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panthrkub...thank you for not the typical...the Highlands is the best...yada yada yada...it's pretty much all that the area has to offer as far as 'different' or interesting neighborhood...but believe me...if you've traveled or lived anywhere else with some history or culture, one would realize how minimal and downtrodden the area really is...coming from other cities or countries, Louisville lives up to the Kentucky stereotype...although it may be a hard pill for natives and even stubborn transplants to swallow...its true.
What is minimal or downtrodden about the Highlands? You are entitled to a fairly stated opinion but I completely disagree. Just curious on your thoughts? There is not a city between Chicago and Atlanta with that kind of density, history, and amount of walkablity in one nabe with so many retail and food options all in one place that are totally UNIQUE, while mixing a nearby historic park, mid rises, upscale singe family residential, and lower end rentals and condos.
I didn't argue about a 'city between Chicago and Atlanta'. The area is downtrodden. Maybe you don't see it that way but to others that have been to other cities and countries, the area although unique in it's own right, is unkempt and in general disarray. I think this is simply what's grown as a counter-culture to the vast traditional attitude of the rest of the state and tri-state area. Like I said before, it's the mid-west - which is popular basically for low cost-of-living and traditional values - good for some - not for all.
One problems is people have more loyalty to their side of town than the city as a whole. You basically have the "Have nots" (west of I-65), the "Conservative Haves" (Eastern suburbs), and "Liberal Haves" (Inner East side). These 3 don't like each other and don't think of the city or metro as a whole.
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I agree that there is sometimes too much "loyalty" to one part of town, but posts like this really don't help the matter at all.
I-65 is not some magical dividing line. There are plenty of dumpy areas and have-nots east of 65 particularly in the Fern Creek, Poplar Level and Newburg Rd areas to just name a few.
There are a few subdivisions in SW JC that give Lake Forrest or any other east end upper middle class subdivision a run for it's money. Park Ridge, Park Ridge Woods, and Hardwood Forrest are some that come to mind immediately. Overall, it's a very segregated end of town socioeconomically, and you won't find kids from these subdivisions in the public schools (save Manual or Male) like you might in the eastern part of the county.
Sorry this isn't really on topic, but I felt it needed to be adressed.
I disagree. My love for the city is purely based on nostalgia. I was born and raised in the highlands, and each time I go back it just looks so unkempt to me. I'm used to pride being shown through well-cared-for lawns and maintained roads and buildings, just using my new neck of the woods as an example. I don't see that in Louisville except in the very affluent areas. Pride is glaringly missing from Louisville when visiting as an outsider. It just looks... poor, for lack of a better word. Like the city as a whole couldn't afford to keep on a landscaper. Or architect, construction worker, painter, ... It's as if the collective city has let itself go. I really hate to say that about my beloved home town, but it's so profound when you live some place else and then come in for a visit!
I can't believe you're making this post considering your location is Cary, NC. I was born in Louisville and raised in Cary. Cary (and Raleigh) is completely culturally bankrupt. It has no heritage and absolutely nothing to do. Maybe it's nice to sit in your house and ignore the world outside, but God forbid you try to raise children there. Complete lack of entertainment has manifested poorly for everyone I knew growing up.
And if you want to sit in your house ignoring the rest of the world, then it doesn't really matter where you live. You're dealing with an extremely small subset of what a city has to offer.
Louisville on the other hand I visit any chance I get and have only not moved back there based on out of state tuition charges (previously) and grad programs that don't fit my goals (currently). I'm absolutely in love with the place. I'm by no means an expert on the town, but I have an extremely difficult time not discrediting you based on your satisfaction with such a hellhole. Every other person I've met during my stay there that had any association with Kentucky whatsoever always preferred Kentucky.
As for national recognition of Louisville for what I believe it to be: I'm glad. Austin blew up when it became the place to go, and people I know that live there feel that it's suffering because of it. I'd prefer a secret over an explosion.
What is noticeable is that Louisvillians (and Kentuckians) view their surroundings thru rosey glasses.
Any critical comment is taken as a 13 year old girl that wakes up some morning and discovers a pimple on her nose; she's devastated, her day is ruined! How can this be?
That could be the sign of low self-esteem.
Is there anyone here not aware of Kentucky's reputation?
For the most part (which is obvious on this forum) is that Louisvillians (and Kentuckians) just plain don't give a crap about their environment. Anyone who lives here cannot help but notice that. If the neighborhood is a dump, so what! This mentality runs consistent thru anything: low performance of schools, lack of culture, and anything else. Problems will receive no more than a bored ho-hum. Unless it's the low performance of the Cards' basketball or football teams, which are unacceptable and must be fixed immediately!
Dumpy neighborhoods will not be fixed up, because the locals don't think of them as dumpy neighborhoods (the rosey glasses).
How do Louisvillians (and Kentuckians) respond: GET OUT! PACK UP AND GET OUT!
I can't believe you're making this post considering your location is Cary, NC. I was born in Louisville and raised in Cary. Cary (and Raleigh) is completely culturally bankrupt. It has no heritage and absolutely nothing to do. Maybe it's nice to sit in your house and ignore the world outside, but God forbid you try to raise children there. Complete lack of entertainment has manifested poorly for everyone I knew growing up.
And if you want to sit in your house ignoring the rest of the world, then it doesn't really matter where you live. You're dealing with an extremely small subset of what a city has to offer.
Louisville on the other hand I visit any chance I get and have only not moved back there based on out of state tuition charges (previously) and grad programs that don't fit my goals (currently). I'm absolutely in love with the place. I'm by no means an expert on the town, but I have an extremely difficult time not discrediting you based on your satisfaction with such a hellhole. Every other person I've met during my stay there that had any association with Kentucky whatsoever always preferred Kentucky.
As for national recognition of Louisville for what I believe it to be: I'm glad. Austin blew up when it became the place to go, and people I know that live there feel that it's suffering because of it. I'd prefer a secret over an explosion.
I guess you and I are just different people. And that's okay. Louisville is not culturally bankrupt, this much is true.
However, many of the citizens I've met from Louisville have been some of the nastiest, meanest, impolite jerks I've met from anywhere in the nation. And I've been to NYC, L.A., Houston, D/FW, Atlanta, Austin, and Chicago (although it's not exactly a harbinger of friendliness itself). I live near Cincinnati now, not a harbinger of friendliness, either, but overall friendlier than Louisville.
The only other cities I've been to where I've not walked away with a positive impression of the people are Orlando, Washington (DC) and Dayton (OH). But even some of suburban Dayton has some friendly small communities, Dayton's just not friendly overall in my experience.
Just personal experience. Louisville's not a crappy city, but it's not teeming with Southern hospitality like it purports itself to.
What is noticeable is that Louisvillians (and Kentuckians) view their surroundings thru rosey glasses.
Any critical comment is taken as a 13 year old girl that wakes up some morning and discovers a pimple on her nose; she's devastated, her day is ruined! How can this be?
That could be the sign of low self-esteem.
Is there anyone here not aware of Kentucky's reputation?
For the most part (which is obvious on this forum) is that Louisvillians (and Kentuckians) just plain don't give a crap about their environment. Anyone who lives here cannot help but notice that. If the neighborhood is a dump, so what! This mentality runs consistent thru anything: low performance of schools, lack of culture, and anything else. Problems will receive no more than a bored ho-hum. Unless it's the low performance of the Cards' basketball or football teams, which are unacceptable and must be fixed immediately!
Dumpy neighborhoods will not be fixed up, because the locals don't think of them as dumpy neighborhoods (the rosey glasses).
How do Louisvillians (and Kentuckians) respond: GET OUT! PACK UP AND GET OUT!
As a Kentucky native and former Louisville resident, it's unfortunate that I agree with this assessment. But I do.
You can take out Louisville and replace it with Lexington, Bowling Green, Northern Kentucky, Richmond, Paducah, etc., as well as replace Cards' with UK, WKU, EKU, etc. Same effect.
Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
26,700 posts, read 41,763,058 times
Reputation: 41381
Quote:
Originally Posted by Visvaldis
What is noticeable is that Louisvillians (and Kentuckians) view their surroundings thru rosey glasses.
Any critical comment is taken as a 13 year old girl that wakes up some morning and discovers a pimple on her nose; she's devastated, her day is ruined! How can this be?
That could be the sign of low self-esteem.
Is there anyone here not aware of Kentucky's reputation?
For the most part (which is obvious on this forum) is that Louisvillians (and Kentuckians) just plain don't give a crap about their environment. Anyone who lives here cannot help but notice that. If the neighborhood is a dump, so what! This mentality runs consistent thru anything: low performance of schools, lack of culture, and anything else. Problems will receive no more than a bored ho-hum. Unless it's the low performance of the Cards' basketball or football teams, which are unacceptable and must be fixed immediately!
Dumpy neighborhoods will not be fixed up, because the locals don't think of them as dumpy neighborhoods (the rosey glasses).
How do Louisvillians (and Kentuckians) respond: GET OUT! PACK UP AND GET OUT!
I may be speaking out of turn here but I've been here for 7 months and if anything I think Kentuckians are pretty evenly honest about where they live. Of course, it could be that I live in a military area where people have come from worst places or been to them but people here are honest about the area's shortcomings.
Could residents of dumpy neighborhoods in Louisville (as well as Radcliff) be more demanding of better for their neighborhoods? Sure. But for six years, I had the inverse problem in Northern VA. If you want to talk about rosy-colored glasses, that is most of NoVA on steroids. Heck just go to that forum to see it for yourself. Anyone who thinks it aint the best place to be will be strongly rebuked.
NoVA also thinks it should come first to get their problems addressed regardless of how urgent the rest of the state of Virginia needs to get its problems fixed. For example, I-64 from Richmond to Hampton Roads (two considerably sized metro areas) is only two lanes as well as many of the bridges and tunnels in the Hampton Roads area while NoVA has gotten several new road projects in under 5 years. NoVA school districts also recently swiped money from cash=strapped districts in Southern VA despite the fact they usually fund their own schools anyway.
Kentucky has a bad reputation across the country from folks you wouldn't living in your airspace anyway. Ok. Can you define what you think is a dumpy neighborhood?
What is noticeable is that Louisvillians (and Kentuckians) view their surroundings thru rosey glasses.
...which is not too uncommon. If you surf around the City-Data forums you'll find siliar myopia on the part of the locals in other places.
Then there are the posters like Ecletic Ears, for whom the grass is apparently always greener...eslewhere. Negative on Louisville after a stint there, now equally negative on Cincinnati:
Quote:
Agree with the bolded!
I live in Cincy now. Enjoyed it for the first 5-6 months. Now I'm looking forward to the day when I can fly on outta here faster than 768mph (appx. speed of sound).
Add to that that Cincy has sad, unhappy, surly, and often rude and condescending people. And that is often reflected in the customer service, too.
In fact, I would even rank Cincy up there with the large cities of the BosWash corridor in terms of general rudeness.
The place has been a huge disappointment for me. I came here with an excited attitude, optimistic outlook and really hoping to like it.
...sure. Can't wait to get out of town, and then awhile in a different place and can't wait to get out of there, either.
Ok. Can you define what you think is a dumpy neighborhood?
Hah, Louisville has more than a few!
But I'd like to hear this too. Although not by Visvaldis, this comment is particularly entertaining:
Quote:
I was born and raised in the highlands, and each time I go back it just looks so unkempt to me.
The Highlands seems to be one of the best kept-up neighborhoods, though the areas north of, say, Winter or Grinstead, west of Bardstown and Baxter, the so-called 'Original Highlands," has aged. Yet this is ALSO an area that is seeing a lot of reinvestment, in people buying old properties and fixing them up.
The parts of the Highlands south of Grinstead along Baxter, and between Cherokee Park and Bardstown Rd seem to be in pretty good shape, still.
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My love for the city is purely based on nostalgia. I was born and raised in the highlands, and each time I go back it just looks so unkempt to me. I'm used to pride being shown through well-cared-for lawns and maintained roads and buildings, just using my new neck of the woods as an example. I don't see that in Louisville except in the very affluent areas. Pride is glaringly missing from Louisville when visiting as an outsider. It just looks... poor, for lack of a better word. Like the city as a whole couldn't afford to keep on a landscaper. 
Or architect, construction worker, painter, ... 
It's as if the collective city has let itself go. I really hate to say that about my beloved home town, but it's so profound when you live some place else and then come in for a visit!
