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Louisville, Kentucky is the 16th largest city in the United States with a population of nearly 700,000 residents. It is the economic center of a 23-county, two-state ?Kentuckiana? region of 1.3 million covering 16 counties in north-central Kentucky and 7 counties in southern Indiana.
Founded in 1778 as a trading center at the Falls of the Ohio River, Louisville continues as a transportation and distribution center with three interstate highways, the overnight air hub of UPS, a regional rail hub for CSX Transportation, Inc., and freight traffic on the Ohio that rivals the Panama Canal.
Louisville is a regional center for medicine and health care, with a national reputation for hand surgery, organ transplants, treatment of spinal disease and research into cancer and microcirculatory disease. The city also serves as one of the world?s major cargo hubs, largely thanks to UPS, whose international air operations are based here. Louisville ?s two Ford plants make two of the country?s most popular vehicles the F-series pickup truck and the Explorer SUV. And as global headquarters for General Electric?s Consumer Products division, the city is refrigerator-designer to the world.
Three Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in Louisville Humana, , and Yum! Brands (home of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell). Other household-name companies based, and founded, in Louisville include Papa John?s International, Brown-Forman and Hillerich and Bradsby.
Conventions and tourism are a major force in the economy as well, with more than a million square feet of exposition space in and near downtown, attractions ranging from historic Churchill Downs to prehistoric fossil beds in Southern Indiana, and 134 festivals a year capped by one of the country?s largest free celebrations, the three-week Kentucky Derby Festival. New attractions coming online include the Muhammad Ali Center opening in November, 2005, and world-class events including the Breeders? Cup in 2006, the Senior Olympics in 2007, and the Ryder Cup in 2008. In addition, Louisville is one of only 11 U.S. cities with a full complement of professional, resident performing arts groups: theater, an orchestra, opera, ballet and children?s theater.
Louisville made national civic news when it became the first large city in 30 years to vote a merger of its city and county governments, launched in 2003 with a metropolitan mayor and 26-member Metro Council. Another merger several years earlier consolidated public and private economic development entities into Greater Louisville Inc., now the dominant business organization in the region. In addition, a Regional Leadership Coalition of private-sector leaders pursues large infrastructure projects in the two-state area and educates civic activists about regional issues.
Louisville Mayor Jerry E. Abramson recently unveiled the nation?s largest current initiative to develop urban parkland, a ?City of Parks ? plan that will invest more than $50 million in thousands of acres of new parks and a 100-mile walking/biking loop around the community.
Source: FutureWorks and Greater Louisville Inc.
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