LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Leading up to election day this November, Spectrum News is talking with voters to hear what issues they’ll be focusing on when they cast their ballot.

For Louisville resident Jody Dahmer, who we met in August, he’ll be picking candidates who are concerned about the city’s green spaces. 

“My biggest thing that I want a politician to support is just increasing the amount of resources that neighborhoods can have for agriculture,” Dahmer said.

Dahmer is one person who helped create a community garden in Shelby Park. A year and a half after its inception, over a dozen different herbs are veggies are being grown there.

The garden, which is located on a once-vacant lot on South Preston Street, sits at the intersection of the Merriwether, Shelby Park, and Old Louisville Neighborhoods. 

Dahmer said expanding green spaces like this one, in a cost-effective way, is what he’d like to see happen. 

“Everybody needs to eat and especially when the land is owned by something that’s outside of metro’s control like a KYTC or a state-owned easement, it’s very difficult to find the right department that will work with the state government. So if there is a way to streamline that process than we could expand gardens and green space across the city very, very easily using the land that we already have, that’s very important to these neighborhoods that live in these dense environments,” Dahmer said. 

This Shelby Park garden has rekindled talks about ways to reconnect the surrounding neighborhoods currently divided by I-64 and railroad tracks.  

“This pedestrian bridge has actually been marked by Metro potentially to replace and rebuild in a better design,” Dahmer said.

Both increasing the walkability and appearance of this area and in all parts of the city are what’s ensured Dahmer will cast his ballot on Election Day, which is Nov. 8, 2022.