LOUISVILLE, Ky. — For the first time since they won their primary elections, the two major party candidates for mayor of Louisville shared a stage Tuesday.
Businessman Craig Greenberg (D) and Jeffersontown Mayor Bill Dieruf (R) spoke only to the audience, not one another, and didn’t stray from the plans and positions they articulated during the primary elections.
Sponsored by Greater Louisville Inc, the city’s chamber of commerce, the forum drew a crowd of roughly 250 for a discussion covering crime, homelessness, economic development, and revitalizing downtown.
Both candidates identified public safety as their top priority once they assume office, citing rising homicide numbers and a depleted police force in the city. They both also commented on the shooting over the weekend at the Big Four Bridge. “Louisville is imploding right now,” Dieruf said. He added that his experience in Jeffersontown, where he oversees the police department, makes him well positioned to lead the Louisville Metro Police Department.
Greenberg agreed that “making Louisville a safer city” is the city’s number one issue. He brought up the attempt on his life earlier this year and said, “I’m going to work day and night… to make sure that Louisville is a model for how we improve safety in a city.”
Both men insisted that there’s more to public safety than police, with each endorsing Group Violence Intervention and addressing the root causes of violence.
On revitalizing downtown Louisville, there was again overlap in the candidates’ answers. Dieruf said he wants to make downtown more “vibrant” by attracting more people to live in the area and Greenberg wants to turn surface parking lots into “vibrant mixed used neighborhoods.” Both also said business owners should be encouraged to bring workers back downtown following COVID.
When it comes to ensuring equitable development for historically marginalized groups, Greenberg said the city should invest more in Black-owned businesses and support more Black-owned foundations. He said the West End Opportunity Partnership is a “transformative opportunity for tax dollar that are generated in West Louisville to be reinvested in West Louisville.” The program has drawn criticism from those who say it is a giveaway to developers that will price residents out of West Louisville.
Dieruf agreed that “we should help the Black community” with businesses, but insisted that “we need to get rid of the compass in this city” and stop talking about the West End, East End, and South End.
One notable point of differentiation during the forum came in the discussion of homelessness. Dieruf said it’s “not humane” to have people living on the streets in extreme heat, or extreme cold during the winter. He said the key to fighting homelessness is providing resources to deal with addiction, domestic abuse, and veterans issues. While Greenberg mentioned addiction treatment and other social services, he also suggested that Louisville should follow the example of Houston, Texas, which has “moved over 25,000 homeless people directly into apartments and houses,” according to the New York Times.
“It’s clear that housing is a key part of this solution, so we do need more buildings that can provide more housing for people that are currently homeless,” Greenberg said.
The forum Tuesday comes less than a month after Greenberg won an eight-way Democratic primary with 41% of the vote. Dieruf emerged from a field of four Republicans with 78% of the vote. The two candidates will face off in November in a race to be Louisville’s first new mayor in over a decade.