Moving Downtown Forward: Adapt and Reinvent
A vibrant, thriving downtown creates a place where people want to live, new residents want to move, visitors fall in love, and everyone feels welcome. Some of the best places in the world include a city center where citizens can shop, work, and enjoy cultural and recreational activities, within a short walk or ride.
We now have the opportunity to leverage the dramatic changes we’ve faced to adapt and reinvent our city center. How do we use what the past two years have taught us, the gaps it has uncovered, and the changes it has caused, to redefine what downtown can be and do for Louisville? How can we create a more vibrant, resilient, and equitable urban core?
This will be the focus of the Bingham Fellows Class of 2022 – Moving Downtown Forward: Adapt and Reinvent.
Crisis brings the rare opportunity to rebuild, and Louisville’s downtown has been one of the areas most impacted. We will use this moment to examine our urban core and build a better backbone, allowing our city to grow both economically and socially. We will explore opportunities to adapt and evolve:
- How do we increase foot traffic, not just during games and working hours?
- How can we repurpose vacant office space as the ways we work have evolved?
- How do we make downtown a people-centric place, integrated into the lives of our residents?
- How do we support locally owned small businesses and strengthen our community’s local assets?
- How can we improve mobility, reduce traffic, and expand pedestrian infrastructure?
- How might we create corridors to better connect and increase access to our downtown amenities?
- How can we better address homelessness, prioritize public safety, and turn around perception?
- How will we invest as we rethink the ways in which downtown can serve its people?
The 2022 Bingham Fellows will focus on these areas hard-hit by the pandemic, to create a more vibrant, resilient, and equitable urban core. Louisville deserves a downtown that inspires excitement and pride. If you have a passion for creating positive change for our city and the people in it, we encourage you to apply today.
Bingham Fellows 2022 Program Calendar
Program days are on Thursdays unless otherwise noted:
January 20, 2022 Orientation Class of 2022 – Project Launch Event for Class of 2021 (mandatory)
February 3, 2022
February 24, 2022
March 24, 2022
April 21, 2022
May 19, 2022 Retreat Day 1 (mandatory)
May 20, 2022 Retreat Day 2 (mandatory)
June 23, 2022
July 21, 2022
August 25, 2022
September 29, 2022
October 20, 2022
November 10, 2022
December 8, 2022 (1-7 p.m.)
January 26, 2023 Project Launch Event
Make-up Day (in the event a program day needs to be rescheduled):
May 3, 2022
