LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The blast of a train horn was about the only thing that interrupted the almost constant humming of drills and buzzing of saws at an apartment complex near the corner of 32nd Street and Grand Avenue in west Louisville.
There, on a chilly Monday afternoon, contractors replaced doors and windows of units that were pierced by a shroud of gunfire last Tuesday.
Neal Robertson shook his head at the aftermath.
"One of the houses up there was shot 28 times from the front and the back," he said. "It takes you in another dimension of life, you know, trying to understand that life is so valuable — so precious. But, in a heartbeat — a minute — you can be gone."
As Robertson paced through the complex, he looked down as a bundle of now-wilted flowers for the 20 year old man who was shot and killed at the same complex in late December.
"We're here to help," Robertson commented.Â
Robertson wasn’t there to help repair the apartment; instead, the leader of the West Louisville Urban Coalition wants to repair a bigger problem: Louisville’s violent spike.
"We've been dealing with it so much, it's like a day in the park," he said.
Gunfire damaged this door and others at an apartment complex on Grand Avenue in Louisville, Ky. (WDRB Photo)
Robertson and others have just unveiled a multi-part plan that would seek to sway people away from crime with five goals:
- More vocational training
- More career building skills
- More mental health treatment
- More affordable housing
- Safe havens for gang members ready to leave the gang lifestyle
"If you're in a gang, and you wanted to refrain being in that type of activity and that type of environment, where would you go?" Robertson said.
He and his allies have had plenty of differences with Mayor Greg Fischer, other city leaders, and even nonprofits that work on similar goals, but he says they must work past those differences.
"And if that doesn't happen, we'll be fighting against each other, tearing each other down, but in the midst of all this, kids are dying while we're playing these games," he said.
He said the city should make the first move and start developing an action plan with the community's assistance.
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