LEO Weekly July 15, 2020

#JUSTICEFORBREONNA PROTESTS ECHO PAST FIGHT FOR ENVIRO JUSTICE

FREE JULY.15.2020

NATION’S EYES ON #JUSTICEFORBREONNA | PAGE 7 WHY CONCERTS ARE SLOW TO RETURN | PAGE 19

WHAT’S NEXT FOR JEFFERSON SQUARE? | PAGE 6 TASTY INDIAN FOOD TO GO | PAGE 21

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

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A LETTER TO THE COMMUNITY

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BY LEO WEEKLY We at LEO offer our sincerest congratulations to The Courier Journal for winning its 11th Pulitzer Prize, this one for studiously and unrelentingly chronicling the avalanche of last-minute pardons and commutations handed out by the corrupt, craven and mercenary Gov.-reject Matt Bevin.

We are fortunate as a city to have it as our paper. In a poignant tribute and plea, former CJ reporter Howard Fineman wrote in The Washington Post that the paper’s latest plaudit “should remind us (and surely was meant to remind us), that what we call ‘local’ journalism is profoundly essential to self-government as the Founders designed it, and to the American way of life.” He cited a study that found nearly 1,800 newspapers have closed since 2004, and he said, “Virtually all of the remaining 7,000 are thinner and weaker than ever.” He implored you to subscribe to the paper because, as the op-ed’s headline said: “My former newspaper is struggling — and is more important than ever.”

This is all true, but there is more.

What Fineman’s op-ed neglected to underscore is that the news media landscape extends far beyond daily newspapers and must include alternative weeklies.

Alt-weeklies also provide “local journalism” and are “profoundly essential.” They are critically important because they work in the margins and areas where newspapers do not or cannot. They provide free-to-read accounts of a community’s culture, ethos and priorities. Good ones are not substitutes for daily newspapers, although their coverage and stories may overlap.

At LEO, our goal since John Yarmuth founded it in 1990 has been to dive deeply into areas that The CJ and other mainstream news media have neglected, dismissed or overlooked. Accordingly, LEO is the authority on local music, theater and visual arts. We publish A&E guides twice a year. Every issue of LEO has (or had) at least two food and drink stories, including reviews, a beer column and insiders’ views on the service industry. We offer a range of commentary, which, admittedly, skews left but also has included conservative and right-leaning views (such as a column from, gasp — Mitch McConnell). We print op-eds that The CJ would not, such as from Black Lives Matter. We champion equality and provide a voice to the LGBTQ+ community. Our printed and online lists celebrate the best things to do in the region to help you plan your week and weekends. We also publish news stories that are written differently (we’d like to say, more interestingly) than a newspaper would run. They include primary source stories (first-person) and stories told through alternative (there is that word again) formats. Our core topics include those that the daily paper rarely touches, such as urban planning, race relations, labor and the environment (since The CJ’s ace enviro reporter moved on). And, they include media criticism (we are looking at you CJ, but we have given ourselves thorns) because who else is going to do it?

In short, Louisville has at least six ways you can get your news, counting TV and radio.

We try to not be like any of them.

We try not to tell the same story.

We try to be more interesting and less predictable.

And the hundreds of thousands of people who read us and click on our stories tell us we are doing something right.

Alas, LEO, as you might imagine, also has been crippled by this virus, as have alt-weeklies across the nation.

LEO is free to pick up and relies almost entirely on advertising. No subscriptions. No grants. No membership drive for donations twice a year.

The backbone of our advertising is entertainment (think: music, ballet, theater and visual art) and food and drink. Similarly, we distribute to places where people enjoy those activities and relax (think: bars, coffee shops, restaurants, etc.), and those have been closed. LEO already runs lean and has not had to furlough any editorial staff — yet — but our editorial budget has been cut by three-quarters. LEO has been online-only mostly since the epidemic began. Starting with this issue, our goal is to publish a print edition every other week. Fortunately, we have been an outlier among alt-weeklies, so far.

A story from NiemanLab listed more than 40 alt-weeklies that had taken steps to survive within just days of us all realizing this pandemic was real.

Many suspended print publication, others furloughed staff and, still, others asked for donations.

They included Pittsburgh City Paper, which launched a membership program: “in order to help fight some of these losses, with the hope that readers who depend on our daily coverage of local news, arts, music, food, and entertainment recognize the importance in the work we do to keep the city informed and want us to continue.”

We like that idea!

Won’t you please consider helping to fund LEO’s mission by underwriting a reporter or providing financial support for more stories?

You could sponsor a reporter to cover a specific topic or issue, such as visual arts or theater or labor… or poverty… or the environment or… you name it.

Perhaps you want to sponsor a weekly column on dance or jazz, or you want to underwrite a series of stories on land use in The West End. You would not have a say in exactly what we write and what gets printed, but you would see more coverage in the area you have selected.

If you are interested, please contact us at: leoweekly.com And, please, if you value LEO and want us to continue to survive and thrive, continue picking up the papers, continue sharing stories on social media and consider advertising if you do not already.

As always but particularly now, thank you for reading LEO, and thanks to all of you who have emailed and called to ask when you would see another printed edition on the news stands.

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

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Yes, endorse and actively support for Amy. Mitch has got to go.

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ON: KURT METZMEIER, AG CAMERON IS FAILING US

leo@leoweekly.com leoweekly.com Eddie Fields in front of his flooded and damaged home in Pie, West Virginia. | LOGAN BANNER FILE PHOTO.

KENTUCKY’S ENVIRONMENTAL RECKONING In this issue, we focus on how long-term environmental racism has disproportionately increased COVID-19 lethality for people of color. Keep an eye on our Facebook page this week for more environmental coverage from our archives, including James Bruggers’ story about how strip mining in Kentucky is causing wide-spread damage, and another about how downtown Louisville has become an expanding heat island. #JUSTICEFORBREONNA PROTESTS ECHO PAST FIGHT FOR ENVIRO JUSTICE

ON THE COVER FREE JULY.15.2020

NATION’S EYES ON #JUSTICEFORBREONNA | PAGE 7 WHY CONCERTS ARE SLOW TO RETURN | PAGE 19

WHAT’S NEXT FOR JEFFERSON SQUARE? | PAGE 6 TASTY INDIAN FOOD TO GO | PAGE 21

PHOTO BY KATHRYN HARRINGTON DESIGN BY TALON HAMPTON

LOUISVILLE ECCENTRIC OBSERVER

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Hold the police union responsible for their members. —Jim Burke

ON: UNDERCOVER COMMENTARY

Can you imagine your ONLY electable quality being that you’re less disgusting than McConnell?

—Pip Pullen Can you guys get on the right team? Booker lost. If the goal is to oust McConnell, then you need to get on board. Otherwise you might as well start posting “Vote for McConnell” on the front of your publication. You guys seem like such smart people but here you are doing really dumb shit. —James Price

ON: REMEMBERING MATTHEW ‘WINK’ O’BANNON

I passed by Wink in the pisser after a Bodeco show one night and said Wink, “Killer show tonight.” He said, “What fucking show were you watching?”—Keith Branstetter

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This photo in the July 8 story about livestreamers was taken by John O’Haver.

LEO Weekly is published weekly by LEO Weekly LLC. Copyright LEO Weekly LLC. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed herein are exclusively those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Publisher. LEO Weekly is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means, including electronic retrieval systems, without the express permission of LEO Weekly LLC. LEO Weekly may be distributed only by authorized independent contractors or authorized distributors. Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO) is a trademark of LEO Weekly LLC.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

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VIEWS

EDITOR’S NOTE

KEEP EXPANDED ABSENTEE BALLOTS

By Aaron Yarmuth | ayarmuth@leoweekly.com THE RECORD VOTER TURNOUT in Kentucky’s primary election demonstrates the emergency plan for voting was a success.

Voters surpassed the previous record of votes cast by over 80,000 votes and about 75% of votes cast were done by mail.

Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican, has been on a (much-deserved) victory lap in the weeks since the primary.

“With Kentucky near the bottom in so many areas, I’m proud to have put Kentucky at the top for once,” he posted on social media June 24, a day after polls closed. The tweet included a graphic, stating: “Today we are number one. We provided an example to the entire country of how to successfully run an election during a pandemic. I’m so proud of the bipartisan coalition of my team, the governor, state board of elections and the county clerks of both parties who came together and made this a success,” followed by his campaign slogan, “Easy to vote. Hard to cheat.”

Since the primary, however, Adams has refused to promise for November’s general election any of the expanded voting options that made the primary such a success.

Even more troubling, Senate Bill 2 has just become law. Now, every Kentuckian

UNDERCOVER

MANOFMETTLE.COM

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

must present a driver’s license or other approved photo identification at the polls in order to vote. Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed the bill, but the GOP-controlled legislature overturned his veto.

Proving his conservative bona fides, Adams seems content to not improve voter turnout too much, too quickly. Instead, returning to regular, in-person voting in the fall under a voter ID law will work against the gains made in the primary.

Josh Douglas, a UK law professor and author of “Vote for US: How to Take Back Our Elections and Change the Future of Voting,” concluded that SB 2 “would make it harder to vote and has zero fraud-reducing benefits.”

“Photo ID laws for voting are a solution in search of a problem. The only kind of voter fraud that a photo ID law can prevent is someone showing up to the polls and pretending they are someone else. Yet we know, from careful studies, that that kind of fraud simply does not exist. One study looked at over a billion ballots cast over 12 years and found only 31 potential instances of in-person impersonation and even most of those allegations turned out to be innocuous after further inquiry.”

Adams testified on behalf of SB 2 in the Senate Local Government Committee in January and could not point to any cases of in-person voter fraud in Kentucky caused by identity misrepresentation. But, it was a campaign promise he delivered.

A few months and a pandemic later, Adams decided to work with Beshear to save the primary.

Now, he has a chance to extend those provisions for the November election.

As for the new law, who are the people who will suffer the most from it?

More than 21 million — or 11% of — Americans and 25% of Black Americans, do not have a government-issued photo ID, which is part of the reason why the ACLU opposes voter ID laws.

Chances are that some of the roughly 41,000 people riding TARC every day do not have a license. So, now Adams and state Republicans are requiring them to get a voter ID card from the local circuit court clerk’s office to vote. (Help is available for those who cannot afford the $30 ID card, which, while a nice consideration, means the taxpayers foot the bill for something that is unnecessary and obstructive; similar bills cost $20 million in North Carolina and $10 million in Indiana.)

Complicating things more, it is more difficult now to get a driver’s license or photo ID — three of Jefferson County Circuit Clerk’s six branches remain closed because of COVID-19.

If the COVID crisis forces officials to again make alternative voting options available in November, Adams faces the possibility of having to work a new (undoubtedly complicated and expensive) layer of processing photo IDs onto an unprecedented, untested election effort. Or, he would face the humiliation of having to actively work to have his own bill exempted, further underscoring its irrelevance in protecting election integrity.

“I’m not going to abuse my emergency powers by making a recommendation to the governor before I know what kind of a situation we have in the fall, but I’m not going to sit on my hands unnecessarily,” Adams responded when pressed on whether mail-in voting will be expanded again in the fall.

That is a fair, responsible approach.

However, we now know what the situation on the ground was in June: Mail-in voting was a huge success, it didn’t lead to massive voter fraud, and it’s popular. That won’t change with a flattened curve or vaccine or an ideological battler over Beshear’s mask order. Adams tweeted a mask-wearing selfie and said, “The courts will pronounce on the legality of the Governor’s order, but I choose to wear a face covering because I want in-person voting in November.”

Well, he got part of it right.

Let’s hope he decides to work with Beshear again in the fall by continuing absentee voting expansion and foregoing the disenfranchising burden of SB 2. •

VIEWS

THE MIDWESTERNIST

LISTEN... THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO REMAKE THE WORLD

By Dan Canon | leo@leoweekly.com THIS COLUMN IS DEDICATED to the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law class of 2020.

I also dedicate it to anyone else who graduated in May, just so no one feels left out. But the aforementioned soon-to-be lawyers have a special spot in my heart, because they were my first graduating class as a full-time teacher.

Thanks for putting up with me.

I know this is your graduation column, but could we talk about me some more?

I’m feeling pretty sorry for myself and for your other professors and parents and siblings and grandparents and paramours and whatnot. That’s who graduation ceremonies are for, after all, and we didn’t get one. Poor us. We would have liked to see you glide across the stage, shimmering with hope, tripping over your big, black Snuggies, acting like you’re not about to bust like a swollen tick that subsists entirely on a diet of pride.

Oh, OK. I’m sorry for you, too. But not because you’re being cast headlong into a world full of maniac judges, rubber bullets and bodies piled into refrigerator trucks.

I’m mostly sorry that you’re missing one of the few opportunities our society gives you for an honest-to-god rite of passage.

We ask a lot of law students. We want them to alter their brain chemistries during a time that the cookies in their frontal lobes are not quite finished baking. We ask them to read the terrible things that humans do to one another until their senses are dulled, so they can look at murder, pederasty and burning crosses with objective apathy. To suffer through all that and not even get to take the blood oath, is larcenous. (OK, OK, there’s no such thing as a “blood oath” for graduating law students. Or is there? You’ll never know for sure.)

Ceremony is both important and ridiculous. It is always a perfect thing in your imagination and a wretchedly imperfect thing when you do it. When I graduated college, they didn’t give us our degrees when we walked across the stage. It was just an empty paper towel tube. Weeks later, we reported to an administrative office in a Soviet-style basement bunker to receive our real achievement logs. I showed up for mine and — I swear to God this is true — the dead-eyed functionary who handed me my degree simultaneously

produced a boombox that played a CD of “Pomp and Circumstance.” The majesty!

The solemnity! After 15 seconds of Sir Elgar’s magnum opus, it was on to the next person in line, who needed a parking pass for next semester, and I began my life as a real-ass, college-educated grown-up.

Still, to skip a ceremony altogether, however ridiculous that ceremony may be, is to leave a void that is not easily filled.

I didn’t know any more about adulthood when I walked across that stage, or when I was treated to a four C battery symphony, but for a little while, it felt like I did. That feeling is important. Jewish converts take a ritual bath called a mikveh so that they can emerge in a state of purity. Catholic kids take communion classes so they can drink blood and eat flesh on Sundays.

New GOP Congress members have to crush a handful of baby hamsters before taking their first vote so as to curry favor with the daemon-sultan Azathoth. We all suffer through weddings, graduations and funerals so we can feel like something is different afterward.

That little boost of confidence, or reassurance that there are metaphysical whatnots or mark of approval that we all so desperately crave from our peers can provide an important push; one that keeps us believing in our courts, our faith or some other monolith, even when we have no real reason to do so.

You won’t get that boost. Because of an unpredictable, invisible actor that tears apart people’s lungs, you will have no hand to hold, no certainty, no formality in entering the world of laws at this time in the history of our stupid species. The absence of ceremony might make it feel like you’re on your own, forced to make it up as you go.

But, I want to tell you that, despite the empty hole where your ceremony should have been, you are still entitled to all the hope and pride you should have felt had you been allowed to walk. I am sure of this because of what I’ve learned in my years since law school and what I’ve observed over the last three, fantastically chaotic months: No one knows a damn thing. The law puts on airs of permanence and of being stuck in the past (we still use fax machines). But it is an illusion; the law is made, remade and unmade every

day, by cops on the street, by lawyers on conference calls and by judges behind Plexiglas sneeze guards.

The security provided by graduation, or any other ceremony, is short-lived. It takes you a few months to realize that you still have no idea what you’re doing, despite having crossed the magic threshold into Grownupland. The feeling of “making it up as I go” and seeking approval from the adults in the room hasn’t really ever gone away for me, or for anyone I know, including my own mentors. The difference is that you get to a point where you realize there are no adults in the room at all and everything is made up.

This revelation is as empowering as it is terrifying.

Your graduation ceremony was supposed to reinforce reverence for the systems and institutions that govern our everyday lives. But unlike my graduating class, you already see quite clearly how fragile, how ad hoc, how illusory those systems really are. You are inheriting chaos. But you were always going to inherit chaos. That knowledge is powerful.

Listen: The smoldering legal system you’re about to commandeer is your chance to remake the world. You’ll get to decide if you want to be chained to your desk for 12 hours a day, or if you want to forsake your family for career, or if we need to cling to outdated formalism at the expense of decency, or if we should accept daily injustices as phenomena beyond human control. The universe of laws is an amorphous blob of molten copper, yours to reshape, refashion, repurpose as you see fit. Had you just graduated like the rest of us, you might have looked right past your own power, which is greater than ceremony, greater than the see-through monoliths that ceremony is designed to protect and greater than the law itself.

Good luck.

You can always call me if you get in trouble. •

@leoweekly

Dan Canon is a civil rights lawyer and law professor. “Midwesticism”is his shortdocumentary series about Midwesterners who are making the world a better place.

Watch it at: patreon.com/dancanon.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

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VIEWS

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR JEFFERSON SQUARE?

By Steven Ward | leo@leoweekly.com

UPCOMING EVENTS Stay home and stay safe while still supporting your favorite local places with online and future events.

Buffalo Trace Sixth Millionth Barrel Bottle Raffle

JUL 6-18

Ovarian Awareness of Kentucky

JUL 16

Embracing Multitudes: On Imagination + Imagery in Poetry Louisville Literary Arts

Beginning Monologue Writing (2-session webinar)

JUL 18

Louisville Literary Arts

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

JEFFERSON SQUARE, nestled between the monuments of civic power in downtown Louisville — City Hall, Metro Hall, the Hall of Justice and others — is a different place now than it was several weeks ago. Its history has a new chapter and, because of frequent video and photographic coverage this month, the community’s perception of this space has fundamentally changed.

The role of Jefferson Square in the Black Lives Matter and related protests of recent weeks has shown irrefutably that the people of Louisville know that a fundamental purpose for an open public space adjacent to the seats of power is public action. It’s the place to go in order to be seen and heard by those who run things. While the park has been the site of public action many times in the past, the scale of the protests, their continuous and charged nature and LMPD’s inconsistent and often violent reactions to them have given a new context for how this particular public space will be thought about from this point forward. It’s not just a place to sit and have a quiet lunch anymore.

Jefferson Square is not, by any means, the only place in our community for public action.

Neighborhood centers, crossroads and other parks have often been used for protests because of their visibility and convenience, and these places have seen activity this month as well.

Using Jefferson Square as a sort of epicenter, some Black Lives Matter activities over the last few weeks have snaked into the surrounding neighborhoods for greater impact and exposure.

Whatever satellite activities occur, though, each day as the protests continue, Jefferson Square and the streets around it are the hub. The park’s location makes it important — a critical space of action, a modern-day agora and clearly the right urban place to be when insisting on justice.

As the protests have endured, an ad hoc memorial has been crafted on the square, an aggregation of pictures, flowers, protest signs, personal notes and other artifacts of recognition. Dubbed Breonna Taylor Fountain Circle, the memorial has been protected by protesters as much as possible, despite nightly efforts by police to clear the site. Seeded by funds from supporters from Louisville and beyond, plans are brewing to place a permanent memorial in the space — commemoration of Ms. Taylor, David McAtee and other victims of police violence in Louisville and the resolve of those who showed up to demand change.

As the energy behind and impact of in-person protests begins to wane but the com-

A memorial to Breonna Taylor. | PHOTO BY KATHRYN HARRINGTON.

munity’s demand for change pushes forward through legal, policy, budget, electoral and other more abstract means, what happens next in this space? (Or, potentially, can in-person action be sustained in the long term, parallel with these other necessary pursuits?)

The possible introduction of a new memorial raises questions about plans that were already developed. Over the past couple of years a redesign had been proposed but not yet funded.

The goal was to reinvigorate the park, removing the current paving, fountain and planters. An assessment presented to Metro described that the existing configuration “fails to capitalize on its potential” with “indirect and ambiguous” circulation, an arrangement of elements that “inhibits the views that are unique to this site” and limited space for programming of events.

The design presentation, prepared by the landscape architecture firm MKSK in partnership with the architecture firm de Leon & Primmer, illustrates a beautifully configured space, more generous and useful for large group activities: offering the shade of sinuous and reflective canopies, re-envisioning the fountain as a more subtle water feature, introducing a memorial wall and generally making the park more flexible as a gathering, recreation and relaxation space.

It’s a lovely vision but also one that has now been given a new context, a new set of conditions to address. In light of a potential Taylor memorial in the same space as the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial (1992) and the Louisville Firefighters Memorial (1996), are these planned updates still appropriate and sufficient? How does a design conceived before upheaval adapt to recognize a part of the park’s history that is still so present and raw?

Who should say?

How should Metro move forward in a way that repairs and beautifies this critical public space without smoothing over what happened here and what the space means to the people of Louisville now?

Or, in light of the continued injustices the protests spotlighted, should money be spent here at all? To what end?

Is it time now to create a physical acknowledgement of healing to come, or is it too soon and any changes to this space should be delayed until meaningful change in law enforcement practices can be witnessed by the community?

Could something be done to mark progress, or lack of progress?

Is there a way to introduce something in Jefferson Square, at Breonna Taylor Fountain Circle, that can be visible from the windows of the surrounding structures and the streets, to signal that justice in our city is a process and a shared responsibility, not something to either be forgotten or aesthetically memorialized but actively tracked?

Whatever happens, it will necessarily be a very public process and one that the existing design team is well-equipped to address.

The people have shown that this space plays a unique role in the life of our city, and they’ll want to make sure that any renovation reflects this significance. • The proposed re-design of Jefferson Square is available for review at: louisvilleky.gov/government/advanced-planning-and-sustainability/ jefferson-square-redesign Steven Ward, AIA, is an architect in Louisville.

NEWS & ANALYSIS

#JUSTICEFORBREONNA

HOW NATIONAL ATTENTION CAN HELP, HURT ‘JUSTICE FOR BREONNA’

By Danielle Grady | dgrady@leoweekly.com BREONNA TAYLOR. Protesters “say her name” every day during demonstrations and on social media posts all over the country, as they did in Louisville on Tuesday when the national social justice organization Until Freedom staged a sit-in on Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s lawn.

But for months after police had shot Taylor to death, many Louisville residents didn’t know her name, even though local media reported on it when it happened March 13. That was the same day when Keturah Herron was told to start working from home for her job as a policy strategist with the ACLU of Kentucky because of the coronavirus.

The pandemic seemed to have swallowed Taylor’s story, that is, until national activist Shaun King posted about Taylor on May 10, demanding police accountability for the raid on her home — a raid that didn’t turn up the drugs police were supposedly looking for or the suspected dealer who was allegedly their main target.

The next day, the nationally prominent civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, who has handled cases for Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Ahmaud Arbery, joined the lawsuit that Taylor’s family had already lobbed at the officers involved.

And, soon, in addition to King, national celebrities began to flex their prominence to push for action in Taylor’s case, including Beyoncé. Media outlets across the country have covered the story; The New York Times and FX recently announced a one-hour TV documentary that will look into her life and death. And, national groups such as Until Freedom have started organizing in Kentucky. First, Until Freedom held a rally in Frankfort in June. On Tuesday, hundreds of people participated in their direct action and 87 were arrested, some of them celebrities.

All of this national attention can uplift local organizing efforts by providing enormous resources and can place

profound pressure on local governments, but it can also overrun grassroots groups and hijack their agendas if they aren’t consulted, some local leaders say.

All of this national attention can uplift local organizing efforts by providing enormous resources and can place profound pressure on local governments, but it can also overrun grassroots groups and hijack their agendas if they aren’t consulted, some local leaders say.

“I think that it’s beneficial,” said Herron, who is also a part of Black Lives Matter Louisville. “You know, at the same time, I also think that it’s important that national folks do take the lead of local demands, of figuring out what our local organizers are demanding.”

And, sometimes national leaders take credit for changes that local organizers were instrumental in securing.

Take King, for example. Herron acknowledges that his continued social media posts have been “integral” in lifting up Taylor’s case. But, he also made a social media post after no-knock warrants were banned in Louisville, saying “we did it,” with the logo of his organization, the Grassroots Law Project.

King, who is from Kentucky, has not

replied to a request for comment.

Herron said she worked 16- to 18-hour days on what was dubbed Breonna’s Law, which banned no-knock warrants in Louisville. She collaborated closely with Council Members Barbara Sexton Smith and Jessica Green. It passed after two weeks of nonstop protesting, mostly by locals, in downtown Louisville. King’s organization encouraged people across the country to call and email city officials, asking for “justice for Breonna.” He has said on Twitter that volunteers made 150,000 phone calls and sent millions of emails.

“For me, it’s not about me as Keturah Herron getting credit for it: It’s about the work being done,” said Herron. “But I also think that sometimes it’s unfortunate that that happens.

Especially when you look at historically, Black women doing work in the moment — oftentimes, Black voices or Black, female voices are put in the shadows.”

National organizers and figureheads can be a boon to local organizers. They have resources that groups such as Black Lives Matter Louisville don’t, said Chanelle Helm, a core organizer with the group. She said she welcomes their involvement — but only if they’re willing to work with local groups and amplify the same causes.

Black Lives Matter Louisville has had a website up since mid-May, justiceforbreonna.org, detailing changes they would like to see happen in response to Taylor’s death. It asks for the same actions that many national organizers have been advocating for — the firing and charging of the officers involved in Taylor’s shooting. But, it also contains other, more local demands that are often left out of the national conversation, such as the creation of an independent civilian community police accountability council and a new, transparent investigation process. These goals are meant to help all victims of police violence in Louisville, not just Taylor, said Helm. BLM Louisville is

THORNS & ROSES THE WORST, BEST & MOST ABSURD THORN: OUR POLICE, A BROKEN RECORD(ING)

An NBC News story on audio of interviews from the police investigation of Breonna Taylor’s slaying reveals the profound brokenness of the police department. That includes how the interviewer, Sgt. Jason Vance, seemed to suggest answers for Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who was shot in the leg by Breonna’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who thought intruders, not cops, had broken down their apartment door. Mattingly told Vance that after he was wounded, he fired four times at Walker and then left the apartment. Vance replied: “That’s kind of like what I was getting to because of your positioning, you know, initially when you’re shot — and then rightfully so, you’re returning fire.” Mattingly responds: “Mm-hmm.” And then, Vance says: “But you know you just said you made a conscious decision, you know, ‘I’m now injured, I need to move, so they can protect themselves and me as well. And then — I don’t want to put words in your mouth ...” Replies Mattingly: “No, that’s it.” That interview took place weeks after the shooting, and Mattingly had a lawyer. Walker was interviewed hours after the raid, and one interviewer encourages Walker to waive his right to an attorney. “I’m scared about what to say,” Walker says. The interviewer says: “It would be good for you to sign this and then we can get you, get your statement, and then we can leave you alone.” The NBC story relates his recollection of being taken into custody: “As he backed out of the apartment, arms raised, he says an officer holding a dog told him, ‘‘I’m going to let this dog on you. You’re going to jail for the rest of your life.’ He says the officer asked, ‘Did you get hit by any bullets? And I’m like, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Oh, that’s unfortunate.’” And, finally, you might recall Sgt. Brett Hankison who was canned for firing “blindly” into the apartment, endangering neighbors. Mattingly told Vance that, before the raid, Hankison was “a little bit worked up,” arguing with and pointing his gun at a neighbor who was objecting as police banged on Taylor’s door, NBC reported.

ABSURD: LISTEN TO US, DON’T LISTEN TO US

The Courier Journal, in a rare editorial and even rarer front-page editorial, called on Gov. Andy to require Kentuckians to wear masks. Strong stand! It was odd that the editorial ran online with a disclaimer in safety yellow and black that said: “EDITORIALS | Opinion This piece expresses the views of its author(s), separate from those of this publication.” Does that mean The CJ’s editorial — the voice of the publication — is not the voice of the publication? The CJ has long tried to convince readers that the op-ed page is for opinions, not to be confused with ostensibly objective news stories. So, now, to reinforce that, the paper is placing a yellow-and-black “OPINION” tag on all online op-eds. Finally, we can be assured Republican bullhorn Scott Jennings’ wedge shots are his opinion, not The CJ’s.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 20 LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

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LOUISVILLE PROTESTS

FIGHT FOR RACIAL JUSTICE ECHOES LONG BATTLE IN LOUISVILLE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EQUALITY

By James Bruggers | InsideClimate News

A MONTH BEFORE thousands began marching in Louisville, day after day, to protest the police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Louisville’s Breonna Taylor, a professor at the UofL was a co-author on a study that identified another killer targeting Black lives: toxic pollutants.

Along with race, crime and income, the research found that proximity to an industrial neighborhood in the city called Rubbertown had a major effect on life expectancy, in poor and mostly Black neighborhoods, compared to richer, white neighborhoods.

Among the demonstrators, demands for racial justice in policing and environmental justice quickly merged in Louisville, a city with a history of environmental injustice as striking as any in America.

State Rep. Charles Booker, 35, a Democrat who grew up near the smokestacks of Rubbertown, emerged from the recent demonstrations — and being tear-gassed with protesters — with new momentum in his quest to unseat Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican and also a Louisville resident. He lost barely to Amy McGrath but took Jefferson County.

Running up to the Democratic primary on June 23, environmental justice was part of Booker’s campaign against McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot.

“The communities that have been marginalized and harmed the most have to be in a position of decision making and lead the way forward,” he said. “I am encouraged, as painful as this moment is. We have to look at this holistically.”

Photos by Kathryn Harrington

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‘NEIGHBORHOODS MATTER’

Three years ago, city officials here looked at various socio-economic factors, as well as the environment, and documented startling disparities of as much as 10 to 12 years in life expectancy between neighborhoods.

John Gilderbloom, the UofL professor, dug more deeply into these differences in the study he and two co-authors published in April, honing in on the question of how much of Louisville’s lifespan disparity can be explained by living in polluted neighborhoods.

They found that one of the major causes of premature deaths was the proximity to Rubbertown’s toxic contaminants, an effect that ranked fourth after the risk factors of race, income and crime. Living near old, contaminated brownfield properties also had an effect on life expectancy.

Taken together, living near Rubbertown and near brownfield sites explained as much as 75% of the lifespan variance among Louisville neighborhoods, according to their paper, published in Local Environment, an international scientific journal that deals with issues related to justice and sustainability.

“Neighborhoods matter,” said Gilderbloom, the UofL professor of planning and urban affairs, because they “shape our life chances. People want health, prosperity and safety. West Louisville is one of the worst in the nation, whether you are white or Black.”

Two of the most prominent chemical companies operating at Rubbertown — Michelin North America’s American Synthetic Rubber Co. and Dow Chemical —

cited their plants’ deep cuts in emissions in recent years and community partnerships as examples of their companies’ commitments to being good neighbors.

“Our track record demonstrates that ASRC should be seen as a good citizen and a model manufacturer,” said Megan Bagwell, spokeswoman for Michelin.

Dow listens and communicates with its neighbors through a Rubbertown community council, said Dow spokeswoman Ashley Mendoza.

But Eboni Cochran, who has been a leader of a watchdog group called Rubbertown Emergency Action since the 2000s, said investigations into pollution violations by the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District still take too long, and odor enforcement is lax.

By its own acknowledgment, the air district struggles to get a handle on curbing odors that deprive residents of enjoying their yards and can seep into homes.

“People who are supposed to be protecting us are not doing that,” Cochran said. “Police officers are seen as protection, but for us they are seen as a potential threat. The air pollution control district, through our eyes, is supposed to protect us from the emissions of air toxics, but when it plays out, they seem to resist and push back on what the community feels best.”

Arnita Gadson, the executive director of the West Jefferson County Community Task Force, a group that worked with local officials, the University of Louisville and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on a landmark air pollution study and risk assessment in the late 1990s and early 2000s, said it is worth noting that people born in west Louisville since 2005 have a pollution burden that’s much less than their parents’ or grandparents’.

That’s progress, she said.

But, she said, Louisville needs to restore a comprehensive toxic air monitoring program it hasn’t had for six years.

Monitoring gives the community “a lot more confidence” that the regulatory programs are working, while possibly uncovering new pollution risks, she said.

Gadson said she’s worried about the cumulative effects of mixtures of chemicals that are coming from multiple sources of pollution.

For their part, air district officials said they have one new air monitoring station set up near the chemical plants, but are working out technical kinks. They have also begun a new, “multi-pollutant” dialogue with business and community members aimed at bringing the city into compliance with federal air standards for ozone.

That could further reduce toxic air contaminants, said Rachael Hamilton, the air district’s assistant director. “We do things every day and we are not done,” she said. “It is more a continuum of work.”

The air district’s programs are but one part of the community’s “largest need to rectify past issues,” Hamilton said.

‘EXTREME SEGREGATION’

Those “past issues” go back more than a 100 years to a city in which the law prohibited Blacks from buying homes

Protesters gathered in Jefferson Square Park on Tuesday night to fight for climate justice and Black lives.

Protesters gathered in Jefferson Square Park on Tuesday night to fight for climate justice and Black lives.

in predominantly white areas. Environmental injustice and segregation go hand-in-hand, and Louisville continues to be very segregated, with nearly half its population living in “extreme segregation,” according to a 2014 Metro Human Relations Commission report.

While the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the racist housing law in 1917, an array of segregationist policies flourished in the decades that followed. There were zoning and banking policies like red-lining that blocked investment in neighborhoods with Black, immigrant and low-income residents, and the bulldozing of a Black business district under the banner of urban renewal to create the expansive 9th Street corridor that still serves as a physical, racial and economic divide.

“You take zoning, you take real estate practices, you take government policy and all of this had a laser-like focus on herding Black people into small areas, and herding them into areas that were not desirable,” said Cathy Hinko, executive director of Louisville’s Metropolitan Housing Coalition, which advocates for fair and affordable housing.

Among those areas are neighborhoods near a complex of chemical plants known since World War II as Rubbertown.

At the start of the war, in the early 1940s, easy access to roads, rail lines and the Ohio River led the federal government to select Louisville for rubber production, using alcohol from the state’s bourbon industry as a raw material.

Unlike most cities, Louisville has its own air pollution regulator, the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District, whose roots go back to the founding of a city “smoke commission” in 1945, when coal was burned everywhere.

In the late 1940s, chemical companies started buying surplus government industrial plants, which, by the 1950s, were spewing out some 21 million pounds a month of “gases, vapors, and mists,” according to a 1958 study by the U.S. Public Health Service.

By contrast, in recent years, all industrial plants in Louisville have emitted between 3 million and 5 million pounds of toxic emissions annually.

In the early 1960s, thousands of white residents began fleeing for the suburbs, an option that Black residents didn’t have, because white real estate agents were refusing to sell homes to them.

As chemical plant production increased, there were

deadly explosions, train derailments of rail cars containing deadly poisonous gases, fires, leaks requiring citizens to shelter in their homes and ever-present acrid odors.

By the 1990s, as the environmental justice movement gained momentum nationally, there were more than a dozen different kinds of chemical plants operating in Rubbertown, employing thousands, along with other polluting factories in west Louisville.

The area was and is home to the largest sewage treatment plant in the state — one with a history of odor complaints — and a federal Superfund toxic waste dump. There were three coal-fired power plants that spread particulates over west Louisville, and warehouses for the aging of bourbon whose wafting vapors, romantically called “the angel’s share,” fed a fungus that mottled homes and businesses with black spots.

West Louisville residents had had enough.

FIGHTING FOR THEIR RIGHTS TO LIFE AND HEALTH

The late Rev. Louis Coleman of Louisville’s Justice Resource Center, a fiery Black pastor and civil rights leader, led the growing movement for environmental justice in the 1990s. In addition to the industries, he and other activists found a logical target for their outrage — the Louisville air district.

The district’s monthly board meetings were often tense.

Residents came with protest signs and face masks, not unlike those worn today to help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. They told stories of their illnesses, or their family members’ or neighbors’ illnesses, including asthma and heart conditions, and blamed the pollution.

But authorities began to listen — and work on the problem. The West Jefferson County Community Task Force was created and, with local officials, the UofL and the EPA working closely together, embarked on a landmark air pollution study and risk assessment in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

“The biggest issue I had wasn’t necessarily the politicians, it was the epidemiologists and toxicologists” recalled Gadson, the task force’s executive director. “They were saying the people were already unhealthy and it was their fault.”

The task force report was finished in 2003, and it found health risks from long-term exposure to be hundreds of times higher than state and local officials deemed acceptable. The report identified one cancer-causing chemical, 1,3-butadiene, LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

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as the major threat.

Three of the monitors in the study with elevated readings were at public schools.

Pressure mounted on Louisville air regulators to act, as Rubbertown became a new poster child for the environmental justice movement, joining Louisiana’s even greater concentration of petrochemicals that has long been dubbed “cancer alley.”

During that time, the environmental justice movement in Louisville and nationally helped redefine “environment” to include where people live, work, worship and go to school, said Michelle Roberts, who has worked on Rubbertown issues for 20 years and is national co-coordinator of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance.

“These folks were literally fighting for their rights to life and health for their beloved communities,” Roberts said.

In one dramatic moment, Roosevelt Roberts, a civil rights activist, had stood up at a public meeting in 2004 and started questioning public officials about pollution at a chemical plant when he fell to the floor in obvious medical distress.

Louisville’s top public health official, who happened to be speaking at the meeting, crouched by his side and began emergency procedures. Others formed a circle, held hands and prayed. Roberts died later that day, his heart having failed, at age 64.

Louisville’s air quality chief at the time, Art Williams, was at the meeting, trying to help Louisville navigate through a response to studies that found local health risks from toxic air to be among the highest in the nation.

“It could not have driven home more powerfully the importance of that issue and willingness of people to put their lives on the line for improvement,” Williams recalled.

The following year, the air district’s board approved its Strategic Toxic Air Reduction program, or STAR. It requires major polluters to calculate the health risks from what comes out of their stacks or leaky valves and keep them below certain strict risk levels.

For a plant with a single STAR-regulated chemical, the risk must not be more than 1 in one million from long-term exposure; for plants with multiple regulated chemicals, the limit is 7.5 in one million.

They acted after Rubbertown Emergency Action went door-to-door collecting signatures on petitions, organized demonstrations and earned the backing of faith communities.

Williams credits “strong and outspoken leadership from the community,” support from former mayor Jerry Abramson, a strong air district staff and board, and a lot of media attention, particularly from The Courier Journal, over the five years leading up to the board’s decision to tighten the rules on toxic air.

Bennie Ivory was the editor of the newspaper then. Ivory, who is Black, said that growing up in the deep South, he had seen the many inequities in quality of life between Black and white people.

“That never left me,” he said.

Ivory had arrived in Louisville in 1997 and “started hearing stories about Rubbertown and nobody was listening — all kinds of respiratory problems and cancer and all the comments were coming from the West End,” he recalled.

He made sure the matter stayed on the front page.

“You don’t do two or three stories and walk away from an issue like that,” said Ivory, who retired in 2013. “This was a story that covered generations. That is what newspapers are supposed to be about, bringing that kind of change.”

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The district’s work “clearly took place in an explicit framework of environmental justice,” said Williams, who is retired from government service. “It wasn’t subtle. It was obvious and clear.”

In the end, he said, “there was no place for the community leaders to hide from it.”

‘PEOPLE HAVE LIVED IN SACRIFICE ZONES’

In the years since Protesters gathered in Jefferson Square Park on Tuesday night to fight for climate justice and Black lives. the STAR program leading voice on environmental justice for decades, said the went into effect, communities where police are shooting Blacks are the same local industries in the Rubbertown area and across the city communities with high asthma rates, greater incidences have reduced their toxic air emissions by 76%, according to of diabetes, stroke, and more poverty and deaths from the air district.

Covid-19.

Total emissions of cancer-causing 1,3-butadiene, identi“Forty years ago, people were saying ‘we can’t breathe, fied as the top chemical of concern in 2003, have fallen 98% in 20 years, according to a pollution inventory maintained by we are suffering from asthma, we are choking, you are killthe EPA. But there is also broad agreement that environmen- ing us,’” he said.

Now, with the latest protests, Bullard said that he is tal health and other inequities in West Louisville remain. “seeing across the board, people are talking about dismanMustafa Santiago Ali, who worked 24 years with the tling this violent system of racism, not just when a police EPA, including in senior environmental justice positions, officer kneels and chokes a person to death. It’s violence and left with the arrival of the Trump administration, said when you have all this pollution pumped into a neighborpollution “hot spots” remain and there are legacy health hood, and people are choking.” burdens to address. “People have lived in sacrifice zones,” Two decades ago, Louisville officials were under intense he said. pressure to do something about air pollution and other toxic STAR “was a strong step forward” that “doesn’t correct contaminants in Rubbertown. They may find themselves the historical damage that’s been done,” said Keith Talley facing even greater pressure now, with Black elected leaders Sr., the Louisville air district’s executive director, an African demanding police reform, racial justice and further work on American who grew up in West Louisville. cleaning up the city’s environment.

The street demonstrations that erupted following George “Black folks get tired of complacency,” said Jessica Floyd’s killing by a police officer in Minneapolis had an Green, a Democrat who represents the Rubbertown area on especially searing resonance in Louisville, where police had the Louisville Metro Council. That may be changing, she shot and killed Breonna Taylor during the execution of a nosaid. knock warrant on her apartment back in March.

“Since there is such a highlight on all of the injustices The protests, mostly peaceful, have turned chaotic and that are going on in Black and brown communities, now is tense at times. Seven people were shot during one night the time to strike while the iron is hot, on all the issues.” of protests, although it is still not clear by whom. Police State Rep. Booker, the African American from West have sometimes used tear gas and pepper balls to break up Louisville who sought the Democrartic nomination for U.S. crowds.

Senate, is in some sense an heir to all of Louisville’s enviGeorge Floyd’s dying plea — ”I can’t breathe” — has ronmental activists who have come before him. had an historic resonance here, as well.

In a campaign that knitted calls for police and environShameka Parrish-Wright has been downtown every day mental justice closely together, Booker said, “we have to for more than three weeks and said pollution and environunderstand the progress we made, and the challenges we mental justice has been on her mind amid the chants of Breface, are structural.” • onna Taylor’s name. Three of Parrish-Wright’s six children were born since she moved to Louisville in 2002. Each has InsideClimate News is a nonprofit, independent news asthma and one has seizures, she said. organization that covers climate, energy and the environ“It’s not happenstance,” she said. ment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter at: insideclimatenews.

Robert Bullard, professor of urban planning and org. environmental policy at Texas Southern University and a

POLLUTION, PLACE, AND THE UNNECESSARY TRAGEDY OF PREMATURE DEATH: LESSONS FOR COVID-19?

By Gregory D. Squires, John Hans Gilderbloom and Wesley L. Meares | leo@leoweekly.com “BLUNTLY PUT, some neighborhoods are likely to kill you,” observed Brown University sociologist John Logan in 2003.

In 2020, we can confirm that some neighborhoods have killed people. Far too many communities are facing environmental degradation today. Low-income men in the United States live five fewer years in the five dirtiest mid-size cities (as measured by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) than in the five cleanest, while low-income women live almost four fewer years. Recent evidence also indicates that COVID-19 is striking particularly hard in the same polluted neighborhoods.

The tragedy is that these public health disparities do not have to be allowed to persist.

But until our nation’s leadership acknowledges and faces up to this reality, or bottom-up community organizing forces the issue, this tragedy will continue.

Environmental racism has long been evident in cities An anonymous artist created the pieces that protesters marched with in Jefferson Square Park. throughout the nation, even socio-economic factors. In our forthcoming research, to be before the 1999 publication of Robert Bullard’s seminal There are parallels with COVID-19 spreading across published in the scholarly urban affairs journal Local Envibook “Dumping in Dixie.” Louisville is a typical mid-size the United States and the world. The Trump administraronment, we found that residents who live within 1.5 miles city that provides a case study of what is going on around tion’s initial response was to call the novel coronavirus the the nation. Two recent studies of the social determinants of “Chinese virus,” minimizing the risks and assuming it would of EPA designated brownfield sites or within 10,000 feet of Rubbertown have their lives cut short by their exposure to health in Louisville found that life expectancy varies by 10 fade away with the spring weather. If instead we had aggresenvironmental hazards. Even after taking into consideration years between resisively stepped up the Environmental racism has long production and distribu- the effects of neighborhood racial composition, crime rate, dents in the poorest and income, and age of housing, such proximity remained a blackest neighborhoods of tests, the fears been evident in cities through- tion statistically significant contributor to the loss of life. adjacent to a chemical and realities would be While education is statistically associated with the years industry park (known quite different. Naming out the nation, even before of lost life, it clearly is not a causal factor. People with a as Rubbertown) and the a problem is the first the 1999 publication of Robert step in solving it, be it rest of the city. doctorate who contract lung cancer are not less affected than the current national panThese studies, school dropout who also has the disease.

Bullard’s seminal book “Dumping demic or environmental a high In addition, in another follow-up article to be published endorsed by the mayor of Louisville, Greg in Dixie.” Louisville is a typical hazards in Louisville and by Local Environment, we show that health problems so many other cities. (asthma, COPD, heart disease, cancer) are twice to three Fischer (who is now mid-size city that provides a case In our case study of times higher with residents in neighborhoods adjacent to president of the U.S. where BreRubbertown chemical factories compared to those in the far Conference of Mayors) study of what is going on around Louisville, onna Taylor was killed eastern Louisville neighborhoods where polluted air is not a and local corporate in March by police, leaders, blamed the problem. Moreover, comparing the disease rates of the poor the nation. (one of several African disparities on lifestyles in Rubbertown neighborhoods to similar groups in clean air Americans killed by law enforcement in recent weeks in of the poor with the usual suspects: guns, smoking, liquor, coastal cities on the West Coast, finds that health is much Louisville and around the country) followed by protests diet and obesity, with a particular emphasis on education. worse near Rubbertown neighborhoods. and violence, we found that those living near environmenSociologists call this “blaming the victim.” Missing from This new article also addresses the claims made by tal hazards have fewer years of healthy life than do other this explanation is the plain reality of the direct effects of corporate funded groups like the chamber of commerce and residents of the community, even after accounting for several Mayor’s office that the real menace is a lack of trees, not environmental degradation.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

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ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

PEOPLE ARE DYING BECAUSE OF SYSTEMATIC RACISM: WE CAN CHANGE

By Monica E. Unseld and Michelle King | leo@leoweekly.com tal quality have strong correlations with health outcomes, risk was as high as 355 in including asthma, heart disease and cancer. a million, leaving a legacy The Louisville Metro Department of Public Health & of health impacts. The Wellness’ Center for Health Equity’s “2017 Health Equity residents of these neighborReport” outlines a number of recommendations to help mitihoods, mostly people of gate these harms, including targeting communities with concolor, are not dying due to personal behavioral choices, certed resources to provide equitable health infrastructure they are dying because of and ensure everyone can easily receive preventative medical the systematic racism that services, as well as treatment for mental health, trauma and has been built into policies substance use disorder. We need to increase outreach about for generations. these health resources and ensure more opportunities for This is an environmenwealth-building, education, and employment among those tal justice issue. This is a who need it most. Finally, we must promote land-use polihealth justice issue. This is cies and development opportunities that protect health and a justice issue. enhance quality of life. Infrastructure investments should And we can change. improve environmental quality, not further degrade these Louisville Metro Govneighborhoods. ernment, community leadWhile COVID-19 is spotlighting the injustice of the Protesters gathered in Jefferson Square Park on Tuesday night to fight for climate justice and Black lives. ers, and all Louisvillians system, it is also presenting us with an opportunity to truly must give strong, consistent become an even more “compassionate” city. As we rebuild, support for current and future environmental and land use we need to make sure we adopt a health and justice for all THE HEALTH DISPARITIES that have long plagued our regulations that remove these inequities. Locally, we’ve seen policy approach to urban design, public health, and environcity, state and nation are now more obvious than ever, with mental protection.

COVID-19 shining a bright light on the historic and ongoing incredible improvements in air quality, but disproportionate risk remains among those living near industry and highways.

Residents in The East End have done nothing to deserve structural racism that for too long has resulted in woefully So even as we continue to fully enforce the laws we have, longer lives, just as residents of The West End have done disparate health outcomes among people of color. we must seek further reductions from our local industries, nothing to deserve shorter lives. We have the opportunity to The latest statistics show the novel coronavirus is disproincluding our use of coal-based energy. do better. We must do better. • portionately impacting people of color and people who live As a city, our government and our community must advoin areas with more air pollution. cate for stronger regulations at the federal level, where over Monica E. Unseld, Ph.D, MPH is an environmental jusHere in Louisville, those populations tend to overlap. the past three years we’ve seen weakened rules to reduce air tice advocate and founder of Data for Justice.

Local and state officials have publicly recognized the pollution ranging from carbon dioxide to mercury and, most Michelle King, J.D., MPA, is Director of Program Planneed for increased testing in these communities, but we recently, a rollback of Obama administration fuel economy know that increased testing is not enough. In order to make ning and Executive Administrator at the Louisville Metro Air standards for cars. This represents a rollback of public health Pollution Control District. sustainable change, we must do more to address the root protection, as proven by EPA’s own analyses, which identify causes that lead to increased deaths in these communities. the increase in health impacts, including deaths.

According to published research, increased long-term We must exposure to fine particulates is associated with more lethal recognize those outcomes for COVID-19 patients. Historically, and still today, our largest local sources of fine particulates, coal-fired communities in Louisville who electricity generating units, have been in the west and southhave been subject west portions of our community. Adding to that is increased exposure from highways and from concentrations of industry to the worst of our past and that in the past relied heavily on coal for fuel. current environFurther, a recent “Life at the Fenceline” report by the mental condiEnvironmental Justice Health Alliance, in partnership with tions. Mapped Coming Clean, showed that residents living within three data showing miles of high-risk chemical facilities (fenceline communihealth risk from ties) have access to fewer hospitals and healthcare facilities. air pollution, They are also areas of lower income, with less access to tree canopy healthy food.

In Louisville, the neighborhoods surrounding the Rubber- coverage, urban heat concentratown cluster of chemical plants and fuel terminals are clear tions, contamiexamples of the cumulative impacts of these factors. Curnated industrial rently, air emissions from industrial operations in Rubberproperties and town add a 5 to 10 in a million risk of cancer to those living other indicators in the shadow of those operations. That disparity today must of environmenbe recognized, but moreover, just 20 years ago that added Protesters gathered in Jefferson Square Park on Tuesday night to fight for climate justice and Black lives.

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

PHOTO ESSAY

#JUSTICEFORBREONNA POSTERS FOR PROTESTS

By Kathryn Harrington | leo@leoweekly.com AS THE four-month anniversary of Breonna Taylor’s death neared March 13, protests downtown continued, and so did the creative ways of demanding justice for her.

On Saturday, the Healing and Art Social Justice Festival was held in Jefferson Square Park from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tables and open-air tents were set up beside Louisville Metro Hall where participants could use the provided art supplies such as chalk, paint, crayons and markers as well as material for posters and canvases to create their art. •

A collage created in Jefferson Square Park on Saturday.

Participants created signs, paintings and used sidewalk chalk at the event on Saturday. | PHOTOS BY KATHRNYN HARRINGTON.

Ariana Tulay and Olivia Benford worked on paintings at the event in Jefferson Square Park on Saturday.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

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PHOTO ESSAY

One of the organizers of the event, Carson Haynes, worked on a sign on Saturday.

Signs were also made for the Pineda family, who live in the Lake Forest community and who have been the victims of recent racially motivated vandalism to their property.

Signs were placed in and around Jefferson Square Park.

Tyler Murrell worked on a sign at the event on Saturday at Sixth and Jefferson streets.

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

PHOTO ESSAY

Chelsea Smith worked on a sign at the event on Saturday.

Dezirae Edwards at the Healing and Art Social Justice Festival on Saturday.

Carson Haynes and Sarah Urda work on a poster at the Healing and Art Social Justice Festival.

Carson Haynes and Sarah Urda worked on a poster at the Healing and Art Social Justice Festival.

This sign references racially motivated vandalism at Lake Forest.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

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STAFF PICKS UNTIL THE END OF JULY

A Jersey For Racial Justice

Search peak1bikestore.com | $65 | Any time When supporting Black Lives Matter, it’s best to be #BLACKLIVESMATTER vocal. Tell your family, tell your representatives, and, with this cycling jersey, you’ll be able to tell the world. Local ceramic artist Amy Elswick came up with the idea, and she got JEM Creative Design owner John Mahorney to design it. In addition to being emblazoned with the words “Black Lives Matter,” it also sports the names of local, Black-owned businesses. And, profits from the jersey will go to the Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. You can order one until the end of the month at peake1bikestore.com. Just enter in “Louisville KY Cyclists Support Racial Justice” to the search bar. —LEO

THROUGH OCT. 16

‘As I See It’ By Art Ferrier

Pigment Gallery, Mellwood Art and Entertainment Center | 1860 Mellwood Ave. artferrierphotography.com | Free Photographer Art Ferrier’s first exhibition in Louisville was postponed because ART of the pandemic, but now it’s been rescheduled for in-gallery viewing. The Lowell, Massachusetts, native, living in Louisville for the past 2 ½ years, specializes in fine art and travel photography. “Much of my work is influenced by painters, from Hopper to Rothko and Mondrian,” he said. “From the start my eye has been drawn to the pure design elements …. Because I struggle for ways to communicate and share this vision with others, I admire those who have most successfully taught the public new ways to see and experience their visual environments.” —Jo Anne Triplett

THROUGH AUG. 8

‘Window Haiku’ by Art Ferrier.

Archival inkjet print.

‘Maskenfreiheit’ By Kayla Bischo�f

Galerie Hertz | 1253 S. Preston St. | kaylabischoff.com | Free Masks are a modern, necessary accessory. But painter Kayla Bischoff has been using them in her art for years. Her current exhibition “Maskenfreiheit,” is German for “the MASK freedom that comes from wearing a mask.” (Take that, political non-wearers.)

Gallery co-owner Billy Hertz said the show has been planned since last year, “so the whole mask thing is purely coincidental … [It] has been a recurring theme that keeps evolving in her work.” The gallery is open by appointment only, in the afternoon on the hour.

To reserve a time, email the gallery at galeriehertz@att. net. And, of course, masks are required.

—Jo Anne Triplett

‘The Imposters’ by Kayla Bischoff. Acrylic on canvas.

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

THURSDAY, JULY 16

Spalding At 21c: Voice And Vision

Zoom | 21cmuseumhotels.com/louisville | Free | 6-7:30 p.m.

This is a free, virtual arts and literature experience. Join as author Katy SEE + HEAR Yocom emcees readings by award-winning Kentucky poets and authors, including Lilly Cary, Dorian Hairston, Silas House, Jason Kyle Howard, Amelia Martens and Gabe Tomlin. Also, 21c Museum Hotels Chief Curator Alice Gray Stites will take you through the exhibits currently featured at 21c Louisville, including “Truth or Dare: A Reality Show.” 21c doesn’t showcase exhibits that aren’t provocative, or don’t stop you in your tracks, grabbing your attention at the very least. Stites said of the exhibit, “The alternative reality of the 21st-century artist’s imaginative universe may offer the ideal arena in which to confront the present and envision the future.” —Aaron Yarmuth Katy Yocom. | PHOTO BY TERRY PRICE.

STAFF PICKS

SATURDAY, JULY 18

SUNDAY, JULY 19

Healthy Change: A Fresh Food Pop-up

Shawnee Park | 4501 W. Broadway | change-today.org | Free | 2-6 p.m.

Stop The Violence, Put The Beef On The Grill

Shawnee Park | 4501 W. Broadway Search Facebook | Free Noon-7 p.m.

All things delicious and healthy can be found at Change Today, Change Tomorrow’s “Healthy Change” event. Discover fresh and organic fruits, vegetaSTAY HEALTHY bles, juices, supplements, herbal tees, yoga and live music — all for free. Reserve a ticket to secure your spot. —Danielle Grady

Raven Sanders has been organizing the Stop the COMMUNITY Violence, Put the Beef on the Grill cookout for six years.

A gun violence survivor himself, his mission is to “unite the masses through food, family, and fellowship.” This year, he’s providing free food, music, games, prizes and more. The event is presented by Sanders’ business, Red Barrel BBQ & Catering, along with Vision of Life Outreach Ministries LLC. To become a donor, vendor or sponsor, email Sanders at ravensanders76@ gmail.com —LEO

Design by Boss Lady Designs.

MONDAY, JULY 20

Park Yoga For A Cause

SUNDAY, JULY 19

Big Four Lawn, Waterfront Park | 1101 E. River Road wellthyvybes.com | Donation based | 6-7 p.m.

AJ Music Festival 2.0

Facbook Live or Zoom | Free | 7-8:30 p.m.

Adath Jeshurun, The Highlands synagogue fondly SONG referred to as AJ, had special plans for its musical festival in March, which was disrupted because of Donald Trump’s failure — I mean the coronavirus. Well the AJ isn’t waiting any longer and is presenting The AJ Music Festival 2.0, an online live/recorded concert of eclectic music of Jewish and Jewish-adjacent selections, with special guest Cantor Azi Schwartz, senior cantor of Park Avenue Synagogue in New York.

Also performing is Hazzanim Joanna Dulkin, Matt Axelrod, Mike Weis, Elisheva Dienstfrey, Alisa Pomerantz Boro, Luis Cattan and Cantor David Lipp. Join on Facebook Live or Zoom (link available on the Facebook event page). —Aaron Yarmuth

Cantor Azi Schwartz singing ‘God Bless America’ at a New York Mets game in Citi Field Stadium.

IMAGE FROM AZISCHWARTZ.COM

The safest space for yoga outside of your home is, well, outside. Plus, the Swing Garden next to the Big Four Bridge is a shady, comfortable DOWNWARD DOG PARK space, even in the heat and humidity of July in the Ohio Valley, to safely yoga together. Every Monday, Wellthy Vybes hosts a yoga session here, a class for all levels, ending with meditation.

It’s a donationbased class with proceeds going to a different charity each month. For July, donations go to support Change Today Change Tomorrow, which “provides access to resources, education, and community engagement to all African Americans in the Greater Louisville area.” —Aaron Yarmuth Park Yoga last month near the Big Four Lawn. | PHOTO BY ERICA FELDHOFF. LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

Pets OF THE Week Molly - (Dog)

Charlie - (Cat)

Do you take time to smell the roses?

Wish you had a pet who enjoyed the same? Charlie is the one for you! This handsome eight-year-old Domestic Shorthair arrived at the Kentucky Humane Society when his owner was unable to find pet-friendly housing. Sweet Charlie has lived with cats and even all ages of children. However, shelter life has stressed him out to the point where he often hides. But if you’re patient and give him a few minutes to open up, he’s full of purrs and chirrups! We’re confident that this sweet senior will grow comfortable in a quiet home. He just needs a kind owner that will let him explore at his own pace.

Charlie is also neutered, micro-chipped and up-to-date on his shots. Come take him home today! Visit kyhumane.org/cats to learn how to meet Charlie.

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

Meet our dear, sweet Molly. Molly is a seven-year-old Terrier mix who originally came to the Kentucky Humane Society in 2018. She was adopted by a family but was returned recently through no fault of her own. Molly is 46 lbs of pure sweetheart.

Our staff love Molly and we want her to find the best home possible! One thing to know about Molly is she suffered a previous injury to her cervical spinal cord that caused some nerve damage. This causes her to drag and sometimes knuckle over on the front paws. This issue does not cause Molly any pain or discomfort and is her normal. It just means that Molly looks a little different than other dogs when she walks.

Could you be the one this beauty has been waiting for? Molly is spayed, micro-chipped and up-to-date on all vaccinations. Now she just needs you! Visit kyhumane.org/dogs to learn how to meet Molly today.

pollution in the West side. Our research toxic air has not received the proper confinds that tree density is not correlated with sideration from political leaders, who must reducing health disparities between West come to terms with the immediate causes side and East side neighborhoods. The of premature death in their community. As strongest possible predictor using peer the Physicians for Social Responsibility reviewed scientific methods is that pollution asserted, “We must prevent what we cannot explains 75% of the reduced life expectancy cure.” in West Louisville. It is not caused by the Remediating older or abandoned indusscience fiction that the corporate commutrial sites and reducing emissions from nity peddles, which want it to be the lack existing sites can create a cleaner, healthier of trees or which push racist, “blame the environment. Environmental remediation is victim” narratives by claiming that West not just a local responsibility. Particularly Side residents are poorly educated and make in light of the current national emergency dumb choices of where to live. But the poor presented by COVID-19, President Trump can’t escape West Side pollution because should immediately re-enact more than affordable housing choices are blocked by 95 Obama-era environmental regulations zoning laws that exclude the poor, rentdesigned to protect U.S. air, water, and ers, and even middle soil rescinded by his The failure of income residents. It administration since is the case, of course, 2017. As noted by Louisville’s leadthat better-educated Nobel Prize winner Al people have more ership might also Gore on HBO’s “Real resources and can Time with Bill Maher,” help explain why the irony is that gutting exercise more housing choices, including the protecthe city generally environmental means to live far away tions will only increase from environmental ranks at the bottom the number of deaths hazards. As a practical related to COVID-19. on poor air quality matter, the solution to It does appear, environmental justice however, that our

by EPA estimates leadership is coming to won’t come from educating hundreds of of air quality among terms with COVID-19 thousands of people with Donald Trump U.S. cities, as and moving them out calling himself a warof their neighborhoods. president, at least reported in a pre- time Education is part of a for a few weeks, in this long-term strategy, but publication in the battle with the virus. an immediate question We should do the same medical journal The with other longstandis what to do with current residents. ing environmental Lancet. hazards. Some places The failure of Louisville’s leadership do kill, unnecessarily. might also help explain why the city generThe first step is to recognize the killer. Then ally ranks at the bottom on poor air quality appropriate action can be taken. •

by EPA estimates of air quality among U.S. cities, as reported in a pre-publication in the Gregory D. Squires is a professor of medical journal The Lancet. This failure is sociology and Public Policy and Public an even more urgent concern today given Administration at George Washington preliminary evidence that COVID-19, a University. respiratory disease, has greater adverse John Hans Gilderbloom is a fellow for effects on people who live near toxic sites Neighborhood Associates Corporation, and particularly on African Americans, who Washington, D.C. and a professor of urban are more likely to reside in such communiand public affairs at UofL ties in cities around the country. The link Wesley L. Meares is an associate profesbetween air pollution and COVID-19 has sor of political science and public adminisbeen reported by the Harvard T.H. Chan tration at Augusta University School of Public Health, while the connections with race have been documented by This piece was published first on planmany scholars and widely reported in the etizen.com media in recent weeks.

Proximity to environmental hazards and

MUSIC

THE RETURN OF CONCERTS IS COMPLICATED, MESSY AND LIKELY NOT HAPPENING SOON

Bully at Zanzabar in 2018. | PHOTO BY NIK VECHERY.

By Scott Recker | srecker@leoweekly.com THE LEXINGTON MUSIC VENUE Cosmic Charlie’s permanently shut its doors on May 30 due to the pandemic, but, even with that loss, its co-owner Mark Evans isn’t in any rush to restart his other businesses in the music industry. His company Land Line Presents is the exclusive promoter at Zanzabar in Louisville, which could hold limited-capacity concerts but won’t.

“To me, we have a responsibility, as one of the long-standing venues in town, to sort of be a leader and to make sure that we’re helping everyone make safe choices,” Evans said. “If we selfishly decided to start having concerts right now, then other venues might take that as a green light. So, I’m really

just being as mindful as I can. Sure, I need money, but at what cost. I just don’t want to encourage large gatherings.”

Since bars reopened at the end of June, with 50% capacity limitations and social distancing requirements, the consensus among local venues has been that concerts are still too dangerous and challenging to hold, despite significant financial setbacks.

Most promoters with whom LEO spoke feel the virus is still too present to hold safe shows, and aspects including state-to-state travel and capacity limitations compromise effective touring and profitable concerts.

But, this month, a few local venues have offered concerts around town, many

outdoors, but a few indoors.

The Early Service Concert Series, which resumed in early July, takes place at 4 p.m. every Sunday at Mellwood Tavern. The concerts feature local bands and take place outside, with only 50 tickets per event being sold. Early Service has created space in between the audience and the stage, and it assigns every group of fans a high-top table to sit or stand at to create distance between people. Table service is provided to allow drink orders without standing in a line.

“Being outdoors makes everyone more comfortable, both the bands and the attendees,” Early Service founder Will Husband said.

The Early Service Concert Series is

selling tickets between $15 to $20, but Husband said that they are not keeping any profit — they are instead giving all of them to the bands and sound crew. He sees this as an opportunity to help the local music economy.

“There’s a lot of bands out there, that this is their income,” said Husband, who also plays in the band Electric Garden. “Our sound crew, who work at very well-known venues around town, this is their income. It’s very important that this scene has an outlet, and getting to the point where it has to be about the music, and more has to happen.

I think waiting and saying next year, next year, next year; I think it will be interesting LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

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MUSIC

to see how many regionally-touring bands, nationally-touring bands and small venues like the Mellwood, how many of them are going to be able to continue to do what they do.”

Jimmy Can’t Dance, one of the few venues that is hosting indoor concerts at this time, declined to comment for this story. It held its first concert since March on the July 4 weekend and has several more live events scheduled for July.

Although a limited number of concerts have returned, festivals and large gatherings such as Forecastle and Waterfront Wednesdays have been canceled, and big and midsized venues such as the KFC Yum Center, The Louisville Palace, Mercury Ballroom and Headliners Music Hall remain shut.

So are most of the smaller stages in town.

McKinley Moore, who books concerts at Kaiju, said that he hasn’t considered holding a show yet. He said that, for the most part, local promoters have done a good job of communicating with one another, collectively discussing the best way forward.

“Most of the venues in town — I mean, not everyone, of course, some people are just going to do whatever — we’re all on the same page,” Moore said. “We all talk to each other a lot. Hopefully we see a way out in the near future. Everything seems pretty up in the air.”

Since most have been closed since March, many local venues have found themselves in financial turmoil. Headliners was in the news last month when it listed its building for sale. The businesses — Headliners and its sister promotion company Production Simple — are not for sale, co-owner Billy Hardison told LEO. They are interested in selling the building and entering a long-term lease with the new owner, he said.

“That was supposed to be my meager retirement, living in Germantown, but now I’m having to play that card,” Hardison said. “We don’t want to give up being our own landlords, but if that’s what saves Production Simple and Headliners, so we can use the money that we get to recapitalize our businesses, then that’s the move we’ll make, and that’s something that could happen before federal relief comes through.

If you bundle all of this stuff together, we do have a path out of this. It’s not our preferred choice, but it could work.”

Hardison has been adamant about the need for government assistance for independent music venues through his role as the Kentucky precinct captain of the National Independent Venue Association, or NIVA, which is made up of more than 1,000 businesses who have been lobbying Congress

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

for relief money. In an internal NIVA survey, 90% of the independent concert halls nationwide said that, without stimulus funding directed their way, they won’t make it through the year, which would obviously result in a dramatic loss of culture across the country.

And although Hardison said he remains committed to public safety, he believes that capacity limitations won’t work for a place such as Headliners, which is known for hosting some of the best touring bands in the nation.

While other venues might see certain local shows as being feasible because of the low cost, it would monetarily be impossible for somewhere such as Headliners, a club that fits around 700 people when it’s shoulder to shoulder, to operate. With people 6 feet apart, they simply couldn’t sell enough tickets.

“Fifty percent capacity and social distancing is a math formula that doesn’t work,” Hardison said. “Headliners, at best, is 100 people with social distancing, and we can’t operate at 100 people. We’re better off staying closed.”

Evans, who in addition to his work at Zanzabar, is also the agent for Man Man and the tour manager for Creed Bratton (yes, the guy from “The Office”). He also stressed the fact that capacity limitations, while needed, restrict a venue’s ability to cover expenses.

“If you’re leasing or even if you’re paying a mortgage on a building that’s X amount of square feet, you’re invested in utilizing that amount of square feet,” Evans said.

For now, most venues are handcuffed to a bad situation, and they are worried about survival. Evans said that he thinks that many concert halls are banking on the industry’s most profitable season, but that there’s no way things will be any semblance of normal by then unless better decisions get made.

“We’re always banking on the fall, anyway — that’s rocktober. It’s a time of year we’re all looking forward too,” Evans said. “I think a lot of promoters and clubs are just praying that it can happen, and sort of move past this. But, everyone is so eager to reopen, it’s like we’re collectively shooting ourselves in the foot because there are some promoters that are eager to reopen and are doing it. Those events, and those large gatherings that are happening prematurely, are making it harder in the long run.” • To support the National Independent Venue Association’s push for federal relief money for concert hall’s across the country, visit saveourstages.com, where you can sign a petition, buy merch and learn more.

NEWS & ANALYSIS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

also concerned with the power wielded by the local police union, the River City FOP, as well as equal access to resources for Black communities. “We just want to make sure that we’re utilizing the same language and the same type of goals to push for those things,” said Helm.

When national groups and local groups are promoting different ideas, Helm, the establishment (in this case, the city) can see that and use it as an excuse to disregard one group of organizers or both.

Shameka Parrish-Wright, a local activist with The Bail Project Louisville and the Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, said she embraces outof-town visitors who want to get involved with the movement. She’s been the outsider before — when she and other Kentucky mothers traveled to Ferguson after a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown — and she remembers feeling welcomed by local activists.

“I think yeah, there’s always going to be struggles,” she said. “People want to be recognized for the work they’re doing on the ground, and I don’t think any outside influence should ever take away from the work that’s happening on the ground. But it can always add to it. It can always add to capacity. It can always give people hope.”

Until Freedom already started planning its Frankfort rally when it reached out to Black Lives Matter Louisville about participating, Helm said. She had to tell Until Freedom that they were too busy with elections and asking Louisville government to defund the police to get involved. Neither topic was brought up at the rally, but speakers did mention no-knock warrants and called upon Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron to charge the officers involved in Taylor’s shooting.

Until Freedom did not respond to LEO for comment in time to be included in this article.

Its rally featured local speakers, including Herron and state Rep. Attica Scott. But the guests who made headlines were celebrities: Common, Jada Pinkett Smith and Love & Hip Hop’s Yandy Smith-Harris.

“While I love folks standing up and people being vocal and being able to hit the points and stuff, a lot of local organizers feel extremely left out of the performativeness,” said Helm.

After that rally, though, Until Freedom reached out to several local organizations for its protest at Cameron’s house, said ParrishWright. Those groups were: No Justice No Peace, the Louisville Urban League,

Grace Community Church, Bates Memorial Baptist Church, The Bail Project Louisville, the Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, 50/50 Mentoring Collaborative, 100 Black Men of Louisville, The Divine Nine, Cities United, LSURJ, the Fairness Campaign and the River City Drum Corps.

“I think the biggest thing we can tell anyone whose wanting to come in and help, just come in and reach out,” said ParrishWright. “Louisville is small enough that you can get so many people at the table. Do the best you can to get as many people at the table as possible. Then, if you don’t get it right the first time, then try again, just like Until Freedom did, and get more voices here.”

One group that Herron thinks has done right by Taylor is the national media. She said she hasn’t come across any coverage that she thought “got it wrong.” She can’t say the same for local media, however.

Herron cited the WAVE 3 report that unduly focused on the background of Taylor, a victim. The segment was factually correct, but many criticized it as irrelevant and damaging to public opinion about Taylor’s innocence.

Yoruba Richen is the director of The New York Times documentary about Taylor, which will air sometime in the fall.

“Our goal is twofold,” Richen said.

“Investigate why this happened. You know, if we can get closer to the truth of what happened and tell that story, that would be our goal. And then also to give a sense of who this young woman was.”

To get things right as an out-of-town journalist, Richen researched Taylor’s case by reading local news reports and browsing social media before arriving in Louisville in late June. Since getting here, she’s talked with Taylor’s family and friends and she hopes to speak with LMPD, as well, to get the “full picture.”

Herron said that it’s important to seal in an accurate narrative of the current movement. That includes what happened to Taylor and who has worked to find justice for her family and how it was accomplished.

“I say that because, in 10 years or 20 years or 50 years from now, someone is going to want to know, ‘how did that happen?’ ‘How did we do that?’ Herron said.

“And so I think that when you look at it in a sense of historical context and what that means for the future, I do think that we do need to get some of those facts correct so folks know who to be reading about to learn.

We can learn from our history.” •

FOOD & DRINK

Bhindi masala, a spicy okra and onion curry at Taj Palace.

RECOMMENDED

TAJ PALACE TAKES TASTY INDIAN FARE AND PANDEMIC SAFETY SERIOUSLY

By Robin Garr | LouisvilleHotBytes.com

Aloo tikki chaat, delicious potato and chickpea street food served as an appetizer at Taj Palace. | PHOTOS BY ROBIN GARR.

THERE’S NO WAY to put this but bluntly: I via Grubhub or Doordash,” it added, assuring us that curbside pickup is as close as a don’t think some Louisville restaurants are quick phone call. taking the COVID-19 pandemic as seriously I found all this profoundly reassuring, as they should. and once I clicked through to the online Why the worry? ordering page, I was even more impressed.

You probably saw the news item about Clear and easy to navigate — it’s a techno11 Louisville businesses that got inspection logical dream. blasts from Metro Public Health & Wellness Here’s how it over the Fourth of July This matters: When works: Choose a dish, weekend for failing on its name, and to follow COVID-19 I’m deciding where click you’ll jump to a new safety guidelines. page offering a choice This matters: When to dine during among five meats — I’m deciding where to this pandemic, chicken, lamb, fish, dine during this panshrimp or goat — five demic, I want to have I want to have levels of spice and confidence that the special instructions. restaurant’s manageconfidence that Check the price, add ment doesn’t slack off the restaurant’s the dish to your cart on health and safety. and go back for more.

But how can we management When you’re done, fill find out? The interdoesn’t slack off on in your payment and net! It is not difficult contact information, to gauge an eatery’s health and safety. add a good tip, choose priority on health and your pickup time and safety from its website even note the color and model of your car and social media. I had to browse past a half-dozen local restaurants that did not even so they can find you out front. Yes, they did think of everything, and it shows again in mention pandemic precautions the other day the clear, complete email receipt and direcbefore I landed at Taj Palace, an East End tions that shows up in your box moments favorite. later.

“Order Online for Curbside Pickup,” The extensive menu includes 18 apperead an eye-catching orange button high on tizers, soups and salads from $4 to $14; Taj Palace’s web page. “Order for Delivery

Park out front, call in, and the curbside order you placed online at Taj Palace will be brought right out.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

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FOOD & DRINK

Taj Palace’s lamb jalfrezzi, ordered mild but not extra mild, has just enough kick for the wary.

a dozen meat entrees and 24 vegetarian entrees (all $11 to $15); 10 tandoor oven dishes from $12 (for chicken) to $25 (for lamb chops); and five biryani rice dishes from $12 to $16. A dozen Indian breads are $3 to $5 and a bread basket sampler is $10.

Side dishes, Indian desserts and a short list of Indian beers round out the bill of fare.

We rolled up out front right on time, and our food came out in sturdy foil containers sealed with cardboard tops, all carefully packed in a brown bag, steaming hot and ready to go. It was still plenty warm enough to enjoy when we got it home and plated it 15 minutes later and everything was delicious.

Aloo tikki chaat ($8), an Indian streetfood favorite served as an appetizer, consisted of thick potato pancakes — flattened rounds of distinctly spicy mashed potatoes, deep fried to a golden crunchy crust — topped with a generous ration of tender chickpeas, spicy red and green chutneys and cooling, thick yogurt, fresh tomato chunks, snipped cilantro and a blanket of sev, Indian wheat noodles broken into tiny, crunchy bits.

Lamb jalfrezzi ($15), described on the

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 15, 2020

menu as “assorted vegetables with mild spices,” was a lamb-and-veggie stir fry with plenty of sauce.

Bite-size chunks of tender, mild-flavored lamb were bathed in a rich, unctuous reddish-brown sauce and loaded with long slices of onion and red and green bell pepper whose flavors had melted into the seductive sauce. Ordered mild but not extra-mild, it was warm but not at all fiery. It would be just right for someone who wants flavor but not extreme heat.

It came with a large container, at least 6 cups, of perfect, fluffy, dry basmati rice with every grain separate, dotted with small, gently aromatic seeds.

Another entrée, bhindi masala ($12), offers a definitive response to anyone who thinks they don’t like okra. A dry curry with its roots in Punjab in far Northern India, it’s a simple but tasty dish of okra cut into short pieces, including the heads and tails, longcooked with onions, tomatoes and aromatic

Taj Palace’s garlic naan, soft and intensely garlicky flatbread from the tandoor oven.

Indian herbs and spices until the flavors blend. Ordered hot (but not extra hot) it was deeply flavored and spicy enough to smack my taste buds around a bit, but I didn’t mind that.

A large round of garlic naan ($4), wrapped in foil for transportation, was soft and chewy, with good char marks from the tandoor, a sprinkle of fresh herb leaves and a strong garlicky flavor from soft chunks of roasted garlic embedded in the bread. A quick run through the toaster oven restored appetizing crispness.

A small dish of yogurt raita ($2) offered a cooling antidote to the culinary fire, and mini-tubs of hot-and-spicy green cilantro

chutney and sweet dark brown tamarind chutney made appealing condiments.

The ordering system automatically took 10% off my first order, saving me $4.10, although I felt a little guilty about that since in fact I’m a fairly regular customer.

A huge repast came to $39.11, plus an $8.60 tip •

TAJ PALACE INDIAN RESTAURANT 2929 Goose Creek Road 423-9692 tajpalacelouisville.com

PHOTO BY RACHEL ROBINSON

ETC.

SAVAGE LOVE

By Dan Savage | mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage

UNPLUGGED

Q: My wife asked me to write to you about our situation. We’ve been married for 15 years. I am 50 years old, and my wife is a decade younger. We are a heterosexual couple with kids. I am a submissive male, and I like to play with my ass using different sized dildos. I enormously enjoy being penetrated with sex toys. A few years ago, I introduced the idea of a FLR — female-led relationship — to my wife, and she accepted it. We are a happy couple! My wife is more on the traditional side of sex, and I respect that. We have PIV sex twice a week, and I try to give her a pleasure as much as I can. Looks like everything is OK, right? But recently she complained that I have stopped ejaculating when we have sex. And it’s true: When we engage in vaginal penetration, I no longer ejaculate. I like it this way because I don’t lose my sex drive, and I can continue. But she doesn’t like it. For her my ejaculate is the “cherry on top” of the sex, and my coming during sex is important for her pleasure and satisfaction. My wife thinks that I stopped ejaculating because I developed the habit of pleasuring myself with dildos and butt plugs in the shower. My wife thinks the toys are distracting me. Do you think it’s true? If that’s the case, what should we do? I love my wife, but I also love my butt plugs and dildos.

Spouse Unpleased By Husband’s UnBlasts You should come in your wife.

If your wife is in charge — you proposed a “female-led relationship” and she accepted — then she gets to give the orders and you’re supposed to do what she says.

(Within reason, of course.) So, when she says, “Come in me,” you should say, “How high up your vaginal canal would you like me to come?” Even if you weren’t in a female-led relationship, SUBHUB, refusing to come in your wife when you know that feeling you come inside her is important to her pleasure is a weirdly literal kind of withholding behavior — and considering how GGG your wife has been, SUBHUB, refusing to come in her so you can “continue” presumably without her isn’t something a loving submissive would do. It’s something a selfish asshole does.

Your wife doubtless suspects the same thing I do: You aren’t coming in her because

you’d rather blow your load in the shower.

She sees you when you slip out of bed to go cram sex toys in your ass and blow your load down the down the drain instead of finishing in her. And if that’s what you’re doing — and I’m pretty sure that’s what you’re doing — then you’re treating PIV sex with your wife as foreplay, and the time you spend alone with your ass toys as the main event. If I were your wife, SUBHUB, I would find that annoying too. And however much you love your plugs and dildos, I would hope you love your wife more. At any rate, you aren’t submissive to your plugs and dildos — you’re submissive to your wife, who isn’t made of silicone and who has needs and feelings that have to be taken into account.

At the very least, SUBHUB, your wife’s pleasure should be your first priority during PIV sex — and it’s not like you can’t combine PIV with a little butt play. You can always shove one of your beloved plugs in your ass before you have PIV sex with the wife. And if you didn’t refrain from ejaculating every single time you had PIV, SUBHUB, if it was something you were allowed to once in a while with your wife’s permission, she might be willing to accommodate your desire every tenth time you have PIV. Q: I am a 53-year-old guy. Since I’ve been struggling with depression and anxiety all my life, I’ve never been in a situation where sex was a possibility. I’m really dying to know what it’s like. I’ve gotten much better over the years, and the women who know me think the world of me. But they aren’t in a position to help me out. Other women seem to want someone much more outgoing and confident than I am or ever will be. Confidence comes from experience and I don’t have any. My one girlfriend could not hide the fact that my inexperience offended her. Other people on blogs and such have recommended a prostitute.

But that’s not really what I’m looking for.

It’s about more than sex. I want someone to care for me as I am. Is there hope for me?

Or has the world just left me behind?

Very Inexperienced Relationship Guy In Need I know it’s not what you want to hear,

VIRGIN, but I agree with other blogs and such: I think you should find a sex worker.

Find a nice, patient woman who does sex work and be completely up front about why you’re seeing her: You’re so painfully self-conscious about your sexual inexperience that you find it hard to date. It may take some searching, VIRGIN, but there are sex workers who want to help their clients grow and heal. “Many people have the stereotypical misconception that all sex workers are disconnected, uncaring, and only there for the money,” said Ruby Ryder, a sex worker and sex educator. “While money is indeed a part of it, many of us understand that human beings need touch, connection, and acceptance. We provide an opportunity for clients to be vulnerable, whether it’s fulfilling their kinky fantasies or simply having sex.” And while the relationship you have with a sex worker you might see regularly for a year or two is certainly transactional, VIRGIN, it’s still a relationship and about more than sex.

I’m not suggesting you see sex workers exclusively for the rest of your life (even if I’m not not suggesting that either), VIRGIN, I’m only suggesting you see a sex worker to find out what sex is like, gain a little self-confidence, and maybe feel a little more hopeful for your future.

Ruby Ryder is on Twitter @Ruby_Ryder and online at www.peggingparadise.com.

a sex worker and much less time consuming than engineering a consenting affair. And there’s no risk of STIs or COVID-19! Just wanted you to consider VR as a possibly overlooked tool for your otherwise alwaysoutstanding advice in the future!

Very Recent Purchase Optimizes Reality Nicely

Q: I’m a longtime reader who’s never had a question that your archives couldn’t answer. But there is something I wanted to share with you and your readers! My wife and I have incorporated virtual reality (VR) goggles into our sex life with great success, Dan, and they could be the answer to a range of questions that you get at the column. They’re so useful, in fact, that your failure to mention them is starting to look like a glaring omission! Because let’s say someone writes in who wants to open their relationship or explore a cuckold fantasy (like one of last week’s letter writers!), but they’re worried about the emotions involved, potential STIs, or COVID-19?

VR goggles! While the offerings for female POV VR porn is pretty paltry, I’ve never seen my wife come harder than she did with me inside her and a pair of goggles on her face giving her the perspective of a man getting fucked by a beautiful trans woman. I love the idea that this turns her on, and I actually think she looks hot with goggles on! Besides the cost of a subscription to a VR porn site, the financial barrier is really pretty low — most people can use their smartphone and a $20 headset to get started, which is much cheaper than seeing

REAL ESTATE

Thank you for writing in, VRPORN, and you’re right: VR porn sounds like a great way for an adventurous monogamous couple to have a little virtual variety — whether that couple is monogamous by choice or monogamous for the duration of this stupid pandemic. In addition to the technology, of course, you’ll need a partner who not only knows you fantasize about other people (like they do, like everybody does), but who’s also excited about helping you explore those fantasies. Thanks again for sharing, VRPORN! Listen to Dan and comedian Jay Jurden on the Lovecast! mail@savagelove.net Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage and savagelovecast.com

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LEGAL The auction will take place on 7/28/2020 at 1pm and will be held at storageauctions.com (it will not be held at the facility location): Duwaine hale – Unit #142, Larry brown – Unit #145, Latoya Wray – Unit # 204, Daniel breed – Unit #207, David Mudd – Unit #238, Melissa Frampton – Unit #287, RJ Gibbs – Unit # 331, Willie Robinson – Unit #403, Willie Foster – Unit #508, Timotheus Nichols – Unit #525, Anita Render – Unit #562, Latasha Murphy – Unit #596, David Mudd – Unit #650, Brittany Sistrunk – Unit #677, David Cox – Unit #695, Richard Tucker – Unit #699, Anne Smith – Unit #734, Eireion Girton – Unit #766, Terrie gates – Unit #769, Yolanda Smith – Unit #787, Chasady Jones-Draper – Unit #790, Edward Lagantta – Unit #806, Sherrice Johnson – Unit #832 Kavanaugh’s Paint & Body Co. 1376 Belmar Drive, Louisville, Ky 40213, 502-459-7302 is seeking to obtain a clear title to a 1999 Ford F-550 Rollback,Vin# 1FDAF56F4XEA43938, Owner Tow Pro @ 509 W Florence Avenue Louisville, KY 40215, also know as Unlock A Door @ 12930 Fennway Ridge Drive, Riverview Florida 33579. You have 21 days from the first date of this publication of this legal notice to notify me.

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97 Canon competitor 99 Leaves weaponless 100 One participating in a new Summer Olympics sport in 2021 101 Fashion designer McCartney 102 Heads-up 103 Two to one, say 105 Time and again 107 Warner ____ 109 Like the Liberty Bell in 1846, for the last time 110 Big name in British art 112 Hall-of-Fame catcher Campanella 114 Print maker 116 Tulsa-to-Des Moines dir.

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C A L S T O S I S T E E A H O T H A N O O T R S S A T T O H U R D E D O Y TICK L E D A T E O N A U U N R O N F A R N T R O N E M Y E N S

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41 Flying Clouds and Royales 43 Be fully qualified . . . or a hint to this puzzle’s theme 44 Author of ‘‘The Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure’’ 45 Czech reformer Jan 46 Coastal inlets 47 It might get a licking 48 Combination meant to change behavior 51 Starter earring 56 Play piano, informally 58 Machu Picchu builder 60 Something frequently made with the eyes shut 62 X-ray alternative, maybe 64 Spanish treasure 67 Anthem starter 68 Businesses with a portmanteau name 70 ‘‘It Ain’t Me Babe’’ songwriter 71 Percolate 74 Zip 77 No. in a directory 78 Wimbledon wear, perhaps 80 Chooses not to act 82 Academia figure 88 It follows the Hijri calendar 90 Protruding bit of bedrock 92 Form a new mental picture of 93 Got away 94 Sharing word

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1 Transportation for the Doctor on ‘‘Doctor Who’’ 2 Small suit 3 Tries to make the unappealing attractive 4 Eeyore-ish sentiment 5 Stocking stuffer 6 Donkey Kong, e.g.

7 Imbroglios 8 Play charades 9 Setting for a Sistine Chapel painting 10 Results from 11 Near 12 ‘‘Methought I was enamour’d of an ____’’ : Titania 13 Brand of rum 14 Improperw 15 Best-actress winner Zellweger 16 Tiny fractions of joules 18 ‘‘____ Would Be King,’’ 2018 novel by Wayétu Moore 20 Attach, in a way 26 Stack topper 28 Iconic Chevy 29 ‘‘You nailed it!’’

32 ____ page 34 Spanish ‘‘now’’ 36 Olympic pentathlete’s need 38 Well-being 40 Purse part

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1 1/48 of a cup: Abbr.

4 Ad Council offerings, for short 8 Home of the Kaaba 13 Spartan 17 ‘‘The Problem With ____’’ (2017 documentary) 18 Orator’s platform 19 ‘‘Never meet your ____’’ (maxim) 20 Less wild 21 Done working: Abbr.

22 About which you might always say, ‘‘Bee prepared’’?

23 They take the form of self-flying paper airplanes in the Harry Potter books 24 Topping for a 25-Across 25 Piece of cake, say 27 Improv-class exercises 29 Kids 30 Without aim 31 Mob 33 Fish whose males bear the young 35 Evening gala 37 Note-taking spot?

38 Sustained period of luck, as with dice 39 Litter critter 40 Floor-plan unit 42 Restless desire 46 What Franklin famously asked for 49 Floor-plan spec 50 Blog-feed inits.

52 Debtor’s letters 53 Email holder 54 Something lent to a friend 55 Set of skills, metaphorically 57 Father of Scout, in ‘‘To Kill a Mockingbird’’ 59 Declare 61 Best-actor winner Malek 63 Normandy battle site 65 Wads 66 Last dance?

69 Managed an unmanageable group, figuratively 72 Wonder Woman accessory 73 Aware of 75 Playroom chest 76 Downwind 77 They’re worn on heads with tails 79 Store 81 Was first 83 Ka ____ (southernmost point on Hawaii) 84 Prefix with -graph 85 Run on

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BY LAURA TAYLOR KINNEL / EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ No. 0712

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TO-DO LIST

86 Singer Brickell 87 Believed something without question 89 Commercial lead-in to land 91 Elizabeth Warren vis-à-vis former chief justice Earl Warren, e.g.

95 It’s frequently under fire 96 Prepare to bathe 98 Olivia Benson’s division on TV: Abbr.

99 Conditional word 102 Expressively creative 104 First of the metalloids 106 Border 107 Flight recorder 108 ____ complex 111 A much greater quantity 113 Lead-in to fit or active 114 ____ New Guinea 115 Foreword 117 Org. that kicked off again in 2020 after a 19-year hiatus 118 Studio behind ‘‘Platoon’’ and ‘‘Amadeus’’ 119 Salary negotiator 120 Adversary 121 Embodiment of slipperiness 122 Word before or after short 123 One of the six simple machines 124 State pair: Abbr.

125 Mrs., in Mexico

B R O S

The New York Times Magazine Crossword