Louisville? Think again (Lexington, Elizabethtown, St. Matthews: appointed, car insurance, violent crime)

[ihatelouisville]

Just wanted to put this out there in case any of you are considering Louisville as a potential place to move to.
I've lived there for about a year and while it could be much worse, it could also be much much better.
In fact, looking at a place like Louisville from the outside, you'd expect it to be much better than it really is.



So here are some pros and cons from my year of living there...


Pros:
- Decent spacing, lots of nature close by

- Decent night life, pretty basic
- Maybe decent cost in some places???


Cons:

- Worst drivers you'll ever encounter in your life (100% guarantee, can't emphasize this enough)
- Very poorly designed roads. I've been to many other bigger cities, never seen anything like Louisville or Louisville drivers

- Mandatory vehicle inspections before you can get your new plates along with being threatened by the inspecting sheriff for no reason as a bonus

- Very unfriendly, entitled locals with a lack of intelligence that will leave you absolutely speechless
- Generally cut customer service everywhere and bad food quality

- Not really any good restaurants I've noticed that are as good or better. than other cities And if there are, it's ruined by bad service
- Weather is all over the place, can be both good and bad
- Lots of crime





Basically, I think the only people who should move to Louisville are other Kentuckians...

If you're from out of state and from another city, you'll probably just be really disappointed like me.
I have a really good group of friends and an enjoyable job there, so that's about the only redeeming factor of being in Louisville. This is an honest review from someone who came from out of state, hoping it will help others.

[Screenwriter70]

I'd never consider moving to Louisville or anywhere else in Kentucky. Been there, done that in 1990. It was a horrid experience.

[AmericaBravoCharles]

I just paid Kentucky a visit for a week about a month ago, for work. I didn't like the negative vibe and energy in the air in Louisvile at all. Whatsoever. Lexington, just down the road, isn't overwhelmingly friendlier, but still feels "sunnier" relative to Louisville. Louisville does have some gorgeous parks and River Road, though Lexington as a whole felt cleaner and better kept.

Having moved from California to Texas last year, having lived in Singapore between my long California stints, and now having spent significant time in states like Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia and South Carolina, I am sadly drawing the conclusion that Southern hospitality is a load of bull. The only Southern state I've been to, at least so far, that I find tolerable-to-nice is North Carolina. I also like the Florida Keys, which isn't really "Southern."

[Mr. In-Between]

Well, I totally disagree - I don't think Louisville drivers are the worst at all!

Boy, are you three guys gonna get monkeypiled... but at least this time, I'm not the one who's going to get burned at the stake for it!



Edit: actually, I disagree about the restaurants, at least to an extent. It's not LA or New Orleans by any measure, but I've had some pretty darned good meals in Louisville. There are some decent places in Germantown and St. Matthews, and probably more that I just haven't tried. Bardstown road, too... Send me a PM, OP, and we'll have lunch or something. God knows we'll have plenty to talk about!

[KY_Transplant]

Originally Posted by AmericaBravoCharles

I just paid Kentucky a visit for a week about a month ago, for work. I didn't like the negative vibe and energy in the air in Louisvile at all. Whatsoever. Lexington, just down the road, isn't overwhelmingly friendlier, but still feels "sunnier" relative to Louisville. Louisville does have some gorgeous parks and River Road, though Lexington as a whole felt cleaner and better kept.

Having moved from California to Texas last year, having lived in Singapore between my long California stints, and now having spent significant time in states like Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia and South Carolina, I am sadly drawing the conclusion that Southern hospitality is a load of bull. The only Southern state I've been to, at least so far, that I find tolerable-to-nice is North Carolina. I also like the Florida Keys, which isn't really "Southern."

Yea, Louisville is, essentially, the Midwest. Not very Southern until you get to Lexington or South if Elizabethtown.

I also did not care for Louisville when I lived in Kentucky. Too insular, a lot like Cincinnati. I liked rural Kentucky much more.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Screenwriter70

I'd never consider moving to Louisville or anywhere else in Kentucky. Been there, done that in 1990. It was a horrid experience.

I live across the river in southern Indiana in Floyd County. There have been some huge improvements over the last 10 years, but I would definitely consider moving out of the region entirely. Lots of cons that offset the pros.

[ServoMiff]

OP - I am curious where you moved from, how old you are, and what your expectations were?

BTW - a certain poster should be in this thread in about 10 seconds to unequivocally refute everything you said, so just be aware.

I have a love/hate relationship with Louisville personally. There's a reason it hasn't grown to the level of Nashville and part of it is the insular personality of the natives, and the lack of foresight by local politicians to bring more white collar jobs to town outside of fast food and healthcare (which go together in an ironic way).

You're absolutely right about the bad drivers - that's been an issue since the 80's. Poorly educated, primarily blue collar workforce with the addition of being the area being very heavily tied in the alcohol industry AND terrible road design causes a lot of the problems. There's a reason my car insurance DOUBLED moving back to Louisville from San Francisco, of all places, which has more car break-ins than here by a power of 4.

I'm curious how you think locals are unfriendly. That's pretty much the exact opposite of what most people say. However, that doesn't mean that there aren't bad eggs.

I'd also like to hear your examples of poor food quality and service. I think poor service is an issue anywhere these days outside of tourist towns because of hyper employment. I travel a lot and experience generally indifferent service pretty much everywhere, with the exception of places that are super touristy. I think Louisville has great food options, although some are a bit too bougie for my taste.

What is "lots of crime"? Louisville is ranked quite low in most crime metrics for cities of similar size and larger.

The Sheriff thing is generally super easy unless you have super-duper dark tint on your windows or have a malfunction in a basic aspect of your vehicle (turn signal not working, horn broken, etc), in which case (we had dark tint coming from Florida) we were asked to go get it removed - we did and there were no problems afterward. How were you threatened?

I am open to hearing out your opinion, but I think if you're truly going to be helpful to others considering relocating here, that you'll need to provide a bit more depth to your opinions so that people can truly understand and judge your experiences versus what they might experience on their own.

[The Dissenter]

Originally Posted by ihatelouisville

Just wanted to put this out there in case any of you are considering Louisville as a potential place to move to.
I've lived there for about a year and while it could be much worse, it could also be much much better.
In fact, looking at a place like Louisville from the outside, you'd expect it to be much better than it really is.



So here are some pros and cons from my year of living there...


Pros:
- Decent spacing, lots of nature close by

- Decent night life, pretty basic
- Maybe decent cost in some places???


Cons:

- Worst drivers you'll ever encounter in your life (100% guarantee, can't emphasize this enough)
- Very poorly designed roads. I've been to many other bigger cities, never seen anything like Louisville or Louisville drivers

- Mandatory vehicle inspections before you can get your new plates along with being threatened by the inspecting sheriff for no reason as a bonus

- Very unfriendly, entitled locals with a lack of intelligence that will leave you absolutely speechless
- Generally cut customer service everywhere and bad food quality

- Not really any good restaurants I've noticed that are as good or better. than other cities And if there are, it's ruined by bad service
- Weather is all over the place, can be both good and bad
- Lots of crime





Basically, I think the only people who should move to Louisville are other Kentuckians...

If you're from out of state and from another city, you'll probably just be really disappointed like me.
I have a really good group of friends and an enjoyable job there, so that's about the only redeeming factor of being in Louisville. This is an honest review from someone who came from out of state, hoping it will help others.

I did move to Louisville from another state a few years ago. I have to disagree on some of your cons.

- Vehicle inspections. Maybe because it was in a different county (Hardin) but the clerks office literally inspected my odometer and that was it. I got my plates late only because my finance company took forever with my title.

- I don’t find the road design to be so bad I would actually notice it. I think DC has Louisville beat on futile road design.

- I didn’t and don’t find Louisville residents to be inherently unfriendly, especially as an outsider. Are they the most open to newcomers? I’d say no but definitely not impossible to win some over.

- On the low, Louisville is actually a great foodie city. Not New York by any stretch, but a good selections of local spots even good chain restaurants. The customer service and food quality I don’t think it is bad enough I’d actually notice it.

- The weather is just a cost of doing business of living in the Mid-Atlantic and/or upper Southeast US. Just the latitude lends itself to random weather patterns for some reason.

- Crime, I know Louisville has had a couple of tough years recently but I don’t feel unsafe when I visit there and I go the West End and Old Louisville pretty often.

Overall, I find Louisville as a decent enough place to live. In fact, if not for a new job here I’d be back living there right now.

[Oldhag1]

Originally Posted by ihatelouisville

Just wanted to put this out there in case any of you are considering Louisville as a potential place to move to.
I've lived there for about a year and while it could be much worse, it could also be much much better.
In fact, looking at a place like Louisville from the outside, you'd expect it to be much better than it really is.

So here are some pros and cons from my year of living there...

Pros:
- Decent spacing, lots of nature close by

- Decent night life, pretty basic
- Maybe decent cost in some places???

Cons:

- Worst drivers you'll ever encounter in your life (100% guarantee, can't emphasize this enough)
- Very poorly designed roads. I've been to many other bigger cities, never seen anything like Louisville or Louisville drivers

- Mandatory vehicle inspections before you can get your new plates along with being threatened by the inspecting sheriff for no reason as a bonus

- Very unfriendly, entitled locals with a lack of intelligence that will leave you absolutely speechless
- Generally cut customer service everywhere and bad food quality

- Not really any good restaurants I've noticed that are as good or better. than other cities And if there are, it's ruined by bad service
- Weather is all over the place, can be both good and bad
- Lots of crime

Basically, I think the only people who should move to Louisville are other Kentuckians...

If you're from out of state and from another city, you'll probably just be really disappointed like me.
I have a really good group of friends and an enjoyable job there, so that's about the only redeeming factor of being in Louisville. This is an honest review from someone who came from out of state, hoping it will help others.

I would love to know where you’ve lived before because Louisville traffic and roads are pretty small fry issues compared to other large cities we’ve lived in or near. I mean, seriously, we just came from Northern Virginia and we spent the first month marveling about the predictability of commute time. Additionally, the crime rate, particularly violent crime against strangers, is lower than most cities in its size catagory.

We returned last year and had the car inspection, they looked at the mileage and chattered about how few hybrids they saw. That was it. Maybe you got an inspector in a bad mood, but I don’t know of anyone whose had problems.

Like everywhere we’ve lived, some places have wonderful service and others crappy service. One thing that has taken getting used to is that life in all of Kentucky, and consequently the people here in the service industry, tends to run in slower motion here than in other places. They chat, they meander, they pause no matter where you go, even including at the doctor’s office. No one in this state is in a hurry and they stubbornly won’t be rushed, so yeah, that can be frustrating if you aren’t used to it. Interestingly, Louisville actually suffers from this less than the rest of the state.

Every place has its awesome and awful factors, Louisville is no exception. Overall though, it is considered one of the most affordable metropolitan areas in the nation and has access to just about any services you need. It isn’t my cup of tea, I chose to move to a more rural area near it, but as a currently childfree couple it is not a place I would refuse to move. You didn’t bring up Louisville’s biggest negative factor, it’s public school system, so I assume you are childless, but I will admit I would encourage folks with school age children to research their options before deciding to move there.

[New2lou]

I will give you that the drivers in Louisville are bad. They scare the daylights out of me! I have lived in DC, NYC, Chicago, and a few smaller cities and I have never seen so many large objects fall of vehicles. I was behind a Culligan water delivery truck where the driver forgot to shut the side door. At least a dozen water cooler jugs tumbled out right in front of my car and I had to swerve and brake fast. The driver never slowed down. In general, I see people pulling dangerous moves just about every day. It seems many are drunk or high and others are just jerks in over-priced trucks.

However, the road planning is fine. It’s pretty common in DC that newcomers have several horrible experiences their first year getting so lost that the trip across town ends in tears and nearly busted bladders. You’ll drive by your own home six times, you can see it, but you just can’t figure out how to get to it!

I commuted from NoVA through DC to suburban Maryland everyday for two years. Commuting in Louisville is just fine.

Car inspection was not a big deal for us here. I was really stunned that there is no emissions check. And you only go once? In fact, it was so short, I think he just checked my mileage.

Food seems fine here. I didn’t think NYC food was so great. Many places are so bad, it outweighs the fewer great places. DC has a few gems but getting fast food is a pain and sometimes that is what you want. We have driven cross-country over past 15 years and food quality and service at chain restaurants is pretty much the same to us. I do wish Louisville wasn’t so Yum Brands dominated. There are some chains that I suspect aren’t allowed to do business here.

The job opportunities leave a lot to be desired. Finding a job as a newcomer was quite difficult and I have never had trouble getting a job before. I can’t believe a city this size doesn’t have a single temp agency for white collar work.

Doctors are either huge snobs or maybe they just deal with so many uneducated people they speak to me on a sixth grade level. That is very weird.

I’m not interested in nightlife so I can’t speak to that but if someone is looking for an easy-going family-friendly city, I can’t imagine finding some place better.

I love the people of Louisville! On the whole I have found them incredibly polite and kind. I feel like I have to remember to be friendlier. East Coast cities will teach you not to be too friendly. They think you want something.

Meeting new people was really easy for us but I have heard it can be hard for people without kids or don’t attend church. We have great friends here and I really appreciate that people host each other in their homes. In bigger cities we always had to meet friends at a restaurant and drop $50 just to enjoy their company for a couple of hours. People here know how to have fun and meeting new people is fun. In DC and NYC usually new people just wanted to find out if you were useful for networking.

In general, I really love that people in Louisville take it slower and enjoy life. There is more to life than work and no one expects you to prioritize your job over your family.