Gerth: Louisville lawyer wages 16-year battle with city over 'dangerous' sidewalks

It started some 16 years ago with a letter complaining about the condition of the sidewalk outside his downtown law office, and it’s turned into a yearly exercise John DeCamillis has grown to call “Shawshanking.”

He named it after the Oscar-nominated “Shawshank Redemption” — most specifically when Tim Robbins’ character, Andy Dufresne, wrote the state legislature each week, year-after-year asking for money for the prison’s library.

“(The) appropriations committee voted an annual payment of $500 just to shut him up,” Morgan Freeman narrates.

The sidewalk in front of a parking lot next to DeCamillis’ office is crumbling. There is one spot where a piece of metal that used to serve as a base for a traffic sign sticks up an inch or so from the ground and frequently trips people who are walking, DeCamillis said.

Unlike in the movie, DeCamillis hasn’t written each week. He’s just written each year. And unlike in the movie, he hasn’t convinced the powers that be to give him what he’s been asking for.

He began with well-thought-out, type-written letters that explained the problem and sought a solution.

In 2010 he wrote former Metro Council member David Tandy thanking him for meeting with him to discuss the issue. “As I have pointed out to you, and as the attached pictures evidence, this part of the sidewalk is in very poor condition with many cracks and potholes,” he wrote on Sept. 14.

“Recently, with the Dalai Lama’s visit, we noticed a substantial increase in pedestrian traffic on Third Street from Jefferson. Our downtown visitors are forced to continue to navigate around several dangerous fragments on the West side of the street as has been the case for several years,” he wrote May 28, 2013.

As the years go on, you can tell DeCamillis is getting more and more frustrated. His letters get more and more snarky.

In 2014, he abandoned the formal, type-written business letters and started handwriting his message on his office’s letterhead, and instead of ending the letters with his full name — John A. DeCamillis — he starts signing them with a variety of shortened names and nicknames.

He often noted his office’s proximity to the KFC Yum! Center.

“We begin yet another basketball season in our state of the art arena,” he scrawled to Tandy on Nov. 6, 2014, ”yet the sidewalks some 300 feet away from the front doors remain in the same decrepit/dangerous condition. I will spare you my annual updated photos — they would be identical to last year.”

He signed that one “John D.”

“Greetings David!” he wrote Oct. 30, 2015. “Our Cards begin another new season this Sunday in Louisville’s spectacular venue.

“Yet, a half of a block away we have the same, old sidewalks.”

He signed that one “John DeC.”

The next year, DeCamillis gave up all hope of ever getting the sidewalks repaired.

Writing to former Metro Council member David James for the first time, he noted all the changes that had gone on since he signed an agreement to create the Downtown Management District in 1991 but that the sidewalk on the block where his office is has never been repaired.

Over those years, he wrote, “You/we have demolished ‘The Milner,’ built the KIConvCenter and Yum! Center, and are now demolishing that same convention center.”

“Next year, about this same time, ‘I will reach out with … concerns.’”

He signed that one, “John Deke,” using the nickname he has used since at least high school.

This year's letter addressed to public works director Jennifer Caummisar-Kern is two paragraphs long and doesn’t even mention the sidewalk until the second paragraph. Instead, it complains about graffiti on a city-owned parking garage.

“I’ve included our annual ‘sidewalk photos’; albeit, we have no expectation they will also be addressed,” DeCamillis wrote. He also sent copies to “The Same Crew,” and didn’t even sign his name.

Occasionally, he received some interest from city officials, like in 2010 when Patty Clare, a former administrator with the Downtown Development Agency wrote to say, “We want to get it done as does the Mayor (Jerry Abramson) and let’s figure it out.” But nothing became of it.

In 2018, someone named “Dustin” from Mayor Greg Fischer’s office wrote to DeCamillis asking to speak with him.

DeCamillis’ notes on that phone call suggest that “Dustin” thought the issue of the sidewalk was “lost in the shuffle” and that it was just a matter of budgeting to do the work. Nothing became of that either.

Now, I’m getting a different story from city officials.

Scottie Ellis, a spokeswoman for Mayor Craig Greenberg, said Public Works told her it couldn’t repair the sidewalk because it’s at a driveway to a garage owned by Actor’s Theatre and because it’s a “commercial entrance,” it’s the “responsibility of the owner.”

That’s not quite right. The problems are actually at the entrance to a lot owned by FBM Properties.

In 16 years of haggling with the city over this, DeCamillis said no one ever told him they couldn’t repair the sidewalk because it was at an entrance to a parking lot. Jim Fox, the founder and owner of FBM, said the city never told him he was responsible for the repairs either.

Both believe It should be up to the city.

“Now that’s a 1st — walk up and down Main Street,” DeCamillis said in an email. “Commercial entrances? Really!”

Looks like he’ll be writing again next year.

Joseph Gerth can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at jgerth@courierjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville lawyer fights 16 years to get downtown sidewalks repaired