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Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg starts term with community open house

The city welcomed everyone into Metro Hall, so people could meet the new mayor and his new administration.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Freshly-minted Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg spent the first few hours of his administration greeting the public at an open house inside Metro Hall. 

The Greenberg administration previously said they were prepared for thousands of visitors. WHAS11 experienced a very crowded Metro Hall Monday, with at least a few hundred visitors by 2 p.m. 

A spokesperson for the mayor told WHAS11 about 1,300 people cam by the open house Monday.

Those who came represented a wide range of Louisvillians, from Metro employees, to city leaders, to families. 

Cheri Rose, who works with a non-profit, said she was excited about the new administration and had already met Greenberg on the campaign trail. She hopes he'll focus on growth and economic progress. 

"Cincinnati, Nashville, Indianapolis -- I feel like we've fallen behind, so I want to see us grow our economy," Rose said. 

Dennis Terrell, another visitor, said curbing city violence should be a priority. 

"I think we have to take away the fear, we have to take away the fear. If you want people to come back downtown, relieve the fear," he said. 

Not everyone, though, came with congratulations in mind. 

One group brought signs of protest, wanting to speak about their frustrations with city government and calling Greenberg and his team the "same faces." 

"How do you have a new direction with the same faces?" Shonda Lee said. "I would like for them to have real community conversations, with people of the community. They often say that they're having community conversation, with no one from the community." 

Crowds and lines of people, waiting to meet Greenberg and incoming city leaders like Deputy Mayor Barbara Sexton Smith and Interim Police Chief Jacquelyn Villa-Roel lined the rotunda outside of the Mayor's Gallery well into the afternoon. 

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