Warning:

(This story is an editorial. It covers topics that may be sensitive to some people, such as; segregation, racism, poverty,and other possibly sensitive topics.)

Our city is beautiful. When I moved here from Los Angeles in 2021, I was told that no matter where I went, I would see beautiful trees, animals, and smiling faces full of laughter. I wasn’t lied to. I can go to a park or downtown; I can walk down the street and see the living evidence of what I was told. But what I wasn’t told was that where there is light, there is always a shadow.

As I walk down the street, and I see the beauty of our city, I also see the misery that is hidden behind it. I see homelessness. I see pain. I see poverty. This makes me furious. How could there be so much joy, laughter, and smiles in one part of a city when other people just down the road are struggling to put food on the table for their families? After a while, I decided I had to do something. I did a little research to find out where this problem was the worst. I wanted to figure out which areas of our city were suffering the most, so I could help. I thought there couldn’t possibly be that big of a problem. I thought I could do something if I tried hard enough, but what I found shocked me. No, it scared me. Almost an entire half of the city, called “The West End”, was labeled as the worst part of the city. So now, I will investigate and attempt to uncover the truth. Let me tell you about the part of our city that has been labeled as “poor,” “dangerous,” and “bad,” about the one street that splits our city in half. Let me tell you about the reason our city is divided, how it got that way, and the reason it never changes. Let me tell you about how our “community” isn’t much of a community.

The 9th Street Divide

A big part of this problem is the Ninth Street Divide. The Ninth Street Divide is the official, unofficial barrier between the west and east ends of the city. It was created in the 1950’s & 60’s as a major traffic expressway and as a divide between poor, Black neighborhoods and wealthy, white neighborhoods. You see, unfair discriminatory policies and practices forced Black people to the less desirable neighborhoods in the city. Similar policies created by the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) prevented people in a poor neighborhood from getting home loans to buy a house and move outside of that area. By building the Ninth Street Divide the (white) city officials created a barrier between the rich and poor areas, which consequently separated white and Black areas as well. The west side of the Ninth Street Divide was also, and still is, the home of the city's big manufacturing companies, including, but definitely not limited to: The American Synthetic Rubber Company, LG&E Power, and Black Leaf Chemical. These companies create industrial pollution which makes the environment extremely harsh causing health problems among the residents of the west end. These are some of the many problems of the west end we will talk about in the next editorial of this series.

Final Words

In this series, you and I will study the ways the west and east ends of our city differ, from the way the houses were built to the businesses run in the area. We’ll learn the reasons behind the Ninth Street Divide and hear the voices of people in our city, from the government leaders to the students in our school. We will explore the west end and its  beautiful architecture and people and its historical attractions, including the Muhammad Ali Childhood Home Museum, the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage, St. Stephen Church, and Simmons College of Kentucky. We’ll explore each of its nearly dozen neighborhoods bordering the Ohio River; named Russell, Hallmark, Park Duvalle, Parkland, Beecher Terrace, Chickasaw, Shawnee, Portland,  and California. We will become more aware of our city. We have  to do something. These are our neighbors. Beautiful loving people who have been victims of redlining and systemic injustice.  This is our community.  And our community deserves better.