Sen. Mitch McConnell's earmark power credited for revitalizing Louisville

[Bozita]

Source: WaPo

Sen. Mitch McConnell's earmark power credited for revitalizing Louisville
By Ann Gerhart and R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, November 22, 2010; 9:12 PM

LOUISVILLE - The once grand downtown of this city on the Ohio River is shabby, as the nation's old downtowns tend to be. Magnificent tall cast-iron-fronted buildings sit empty. So do historic brick tobacco warehouses, surrounded in razor-wire, tagged with graffiti.

But the downtown of Kentucky's largest city also has a spectacular redeveloped waterfront featuring bike paths and open vistas, the spanking-new KFC Yum! sports arena, and a medical complex of several hospitals that employ nearly 20,000 people, treat tens of thousands and conduct cutting-edge research.

This resurgence is a result of civic vision, pride, tenacity - and the impressive earmark performance of Louisville's Slugger: Mitch McConnell (R), Kentucky's longest-serving senator and the powerful Senate minority leader.

He has driven $62.4 million in federal funding to this city in the past three years, the largest chunk by locale of the $458 million that he earmarked from 2008 through 2010, according to data tallied by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/22/AR2010112207049_pf.html

[Project Grudge]

1. I live in Louisville.

Downtown's still not that great.

[blackspade]

2. Me too.

I'm not impressed.
The graft involved is pretty substantial.

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. Louisville appears to have the strategy that many postindustrial cities

have taken up:

1) Become a "knowledge center" with a university presence and healthcare (see "Pittsburgh, TM")
2) Catch convention business by being a local "sin parlor" (bars, food, bars, bars and more bars).

The "downtown" is thus transformed into "Louisville Live," which is moderately tolerable for a three day convention stay, the areas around it fall increasingly into disrepair, boutique operations like 732 Social catch the emerging cultured crowd, and the rest of the knowledge economy money circulates on places like Bardstown Road and the like.

Better than being Cleveland, I guess.