Historic Preservation in Paducah

Many people have heard of the artist relocation program in Paducah, KY (a testament to the efforts of their publicist). The artisit relocation program is not a downtown redevelopment project. It is a historic preservation program in a residential neighborhood.

Lower Town was a neighborhood of shabby older houses that had for the most part been divided into substandard apartments by absentee landloards. The city's approach to this problem neighborhood was to allow the houses to deteriorate until they were abandoned. Then the city condemned them and bulldozed them.

A new city adminstration sympathetic to historic preservation and a local artist with a vision gave birth to the artist relocation program.

The first thing that was done was to adopt a strcit rental-licensing ordinance. As you can imagine this was not without controversy. Low income residents were displaced and landlords were forced to upgrade properties.

Since artists have a need for affordable houses where they can both work and live they were chosen as the target group for the Lower Town properties.

A large amount of information about the artist relocation program is available.

Search: artist relocation paducah ky

Here is a good article from Preservation Online:
http://www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/archives/arch_story/051702.htm

The Artist Relocation website:
http://www.paducaharts.com

And the Courier-Journal's coverage of the controversy:
www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2004/01/03ky/wir-fronts0103-9871.html