Evaluating Louisville
Originally when I first came here to KY and Louisville specifically, I was super psyched. I have always thought it would be really neat to live in KY or TN and get married, raise a family, build a career here yada yada yada.
And I wanted to like it. I really did. I watched the WVU & Rutgers games & the Orange Bowl. I went to a U of L basketball game. I got involved in my grad program. I did enough to get offered myself a couple state jobs (which I ended up turning down because other opportunities presented themselves elsewhere in more ways than one) and even had come so close as to owning a house.
Ask anyone and they can tell you I was originally very enthusiastic about the prospect of living in KY, Louisville specifically. Even the guy who is going to be the best man in my impending wedding told me he thought it was my kind of town.
Well having been halfway through a city planning program and getting ready to head off to DC to intern w/ DOT I thought I would post my thoughts on Louisivlle after just under a year and try to evaluate it (weighting is obviously based off of my own subjective criteria).
-Congestion issues (15%). Louisville has approximately 40% the population as Indy and I feel it has worse congestion issues despite having two interstate rings and two interstates that form a cross in the city. Why???
For one, almost all the car driving population lives east of 7th street (Manslick Blvd). Once you get past that point you get to the ghetto full of people who rarely travel because of lack of a job or are too poor to own a car; cramming most of the traffic into an area that only takes up about 60% of the city doesnt help matters.
For two, developers target all development outside of the outer ring directly to the East; most jobs in Lville are concentrated downtown or out near this outer ring. What this does is it directs traffic all along I-64 (since this is how you get to the East side from downtown & vice versa) resulting in a traffic jam, assuming you know, actually work. If you choose to live on the south end this mitigages the problem somewhat but Lville's citizens seem hell bent on buying new as opposed to an older but still nice house (plenty on the South end).
Third, narrow roads throughout the city slows traffic making for weak non-interstate transportation corrdiors.
Overall, this combines to create a massive logjam on one primary road heading to the two major points of employment which happens to be concentrated on a straight line heading due east.
Overall grade: D (only recieves a passing because the sheer amount of road network allows someone to live on the South end with a fairly short uncongested commute if they are willing to settle for something that is not brand new).
-Value (20%). In a city you are paying an inherent price (taxes and increased cost of living) for a bundle of services such as utilities, police/fire protection, parks, often times a professional sports team and public transportation (which reduces congestion even if you do not use the public transportation).
Louisville currently has a 3.5% city tax, an additional .6% sales tax (yikes) along with high enough property taxes to encourage developers to develop just outside city limits where they cant get hit with the high property taxes.
Combined with a 10% state income tax and overly aggressive police this creates for a situation where the city is an expensive one just based off of the policies put in place.
In return the city has the following to offer:
-One of the lowest electric rates in the country
-Two very nice parks
-Several festivals
-an average public transit network
-terrible/lazy police services
-no professional sports teams
-poorly maintained roads
So you get a decent package for a high cost.
Overall grade: C-
Sociological factors (10%):
Louisville is a town that has significant racial issues; the town is segregated evenly with the west side of town being black and the east side being white. U of L seems to be the dividing line with a racially diverse mix of people.
The west is used as a breeding ground for the trash/waste companies; the east is set aside for development.
On the far east end, the roads are nice and clean in the west end the sidewalks are hazardous to walk on.
The town to me feels very much white vs black; this was spelled out quite clear for me in traffic court today. Feeling like I am in a poorly educated area also nags at me constantly.
Overall Grade: D- (only because there hasnt been any serious racial rioting)
Environmental factors (10%):
The area along the river can stink at times with poor air quality due to the fact that the trash is located along this area but aside from that, Louisville has tried to promote the use of parks as an engine for development and it lends itself to walking and has a strong public transit network for a city of its size. However, the city is simultaneously gobbling up natural land on the east end in an effort to expand in that direction and develop at all costs.
Overall grade: B-
Things to do (20%): Im not going to mention bars because quite frankly, you can get drunk anywhere if you want and the bar scene doesnt appeal to me for a multitude of reasons.
So lets list:
-4th Street Live
-Freedom Hall concerts
-Derby week and all the festivals surrounding it
-U of L sports
-Lville's park network....
-Country bars (as in genuine country bars).
Overall there is usually something to do in Lville if you want and usually fairly cheaply at that.
Overall Grade: A-
Would I raise a family here(15%) (entirely subjective).
Maybe. I want my kids to be able to live in a racially diverse environment, have strong school systems, be in a low crime area and be able to get around the local area.
Louisville does two of the four well.
Overall Grade: C
Climate (10%). I can definitely live in this sort of climate; this is ideal. Overall grade: A
Cumulative GPA: 2.218; so about a C/C+ average. Positively mediocre.
On an aside, I have spent some time (at least a full day's worth) in the following major cities(at least 250 k in the city limits):
Indy, Chicago, SD, Lville, Birmingham, Toronto, NY, Philly, Green Bay, Minneapolis, Orlando, Jacksonville, Montreal, Baltimore, Boston, Cincy & DC.
So far, ironically enough, my fave is Toronto.
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