According to a report in today’s Wall Street Journal:
Louisville’s past was built on race horses, bourbon
and baseball bats, but the city is staking its future on Somali Bantu
and other immigrants flocking here from across the globe. As neighbors
like Nashville join a national wave of cities drafting ordinances
designed to repel many foreigners, Louisville’s business and political
leadership is working aggressively to absorb immigrants.In speeches, Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson champions
the city’s immigrants, whom he calls “internationals.” In each of the
past four years, he has handed out “international awards” to
individuals, companies and organizations working to integrate and
improve the lot of newcomers. “Communities that embrace diversity are
going to be the most successful,” says the mayor, who has been at the
city’s helm for most of the past two decades and avoids distinguishing
between legal and illegal immigrants.
September 20th, 2007 at 10:06 am
I’m quite proud of our fellow Kentuckians for this. I’m so hopeful they will reap the downstream benefits of such open-mindedness, diversity, and awareness of what makes a city great for the new economic reality.
September 22nd, 2007 at 11:05 pm
West Virginia is challenged by a lack of diversity. A working group of state professionals recently outlined this problem within a white paper entitled “Culture, Creativity, and Innovation: West Virginia in the New Economy.” Our public officials need to realize that the “creative classes” will bypass the state so long as we are perceived as intolerant.