we're
(03:58):
blessed here in Louisville to have the quality of her
responders that we do, and that's why we continue to
support them.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I know you shared your reaction to seeing the scene
a couple of days after it had took place. I mean,
is it safe to say that'll be something that'll stick
with you for forever. I mean, it seems as if
that was something that really impacted all those that that day.
Our leaders also Governor Basheer that seeing it just makes
it more real.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Oh completely. I mean, you can't words don't even describe
the feelings that you have and the things that you're seeing.
It was, you know, mangled, charred metal. But then when
you're standing there and it's still you still have the
smells of the gasoline, that strong smell. And then when
it really just hit me and I had seen enough,
was when there were firefighters walking with a stretcher towards
(04:44):
some area where some of the victims were And that
is something that I don't need to see, but that's
their job, and they were there, you know, helping families
get answered, and that was incredibly It was incredibly heavy
on me, but it still is, but it was also
incredibly moving and uplifting at the same time to see
them doing their their great work.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Louisvill Mayor Greig Greenberger is our guest joining us here
on News Radio eight forty whas earlier this week, you
outline some priorities for the upcoming legislation, and one of
those is the continued revitalization of downtown Louisville. What's your
vision in the future, So when it comes to just
downtown continuing to make the improvements that it has in
recent years, certainly since you've been you've been the mayor,
(05:25):
what's the overall vision here as far as what you
want it to look like?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Well, I want to continue to see progress like we're going.
You know, just this week we opened up a brand
new park downtown in the Loommet area by the medical center,
right in the heart there, and it's a beautiful new park.
I want more green space like that, and that's why
we're transforming the Belvedere, which right now is fifty year
old crumbling concrete into a world class outdoor destination. We
(05:53):
also have new projects like a new new construction on
the parking lot next to Slugger Field. And then I'm
working really hard right now on an next chapter for
the Humanity Tower because folks from Humana are moving out
of that building down a few blocks to where they're
going to be, and so we're working on what the
next chapter of the Humanity Tower will be with such
an important icon in our city. So getting more people
(06:15):
downtown it's been wonderful. I mean the weekends. You've probably
been to some of the UFL games this year. Great
on game nights. I'll be going on Saturday to watch
the women's you have a UK basketball game. But there
are lots of other events happening downtown. There are great festivals,
there are great restaurants, there's great bourbon attractions, and we
want even more of that. So it's every day. It's
(06:35):
not just special events, but it's every day that people
are coming downtown. We also just secured you five hundred
and fifty of their corporate officers are moving downtown next year.
That's going to be great to get that activity, that
weekday activity back in downtown again. So we have a
lot of positive momentum. I'm keeping them up spread on
(06:56):
the calf pedal, and during this session of the General Assembly,
I'm hopeful that the strength of relationships that we've built
with folks from all across the entire state pay off
for Louisville and pay off for the city.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Another another point of emphasis is a first responder training facility.
Tell us sort of the overall need.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
For this here.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
This is something that couldn't It won't necessarily just impact
this city, but it could impact surrounding areas as well.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
That's right. We've purchased, we have a contract to person
property in southwestern Jefferson County off Dixie Highway to have
a first responded training facility. And right now, the closest
track for whether it's police or fire ems to do
their training for driving, for example, is in Richmond, Kentucky.
We'd like to have a track here and some other
facilities for first responders to be able to do their
(07:45):
training right here in Louisville, not just for our Louisville
metro government agencies, but also for the rest in Jefferson
County the surrounding regional counties as well, a closer place
for them to train. You see what they can do
when they are well trained. We all saw it in action.
They're doing that every single day in cases that are
not as severe, not making the news every day, but
(08:09):
that's because of good training, and we want to continue
to support that to keep world class first responders. So
that's why we'd like some funds from the state to
help us do that. We're also looking to invest in
Jefferson Morrole Forest in the South End some other projects
Downtown helped to bring make Louisville a world class sports
tourism attraction, where we need better fields for youth sports
(08:30):
and the like. So we've got a pretty ambitious agenda.
We brought about a billion dollars back to our city
during the last budget session two years ago, and we're
aiming to do a lot again this year.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
What are those things? This last question for you, Mary
Greenberg funding for Tark. This is something that has been
talked about for some years. Tell us the importance and
why would be so beneficial to get more state fund,
permanent state funding here for Tark.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, so we you know Tark. When I became mayor,
Tark was insolvent and folks didn't want to confront the
reality of that that that was the case. And so
thanks to some new leadership, we've really turned Tark around.
It's now far more on time and has a great
reliability record of the on time service. It's clean, it's safe,
The routes are smaller than they were, but it's delivering
(09:15):
the service on those routes that it has right now,
and we want to start to build that to help
provide even more services to more parts of the community
with TARK. We haven't changed the way we funded TARK
since nineteen seventy four. Wow, it's expensive. Other states provide
some funding to their urban transportation system, and so I'm
(09:35):
hoping that that's something that the state legislature will consider
as well, in this session or in a future session.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And when you consider just the I mean you have
if you are somebody who relies on transportation like this,
if there's continued improvement, it's not an exaggeration to say
that could improve the overall quality of life for someone.
If there's again you've mentioned there's already already in better
shape now than it was before. But I think if
you don't rely on it, you never have, you don't
think about it. But certainly something very important. The communit unity.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Oh, it's incredibly important. There are so many people that
rely on it to get to their job, to go shopping,
to get to medical appointments. That's what it's about. I
hope to grow it beyond that where people are choosing
to take TARK, not because they have to, but because
it's a reliable, efficient, inexpensive form of transportation, that's where
we'd like to go. That's going to take some help
from the state to get there.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Mary Greenberg, always appreciate your time. Thank you so much
and enjoy your weekend. My friend.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Thanks Nick, you too.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
That is maryor Craig Greenberg.
Happy Friday to you. It is Kentucky and it's morning news,
coffee and company with you at news radio eight forty
whas and we are now joined by Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg.
Good morning, mister Mayor. How how are we doing on
this Friday.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm doing well. Nick. It's great to be with you.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Always good to chat with you, and it's our first
chance to chat since the tragic plane crash that took
place a couple of weeks ago. Obviously that's been a
real point of emphasis for you and really a lot
of folks in the city of Louisville. And when you
have a crisis like this, it's obviously something nobody expects
and you really don't know how things are going to
react until you're till you're there in that situation. I
(00:35):
just wanted to get your thoughts on the leadership. Obviously,
you are the leader of Louisville as our mayor, but
there's other leaders when it comes to the Louisville Fire Department, LMPD,
Metro Services. It seems as if you guys collectively worked
really well together, worked well together to navigate what is
a tragic situation and something you never prepare for, but
these things do happen.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, Nick, I think you've seen that time and time again.
Over the past few years since i've in may Are
we Unfortunately, I've had to deal with several crises, whether
it was the Old National Bank shooting, or the historic
floods or this tragic plane crash. And this is what
first responders do. This is what we do, jump into action.
And what I've learned is that it's very important in
(01:17):
the early minutes after a tragedy like this, to let
the first profession the first responders, do what they are
trained to do do, whether it's police or in this
case fire, For the most part, let them do their job.
My job is to make sure people have the resources
that they need, get information, and then communicate to that community,
(01:38):
to the community at large. So keep people up to
date about what is going on. And that's what we're
doing in these early minutes after a tragedy hits our city.
I think communication is critically important to let people know
what's going on. I try to go by my heart
because I know in this situation so many people had
(01:59):
so many questions. That night of the crash. Was one
of my toughest nights ever is walking into a room
full of families that just had questions. You know, their
heart knew what the answer was, but no one had
given them confirmation yet. And just to let them know
where we are, to be honest with them, even when
I didn't have specific information to share, but to let
them know the process and to help manage expectations of
(02:22):
when they would get information. I think that's the type
of stuff that's important to do. But I can't say
enough about the great work of our first responders and
the other first responding agencies at the Airport Oklhona Fire
and others from around the county that helped.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So I'd like to think that everybody has a great
appreciation for first responders, because they should. But it is
things like this that really put it in perspective. When
you see the visual of it, and I'm just speaking
of seeing it on television as the fire is, it
just is something that doesn't even look real, and you
realize there are people that are leaving their families at
home to go run into that to try to keep
(02:57):
people safe and risk their lives. Again, these are things
that most people are well aware they should be well
aware that that's what the job is, but to kind
of see this situation play out, I'm not sure if
I can think of many instances where there's a better
example of just realizing the sacrifices that they make.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I think it's a great example. The last night, we
had a remembrance concert that the Louisville Orchestra and I
hosted at Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts. It was
a beautiful gathering to help mourn the victims with the families,
to help them heal and move forward. And when fire
Chief Brian O'Neill spoke last night, that's one of the
things that he spoke about was that that is their job,
(03:35):
that's what they're trained to do, that's what they want
to do, that's why they're in this career. And at
the same time, they performed exceptionally well. They put out
that entire blaze and had it under control in about
six hours. This was a half a mile crash site.
I was there two days later and there were still
some fires burning. It was very significant. And when we're
(03:58):
blessed here in Louisville to have the quality of her
responders that we do, and that's why we continue to
support them.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I know you shared your reaction to seeing the scene
a couple of days after it had took place. I mean,
is it safe to say that'll be something that'll stick
with you for forever. I mean, it seems as if
that was something that really impacted all those that that day.
Our leaders also Governor Basheer that seeing it just makes
it more real.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Oh completely. I mean, you can't words don't even describe
the feelings that you have and the things that you're seeing.
It was, you know, mangled, charred metal. But then when
you're standing there and it's still you still have the
smells of the gasoline, that strong smell. And then when
it really just hit me and I had seen enough,
was when there were firefighters walking with a stretcher towards
(04:44):
some area where some of the victims were And that
is something that I don't need to see, but that's
their job, and they were there, you know, helping families
get answered, and that was incredibly It was incredibly heavy
on me, but it still is, but it was also
incredibly moving and uplifting at the same time to see
them doing their their great work.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Louisvill Mayor Greig Greenberger is our guest joining us here
on News Radio eight forty whas earlier this week, you
outline some priorities for the upcoming legislation, and one of
those is the continued revitalization of downtown Louisville. What's your
vision in the future, So when it comes to just
downtown continuing to make the improvements that it has in
recent years, certainly since you've been you've been the mayor,
(05:25):
what's the overall vision here as far as what you
want it to look like?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Well, I want to continue to see progress like we're going.
You know, just this week we opened up a brand
new park downtown in the Loommet area by the medical center,
right in the heart there, and it's a beautiful new park.
I want more green space like that, and that's why
we're transforming the Belvedere, which right now is fifty year
old crumbling concrete into a world class outdoor destination. We
(05:53):
also have new projects like a new new construction on
the parking lot next to Slugger Field. And then I'm
working really hard right now on an next chapter for
the Humanity Tower because folks from Humana are moving out
of that building down a few blocks to where they're
going to be, and so we're working on what the
next chapter of the Humanity Tower will be with such
an important icon in our city. So getting more people
(06:15):
downtown it's been wonderful. I mean the weekends. You've probably
been to some of the UFL games this year. Great
on game nights. I'll be going on Saturday to watch
the women's you have a UK basketball game. But there
are lots of other events happening downtown. There are great festivals,
there are great restaurants, there's great bourbon attractions, and we
want even more of that. So it's every day. It's
(06:35):
not just special events, but it's every day that people
are coming downtown. We also just secured you five hundred
and fifty of their corporate officers are moving downtown next year.
That's going to be great to get that activity, that
weekday activity back in downtown again. So we have a
lot of positive momentum. I'm keeping them up spread on
(06:56):
the calf pedal, and during this session of the General Assembly,
I'm hopeful that the strength of relationships that we've built
with folks from all across the entire state pay off
for Louisville and pay off for the city.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Another another point of emphasis is a first responder training facility.
Tell us sort of the overall need.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
For this here.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
This is something that couldn't It won't necessarily just impact
this city, but it could impact surrounding areas as well.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
That's right. We've purchased, we have a contract to person
property in southwestern Jefferson County off Dixie Highway to have
a first responded training facility. And right now, the closest
track for whether it's police or fire ems to do
their training for driving, for example, is in Richmond, Kentucky.
We'd like to have a track here and some other
facilities for first responders to be able to do their
(07:45):
training right here in Louisville, not just for our Louisville
metro government agencies, but also for the rest in Jefferson
County the surrounding regional counties as well, a closer place
for them to train. You see what they can do
when they are well trained. We all saw it in action.
They're doing that every single day in cases that are
not as severe, not making the news every day, but
(08:09):
that's because of good training, and we want to continue
to support that to keep world class first responders. So
that's why we'd like some funds from the state to
help us do that. We're also looking to invest in
Jefferson Morrole Forest in the South End some other projects
Downtown helped to bring make Louisville a world class sports
tourism attraction, where we need better fields for youth sports
(08:30):
and the like. So we've got a pretty ambitious agenda.
We brought about a billion dollars back to our city
during the last budget session two years ago, and we're
aiming to do a lot again this year.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
What are those things? This last question for you, Mary
Greenberg funding for Tark. This is something that has been
talked about for some years. Tell us the importance and
why would be so beneficial to get more state fund,
permanent state funding here for Tark.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, so we you know Tark. When I became mayor,
Tark was insolvent and folks didn't want to confront the
reality of that that that was the case. And so
thanks to some new leadership, we've really turned Tark around.
It's now far more on time and has a great
reliability record of the on time service. It's clean, it's safe,
The routes are smaller than they were, but it's delivering
(09:15):
the service on those routes that it has right now,
and we want to start to build that to help
provide even more services to more parts of the community
with TARK. We haven't changed the way we funded TARK
since nineteen seventy four. Wow, it's expensive. Other states provide
some funding to their urban transportation system, and so I'm
(09:35):
hoping that that's something that the state legislature will consider
as well, in this session or in a future session.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And when you consider just the I mean you have
if you are somebody who relies on transportation like this,
if there's continued improvement, it's not an exaggeration to say
that could improve the overall quality of life for someone.
If there's again you've mentioned there's already already in better
shape now than it was before. But I think if
you don't rely on it, you never have, you don't
think about it. But certainly something very important. The communit unity.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Oh, it's incredibly important. There are so many people that
rely on it to get to their job, to go shopping,
to get to medical appointments. That's what it's about. I
hope to grow it beyond that where people are choosing
to take TARK, not because they have to, but because
it's a reliable, efficient, inexpensive form of transportation, that's where
we'd like to go. That's going to take some help
from the state to get there.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Mary Greenberg, always appreciate your time. Thank you so much
and enjoy your weekend. My friend.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Thanks Nick, you too.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
That is maryor Craig Greenberg.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.