Martina Kunnecke has a lot to say. From the moment she walks in to Heine Brothers’ Coffee, she begins describing the latest efforts of her organization, Neighborhood Planning and Preservation. Even before she orders her tea or settles down at the table, Kunnecke is talking.
“I want to keep the city old and I’m losing,” said Kunnecke. “I’m losing, losing.”
Kunnecke, a freelance writer and researcher who has been involved with NPP since its founding in 2003 and currently serves as the organization’s president, is passionate about strong neighborhoods and the integrity of historic Louisville architecture.
“We’re a preservation organization, but we’re more of a quality of life organization,” said Kunnecke. “And we look at the factors that contribute to a quality of life…In the best of all possible worlds, you would get to live in a neighborhood where you can go home, go to work, go do all the shopping that you need to do, even go to the school nearby – you know, I believe in that actually – and not have to be in the car 30 percent of your day, trying to take care of just basic day-to-day living.”
Kunnecke believes a major problem facing West Louisville is that many buildings are owned by absentee landlords who allow the structures to decline.
“We all deserve to live in a community that doesn’t cover your car with white dust in the morning,” said Kunnecke. “And we deserve to live in a community that feels like a community, that doesn’t have an institutionalized feeling…They’re just letting them decline. And you ride through West Louisville and you see it. You see gaping windows open; you see roofs exposed. They’re letting the elements creep in and do their dirty work for them.”
According to Kunnecke, any new buildings constructed in West Louisville tend to be big box stores, fast food restaurants, and cash checking businesses that don’t bring in jobs and don’t improve the quality of life for neighborhood residents. She feels it’s an economic injustice that residents are forced to get in their cars or ride the city bus simply to meet their commercial needs.
“There’s something very wrong with that,” said Kunnecke. “And we’ve accepted it.”
NPP began in 2003 as a response to the demolition of the McWhorter Farmhouse in Clifton, now the site of condos, restaurants, and shops. The organization’s first preservation efforts focused upon the proposed demolition of the Brinly-Hardy buildings on East Main Street, some of which dated to pre-Civil War era. An ugly fight ensued between NPP, led at the time by Jim Segrest (a Butchertown activist and former president of the Butchertown Neighborhood Association), the city, and developers. The result was that the buildings were torn down and a $21 million condominium complex called the Fleur de Lis on Main was erected.
Photos by Casey Chalmers/Kertis Creative.
Philosophy
NPP looks at the argument of preservation more broadly than winning or losing.
“We’re trying to change the tone of the dialogue,” said Kunnecke. “You don’t put dust in the air from the demolition and haul a bunch of stuff to a landfill. You take a building that was built to last for a long, long time and make it better.”
NPP considers itself an alliance for all neighborhood planning and historic preservation organizations. The members come together to fight for the city’s historic structures, but they don’t always agree on methodology. Kunnecke claims to be dogmatic about reusing and repurposing, but other members are more dogmatic about the integrity of preservation. The difference is subtle, but often potent during meetings.
“We’re sort of like a loose confederation of folks with similar interests and groups,” said Kunnecke. “So there will be groups within that confederation that don’t agree.”
Kunnecke’s passion really blossoms when she discusses the importance of community. To her, it all boils down to choices – real choices. When asked about new developments such as Norton Commons, a neighborhood built around the concept of old-fashioned neighborhoods, with town centers, nearby shopping, and plenty of green spaces, Kunnecke steps on her sturdy soapbox.
“A good community offers choices, in terms of lifestyles,” said Kunnecke. “There are some people who want to live in a rural environment with meadows and farmland and, you know, nature, unrestrained nature.”
Kunnecke gives the community of Floyds Fork as an example of a rural community. Louisville also offers suburban and urban neighborhoods abundant with local businesses within walking distance from home.
“All these choices should be available,” said Kunnecke. “What we’re saying is stop all of the sprawl already. We have enough of each of these choices where enough people can be accommodated. We need to protect our green spaces and stop building more and more developments – stop building east, east, east, east, or on the fringes. We need to stop that! We need to rebuild our urban core, protect what we have, use the infill for new construction. There is no reason to replicate Old Louisville. We have Old Louisville! We have Russell. We have Portland. Russell and Portland are older than Old Louisville! Let’s capitalize on our history in a real way and not this sort of cosmetic faux way.”
Kunnecke sees so much potential in our existing neighborhoods that she becomes truly frustrated that city officials and developers don’t see it too and that, as a community, we have become complicit in the destruction of old neighborhoods and communities because we don’t see the potential anymore.
“We need to stop getting rid of green space and work with what we have,” said Kunnecke. “We need neighborhoods the way they used to be. They used to be sustainable because you used to be able to buy whatever you needed in the community and not have to get in the car and drive several miles away.”
Current projects
When a preservation issue lands on Kunnecke’s computer screen, she and co-founder Cherise Williams take action. NPP holds regular meetings that are open to the public. The organization encourages concerned citizens to write letters, make phone calls, and send emails to developers and city officials when a building is threatened. They also voice their concerns at City Council meetings, sometimes to the chagrin of city officials. If needed, NPP will come down to the structures to protest.
Some of the organizations that currently work with NPP on their efforts include Preservation Alliance, Preservation Louisville, Louisville Historical League, Preservation Kentucky, and OPEN Louisville, Inc. Several local blogs often support NPP, including Broken Sidewalk, Insider Louisville, BadwaterJournal, and Louisville Courant.
All of these organizations worked together to achieve historic landmarking for the iron facades of Whiskey Row on Main Street. According to Kunnecke, landmarking is a last resort. It does not always prevent demolition, but it does add a level of public scrutiny to the process, often slowing down decisions. A landmarking decision has not been made for the five-story Philip Morris building slated for demolition at South 18th Street and West Broadway. The building, according to reports on Broken Sidewalk, dates back to the 1890s, but will be razed to build a new branch of the YMCA of Greater Louisville, in partnership with the University of Louisville. According to a Business First article about the new building, the YMCA created a feasibility study to see if they could make use of the old building and decided against it. Kunnecke disagrees with this decision. She believes the building could have been refurbished and used for housing, a grocery store, or medical clinics, all of which are in short supply in West Louisville.
“I love the Y,” said Kunnecke. “I used to swim at the Y. But my question to them is, ‘Did you ask the community?’ And I asked the Y, ‘What was the nature of the research? Was this something the neighborhood even asked for?’ I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, but I’m not sure the neighborhood would have said it was the first thing they wanted. What they are saying to West Louisville is, ‘You don’t deserve to have big, substantial, tall buildings that could house all of the things you need. We’re going to come in and put our brand on something so we can look pretty, but…the broader scope of your needs is not a concern to us. You’re not as important as our visibility.’”
Other projects that NPP has championed in recent months include landmarking the Cavalier Building at 2551 West Market Street, opposing construction at Floyds Fork, repurposing the Travelodge near Bashford Manor on Bardstown Road, landmarking and preserving part of the original structure of the Bauer Tavern in Crescent Hill (former site of Azalea), and opposing Farmington Historic Plantation’s proposal to build a parking lot over five acres of land. On the table now, NPP is helping Louisvillians for Modern Mass Transit and also opposing the Louisville Veteran’s Administration Medical Center move from Zorn Avenue to Brownsboro Road.
An issue that NPP is consistently concerned about is midday meetings held by the Louisville Metro Planning Commission. NPP and their allies argue that midday meetings are difficult to attend because most concerned citizens cannot leave work, thus making citizen participation more difficult. Stephen Porter of OPEN Louisville, Inc. sent out an email to the NPP network as an alert about a move to make attendance even more difficult. According to Porter, Louisville Metro Planning and Design Services proposed that any group of neighbors who request a night hearing must pay the extra costs incurred, including rental space, court reporter, security guard, rental of audio/visual equipment, and staff overtime costs, a fee amounting to $1,500 or more. At the time of this article, this decision had been tabled.
Get involved
On May 20, NPP will be holding its spring meeting in honor of National Preservation Month. This will be a three-hour boot camp they are calling “Vision Louisville: Rightsizing from the Ground Up.” To find out more about historic preservation debates in and around Jefferson County, attend this meeting and learn about issues affecting the city’s transportation, environment, and preservation efforts.
“We are a city of fabulous neighborhoods,” said Kunnecke. “You can see the footprints of good, old-fashioned neighborhoods. California, Russell, Valley Station, The Highlands – the riches! We are fighting to preserve those choices for people, to stop the development craze. This is the groundwork for the future. Maybe something better will happen in the future.”
For more information about NPP, contact Kunnecke at
nppkentuckiana@gmail.com
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