1) Civility in the Mayoral and Senatorial election
With all of the sniping and griping occurring on a daily basis on blogs and in bars all across the country, I've pretty much had my fill. So what to expect with the primary and general elections this year? Please. PLEASE. Candidates, just tell us where YOU stand and what YOU'LL do if elected. Don't tell me about the other guy. Nothing good comes from that. I'm very close to shrugging off the entire political process and I'm a smart guy (so my mother tells me). I'm the kind of guy you want involved. So don't push me over the edge.
2) More downtown living
I see plenty of nice places to live downtown that have gone up in the past 5 years. I also see plenty of "for sale" signs in the windows. If our economy really recovers, I hope people see how cool urban living can be and decide to invest in our city to make downtown more vibrant 7 days a week. I was in Downtown Louisville last month on a Saturday mid-morning and tumbleweeds were blowing through there. Could be that somebody needs to invest in putting a grocery store down there (RIP Market on Market). Come on, Mr. Investor. Make it happen.
3) Completion of Phase III at Waterfront Park
The sweeping ramp up to the Big Four is complete and will be paved by mid-summer. They still need several million to surface the bridge itself. And - Indiana needs to get their act together (which I think is well underway). Waterfront Park is already a wonderful asset to our city and the last part of the park is THIS CLOSE to being finished. We saw the Lincoln thing open in 2009. What a wonderful thing it would be so wrap up this project.
DISCLOSURE: I'm a Friends of the Waterfront board member. It's a pet project.
4) No natural "disasters"
Although the flood didn't affect my neighborhood my backyard will be forever affected by Ice Storm '09. The loss of trees back there has goofed up the entire ecosystem. This on the heels of Wind Storm '08. Man. Can we just have 12 months with uninterrupted electricity?
5) Kentucky turn from tobacco to grapes
I'm fortunate...and smart...enough not to have started smoking in the first place. I suppose it's a right for anybody to do what they'd like to themselves, but smoking really has a ripple effect in too many ways. Just think of the money spent on tobacco related healthcare issues. Just think of the time and money spent arguing legislative issues. But the thing that REALLY gets my goat is all of the cigarette butts in the gutter all around the city. Smokers don't think smoking is gross? Why then, do they hold their lit smokes out a tiny crack in their window when it's cold outside. And why do they make the butts MY problem by chucking them out the window. Unacceptable.
C'mon tobacco farmers. Trade tobacco leaves for grape leaves and let's start cranking out more wine. Because you never see any problems from people drinking.