Louisville’s Office of Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods was selected to receive a $100,000 Love Your Block grant from the national Bloomberg Foundation. Louisville is one of 16 cities awarded a grant earlier this month.
Loni White, a spokesperson for OSHN, said the goal is to green and beautify about 18 alleyways to reduce blight in Shawnee. OSHN will work with the Public Works and Codes and Inspections departments for heavy trash removal, graffiti cleanup and beautification. White said the project will be done by next spring.
“That blight is just a daily reminder of the lack of investment in their neighborhoods, and that can be demoralizing for [residents], and it does erode pride in people who live there. It also negatively impacts their personal health and their safety concerns,” she said.
So far, the city has chosen four alleyways to improve, White said. As part of the grant, a Love Your Block fellow will support the city in its work, and an AmeriCorps VISTA member will lead volunteer recruitment and be responsible for learning what community members want to see in the alleyways.
“The city is not coming in and saying, we're going to do this. We are really asking residents, what do you think is the best function for back here? Do you believe that putting art back here and art installation would be the best thing? ” she said.
White said certain alleys could host events like Saturday markets.
Improving alleys a good idea, said Ericka Seward, president of the Shawnee Neighborhood Association. But she said she doesn’t know much about the program yet.
White said it’s in the early stages, and the city is in the process of identifying the alleyways and informing residents.
Seward is concerned because some of the alleyways in the area run through residents’ backyards, and people use them for different purposes.
“Some people will use them to park in the back of their homes. Some people use them as shortcuts to their home. So I don't know how that is really going to work,” she said.
Seward would like the city to engage the community more in the process.
She also wants to know who will be responsible for maintaining the green alleyways.
“And if you expect it to be the resident, then that's another engagement piece that we will need to know,” she said.
Detroit’s effort to green alleyways
John George runs the nonprofit Detroit Blight Busters, which works on revitalizing vacant and abandoned buildings, greening and beautifying alleyways in the city’s northwest. They’ve been doing this work for 35 years.
He said the interesting thing about alleys is that they’re not quite public places or necessarily well-traveled.
“They all are very, very odd places, but a lot of good things can happen in alleys. Alleys can also be a place where neighbors come out of their back door and connect with each other,” he said.
Last month, Detroit unveiled an Art Alley in the Old Redford neighborhood. It features local art and nods to Detroit’s history. George said it’s had a major impact on the way residents see their neighborhood, built civic pride and helped reduce crime.
“So now that we, you know, cleaned everything up and have an opportunity to create some homeowners and some business owners and some opportunity and hope, the neighborhoods are much safer and cleaner and brighter,” he said.
Detroit also hosts Dally in the Alley, the largest community festival in an alley in the Cass Corridor district.
George said much of the program’s success comes from youth volunteers and representatives, who receive training in various trades and help maintain the alleyways.
“We do have people in place that we have trained, that we have hired and kind of groomed from the community that will continue to be responsible for and maintain not only the alley but the garden housing and the community centers,” he said.
For a program like this to work, George said it’s important to bring community members to the table at the outset. In Detroit, block clubs, community organizations and business associations “are in lockstep with the mayor and city council.”
“That is one thing I would say Detroit does very well. We invite everyone to the party, and a lot of the folks that make the decisions are the homeowners and the business owners,” he said.
It’s also an expensive undertaking, with the Art Alley that opened this year costing about $750,000, George said. The $100,000 granted to Louisville can only go so far, he said.
“The concept is sound. But of course, you can only get so much done with blood, sweat and tears. At one point, you're going to need a checkbook,” he said.
