Since the pandemic, Louisville has struggled to bring workers back to businesses downtown. It’s also struggled to increase the number of people living downtown. LPM’s Bill Burton spoke with the executive director of the Louisville Downtown Partnership, Rebecca Fleischaker about what the city is facing.
Bill Burton: Let’s start with the business aspect. The city’s been trying to lure workers back downtown. Where do things stand at the moment?
Rebecca Fleischaker: Well, there are more workers coming downtown. It is just very slow progress. When I started this job at the very end of 2021, people were still basically working from home. If you remember the Omicron variant, we were still wearing masks and getting tested every week, which just seems like worlds away now. But we have more people working in downtown today than we did in 2021. It’s just been kind of a slow, slow increase, definitely not what we were pre pandemic. And the city is encouraging, and Louisville Downtown Partnership is encouraging workers to come back. We obviously want the foot traffic, but it’s the employer’s decision, and they have to be the ones who decide what they want their employees to do and what they’re willing to make their employees do…