"Back In Action" January 9th, 2008 - Courier Journal - ARTICLE

"Back In Action"

North Iroquois seeks to attack issues and improve neighborhood

By Bill Pike
bpike@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

The revived North Iroquois Neighborhood Association is asking residents to complete a survey to help with efforts to improve the neighborhood.

North Iroquois leaders, who distributed surveys at recent association meetings, hope the results will help them and metro Louisville officials determine how to improve the area.



A link to the survey -- developed by the Center for Neighborhoods, a local nonprofit group that develops neighborhoods -- is available at www.centerforneighborhoods.org (scroll to bottom right). Residents, whether they're association members or not, are invited to complete the survey.

North Iroquois is bounded by Berry Boulevard, Palatka, New Cut and Manslick roads, and Peachtree Avenue.

"There's a slew of issues in our neighborhood," said Mark Irwin, the association's vice president. Issues include the vacant Jacob Elementary School, crime, an increasing number of rental houses and the need to support businesses along Taylor Boulevard.

The biggest question involves the future of Iroquois Homes, a public housing complex off Taylor Boulevard, said Irwin, who is leading efforts to revive the association with its president, Michael Tackett.

The Louisville Metro Housing Authority began razing buildings in the run-down, barracks-style complex about five years ago, said Tim Barry, the agency's director. By the end of this year, the agency hopes to have all 47 buildings south of Bicknell Avenue razed. That would amount to about half of the complex, which has 635 units.

Officials hope to raze the rest in perhaps five years, Barry said.

Metro officials would like to develop housing on the site that would include affordable units, but they first must determine whether underground water would limit development there, said Barry, who added that officials welcome residents' suggestions regarding the property.

The survey is part of a three-step process to determine needs in north Iroquois, said Jack Trawick, director of the Center for Neighborhoods.

One of the other steps calls for assembling demographic and housing data to provide a "snapshot" of north Iroquois. The other calls for a neighborhood workshop that would review the snapshot and survey and produce a "to-do list" of neighborhood needs, Trawick said.

The Department of Neighborhoods, which is paying the center $7,500 to determine neighborhood needs, would then decide how to proceed. "The assessment should give the city a clear sense of priorities in the neighborhood," Trawick said.

North Iroquois residents who were afraid the neighborhood could go downhill revived the association last spring, after it had been inactive for about 10 years.

"Things are going well for the association," Irwin said. "We have around 40 members."

The association won't meet again until March. Officers thought winter weather would reduce attendance, Irwin said.

Irwin said north Iroquois is about "80 percent residential" with about 50 businesses, mostly on Taylor Boulevard. Residents "run the gamut" in age and income, he said.

The North Iroquois group incorporated in 1991 with 25 members.

Led by three-term President Audrey Kendrick, who died in 1996, the association helped officials deal with speeders, high water, unsavory characters, dogs, garbage and abandoned cars. The association also pushed officials to install a traffic light at Brookline Avenue and Taylor Boulevard following a fatal accident there.

"Neighborhood associations go through a life cycle," Trawick said. "They wane and then new folks come along and get them going again."

Reporter Bill Pike can be reached at (502) 582-4243.