where did COVstreets start?

COVstreets isn’t the first grassroots effort to imagine Covington streets that are safer and more user-friendly for everybody. Citizen groups like RidetheCov and the Devou Good Foundation, for example, have researched and designed cycling infrastructure and general traffic calming measures, partly in response to recent pedestrian and cyclist deaths on city roadways. Well-organized campaigns presented thoughtful, concrete proposals for improvements to the city’s board of commissioners. Others have tracked Kentucky Transportation Cabinet proposals and sought assistance from Covington leaders in advocating for the interests of city residents affected by broader infrastructure projects. And from time to time, neighbors band together in smaller groups to ask the city to address safety concerns at poorly-designed intersections and along streets where heavy vehicle traffic leads to collisions and endangers pedestrians. Folks live in Covington for the convenience that dense urban living affords, and they see the potential for an even more walkable and people-centered streets — they imagine a Covington that leads the tri-state in cutting-edge street-engineering that serves all residents.

Those who follow city politics and attend board meetings know that Covington mayors and commissioners have tended to dismiss the reasonable concerns citizens have communicated, sometimes with outright (and inexplicable) hostility. While residents understand funding limitations and the constraints imposed by the overlapping jurisdiction of KYTC (as well as infrastructure-managing utilities), many are frustrated by the inertia that deadens progress on safety and up-to-date streetscape design. While nearby cities have adopted aggressive traffic-calming measures, studied and prioritized pedestrian safety, and expanded cycling infrastructure, Covington has resisted citizen requests for even the most basic safety and traffic-calming engineering like speed cushions. And even projects that the city has approved — at significant taxpayer expense — have missed opportunities to incorporate infrastructure that wouldn’t have increased project cost or compromised primary objectives. In the conversion of Scott and Greenup Streets to two-way traffic flow, for example — a move which residents in affected neighborhood opposed — the city didn’t even consider an alternative that would have achieved its traffic-calming goal without disrupting existing traffic patterns: maintain one-way traffic on each street while replacing one vehicle lane with a bike lane.

COVstreets founder Aaron Wolpert was well-acquainted with all this when he mounted a campaign for a seat on the board of commissioners in 2024. Though he was personally concerned with streetscapes, he expected that most residents were broadly satisfied with street conditions and on balance accepted commissioners’ argument that the city’s budget and planning priorities lay elsewhere. He was wrong. On porches in every neighborhood, the answers to the opening question ‘what’s going on in your neighborhood?’ clustered (overwhelmingly) around ‘people drive too fast down my street,’ ‘I’m worried about the safety of kids on the sidewalk,’ ‘this one-way isn’t adequately signed,’ ‘parked cars frequently block our street from emergency access,’ and so on. Street safety and conditions easily outpaced every other concern, and this was independent of any prompting questions. And Aaron found that just about everyone was on board with standard traffic calming measures like speed cushions, for example, even after discussing potential costs.

That Covington residents want better streets shows the progressive vision that animates this city. Unfortunately, that vision was balanced with far too many examples of resistance at city hall. Folks told Aaron about banding together with neighbors to ask the city to install speed bumps on problem stretches, only to get flatly nonsensical explanations why this couldn’t happen — snow plows, liability exposure, and so on. (Yes, really.) Residents in Tuscany have spent years asking the city to develop a plan to deliver emergency services when the steep climb up Tuscanyview Drive — the only way in or out for over 1,000 residents — is blocked by an accident or other obstruction. Like the tree that fell this spring and blocked it for over an hour. ‘Not our problem; take it up with Kenton County,’ says the city. Parking enforcement, intersection safety, bike lanes, consistent paving schedules, missing sidewalks…and for the majority of these basic requests? Silence from the city, or more excuses for inaction. Have we mentioned that Covington doesn’t employ a traffic engineer?

And when residents keep at it, against the odds? We talked to one longtime Covingtonian who was hit by a car while crossing the street from her front door. It took two years to negotiate the installation of a stop sign — one stop sign — in response.

So on the one hand, a clear mandate from citizens for streetscape improvements…but on the other no political will even for inexpensive, incremental improvements. Hence COVstreets. If the mayor and commissioners don’t have time to listen, we will. If city staff aren’t given the resources to gather feedback from residents and study potential improvements, we will. And if one group of neighbors can’t get traction at city hall, COVstreets will marshal the voices of a few thousand residents in support of every neighborhood goals. Every street, every block.