I just read an article in the Courier-Journal about how droves of people turned out yesterday to protest the proposed building of a biotech lab at Shelby Campus, and it really annoyed me. As I read it, it became clear that this was just another example of what is wrong with Louisville. Now anyone who knows me knows I love Louisville, but sometimes the people of Louisville really piss me off. I hear Louisvillians complain all the time about how either a) the city gets no respect or b) the city doesn’t provide the right kind of opportunities to lure people to the city. But when the city has a chance to change both of these, the people come out, act like idiots, and keep Louisville right where it is. If we want Louisville to grow and to grow in positive ways that allow the city to keep the identity we love, we have to be open to change. We don’t have to raze everything that has made the city what it is. We don’t have to give up our accents and start pronouncing Louisville with three syllables. We don’t have to be Indianapolis or Nashville or St. Louis. We just have to be Louisville, with its potential recognized.
A biotech lab built with funding by the NIH is big-time for Louisville. It’s national recognition that Louisville has the talent and ability to perform truly important research. It would make the University of Louisville, a so-so university at best, a notch closer to being the kind of university the city deserves. It would bring talented, intelligent people to the community…people who would fall in love with the city we have and perhaps help bring solutions to some of the problems we can’t seem to solve. It would serve as a lure to other businesses which can provide Louisville with the kinds of jobs that many of us who would rather live in Louisville are moving out of state to find.
The reasons that people offered as opposition to the proposed building were absurd and ignorant. The lab would pose no increased health risk or terrorism risk to the city. Labs of this caliber are incredibly safe and secure places. Our health is more likely to be endangered by the crash of a tractor-trailer carrying biohazardous material on I-65 or the air pollution caused by the zillions of cars clogging up our roads because our city has no real interest in high-quality public transportation. The people at this meeting were being sensationalist, with no true idea of what they were talking about. What they’re really afraid of is true change, and it’s a shame. Because Louisville has got to move forward. Staying in the same place at this point is the same as moving backward. If we keep saying no, opportunities are going to quit knocking. And not only will we not gain, but we’ll probably lose a lot of the positive we already have.
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