Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's news ready to eight forty wahas Joe Elliott and
Mayor Craig Greenberg is on the line to talk about
what's going on this morning. Mister Mayor, I always appreciate
you spend it a few minutes with us, and I
look at twenty twenty five and I look at the
thing of the year end review. I mean, for me,
front and center, the biggest story has to be the
unfortunate ups plane crash.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
That's right. This was definitely a year of a lot
of positive results, but also of incredibly strong resilience from
our community. And you saw time and time again culminating
in the days after the ups crash and still to
this day, the support for the families, the victims, the
folks that were impacted by that just really showed the
strength of our city. And my hope as we go
(00:45):
into the new year, is that unity, that strength that
we showed, the love for one another and support carries
through when it's not just after a tragedy. I mean,
just think about what our city would be like if
everyone brings that spirit to the community every day.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
You know, It's one of the things I love about Louisville.
I grew up in this town and have spent most
of my life in this town. And when people ask
me what Louisville's like people from out of town, louill
really is about nice and it really is about people
looking out for each other. And I you know, that
sounds kind of corny, but it is the absolute truth.
If you live here for a while, you know that
is the case. And I really was impressed at the
(01:23):
way the city came together and people looked out for
each other after that plane crash. Really wasn't a whole
lot we could do, but we did the best we
could to make it better after the fact.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
That's right, even just being nice for one to one
another and just asking people what we can do to
help in your neighbors and right, you know, we also
saw it. Look at after the floods Joe. That was
this year also we had historic floods. Hundreds of people
showed up to help clean up, you know, time and
when there was a federal government shutdown and seniors were
being cut off from their food and their deliveries and
(01:55):
food pantries needed more because snap benefits were coming up,
louisvillions showed up. They don't donated, they gave food to
food pantries. So those are the types of things, and
I really I agree with you. I think it's in
our DNA somehow. I don't know if it's one hundred
and fifty one years of practice of welcoming the world
to our city every year for the Kentucky Derby that
were just hospitable by nature, but that's really unique and
(02:18):
to me, that's one of our secret sauces as the city.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
One of the things that you've spent a lot of
time with this year is the question of public safety
and how we best deal with that. And if you
look at this from thirty thousand feet, you know, we
see crime stories every day, so we think crime is
really on the rise, and people are very concerned about this.
If you look at it though from a broader view,
we've actually had crime going down in this city. I mean,
(02:43):
there's reason for optimism here.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
That's right. We've made really I'm really proud of our progress,
but like you said, I still know that we have
a lot more to go. Just look at the story
that you all just told two minutes ago there. I mean,
if you look just this year alone, shootings and homicides
are down over twenty percent since I've been mayor in
three years, shootings are down over forty percent. I mean
that is huge project progress. But we still have more
(03:08):
to do. We still have people, as you heard. I mean,
somebody on the street last night is firing gunshots at
a police officer. I mean, that's got to stop. And
we're going to keep doing everything that we've been doing
under Chief Humphrey's leadership with LMPD to continue to reduce
violent crime. This progress that we're making is not a
one time saying we are going to stay at it.
(03:28):
This is the absolute top priority to make sure that
everyone is safe and feel safe.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
And that's one of those things you're going to have
to deal with every day. Every day there's going to
be a new challenge for you. And that is really
one of the things about your administration or any administration.
We were talking about this a little earlier. While you
have to have strategic planning and long term planning, there
could be a train wreck that could occur talking a
figurative train wreck every day, and your department has to
(03:56):
be ready for action at any moment.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
That's right. The good news is I've got five thousand
wonderful colleagues that you know, we're focused on a lot
of different things, and when an emergency happens, we're able
to deal with that and keep moving other things forward.
That's what it's all about. I mean, this year we
also we got four brand new parks open. This year,
we got two libraries that renovated and reopened. We opened
a brand new pool in Algonquin Park, and next year
(04:20):
we're opening another one in Camp Taylor that's already done,
amongst lots of other improvements to our parks across the city.
That sort of stuff has to continue to go on
every day, even when there are emergencies that we're dealing
with on a regular basis.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
So back to the crime situation, I think there's there's
been a lot of positives here in terms of crime
is going down. I still think there is a there
is a divide between the police and and some communities.
There are certainly some members of the community and I
wonder how you how you build that trust, you how
you sort of breach that divide that that has existed
(04:57):
for a while and seems to continue to exist.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
So we're trying to do and with Chief Humphrey and
his leadership team and really all officers are trying to
do is just get to know people better. We're trying
to put more officers on the street, so they're interacting
with with faith leaders, with neighborhood leaders, with small business owners,
with parents who are out of the bus stop in
the morning with their kids. And the more you can
just get to know people one another as normal human beings,
(05:21):
you're going to break down those barriers and develop the
trust so that community policing is really starting to work.
In fact, we're starting to do some surveys now and
that's what it shows. It shows that actually people who
interact with LMPD have very positive experiences, and so I'm
proud of that. We also this year, you know, we're
going to continue to focus on transparency and that helps
(05:43):
build the trust. I created even when the federal government
backed out of the consent decree, I still put one
into place with Chief Humphrey, and so we have the
Community Commitment, which is Louisville's Consent Decree. I created a
Community Safety Commission, hired an independent monitor to have a
third party that could validate through a form. Is an
improvement that we're making. It's going to take a little
bit time after some of the things that our city
(06:05):
went through that really impacted certain parts of our community
harder than others. But we are headed in the right direction,
I believe now and in the coming years, you'll continue
to see that progress and that trust restored, I hope.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Let me ask you about our recent Kentucky's Supreme Court
decision involving JCPS. You're not in charge of Jefferson County
Public Schools, but certainly what they do, their policies, what
happens there certainly impacts our city in such a big way.
What were your thoughts on the Supreme Court's decision, which
essentially gives more power back to the JCPS to educate
(06:38):
the board and takes some of that power away from
the superintendent.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Well, I'm a proud JCPS graduate. I'm a strong believer
in incredibly good public schools, and so what I'm focused
on right now is are there things that the city
and community can do to help JCPS strengthen itself and
deal with the challenges when there was transportation challenges stepped
up and we work things out where tark drivers help
drive for JCPS so more kids could get to school.
(07:05):
Right now, our department of public Health is in the
schools doing eye exams so that kids who can't see
you're getting eye exams in free glasses, are helping to
get them with their immunizations. And I know that JCPS
has some big decisions to make about the budget challenges
that it's facing right now. I'm hopeful that the board
and superintendent make the decisions that I believe they will
(07:28):
that will keep strong funding with in the classrooms in
our schools, pay teachers well, and that if there are
cuts that have to be made there, that can find
those from some of the central office so that we
can continue to really invest in our kids and our
teachers in our schools. That's where it should be and
I'm hoping that's what the future of JCPS is and
I believe that doctor Year would and then the JCPS
(07:51):
board will be making those decisions soon.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Last question this morning, and this could certainly change as
events dictate, but what do you see as the biggest
challenge for your administration in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
The biggest challenge, Well, look, we've got to continue to
be vigilant about crime. You've seen it go up and
down in the past decades. And when I became mayor,
we were near an all time high and now we're
headed in the right direction, and so we have to continue.
We can't celebrate the progress that we're making. We have
to every day focus on doing the things that work,
think of new ideas, see what's working elsewhere, and continue
(08:27):
to do more. The other area is we need more housing.
If we're going to grow, If we've created so many
good paying jobs here over the past couple of years,
we need to build more housing. For a couple reasons,
to support this job growth, but also to bring down
the cost of housing. Is the cost of housing is
getting out of reach for far too many families, and
if we build more housing across the city, that will
(08:49):
help lower the cost, make it more affordable. And I
want to do more things at the local level where
we can to make a living more affordable for hard
work and glibal families.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Greenberg, I appreciate you spending a few minutes with this morning.
Happy holidays and all the best in twenty six. Well,
we'll be watching. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Thank you so much, Thanks so much, Joe, Happy holidays
to you and all your listeners.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
All right, Mary Craig Greenberg joining us the news radio
eight forty whas
It's news ready to eight forty wahas Joe Elliott and
Mayor Craig Greenberg is on the line to talk about
what's going on this morning. Mister Mayor, I always appreciate
you spend it a few minutes with us, and I
look at twenty twenty five and I look at the
thing of the year end review. I mean, for me,
front and center, the biggest story has to be the
unfortunate ups plane crash.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
That's right. This was definitely a year of a lot
of positive results, but also of incredibly strong resilience from
our community. And you saw time and time again culminating
in the days after the ups crash and still to
this day, the support for the families, the victims, the
folks that were impacted by that just really showed the
strength of our city. And my hope as we go
(00:45):
into the new year, is that unity, that strength that
we showed, the love for one another and support carries
through when it's not just after a tragedy. I mean,
just think about what our city would be like if
everyone brings that spirit to the community every day.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
You know, It's one of the things I love about Louisville.
I grew up in this town and have spent most
of my life in this town. And when people ask
me what Louisville's like people from out of town, louill
really is about nice and it really is about people
looking out for each other. And I you know, that
sounds kind of corny, but it is the absolute truth.
If you live here for a while, you know that
is the case. And I really was impressed at the
(01:23):
way the city came together and people looked out for
each other after that plane crash. Really wasn't a whole
lot we could do, but we did the best we
could to make it better after the fact.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
That's right, even just being nice for one to one
another and just asking people what we can do to
help in your neighbors and right, you know, we also
saw it. Look at after the floods Joe. That was
this year also we had historic floods. Hundreds of people
showed up to help clean up, you know, time and
when there was a federal government shutdown and seniors were
being cut off from their food and their deliveries and
(01:55):
food pantries needed more because snap benefits were coming up,
louisvillions showed up. They don't donated, they gave food to
food pantries. So those are the types of things, and
I really I agree with you. I think it's in
our DNA somehow. I don't know if it's one hundred
and fifty one years of practice of welcoming the world
to our city every year for the Kentucky Derby that
were just hospitable by nature, but that's really unique and
(02:18):
to me, that's one of our secret sauces as the city.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
One of the things that you've spent a lot of
time with this year is the question of public safety
and how we best deal with that. And if you
look at this from thirty thousand feet, you know, we
see crime stories every day, so we think crime is
really on the rise, and people are very concerned about this.
If you look at it though from a broader view,
we've actually had crime going down in this city. I mean,
(02:43):
there's reason for optimism here.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
That's right. We've made really I'm really proud of our progress,
but like you said, I still know that we have
a lot more to go. Just look at the story
that you all just told two minutes ago there. I mean,
if you look just this year alone, shootings and homicides
are down over twenty percent since I've been mayor in
three years, shootings are down over forty percent. I mean
that is huge project progress. But we still have more
(03:08):
to do. We still have people, as you heard. I mean,
somebody on the street last night is firing gunshots at
a police officer. I mean, that's got to stop. And
we're going to keep doing everything that we've been doing
under Chief Humphrey's leadership with LMPD to continue to reduce
violent crime. This progress that we're making is not a
one time saying we are going to stay at it.
(03:28):
This is the absolute top priority to make sure that
everyone is safe and feel safe.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
And that's one of those things you're going to have
to deal with every day. Every day there's going to
be a new challenge for you. And that is really
one of the things about your administration or any administration.
We were talking about this a little earlier. While you
have to have strategic planning and long term planning, there
could be a train wreck that could occur talking a
figurative train wreck every day, and your department has to
(03:56):
be ready for action at any moment.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
That's right. The good news is I've got five thousand
wonderful colleagues that you know, we're focused on a lot
of different things, and when an emergency happens, we're able
to deal with that and keep moving other things forward.
That's what it's all about. I mean, this year we
also we got four brand new parks open. This year,
we got two libraries that renovated and reopened. We opened
a brand new pool in Algonquin Park, and next year
(04:20):
we're opening another one in Camp Taylor that's already done,
amongst lots of other improvements to our parks across the city.
That sort of stuff has to continue to go on
every day, even when there are emergencies that we're dealing
with on a regular basis.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
So back to the crime situation, I think there's there's
been a lot of positives here in terms of crime
is going down. I still think there is a there
is a divide between the police and and some communities.
There are certainly some members of the community and I
wonder how you how you build that trust, you how
you sort of breach that divide that that has existed
(04:57):
for a while and seems to continue to exist.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
So we're trying to do and with Chief Humphrey and
his leadership team and really all officers are trying to
do is just get to know people better. We're trying
to put more officers on the street, so they're interacting
with with faith leaders, with neighborhood leaders, with small business owners,
with parents who are out of the bus stop in
the morning with their kids. And the more you can
just get to know people one another as normal human beings,
(05:21):
you're going to break down those barriers and develop the
trust so that community policing is really starting to work.
In fact, we're starting to do some surveys now and
that's what it shows. It shows that actually people who
interact with LMPD have very positive experiences, and so I'm
proud of that. We also this year, you know, we're
going to continue to focus on transparency and that helps
(05:43):
build the trust. I created even when the federal government
backed out of the consent decree, I still put one
into place with Chief Humphrey, and so we have the
Community Commitment, which is Louisville's Consent Decree. I created a
Community Safety Commission, hired an independent monitor to have a
third party that could validate through a form. Is an
improvement that we're making. It's going to take a little
bit time after some of the things that our city
(06:05):
went through that really impacted certain parts of our community
harder than others. But we are headed in the right direction,
I believe now and in the coming years, you'll continue
to see that progress and that trust restored, I hope.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Let me ask you about our recent Kentucky's Supreme Court
decision involving JCPS. You're not in charge of Jefferson County
Public Schools, but certainly what they do, their policies, what
happens there certainly impacts our city in such a big way.
What were your thoughts on the Supreme Court's decision, which
essentially gives more power back to the JCPS to educate
(06:38):
the board and takes some of that power away from
the superintendent.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Well, I'm a proud JCPS graduate. I'm a strong believer
in incredibly good public schools, and so what I'm focused
on right now is are there things that the city
and community can do to help JCPS strengthen itself and
deal with the challenges when there was transportation challenges stepped
up and we work things out where tark drivers help
drive for JCPS so more kids could get to school.
(07:05):
Right now, our department of public Health is in the
schools doing eye exams so that kids who can't see
you're getting eye exams in free glasses, are helping to
get them with their immunizations. And I know that JCPS
has some big decisions to make about the budget challenges
that it's facing right now. I'm hopeful that the board
and superintendent make the decisions that I believe they will
(07:28):
that will keep strong funding with in the classrooms in
our schools, pay teachers well, and that if there are
cuts that have to be made there, that can find
those from some of the central office so that we
can continue to really invest in our kids and our
teachers in our schools. That's where it should be and
I'm hoping that's what the future of JCPS is and
I believe that doctor Year would and then the JCPS
(07:51):
board will be making those decisions soon.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Last question this morning, and this could certainly change as
events dictate, but what do you see as the biggest
challenge for your administration in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
The biggest challenge, Well, look, we've got to continue to
be vigilant about crime. You've seen it go up and
down in the past decades. And when I became mayor,
we were near an all time high and now we're
headed in the right direction, and so we have to continue.
We can't celebrate the progress that we're making. We have
to every day focus on doing the things that work,
think of new ideas, see what's working elsewhere, and continue
(08:27):
to do more. The other area is we need more housing.
If we're going to grow, If we've created so many
good paying jobs here over the past couple of years,
we need to build more housing. For a couple reasons,
to support this job growth, but also to bring down
the cost of housing. Is the cost of housing is
getting out of reach for far too many families, and
if we build more housing across the city, that will
(08:49):
help lower the cost, make it more affordable. And I
want to do more things at the local level where
we can to make a living more affordable for hard
work and glibal families.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Greenberg, I appreciate you spending a few minutes with this morning.
Happy holidays and all the best in twenty six. Well,
we'll be watching. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Thank you so much, Thanks so much, Joe, Happy holidays
to you and all your listeners.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
All right, Mary Craig Greenberg joining us the news radio
eight forty whas
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