LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Mayor Craig Greenberg, D-Louisville, who has made crime and public safety a centerpiece of his administration, will deliver his annual State of the City address on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024.
Greenberg is expected to discuss progress in the city along with his administration’s plans for the future.
In the meantime, a Louisville community advocate is calling for more resources that need attention on the west side of town, especially to curb gun violence.
“This is the Russell neighborhood; where I’m turning at is Dr. W.J. Hodge, which is one of the hotspots in the city,” said CEO of Joshua Community Connectors Kimberly Moore.
She drives around the hotspots in the area, pointing to the places with high violence.
“You know, this is the area that I did live in and so this is the area that I did drugs in. And, you know, I’ve been sober 26 years,” Moore said.
When it comes to gun violence, she’s sat at the table with the Louisville Metro Police Department and now is part of Group Violence Intervention. She maintains good relationships with Greenberg’s office and other partners in the city.
“I’m going hard for the community behind closed doors and I get more done when I go hard behind closed doors and not argue with them,” Moore said.
What Moore wants to see is equal treatment and the same value for people from the west side of town as those who live on the east side.
“So, you know, this is 22nd and Market (Streets), which is a source of a lot of problems. And you’ll see people outside and, you know, one of the things I hate about this neighborhood is we have a liquor store on every corner. And if you go to the east end of Louisville, you don’t see liquor stores on every corner and you definitely don’t see Family Dollars,” Moore said.
While the homicide numbers are down, the emotional pain carries on in these residential neighborhoods.
“So imagine what it’s like to live here every day and people are shooting at you every day. And you have to come back down here in this neighborhood and lay down and try to go to sleep where the shooting at you at,” Moore said.
She has shared the neighborhood experience with Greenberg, who received the information with open ears, especially the stories of young people who experience trauma growing up.
“And so he (Greenberg) was very receptive, and he really looked at what we said, because a young person that brought it to my attention and I brought it to his attention,” Moore said. “And so he’s experienced gun violence, too. And he has his own trauma, but he doesn’t have to lay down in the house every night where people know where he live at and who are trying to kill him and that’s the difference in his level of gun violence and the level of gun violence with the young people that I work with on a daily basis.”
She also listed resources that can aid in reducing gun violence. Those include building more grocery stores, jobs, and affordable housing, to name a few.