Ken Herdon is running for the 4th District of the Metro Council. He discussed being a "recovering politician," how to revitalize Downtown, development around Lynn Family Stadium, and working the Council as his full time job...
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Time I ran was fifteen years agowhen I actually lived in the six council
district. I moved since then,but that was a good race, lost
by one hundred and twelve votes,and thought I'd eventually do it again and
just never quite got around it neverhappened, and I was describing myself for
a decade as a recovering politician andinstead and I live on the edge of
(00:20):
Butchertown now in the fourth and thenI don't know where. Jacory Arthur,
the incumbent, decided not to run, and I began to get a lot
of very nice, generous phone callsto consider running again for an open seat
where I spent most of my adultlife living, working, or working for
and decided to do it because we'retalking about a footprint that covers downtown,
and there's always talk about that.Yes, it's bigger than downtown, though
(00:41):
take give me what are the parameterIt is a sprawling district that goes from
thirty second Street along the River allthe way over to nearly Zorne Avenue.
It includes nine different neighborhoods, includingCalifornia Russell, Downtown, Butchertown, Nulu,
Smoketown, Phoenix Hill, and CliftonHeights is quite a district. Yeah
where's Yeah, there's a whole wideswath of life. But if you don't
(01:03):
mind, I like folks on downtownfor a minute. Sure we are having
a problem, like many cities withempty buildings, and there's so many voices
now piping up and saying here's whatwe should do with the empty buildings.
If you make it on Metro Council, what would your voice be adding to
the chorus. Well, we haveto be bold and creative. We have
to do that, and sometimes weare a little risk averse here, but
(01:25):
this is a moment where we're goingto test ourselves. We have about ten
Class A office buildings in the CentralBusiness District. If those fail, if
we allow them to fail, theywill become cancer cells and they will metastasize
and they will infect Class B buildings. That will infect mom and pops on
the first floors, and that willspread to the adjacent neighborhoods. We have
(01:45):
to be bold and creative. Everybodyhas the problem, but we can't.
We can't be timid, and sometimeswe are. We can't be timid.
We have to turn them into housing, find other uses. I think we
should challenge our corporate citizens who havesuburban campuses, for example, young Papa
John's, et cetera. We help, we help make you who you are.
We need you now. We needa division down here. We need
(02:07):
your names on buildings. U ofL put a school down here. JCPS
put put your headquarters down here.We need our corporate, corporate and other
larger citizens to help us protect downtownbecause it's critical to this city and to
the state. It's a financial minefieldin terms of taking Let's just talk about
(02:29):
the human of building. I mean, this big, beautiful building. I
know it's got some structure issues theywere saying, but the bones are right
in there. I don't know howyou can make that all housing, and
but that would be that could bea component of it. It could be.
Not every building is adaptable for housing. That's that's the thing. And
I'm not that guy. I don'tknow all the details, but I know
that some are. Some are not. But they We need to take an
(02:51):
inventory of the buildings and what's thevacant spates that's there, the floor plates
that design and figure out what canwork in each of them, and then
sue those aggressively. I think weneed a downtown grocery store, for example.
And I'll just make this up.I don't own the building. It's
just gone on the market, Ithink to be sold. But the Haven
Building as an example, right,I could see a grocery store on the
first floor of that Urban Target,on the first two floors of that as
(03:15):
an example. I'm just just again, just I got spitballing. But that's
at the corner of Fourth and Broadway, the two busiest bus lines. It's
within walking distance of most downtown residents. It's within two or three blocks of
the school and the medical center ifyou go south where they used to use
the third a half third Street Krogerand no longer do. You've got multiple
high rise seniors who don't have aplace to shop, so that that intersection
(03:38):
could be a prime place to puta grocery in. But it always comes
down to money. And in myview, if we if something like that
were to happen there or somewhere nearby, and we need public dollars to help
make it happen, and we shoulddo it. But there are some special
interest groups. We get you andI are old enough to know about the
Walmart that didn't happen at eighteenth andBroadway, and shame because people pushed them
(04:01):
away. It's like, hey,Walmart knows what they're doing. They're the
biggest, one of the biggest companiesin the world. And we got some
little group telling them how it's goingto be and they're like, yeah,
see you later. Yeah, Andten years later, we still want to
have a store. That's right.And the folks there needed the goods and
services and needed the jobs, andit was on a bus line. It
was good. It was not perfect. I didn't like that design with a
big parking lot in front either,but we needed it and we should have.
(04:23):
It should have happened, and itdidn't. And now again ten years
later, it's not there. Youlive in Nulu or Butchertown, which I
live on the edge of Butchertownlay,what are we going to do around the
soccer stadium? I was kind ofhoping that was going to mushroom into a
whole lot of development around it.Yet, but it seems a little quiet
right now. It is, butI believe I'm hearing that some things are
going to begin to happen there.I believe the state just gave us some
(04:44):
money. The mayor mansion. It'sthe other day and he mentioned the there's
a name of it. I forgetwhat it is, the sports complex or
something that I believe may be thatthat complex. And mister Herndon, if
you were elected to the Metro Council, where do you think the Metro Council
might be a bit a skew thatyou would like to lend your voice to
try and direct them elsewhere. Well, I'm being a newbie. I'm not
(05:06):
going to walk in there and sayhere's how you need to do your job.
I'll be handed my wall obviously,you know you can sit over there,
you know. But I think andthat's fair enough, that's not fair.
But what I'm going to do forthe district, I'm going to make
it my full time job. Peopledon't know most of most people may not
know that the council council is apart time job. Almost everybody on there
(05:27):
as as far as I know,has a full time job and that's part
time. They have a full timeaide. I'm going to quit my consulting
business and make it my full timejob, and so I will give the
constituents twice as much. They'll gettired of hearing from me, I hope,
and then I'm also pledging to answerevery email or respond to every email
or phone call within two business days, whether I have the answer or not.
(05:49):
I want people to know that theywill not have to wait a month
to hear from me. And sometimesthat's not reflection on anybody else currently.
I want to make sure that theyknow that I'm available and I'm going to
be out and about a lot.That's what I'm used to doing in my
downtown work, and I'm the kindof I'm kind of a tom Owen guy.
I'm out there all over the place. You're also historically connected so that
(06:12):
you understand where this the ebb andflow of how this city's gone. Yes,
I've worked downtown for and around downtownfor for twenty five years. During
that time of my professional life,I was also a neighborhood leader of three
different neighborhood associations. I was onthe T two light rail task force.
I've been on different committees and taskforces for public safety, public art.
(06:34):
I have an art degree actually atthe Alley Gallery program, but the door
art program you see all over downtownwas my baby cool. So I love
the public space. I love theI'm an urban person. I'm a city
person, and this district is wildlydiverse, and it's where Louisville was born.
At Seventh and May. I enjoy, I would enjoy representing that the
(06:55):
heart of the city. You usetwo words that are really important in the
history of this city. Light rail. Yeah, it's like, you know,
we used to have trolleys. Wedid all that business. Yeah,
why is that such an impossibility?It seems well back in the day and
the task force worked for three years. We had the routes chosen, the
stations chosen, We talked about BarryBarker at that time talked about opening in
(07:16):
April of two thousand and seven,that's how long ago it was. But
we had to have an eighty tenten split federal, state, local,
and frankly, we didn't have alocal leadership that wanted to step up and
make that happen. It was goingto involve a campaign to raise some taxes
like they did with Tart many yearsago, right, and it just didn't
happen. We did our work andit went for naught. And you know,
(07:38):
at that time, I lived inNo Louisville. Can you imagine Fourth
and Oak, which has been strugglingfor so many years. If we'd had
a station there, that's where theywere supposed to be. Can you imagine
what that would have looked like withthe light rail station. I think there's
some different minds in the council nowthat may listen a little bit, I
think, so. I hope wehaven't missed it. It was a golden
opportunity. Saint Louis did it sincethen, Cincinnati did it since then.
But we missed the mark. Andthat's where I talked about and I challenged
(08:01):
my colleagues I worked with down Town. We are too often risk averse here.
I've said, we start with PlanB, we compromised a Plan C,
and then we wonder why Plan Acities eat our lunch and because we
were not willing to take a chance. And I'm going to push the council
to take more chances, not reckless, but to be more more risky and
try to take some bold moves anddo what other cities had done and who
(08:24):
had success, who had succeeded bydoing so. True, we had peer
cities in Nashville and Indianapolis, andyou know what you've seen, what's happened.
Yeah, Well, years ago inthe mid seventies, Portland, Oregon
was in a horrible recession. Thatwas when they put their first light rail
line in. They were bold whenthey were hurting, and that's what we
need to do with our buildings.For example. We can't be tim and
(08:46):
we have to be bold and creative. Ken Herndon, where do people find
you online? Www? Ken forCouncil dot com. I'll give my my
I've been giving my cell number outto everybody five o two eight one seven
two seven six six. That's thekind of access I want to have.
You're the first person to do that. Well, there you go. So
I may regret that later at threeo'clock in the morning, but I've been
(09:09):
riding it on everything and leave onthe doorstep anyway. So there you go.
District four Metro Council, Yes,sir, Kenfourcouncil dot Com. Yes.
I can't believe that was available.There's not another ten somewhere in the
year of the Barbie movie. Ican't believe it either. I great to
see, Thank you so much.Coming right back on News Radio eight forty whas
Time I ran was fifteen years agowhen I actually lived in the six council
district. I moved since then,but that was a good race, lost
by one hundred and twelve votes,and thought I'd eventually do it again and
just never quite got around it neverhappened, and I was describing myself for
a decade as a recovering politician andinstead and I live on the edge of
(00:20):
Butchertown now in the fourth and thenI don't know where. Jacory Arthur,
the incumbent, decided not to run, and I began to get a lot
of very nice, generous phone callsto consider running again for an open seat
where I spent most of my adultlife living, working, or working for
and decided to do it because we'retalking about a footprint that covers downtown,
and there's always talk about that.Yes, it's bigger than downtown, though
(00:41):
take give me what are the parameterIt is a sprawling district that goes from
thirty second Street along the River allthe way over to nearly Zorne Avenue.
It includes nine different neighborhoods, includingCalifornia Russell, Downtown, Butchertown, Nulu,
Smoketown, Phoenix Hill, and CliftonHeights is quite a district. Yeah
where's Yeah, there's a whole wideswath of life. But if you don't
(01:03):
mind, I like folks on downtownfor a minute. Sure we are having
a problem, like many cities withempty buildings, and there's so many voices
now piping up and saying here's whatwe should do with the empty buildings.
If you make it on Metro Council, what would your voice be adding to
the chorus. Well, we haveto be bold and creative. We have
to do that, and sometimes weare a little risk averse here, but
(01:25):
this is a moment where we're goingto test ourselves. We have about ten
Class A office buildings in the CentralBusiness District. If those fail, if
we allow them to fail, theywill become cancer cells and they will metastasize
and they will infect Class B buildings. That will infect mom and pops on
the first floors, and that willspread to the adjacent neighborhoods. We have
(01:45):
to be bold and creative. Everybodyhas the problem, but we can't.
We can't be timid, and sometimeswe are. We can't be timid.
We have to turn them into housing, find other uses. I think we
should challenge our corporate citizens who havesuburban campuses, for example, young Papa
John's, et cetera. We help, we help make you who you are.
We need you now. We needa division down here. We need
(02:07):
your names on buildings. U ofL put a school down here. JCPS
put put your headquarters down here.We need our corporate, corporate and other
larger citizens to help us protect downtownbecause it's critical to this city and to
the state. It's a financial minefieldin terms of taking Let's just talk about
(02:29):
the human of building. I mean, this big, beautiful building. I
know it's got some structure issues theywere saying, but the bones are right
in there. I don't know howyou can make that all housing, and
but that would be that could bea component of it. It could be.
Not every building is adaptable for housing. That's that's the thing. And
I'm not that guy. I don'tknow all the details, but I know
that some are. Some are not. But they We need to take an
(02:51):
inventory of the buildings and what's thevacant spates that's there, the floor plates
that design and figure out what canwork in each of them, and then
sue those aggressively. I think weneed a downtown grocery store, for example.
And I'll just make this up.I don't own the building. It's
just gone on the market, Ithink to be sold. But the Haven
Building as an example, right,I could see a grocery store on the
first floor of that Urban Target,on the first two floors of that as
(03:15):
an example. I'm just just again, just I got spitballing. But that's
at the corner of Fourth and Broadway, the two busiest bus lines. It's
within walking distance of most downtown residents. It's within two or three blocks of
the school and the medical center ifyou go south where they used to use
the third a half third Street Krogerand no longer do. You've got multiple
high rise seniors who don't have aplace to shop, so that that intersection
(03:38):
could be a prime place to puta grocery in. But it always comes
down to money. And in myview, if we if something like that
were to happen there or somewhere nearby, and we need public dollars to help
make it happen, and we shoulddo it. But there are some special
interest groups. We get you andI are old enough to know about the
Walmart that didn't happen at eighteenth andBroadway, and shame because people pushed them
(04:01):
away. It's like, hey,Walmart knows what they're doing. They're the
biggest, one of the biggest companiesin the world. And we got some
little group telling them how it's goingto be and they're like, yeah,
see you later. Yeah, Andten years later, we still want to
have a store. That's right.And the folks there needed the goods and
services and needed the jobs, andit was on a bus line. It
was good. It was not perfect. I didn't like that design with a
big parking lot in front either,but we needed it and we should have.
(04:23):
It should have happened, and itdidn't. And now again ten years
later, it's not there. Youlive in Nulu or Butchertown, which I
live on the edge of Butchertownlay,what are we going to do around the
soccer stadium? I was kind ofhoping that was going to mushroom into a
whole lot of development around it.Yet, but it seems a little quiet
right now. It is, butI believe I'm hearing that some things are
going to begin to happen there.I believe the state just gave us some
(04:44):
money. The mayor mansion. It'sthe other day and he mentioned the there's
a name of it. I forgetwhat it is, the sports complex or
something that I believe may be thatthat complex. And mister Herndon, if
you were elected to the Metro Council, where do you think the Metro Council
might be a bit a skew thatyou would like to lend your voice to
try and direct them elsewhere. Well, I'm being a newbie. I'm not
(05:06):
going to walk in there and sayhere's how you need to do your job.
I'll be handed my wall obviously,you know you can sit over there,
you know. But I think andthat's fair enough, that's not fair.
But what I'm going to do forthe district, I'm going to make
it my full time job. Peopledon't know most of most people may not
know that the council council is apart time job. Almost everybody on there
(05:27):
as as far as I know,has a full time job and that's part
time. They have a full timeaide. I'm going to quit my consulting
business and make it my full timejob, and so I will give the
constituents twice as much. They'll gettired of hearing from me, I hope,
and then I'm also pledging to answerevery email or respond to every email
or phone call within two business days, whether I have the answer or not.
(05:49):
I want people to know that theywill not have to wait a month
to hear from me. And sometimesthat's not reflection on anybody else currently.
I want to make sure that theyknow that I'm available and I'm going to
be out and about a lot.That's what I'm used to doing in my
downtown work, and I'm the kindof I'm kind of a tom Owen guy.
I'm out there all over the place. You're also historically connected so that
(06:12):
you understand where this the ebb andflow of how this city's gone. Yes,
I've worked downtown for and around downtownfor for twenty five years. During
that time of my professional life,I was also a neighborhood leader of three
different neighborhood associations. I was onthe T two light rail task force.
I've been on different committees and taskforces for public safety, public art.
(06:34):
I have an art degree actually atthe Alley Gallery program, but the door
art program you see all over downtownwas my baby cool. So I love
the public space. I love theI'm an urban person. I'm a city
person, and this district is wildlydiverse, and it's where Louisville was born.
At Seventh and May. I enjoy, I would enjoy representing that the
(06:55):
heart of the city. You usetwo words that are really important in the
history of this city. Light rail. Yeah, it's like, you know,
we used to have trolleys. Wedid all that business. Yeah,
why is that such an impossibility?It seems well back in the day and
the task force worked for three years. We had the routes chosen, the
stations chosen, We talked about BarryBarker at that time talked about opening in
(07:16):
April of two thousand and seven,that's how long ago it was. But
we had to have an eighty tenten split federal, state, local,
and frankly, we didn't have alocal leadership that wanted to step up and
make that happen. It was goingto involve a campaign to raise some taxes
like they did with Tart many yearsago, right, and it just didn't
happen. We did our work andit went for naught. And you know,
(07:38):
at that time, I lived inNo Louisville. Can you imagine Fourth
and Oak, which has been strugglingfor so many years. If we'd had
a station there, that's where theywere supposed to be. Can you imagine
what that would have looked like withthe light rail station. I think there's
some different minds in the council nowthat may listen a little bit, I
think, so. I hope wehaven't missed it. It was a golden
opportunity. Saint Louis did it sincethen, Cincinnati did it since then.
But we missed the mark. Andthat's where I talked about and I challenged
(08:01):
my colleagues I worked with down Town. We are too often risk averse here.
I've said, we start with PlanB, we compromised a Plan C,
and then we wonder why Plan Acities eat our lunch and because we
were not willing to take a chance. And I'm going to push the council
to take more chances, not reckless, but to be more more risky and
try to take some bold moves anddo what other cities had done and who
(08:24):
had success, who had succeeded bydoing so. True, we had peer
cities in Nashville and Indianapolis, andyou know what you've seen, what's happened.
Yeah, Well, years ago inthe mid seventies, Portland, Oregon
was in a horrible recession. Thatwas when they put their first light rail
line in. They were bold whenthey were hurting, and that's what we
need to do with our buildings.For example. We can't be tim and
(08:46):
we have to be bold and creative. Ken Herndon, where do people find
you online? Www? Ken forCouncil dot com. I'll give my my
I've been giving my cell number outto everybody five o two eight one seven
two seven six six. That's thekind of access I want to have.
You're the first person to do that. Well, there you go. So
I may regret that later at threeo'clock in the morning, but I've been
(09:09):
riding it on everything and leave onthe doorstep anyway. So there you go.
District four Metro Council, Yes,sir, Kenfourcouncil dot Com. Yes.
I can't believe that was available.There's not another ten somewhere in the
year of the Barbie movie. Ican't believe it either. I great to
see, Thank you so much.Coming right back on News Radio eight forty whas
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