At his annual State of the City Address Thursday, Mayor Craig Greenberg said Louisville officials are looking to build off of what they see as a “critical moment of opportunity.”
Greenberg highlighted investments by the state last year in the University of Louisville, the Science Center of Kentucky and other capital projects, totaling more than $1 billion. He also pointed to the recently announced mixed-use development that could surround Louisville Slugger Field downtown. In the coming months, Greenberg also plans to use state funding to enhance Jefferson Memorial Forest in southwest Louisville.
He said it’s about attracting “more visitors, more businesses and more investments” to every part of Louisville.
“I want to strengthen the connections among our neighbors and all of our neighborhoods, whether it’s the neighborhoods that are closer to the urban core, like Clifton, Russell or Germantown, or it’s the neighborhoods that are close to the county line and might be surrounded by woods and farmland, communities like Valley Station, Fisherville and Eastwood,” he said.
During the address, the city released new conceptual renderings for the planned redesign of the Belvedere, which is an elevated event space overlooking the river downtown. The project is set to receive a portion of a $100 allocation from the state and Louisville has so far chipped in $10 million of its own money. Layla George, the former president and CEO of the Olmsted Parks Conservancy, has been tapped to lead the redesign.
Greenberg said succeeding in attracting more business and development to Louisville will also require addressing some of its core challenges.
He shared a graph showing that shootings are down 40% since 2021, when gun violence reached its peak during the COVID-19 pandemic. Progress, however, has been slow. The number of homicides was down just 3% in 2024, compared to the year prior. Nonfatal shootings dropped at a higher rate, 12%, during that time frame.
Greenberg said the city hopes to continue its progress in addressing gun violence through a recent partnership between local and state prosecutors, as well as the Louisville Metro Police Department’s focus on breaking up gangs. To applause and cheers from the audience, he said LMPD “identified and arrested an entire criminal gang” last year.
“Instead of spending time tearing apart families and neighborhoods, they’re now spending time behind bars,” he said.
Greenberg said the city is also making headway on his goal of creating or preserving 15,000 affordable housing units by the end of 2026. Louisville is currently about a third of the way toward that goal. In an interview with LPM News in December, Greenberg acknowledged the city will need to pick up the pace in order to meet the ambitious target.
State lawmakers sat in the front row of the auditorium inside the Kentucky Center for the Arts for Greenberg’s address. The mayor said he’s working on “reimagining” the relationship between Louisville and Republicans in Frankfort, who hold a supermajority in the General Assembly.
It was welcome news to some lawmakers, like Republican state Rep. Jason Nemes. He said fostering a collaborative relationship is “just good governance.”
“Most of the issues that we’re talking about, they’re not Republican or Democrat issues, right?” Nemes said. “We got Republicans that need housing, we got Democrats that need housing, we got independents that need housing. We all need public safety.”
Nemes said he’s appreciated Greenberg’s efforts to spend in communities outside of the Watterson Expressway and bring geographical diversity to Louisville’s various boards and commissions.
Local Democrats also heard things they liked in Greenberg’s State of the City address.
District 1 Metro Council Member Tammy Hawkins, who chairs the Democratic Caucus, said she appreciated that the mayor highlighted the Parkland Library and the public pool in the Algonquin neighborhood, which will be opening later this year. Both are in the district she represents.
“He definitely has my support,” she said.
Hawkins said she would have liked to hear more about the sustainability of public transportation. TARC, the city’s bus system, recently made deep service cuts as it faces a fiscal cliff.
