MP> Buses have always gone to St. Matthews, out Westport Road, and even out
 MP> to Prospect.  Now, you may have always had to transfer (and more than
 MP> once) to get from those areas to the far West End, but they've always
 MP> run in at least as far as wherever the old post office/federal building
 MP> is.  I think they ran as far as Central High, too.

Beg to pardon here, but my employer had to let go of many talented employees
that lived in the West End that had no other transportation when the route on
north Hurstborune lane was eliminated.

Most of the bus routes past valley high school have also been eliminted as
well cutting off Valley Village.

They have many routes in the west end and portland, but it is extremely
difficult to plan a doctors visit at Norton Brownsboro.  The buses that run
there are actually a circulator for Norton Commons.  The closest rout would
let you out on Shelbyville road/Dorsey lane and according to the tarc website
you will have to walk 1.4 miles on dorsey which has no sidewalks and is
extremely dangerous.

We lost over 200 employees due to transportation and those that hung in there
eventually got bit by the strict no excuses attendance policy.

As for getting to the Summit (now called the paddock) where the "elite"" of
Louisville now shop, the closest bus stop on any route is brownsboro and
simcoe where there is a small HUD apartment complex... that requires a 4.8
mile walk on a road with no sidewalks and very little room between the guard
rails and drop offs to safely walk.

The Summit is absolutely inaccessable by tarc.

There is a bus route to Norton Brownsboro hospital... but with connections
the ride (one way) from the west end is 4 hours long  one way to get there and
you will have to get your business done in less than an hour because the only
ride home takes 5.5 hours.

Not exactly good service if you ask me.  It's accessible, but barely.

St. Matthews is an entirely different story.  Oxmoor mall is showing it's age
and we visited Mall St. Matthews a bit ago and found many empty shops there. 
Jefferson Mall is about to lose it's sears and now has two major anchor
stores gone.  It's also the #3 most dispatched run for the police the #1 is
the outer loop super walmart in Fairdale where they have had their fifth
shooting in the parking lot just last week.

They are now on their decline and from what I'm told by officers that work
off duty is they are getting robbed blind by heroin addicted shoplifters. 
Most of them get there not by car but by, drumroll please, the City Bus. 
Since the routes are easier to get to St. Matthews and the area north of the
waterson in the east the area is more accessible to the area where most of
the people who are booked into the jail live.

All the nicer retail is now out at the Summit and beyond past the snyder.  
Oldham County and prospect definitively do not want TARC out there.  I've
been to the Metro Council meetings where they were talking about the TARC
budget and transportation.  We just got a riverport grant to add new routes
towards where I live to bring workers to the riverport.  Before that it
barely covered the traditional shifts for the riverport.

I also serve on the economic board for southwest Louisville... the business
owners have no problem blaming Tarc and the "Feral Teenagers" from the west
end for vandalism, property damage and theft in their businesses.

You can use Dixie Highway and three major businesses that left... Dixie Dozen
Theaters, Target, Dillards, and The once thriving Dixie Manor mall as a case
study of what that crowd did to the economy out here.

And our police coverage out here is spread thin... I know the officers well
they do what they can and are very reluctant to even arrest major shoplifters
because the time it takes to transport and book them Downtown usually takes
them out of our community for more than 2 hours.

It does not help that the "Feral Teenagers" that move around on the bus get
to ride all they want for free... because they are in the "disadvantaged" end
of town.

As for my end of town... merger was -not- our friend.

One of the things I analyzed when I worked for Metro Corrections was what
areas did most of the people who were booked in the jail live... It's not
prospect, or the far east end (norton Commons area) It's not St. Matthews...
Fairdale has it's share of it, but there is very little TARC Bus access there
either.  Most of the bookings come from Shively, PRP, The West End, Portland,
and the poorer areas of souther indiana across the sherman minton where their
housing projects are.

I even took it to the next level on my own and seen how many of them had a
bus pass and actively used it.  When I presented that study it was taken and
put in the shredder.  I was told never to pursue those statistics again
because TARC gives the city points on our "livability" and "Greenhouse gas
reduction" that attracts new businesses to Louisville.  So does the Bike lanes
but that's another rant for another day.

Allen

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