Democrat Ken Herndon wants to help improve Louisville’s downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods.
Herndon was sworn in earlier this month as the District 4 representative on Louisville Metro Council. The district includes downtown, as well as the Russell and California neighborhoods to the west and NuLu/Phoenix Hill and Clifton Heights to the east.
Herndon worked for the Louisville Downtown Partnership, an organization focused on economic development in the Central Business District, for more than 20 years. During that time, he led the team of ambassadors, who work with business owners and residents to address cleanliness and public safety concerns. He also spearheaded placemaking initiatives, like LDP’s alley art project.
Now, Louisville’s downtown faces one of its biggest challenges yet: high office vacancy rates. In an interview with LPM News, Herndon said he supports Mayor Craig Greenberg’s efforts to incentivize the conversion of office space to residential use with millions of dollars in subsidies.
Herndon said unlike bigger cities, where higher rents can make conversion profitable for developers, these kinds of projects don’t pencil out in Louisville.
“So, we’re probably going to have some sort of public subsidy to get those large buildings converted to hotels or apartments,” he said.
Herndon said office space conversions are just one of the ways city leaders can help move Louisville’s downtown from a place to work to a place people want to live. In order to be successful, the city will also have to attract a sizable grocery store.
That’s a chicken-and-the-egg problem, though.
“You have to have a certain number of residents before that starts to make sense,” Herndon said.
Currently, about 10,000 people live in about 6,000 housing units in downtown Louisville, according to data from LDP.
One of Herndon’s ideas, which he said he’s still fleshing out, is for the city to provide subsidies to a grocer that would decrease over time. This assumes the population of people living downtown would grow, allowing the grocery store to become more financially viable. That could be in the form of a tax incentive or another type of subsidy.
Herndon said having a thriving downtown, not just on the weekends, is in the best interest of everyone in Jefferson County.
“The health of the Central Business District and the urban area is essential to the health of the entire community,” he said. “If the city gets eaten out from the middle, it’s going to get to you eventually.”
In the near-term, Herndon said he’s planning a blitz on neighborhood beautification projects.
He’s going to ask city departments to put a fresh coat of paint on all the fire hydrants, replace missing street signs and trim back the street trees in District 4. He said it’s about “psychology of the public space,” that how you feel about where you live has an impact on your mental state.
“These little fixes don’t put food on the table or get you a better job, but they make you feel better about your neighborhood,” Herndon said. “You look around and see somebody’s paying attention, somebody’s taking care of the details.”
He said addressing the little things could also get people interested in local government.
District 4 is a diverse area, encompassing historically Black neighborhoods in the West End and one of the newest, fastest-growing areas in Louisville’s urban core: NuLu.
Herndon said he or a member of his staff will attend every neighborhood association meeting in his district, to keep up with the concerns of residents in different parts of his district.
“Everybody kind of wants the same thing, they want safe, clean and well-cared-for [neighborhoods], good infrastructure, etc., but I found campaigning that each neighborhood would put those things in different orders,” he said. “And so, that’s where I have to pay attention to what residents want and deliver it to them.”
Now 66 years old, Herndon said he’s retired from his career and he plans to treat Metro Council as a full-time job.
