Student project at Westport Middle School addresses city’s vacant lot issue

Transforming Louisville one vacant lot at a time is the goal of a student project at Westport Middle School.Seventh-grade students like Michaela Williams are the future, so it's important their ideas are invested in it.The Vacant Lot Project affords her and other Westport Middle School students in the Explorer Program that opportunity. They’re addressing the thousands of empty lots sitting in Louisville, primarily downtown and in west Louisville.Williams and her group's solution is a sports and entertainment center on North 26th Street in the Portland neighborhood.“So people who can get to a gym can get there easier because it'll be in their neighborhood and more reachable,” Williams said.On Friday, students presented their ideas, which included community gardens, a basketball court, and affordable homes. They researched the properties and learned about financing, equity, and sustainability with help from business professionals from Fifth Third Bank and the Metro's Office for Housing and Community Development.“We try to not limit them on what their ideas can or can't be, and just kind of see where their head is at,” said Chris Robinson from the Office of Housing. “The earlier people understand it's an issue, the more they can know about it, and more they can do about it.”The project teaches students that their ideas and their voices matter, but they're also learning about ownership in adulthood.“I can't tell you that I did that in the seventh grade,” said Rachel Frydlewicz, the school’s business and communication pathway teacher. “When they graduate high school, they can look forward to buying a house, they know the responsible thing to do about getting a loan, and they'll know how many years it takes to pay the loan back. They're learning all of these fundamentals at an age that's very impressionable.”The effort to imagine investing in community has been a passion project for Frydlewicz for the past five years. She hopes it grows and sheds light on other city problems and solutions.“Just overall develop a better economic development for certain zip codes,” she said. The Office for Housing and Community Development was awarded a $25,000 national grant to create another student-led project to reduce the city's vacant lots.