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What do you think the national persepective is on Louisville


rydertwentyone

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What do you think the national perspective of Louisville is? I mean I know before I moved here I didnt know anything about Louisville other than the Derby was here. I am not going to lie I had the hick persona before I came down here. But once I came down here wow was I wrong. Its a hidden city in my eyes and I just wish more people could see it and it would change there minds as well. I just think the persona of Kentucky carries into Louisville now that could be a good thing and not be a bad thing just wondered what you guys thought about this.

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What do you think the national perspective of Louisville is? I mean I know before I moved here I didnt know anything about Louisville other than the Derby was here. I am not going to lie I had the hick persona before I came down here. But once I came down here wow was I wrong. Its a hidden city in my eyes and I just wish more people could see it and it would change there minds as well. I just think the persona of Kentucky carries into Louisville now that could be a good thing and not be a bad thing just wondered what you guys thought about this.

Well, the opinons of Americans about Kentucky is usually factless, media driven bull-crap in the first place. Being in Kentucky is certainly not a bad thing at all. On the contrary, it is actually quite good. If people feel that Kentucky is full of hicks and idiot in-breeds, then their own stupidity and lack of knowledge about the state has got them held captive. I was born and raised in Kentucky, and I coudn't be more proud of that fact.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, the opinons of Americans about Kentucky is usually factless, media driven bull-crap in the first place. Being in Kentucky is certainly not a bad thing at all. On the contrary, it is actually quite good. If people feel that Kentucky is full of hicks and idiot in-breeds, then their own stupidity and lack of knowledge about the state has got them held captive. I was born and raised in Kentucky, and I coudn't be more proud of that fact.

I'm not sure that people equate Louisville with Kentucky. I know that may sound strange but if you say Louisville to an outsider, I'm not sure if they have many preconceptions in any direction. Louisville is a mid-sized city that kind of flies under the radar unless you've been there. I am a Kentuckian and never had a very good impression of Louisville growing up. Louisville has crime, drugs, traffic... At least that was the perception I was fed growing up. Now, having become familiar with it as an adult, I'd love to live there if there were jobs in my field.

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I read encyclopedieas and things when I was a latchkey kid, so to me, before I had the chance to visit the city in person, my impression was of a declining but once large American city, that reared several sports legends that I knew of, and of course baseball bats. I would not characterize it as a "hick" place as it feels more like a rust belt kind of city. That said, my longest visit there was for a week long horse show (not thourougbred racing).

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Thanks for your input. It looks like Louisville's biggest challenge is shedding its bad image. NOTHING of what you wrote is true. Louisville is adding jobs and growing faster than it has in 50 years. The growth in Louisville is literally blowing away the growth in STL and Cincy. The amount of downtown and intown development literally blows away any nearby city except perhaps a metro like STL (who you mentioned) which is over twice as big as Louisville (bigger cities naturaly have more development). Louisville is not just a gentrified downtown and then a group of outer suburbs like Nashville. Louisville has several viable urban neighborhoods FULL of young professionals and this INCLUDES downtown.

Louisville has one of the most picturesque settings of any inland city-the river with its massive parks, a distinct 4 seasons, rolling hills with lots of trees, and good proximity to large lakes, mountains, and recreational areas. Louisville's park system designed by Olmstead is among the finest in the USA.

Also, you are just dead wrong about the brain drain. Louisville is seeing a major Brain Gain these days as thousands of young professionals stay in the area after college or move here for jobs.

This article is over 3 years old but even then there were thousands more single young professionals moving here than leaving. Indeed the brain GAIN is only increasing here.

Brain drain' in Louisville reverses tide

Courier-Journal (11-4-03)

"New census figures confirm what Louisville leaders have been saying for the past year: The city's so-called "brain drain" seems to be ebbing. More single young professionals

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It's not known as a business hub - at least not to me, and the location leaves something to be desired.

What about the location is any worse than Cincy, Nashville or St. Louis? For manufacturing and shipping (see UPS), it is a great location for business. It is very central to probably 2/3 of the country's population.

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What about the location is any worse than Cincy, Nashville or St. Louis? For manufacturing and shipping (see UPS), it is a great location for business. It is very central to probably 2/3 of the country's population.

The location comment is just my bias speaking. I don't want to live too far away from the coast. That's just me.

When I think of Louisville though in business terms, I think of manufacturing and shipping - like you said. Is there anything else business-wise that Louisville is known for/big in?

I think Louisville's biggest advantage is the character and charm of its neighborhoods. If many of these unique areas continue to be restored, then maybe tourism could be a driving industry. Much like a Charleston or Savannah, people will come to experience the beautiful neighborhoods/parks that were created in the 1800's/1900's in the age of riverboat/railroad travel and commerce. Wonderful architecture.

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The location comment is just my bias speaking. I don't want to live too far away from the coast. That's just me.

When I think of Louisville though in business terms, I think of manufacturing and shipping - like you said. Is there anything else business-wise that Louisville is known for/big in?

I think Louisville's biggest advantage is the character and charm of its neighborhoods. If many of these unique areas continue to be restored, then maybe tourism could be a driving industry. Much like a Charleston or Savannah, people will come to experience the beautiful neighborhoods/parks that were created in the 1800's/1900's in the age of riverboat/railroad travel and commerce. Wonderful architecture.

Louisville has a lot of good hospitals and is known as a medical town. The high tech sector is seriously lacking though. There is a lot of manufacturing like the GE appliance park and Ford automotive plants but not a lot of high tech engineering work (otherwise I'd probably be living there).

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The location comment is just my bias speaking. I don't want to live too far away from the coast. That's just me.

When I think of Louisville though in business terms, I think of manufacturing and shipping - like you said. Is there anything else business-wise that Louisville is known for/big in?

I think Louisville's biggest advantage is the character and charm of its neighborhoods. If many of these unique areas continue to be restored, then maybe tourism could be a driving industry. Much like a Charleston or Savannah, people will come to experience the beautiful neighborhoods/parks that were created in the 1800's/1900's in the age of riverboat/railroad travel and commerce. Wonderful architecture.

There is no metro of Louisville's size (1.2 million) with as many RESTORED, historic, urban, hip neighborhoods. Comparing it to Charleston or Savannah is off since it is 2-3 times as big, but I would bet you that tourism is bigger in Louisville than probably anywhere in NC with Derby every year as well as us being a top city for conventions. Louisville competes for national conventions with the likes of major cities like Dallas and Chicago and our amount of leasable convention space proves it. In 2004 Louisville hosted 3 of the top 25 largest trade shows alone. We are adding so many new hotel rooms its ridiculous. I doubt you know about our 61 story skyscraper that will rise soon www.museumplaza.com or any other downtown highrise residential development. How about our new downtown arena or our historic museum district?

Louisville is well known regionally for its arts, culture, nightlife, and restuarants. Just this weekend we host the NUMBER 1 ranked art show in America as ranked by a major artists publication--and it takes place in America's largest historic Victorian neighborhood which has homes selling for over a million dollars--Old Louisville. http://www.stjamescourtartshow.com/

Louisville is really not a manufacturing city anymore, which shows that your knowledge of the city is nothing more than a stereotype or lack of knowledge completely. The city has 4 major Fortune 500 companies and healthcare is our leading new economy industry. Ever hear of Humana? If you have been here and are a fan of skyscrapers, you should be familiar. Yum brands which owns KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and other fast food entities is based here. Half of the liquor you drink is distilled and owned by Brown-Forman here (Jack Daniels, Finalndia Vodka, etc). Kindred Healthcare is another Fortune 500 entry in our healthcare portfolio. Rescare and Atria are among the fastest growing health sector businesses in the country. LG&E, a subsidary of German based E. O.N US, is one of the largest power companies in the US. Many restuarants you eat at have corporate headquarters in Louisville: Papa John's Texas Roadhouse, and Tumbleweed to name a few. Chi Chi's and Rally's began in Louisville as well.

Louisville has a huge medical work worce and several biomedical incubators. The world's first hand transplant as well as the first artifical heart were developed in Louisville. The University of Louisville is becoming a really good school when it was quite subpar only 10 years ago. Bellarmine, Indiana University Southeast, and Spalding are other good sized universities. JCC is a large commuity college. Major research centers are being built all the time. Companies like Medventure are a good example.

UPS has their World Air Hub here and Louisville is the seventh largest cargo airport in the WORLD. As a result, Louisville has become one of the major distribution centers of the interior US. I cannot even list all the well-paying distribution jobs that have been created especially in the fast growing south suburbs in Bullitt County.

Louisville's manufacturing presence is dying out, and its main vestige of major maufacturing prescence is the location of two Ford plants as well as a GE center. Other than that, major manufacturing here is mostly being replaced, and Louisville is certainly far ahead of the curve when compared to places like STL and Cincy, two cities you mentioned.

Also, your comment about Asheville having more posts than Louisville on here is just plain retarded. Everyone knows UP is a southern biased forum. That proves nothing. There are many people posting about Louisville in other forums like Skyscrapercity. Hey some guy told me Raliegh-Durham is an overgrown college town with nothing to do. Should I believe him?

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I like Louisville from what I know of it, and some of what you say is fact, ppassafi, but you seem a little defensive, there is no need to belittle another place to boost your own. Otherwise you are inviting a detailed rebuttal to any inaccuracies. Specifically your NC references. ;)

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I like Louisville from what I know of it, and some of what you say is fact, ppassafi, but you seem a little defensive, there is no need to belittle another place to boost your own. Otherwise you are inviting a detailed rebuttal to any inaccuracies. Specifically your NC references. ;)

I completely agree. I have sent him a warning.

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I am not belittling anyone or anyone's city. We are having an informative discussion here. He said he had an opinion of Louisville as a "rusbelt city" with not many jobs besides manufacturing. I simply proved him wrong with the posted facts. I also proved to him that Louisville is growing faster than many metros he said were outpacing it like Cincy and STL (actually two of the fastest declining cities in the nation to this day).

I looked back at my post and it was all either facts about Louisville or my perception as a resident. Facts are facts and cannot be disputed. The only "flaming" comment at all (and it was small) was when I said "some guy told me Raleigh is an overgrown college town with nothing to do." This was at the end of the post. Now, seriously that was only a rhetorical question and a stereotype just like the one he made about Louisville. Of course there is more to Raleigh than that and of course there is stuff to do, etc. Shouldn't he know there is more to Louisville than rust and factories (of which there is very little of either left as the economy is not manufacturing based anymore!) Or should he? Isn't that why we are on this site? To let each other know about urban development, to promote urban culture, and to learn about and from other cities?

Again, I apologize for offending anyone, but I would just like to have an informative discussion without "whining." Also, I was not getting defensive, but turn the situation around. If someone posted about Raleigh being a dying town with no jobs, wouldn't you want to inform them? I guess that should be why we are all here. Sorry for the discourse, carry on :)

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Again, I apologize for offending anyone, but I would just like to have an informative discussion without "whining." Also, I was not getting defensive, but turn the situation around. If someone posted about Raleigh being a dying town with no jobs, wouldn't you want to inform them? I guess that should be why we are all here. Sorry for the discourse, carry on :)

I will point out this is a thread where people are "asked" their opinion of Louisville. If someone reports to the a negative opinion then there isn't much that can be done about that. If they are bashing then report it to the staff and we will deal with it. You don't respond by posting stuff that is negative about the state and locale they happen to be from. I will point out that you have referred to comments here as "retarded" and you have posted a lot of "opinion" as fact. We won't have city vs city threads here and that is what you have turned this into. And you have done this in other sections of UP which is where the complaint came from in the first place.

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As a frequent visitor to Louisville (my parents now live there), I've found it to be a lovely city. It does have a wealth of historic homes and storefronts and slowly seems to be knitting itself back together from the trauma of 'urban renewal' (my grandmother used to spit that word out after her old neighborhood near UofL was bulldozed) and construction of the interstates. It's a low-key city, Derby blowout the exception, with a work-a-day demeanor inherited from it's industrial past. It clearly meshes southern grace with a bit of rustbelt grit, and it has a bright future. When I tell my friends here in SF that I'm flying to visit my parents in Louisville, they sort of grimace that old 'one of the flyover states' expression, and say "I'm sorry." I don't bother to correct them, why spoil a good thing. Louisville is a sleeper town...

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  • 2 weeks later...

As a Memphian, I have a very competitive perception of Louisville, and I think that's a great thing. There are many similarities. I view it as one of the cities on the brink or almost on the brink, along with Memphis and a number of other cities their size. Five or six years ago, I would've said that Memphis was solidly ahead of Louisville, when the NBA decision was handed down, and with Memphis on the heels of a tremendous string of successes downtown. Now, the gap has clearly closed, which is a testament to both cities, because by the looks of things, Louisville has achieved a similar string of achievements that Memphis achieved before, and both really haven't slowed down.

But because of the traditional competition between the cities (Cards vs. Tigers, Pitino vs. Calipari [or maybe Pinto vs. Calamari], UPS vs. FedEx, both pursued the NBA, both have hosted boxing matches, both have AAA baseball franchises with new stadiums built around the same time, both are river cities, both have major spring events that draw national attention, both have similar-sized metros) I think they're closely linked together. There are clear differences and advantages to each city. But there's clearly a tie that even Pitino can't break by running to the Big East. J/K ;)

Keep up with the progress; I know Memphis is trying to maintain its end. I do have issues about the design of the new tower, though.

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