LETTERS: Downtown Lexington's "Creative Class" and Gentrification Initiative
Guest post by Liberty Prevails.
In a recent video promoting The Lexington Downtown Management District (a), a proposed quasi governmental entity proposed by The Lexington Downtown Corporation; Phil Holoubek, President of Lexington's Real Estate Company, is insistent that the Special Taxing District will increase Economic Development by attracting "The Creative Class" to Downtown Lexington and elevate Lex to a "World Class City". What is meant by this Marxist phrase? According to the video the "Creative Class" is a group of young urban professionals who's economic function is to create new ideas, technologies and drive new 'creative content'. It sounds a bit like a situation where a certain corporation whose budget is set to be cut in half next year (b) needs bailout to attract young innovative entrepreneurs to give Lexington the facade that the city is booming economically, when in reality Lexingtion has only experienced moderate economic according to a recent assessment conducted by The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland (C), a study which also incorporates surrounding counties which include Bourbon, Scott, Jessamine & Clark Counties. With Danny Murphy of Commerce Lexington proclaiming that "it's important to invest in the downtown with it being the 'heart' of your city" and Central Bank CEO Luther Deaton reassuring with assertions claiming "City Government Can't Do it All", "It's a no brainer to invest" we should be feel reassured right? Murphy went on to make us all feel safer by explaining that the community will be working together with Government, the education sectors and Non-Profits to figure out how to improve quality of life downtown. Not to speculate but the proposal is starting to sound like the management district might just be a civic component of UN Agenda 21, however there is no link to date with EMPower Lexington itself . The main sales pitch for the district focuses on gentrification with in the district which is an effort focused on improving the ascetic ambiance and "quality of life" in the downtown area because our tax dollars aren't going far enough. Extra effort is needed according to Rene Jackson President of the LDC who indicated that the city only has one guy on a golf cart and the area is treated just like any other in the LFUCG in terms of infrastructure while sidewalks are not being privately maintained. IF that is indeed true it begs the question: What has the the LDC's Partner The Lexington Downtown Development Authority (d) been doing with their half a million dollar budget? Silent Consent is not SHARING what you know, #LibertyPrevails
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Contacts:
(859.361.3460 or renee@downtownlex.com)
(859.257.5155 or danny.murphy@uky.edu)
(859.225.3476 or phil@LRCrealestate.com)
Appendix:
(a) http://dlmdonline.com
(b)
(c) http://www.clevelandfed.org/our_region/regional_profile/pdf/lexington_2014q2.pdf (d) http://lexingtondda.com/resourcesdata/our-partners/
