Here is the link to last week’s recording of my visit to WRFL’s Radio Free Eskippakathikki. I had gone on the show to to chat with co-hosts Charles Altendorff and Geoff Sebesta about some Louisville and Lexington TIFs, and also a few recent articles I wrote on biking downtown.
But as normally happens when I visit, we ranged widely. This one detours first into a general discussion of some Great Mayors in Ohio History, and (an interest for both me and Charles!) the modern relevance of the 1848 rise of Barnburner Democrats and its Free Soil Party that delivered us Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore.
Check it all out, if you are of a mind.
Here also are jump notes, links and some graphics, for anyone looking to skip around. Lots of our conversation centered on recent Louisville politics. If anyone from Louisville notes places in our accounts where we three inner-Bluegrass, University of Kentucky radio hosts, have got things wrong, please send me an email at Mayer.Danny@gmail.com.
14:30–Feudal Democracy: This covers some of my background interests for the Decabillionaires in your community series that was published last week. The series focuses on the Browns of Louisville, whose stakes in the Brown Forman spirits corporation make them the 13th richest family in the United States.
26:00–Louisville’s West End TIF: Passed in late 2022, the West End TIF is notable for its size and brazenness. Its passage through local and state elected bodies featured a number of Brown-supported officials.
For more on this TIF, visit the Louisville Historically Black Neighborhood Assembly (HBN Assembly) website.
56:50–Masterson Station: Geoff brought up a recent poll that made news last week, which stated that Lexington was among the least-affordable cities for members of Generation “Z.” We took that as reason to discuss one of my favorite Lexington neighborhoods, Masterson Station.
If any demographers have access to census density maps, send me an email. I’d love to look at Masterson Station density relative to other places in the city. Mayer.Danny@gmail.com
1:09:20–CentrePointe TIF: I provide an update on the CenterPointe TIF, including Tandy Square’s relationship to the financing zone. We focus specifically on this 2022 TIF “Reimbursement Calculations” document, and use it to help explain how “tax increments” operate.
Some of this discussion will appear in a future set of NoC articles that revisit the CentrePointe TIF.
1:26:30–County Edges: Ranging discussions of the LFUCG Urban Service Boundary; the aborted Bluegrass Army Depot expansion; the merits and externalities of eminent domain; and urban tree cover.
1:45:50–Elite failure and secession: Eskippakathikki concludes with a discussion of elite failure; TIFs as a model for secession from civil society; and the strange Lexington choice to destroy its north-south viaducts to create urban viewsheds.
We’ll get to more biking next time I’m on–and Bull Hell!
Thanks for listening.
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