This month’s Highlands Hero is Jason Canuel, Director of Louisville Metro Parks and Recreation.

If you’ve noticed more energy, investment, and momentum around Louisville’s parks in recent years, there’s a good chance Jason has had something to do with it.

Jason has spent years working inside Louisville Metro Parks helping oversee everything from deferred maintenance and capital improvements to long-term planning and community engagement efforts. Under his leadership, Louisville has seen major investments in parks, trails, pools, playgrounds, accessibility improvements, and neighborhood public spaces across the city. That work is especially visible in Cherokee and Tyler Parks, two places that mean a great deal to District 8. They are gathering places, landmarks, and part of the fabric of daily life in the Highlands. Caring for them means more than maintenance alone — it means protecting spaces that hold memories, routines, and a strong sense of community.

What I especially appreciate about Jason’s approach is his understanding that parks are about much more than recreation. Parks are public health infrastructure. They are economic development assets. They are gathering places. They are community spaces where kids play, neighbors connect, and families build memories together.

He also consistently emphasizes the importance of listening to communities directly when shaping park investments — whether through public engagement around pool redesigns, neighborhood park improvements, or projects like the Woodford Greenway. 

District 8 benefits enormously from great parks and public spaces, and those spaces only thrive because of the people willing to steward and improve them over the long term.

Thank you, Jason, for your leadership, partnership, and commitment to helping make Louisville truly a “City of Parks.”

One of the most exciting developments in District 8 is the continued progress toward the Woodford Greenway — and recently we celebrated a major milestone that brings the project one step closer to reality.

This effort has been years in the making and reflects the work of an incredible coalition of neighbors, advocates, organizations, and public servants working together around a shared vision for a more connected Louisville.

A huge thank you to Cherokee Park Rehabilitation for the generous three-quarter-acre land donation that made this next phase possible. That donation helps create a critical connection between Woodford Place, Cherokee Park, and the Douglass Community Center while adding nearly two acres of public greenspace and walkability to the area.

This project also would not exist without the sustained leadership and advocacy of the Highlands-Douglass Neighborhood Association, whose neighborhood plan has included this vision since 2006. HDNA members and volunteers helped organize support, raise more than $25,000 for trail construction, and keep momentum alive over many years of planning and partnership-building. 

I’m also grateful for the partnership of Louisville Metro Parks and Recreation, Olmsted Parks Conservancy, Louisville Metro Public Works and Transportation, and the many community volunteers who contributed time, expertise, and energy to move this from idea to implementation. Metro Transportation is now designing a safer crosswalk at Park Boundary Road, funded through a partnership between our office and HDNA. 

One of the most meaningful aspects of this project is the impact it will have on kids and families. For the first time, children attending summer camps at the Douglass Community Center will be able to safely walk to Cherokee Park without needing to take a bus the short distance between the two spaces. Neighbors, rehabilitation residents, visitors, and families will also have safer opportunities to access parks and community spaces without needing to drive. 

Projects like this remind me what is possible when residents, nonprofits, institutions, and government work together patiently and collaboratively. The Woodford Greenway is about more than a trail. It’s about connectivity, public health, accessibility, sustainability, and creating neighborhoods where people can move safely and feel connected to one another.

This is exactly the kind of community-centered investment that helps Louisville grow stronger over time.

You can read more about the project here.

Last week I was proud to represent the district at the Louisville Forum. One of the themes that came through clearly during the discussion on the Bardstown Road corridor is this: Bardstown Road is on the come up.

Yes, there are real challenges we continue working through around noise, traffic, public safety, housing pressures, and balancing nightlife with neighborhood quality of life. But stepping back, it’s also important to recognize what’s happening here: people want to be on Bardstown Road.

New businesses are opening. Restaurants and music venues are investing. Sidewalks are busy. Neighborhood organizations are engaged. People are choosing to live, work, gather, and spend time in this corridor because it remains one of the most vibrant and authentic places in Louisville.

That energy matters.

Cities have struggling with vacant commercial corridors and declining neighborhood activity and after years of heroic effort, it feels like we're reversing that trend. That's why I'm calling  for a strategic planing process, building on the great work that has already been done, to help us chart our own future in a thoughtful way engaging all of our stakeholders.

At the Louisville Forum, I appreciated hearing perspectives from residents, business owners, advocates, and public safety officials who all care deeply about the future of the corridor. While there are disagreements about tactics, there was broad agreement that nobody wants to lose what makes Bardstown Road special.

And what makes it special is not just nightlife or commerce — it’s the ecosystem. Independent businesses. Walkability. Music. Density. Parks. Coffee shops. Housing. Weirdness. Creativity. Community. The feeling that you can run into your neighbors while also meeting someone completely new.

The work ahead is making sure we invest in the infrastructure and public spaces needed to support that growth responsibly: safer streets, cleaner corridors, better transit connections, housing options at multiple price points, and systems that address mental health and substance use challenges compassionately and effectively.

The future of Bardstown Road shouldn’t be about preserving it in amber. It should be about helping it evolve while protecting the things people love most about it.

That’s the work in front of us — and I’m optimistic about where we’re headed.

You can watch the full Louisville Forum discussion here.

One of the things that makes Louisville special is the number of people willing to share their knowledge, passions, and skills with their neighbors — and our local gardening community is a great example of that spirit.

This year, Farmington Historic Plantation is hosting a series of gardening workshops and nature classes presented by the Jefferson County Master Gardeners Association. From practical gardening tips to opportunities to learn more about native plants, sustainability, and the ecosystems around us, these workshops are a great way for both new and experienced gardeners to connect with the community and spend time outdoors.

Programs like these help build stronger neighborhoods, encourage stewardship of our shared spaces, and create opportunities for people of all ages to learn together. Especially at a time when many of us are looking for ways to feel more connected — to nature and to one another — these kinds of community-centered educational opportunities matter. This is also why we need to fund programs like the Jefferson County Soil and Water Extension office.  When people understand how food is produced and have the knowledge to produce it themselves, it changes the conversation about health, both mental and physical. 

I’m grateful to the Jefferson County Master Gardeners Association and the team at Farmington for continuing to invest in hands-on learning and public programming here in District 8.

You can find schedules, registration information, and additional details at:
• Farmington Historic Plantation: www.visitfarmington.org
• Jefferson County Master Gardeners Association: www.jcmgaky.org

Hope to see some D8 neighbors out in the gardens this season.