cartky.org

Editor: The following has been accepted for publication in the C-J:

8664 is a distraction.  8664 focuses on a financially unrealistic investment in automotive infrastructure. It steals focus from advancing a regional public transit system as an option to bridges.  It must stop.

On March 31 the Courier-Journal published an article by the leadership of 8664.  The article began with: "For three years we have promoted a positive solution to address the region's transportation and economic needs". This statement is far from the truth.  For three years 8664 has promoted a narrow vision of transportation by cars and trucks only.  There is nothing positive about speeding cars and trucks along surface streets through our riverfront - even if you try to sell those surface roads as "parkways".  More motor vehicles on surface streets only endanger more motorists, pedestrians and cyclists.  The 8664 vision is not positive, nor is it a solution for regional transportation.

Another false claim by the authors of the 8664 article is that "the citizens of this region are united in their support for building the East End Bridge".  Many oppose an east end bridge, and for many different reasons. 

But these are the least offensive elements of the 8664 article. The article began as a whine about Mayor Abramson, the Courier-Journal's editorial board, River Fields, Downtown Development Corporation, GLI, and the Build the Bridges Coalition.  They have "been less than sincere".  They have been hostile "towards our ideas".  They have "raised undisclosed amounts of money" and "hired a lobbyist".  This whining reveals double standards. 8664 not only employs someone to help with its own lobbying effort, but it lacks transparency and holds its own undisclosed secrets.

For six months 8664 has refused a request that it disclose the fact that Tyler Allen is a principal and President of Ferriell Lorenz Brownsboro Partnership, a company that owns 32.68 acres at the intersection of I-265 and US 42 - not near the intersection, but occupying the southeast corner of that intersection.  That intersection is where the Gene Snyder currently terminates, awaiting the building of the east end bridge.  The relationship between 8664's east end bridge and that 32.68 acres suggests a conflict of interest.  Understand, there is no objection to property ownership or to profit.  The objection is to lobbying the public while not disclosing the fact that one has a financial interest in the issue.  The "10,000 people in this community" that 8664 claims to represent deserve full disclosure.

This is not 8664's only refusal to share information.  For six months the 8664 leadership has refused to answer a hypothetical question that would reveal 8664's priorities.  The question is simple.  It is multiple choice.  "You can have one of three options.  Which will it be?  You can have an east end bridge, a waterfront of surface streets in lieu of I-64, or a good regional public transit system."  For six months the leadership of 8664 has refused to answer this question.  It seems disclosure of priorities are of no interest to 8664.

Facts, however, suggest that 8664 has indeed prioritized - they just refuse to disclose their priorities.  Six months ago 24 citizen groups and businesses framed the proposition that "the financial plan of the Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project is unrealistic".  8664 abandoned that coalition.  8664 was the only group to fear a discussion of fiscal responsibility.  They feared that a discussion of finances would delay the east end bridge.

The financial bad news from Washington and Frankfort (despite the spin of bridges proponents) that we cannot afford to build two bridges and reconfigure Spaghetti Junction reveals another 8664 deception.  The 8664 illusion promoted is that we can afford to build an east end bridge, reconfigure Spaghetti Junction, tear down I-64 and build surface streets along the riverfront from Butchertown to West 16th Street. 

To promote that illusion while claiming that this is going to benefit the west end with our current impoverished public transit system only deepens the deception.

8664 is not about 86'ing 64 and replacing it with a park-like riverfront (the clever name is a 'bait and switch' game).  8664 is not about the full disclosure or fiscal responsibility.  8664 is certainly not about regional transportation alternatives.  8664 is about an east end bridge.  8664 is a deception and an unrealistic distraction from an effort to create efficient, equitable, environmentally friendly transportation alternatives for the region's citizens.

There is a difference between what is and what can be.  Hope awaits the day when the leadership of 8664 stops promoting an narrow vision of more infrastructure for cars and trucks, and begins promoting public transit.  Short of that, hope awaits the day the public awakens to the deceptions.

Jackie Green
A founder of KTAP, co-owner of the Bike Couriers Bike Shop, and Mayoral Candidate - 2010
www.ktap.org - www.bikecourier.org - www.thegreeningoflouisville.org