U of L and Louisville Metro—A Partnership

One of the primary goals of the University of Louisville—one that has been stressed time and time again during President James R. Ramsey’s first year on the job—is to reinforce the university’s numerous existing partnerships while seeking out and engaging in new ones.

This drive to both strengthen and create partnerships is demonstrated clearly in the university’s relationship with the new Louisville Metro government.

U of L, a 205-year-old university, and Louisville, a 225-year-old community, have been reliable allies throughout the years. But when Louisville’s municipal government and Jefferson County’s suburban government officially merged at the beginning of this year to form Louisville Metro, the relationship became more important than ever.

Louisville Metro is now technically the 16th largest city in the country with a population of 693,604. It’s officially considered larger than such cities as Baltimore, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Seattle, an ideal backdrop for U of L’s goal of becoming a nationally renowned metropolitan research university.

Both the city and university are destined for bigger things, and they need to take that trip together, according to Ramsey.

“We must recommit ourselves to partner with those who share our ideals and dreams,” he said in early September during his inaugural address. “A stronger and healthier Louisville and Jefferson County are critical not only to the future of our people here, but to all the people of Kentucky.”

dakan draws the lines

U of L’s strong connection to Louisville Metro started with the actual merger.

When Jefferson County voters determined that Louisville and Jefferson County would merge, one of the first duties was to determine where the boundaries of the new government’s districts would lie.

U of L geography professor Bill Dakan is Louisville's first "metro geographer."

U of L geography professor Bill Dakan, a longtime merger advocate and redistricting expert, was asked by the Kentucky General Assembly to tackle this unique civic duty—one of immense responsibility, geographic expertise and impact.

Using 2000 Census data, Dakan carved the new metro council districts out of land that had been divided into sections governed by Louisville's city aldermen and Jefferson County's commissioners.

Site exploration was nothing new to Dakan, an urban geographer and 26-year resident of the area. The highways, alleyways and neighborhoods of the city and county were more than lines viewed on his trusty laptop or maps.

“I don't think there's a street in the city of Louisville I haven't been down physically—most of them walking,” he explains. The same goes for much of Jefferson County.

To come up with fairly divided districts, he followed several professional criteria including balancing populations, making sure each district had a precinct and protecting the interests of minorities—even if it meant overriding traditional neighborhood boundaries.

Dakan also employed his own personal criteria, among them a balance of major political parties, keeping neighborhoods and communities together as much as possible and making the districts as compact as possible.

Beyond civic satisfaction and more fame than he might like, what did Dakan have to show for his labors when the new lines were completed? Great classroom examples for starters, he says.

The new government also thought highly enough of his work to name him “metro geographer,” an unpaid position that takes up about 15 percent of his time.

“I think I’m the only city geographer in the country,” he jokes.

His duties include developing new community models and working with local residents in the former Jefferson County portions of the Louisville Metro area to create neighborhoods with identities similar to the Highlands, Tyler Park, Crescent Hill and Old Louisville.

Dakan also will submit annual reports on the geography and demographics of Louisville Metro.

Dakan, who served previously on a task force examining local government structure, says the move toward a merged Louisville-Jefferson County government was long overdue.

“It's really a matter of catching up to lost opportunities,” he says.

to catch a chief

A long-standing partnership between U of L and the city that reached new importance in the months leading up to the government merger involves the university’s Southern Police Institute in the Department of Justice Administration.

The Louisville Division of Police (LDP) was instrumental in both SPI’s formation in 1951 and its rise to national prominence over the past five decades. Today, SPI is viewed as a place where law enforcement professionals can receive the highest level of continued training and preparation.

SPI’s expertise came in more than handy last year when the LDP merged with the Jefferson County Police Department to form the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD). Serving as a special kind of headhunter, SPI played a vital role in the hiring of LMPD’s first chief.

“We ran the process,” says William F. Walsh, SPI director and a justice administration professor in the U of L College of Arts and Sciences.

William Walsh (left) director of the Southern Police Institute (SPI) congratulates Robert White after he is named Louisville Metro Police Department's (LMPD) chief last December. SPI played an important role in the search process and eventual hiring of LMPD's first chief.

SPI identified 20 candidates—a number that quickly was narrowed to 14—and along with the mayor’s office explained to them what the city wanted in a police chief. Eventually three candidates were brought to Louisville to meet with the mayor’s staff as well as the city and county lodges of the Fraternal Order of Police.

The candidates also went through an interview with the mayor’s 26-member Community Assessment Committee, a group that received training and preparation from SPI and included representatives from all demographics of the city.

“The citizens, empowered by the mayor, had great weight throughout the process,” Walsh says. “One of the critical things that we understood from the beginning was that whom

ever was selected for the position had to not only create a department but had to win over the respect of all aspects of our community.”

SPI also sent experienced investigators to the cities of the final candidates to conduct extensive background checks.

“We tried to do a 360-degree evaluation of each candidate from all perspectives,” Walsh says.

When the dust settled, Robert C. White, the police chief in Greensboro, N.C., accepted command of the new LMPD.

The merger of the Louisville and Jefferson County police departments is bringing together two different worlds, Walsh says.

“The city department was urban, municipal-oriented, and the county department was more suburban,” he says. “It’s wonderful that we can be a part of this because it’s a laboratory, a great laboratory. And it permits us to really work on our mission. We’re already analyzing this merger and writing about it.

“It’s a tremendous asset.”

fixing the holes

Recently U of L’s Speed Scientific School has become a tremendous asset to local utilities through its Center for Infrastructure Research.

In Louisville and nationally, much of the aging underground water and sewer infrastructure as well as above-ground roads, bridges and dams are in dire need of repair or replacement, says Greg Heitzman, a 1988 graduate of U of L’s College of Business and Public Administration and a vice president and chief engineer at the Louisville Water Co.

“We still have water mains that were installed in 1860 when Abraham Lincoln was president,” he says.

In response, Speed created the infrastructure research center in the civil and environmental engineering department and hired Tom Rockaway to direct it. He previously was a geotechnical and dam safety engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Louisville.

“The purpose of the center,” Rockaway says, “is to establish a partnership between U of L and local industry and utilities to solve urban infrastructure-related problems.”

Speed faculty from civil engineering and other departments engage in research that runs the gamut from finding ways to maintain rubber parts in valves exposed to chloramine disinfectant in drinking water to improving plant and system designs to withstand earthquakes. Enhancing water flow in Beargrass Creek and developing better ways to predict where sinkholes may develop in roadways are other issues the center will address.

The interdisciplinary research draws from many fields such as metallurgy, logistics and civil engineering. Studies also include the economic and environmental impacts of infrastructure problems.

Not only is Louisville Metro benefiting from Speed’s expertise, graduate and post-graduate students are receiving remarkable, detailed experience, too.

Heitzman says the collaboration is a natural.

“U of L is an urban-oriented research institution, so it’s a good fit to be working with urban utilities on applied research that can improve the standards and practices for the industry,” he says.

Mike Sweeney, MSD’s director of operations, agrees.

“The water company and MSD share many of the same concerns,” he says. “This collaboration will have benefits for all, allow us to serve both our customer bases and provide applied research opportunities at U of L.”

“For us, it’s a stewardship issue,” Heitzman adds. “We need to respond to growing development in the community, but we also have to fix and replace what we already have in place. We have to protect what we have and make it last longer.”

three’s company

In the field of urban planning, a dynamic partnership between U of L and Louisville Metro involves a third collaborator—the University of Kentucky. The three are colleagues in the Urban Design Studio, which serves as a laboratory for graduate students in urban planning at the two universities and as a creative resource for the city.

The studio, located in downtown Louisville at South Third Street and Muhammad Ali Boulevard, opened in January 2000 under the auspices of U of L's College of Business and Public Administration (CBPA). Steve Bourassa, chair of the CBPA's urban and public affairs school, directs it.

The studio, he says, grew out of mutual need.

“UK wanted a presence in Louisville for its urban design students because, although they have a studio in Lexington, they thought Louisville's size would offer more interesting challenges,” Bourassa explains. “At the same time, we were setting up our master's in urban planning program and wanted to have a laboratory venue for students. The city liked the idea of getting planning assistance without spending much money.”

Charles Cash, Louisville Metro's director of planning and design, played a key part in the studio's startup. “It grew out of a discussion when I was president of the American Institute of Architects,” he recalls.

Louisville Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson (center), an adopted U of L alumnus, chats with former congressman and U of L faculty member Ron Mazzoli and Laura Rothstein, dean of U of L's law school.

The group wanted to have more influence on U of L's architecture and planning and Cash, a graduate of Clemson University's architectural program, was familiar with the design studios Clemson had set up in South Carolina. He thought something similar would be good for Louisville, too. So he suggested that the city, then led by Mayor David Armstrong, help fund such a studio.

To date, the students—who specialize in either land use and environmental planning, administration of planning organizations or spatial analysis for planning—have tackled a number of projects for Louisville as part of their coursework.

“One of the first studio classes we taught dealt with the problem of relocating about 500 Phoenix Hill residents who were being displaced by the Clarksdale housing project,” Bourassa says. “U of L students have also looked at issues in creating a Landmark Preservation area in Butchertown and studied the Ninth Street corridor in search of ways to make less of a barrier between downtown and the West End.”

At the same time, Bourassa adds, UK students have tackled parking issues along Bardstown Road, created a plan to redevelop an unused industrial site near Ninth Street and designed fill-in housing for Louisville's older neighborhoods. (“Fill-in” houses are new homes built on vacant lots in older neighborhoods that are designed to blend in with the surrounding architecture.)

Future plans call for U of L students to examine a commercial strip in one of Louisville's suburban areas—such as Dixie or Preston Highway—and devise ways to make the area more aesthetically appealing. Cash adds that there are many opportunities for students to play a role in the city's various neighborhood development plans, too.

Classes jointly taught by U of L and UK professors also are in the works.

Students consult with city organizers throughout each project as well as with community groups, Bourassa says, which adds to the learning experience. The city also uses the studio as a site for workshops and other urban planning related activities.

“For our part,” says Cash, “the city considers the studio a valuable creative think tank. It provides a forum for discussion on everything from landscaping and environmental issues to parking problems, the development and redevelopment of urban housing and more. It’s a great opportunity for a variety of disciplines to work together on real-life situations in a real-life environment.”

Area businesses are showing their support for the studio. One of the major supporters for this group is Brown-Forman Corp., which recently donated $500,000 to the studio to fund a visiting professor in architecture. Michael Rotondi, an award-winning architect and co-founder of RoTo Architecture, Los Angeles, currently fills that post.

partners—new and old

The relationship with Louisville Metro perhaps embodies U of L’s collaborative spirit and emphasis more than any other partnership. Some aspects of the university’s partnership with its local government date back decades, maybe centuries. Others are just now being engaged and cultivated.

U of L currently has more than 125 partnerships at various stages of development with Louisville Metro. In the School of Public Health and Information Sciences, for example, a variety of partnerships include a cooperative search for grants to address the health impact of air quality with a special focus on how it affects children. In the Kent School of Social Work vigorous programs deal with area families in transition, divorce education and a family support center.

And U of L’s Board of Overseers, a group of community leaders that advises and supports the university, is helping the city and university explore additional opportunities.

The list of partnerships will grow, Ramsey says, as U of L looks to friends—old and new—”as we contribute to the educational, social and economic progress of our region.”

(Editor’s note: Laurel Harper, Judy Hughes and Kevin Rayburn contributed to this story.)