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How much of this opinion comes from a select few vocal Louisville posters on this website, vs. actual Louisville residents? Louisville is one of my favorite cities and I have a lot of good friends there. I can't say I've ever felt it come across as particularly smug. There's a lot of local pride, which I think is a good thing and it reflects to how much progress is being made there in transforming the city.
lovecrowds and I have lived there. That's two on this forum. We had another poster on the Louisville forum years ago (when I still lived near the city) who was from Minnesota and did not like the people of Louisville. That's three now.
A friend of a friend, who I talked to quite a bit yesterday at a party here in Northern California, lived in Louisville for some 7-8 months in the late 1980s. My brother, like me, attended college in Louisville. Both of them have actually used the words "snobby" and "unfriendly" to describe the people of Louisville. And, like me, my brother went from loving and looking forward to living in the city to having such a dislike for it.
I'm glad, mjlo, that you've had great experiences in Louisville. I mean (for example since I now live in California), many people hate L.A. and Oakland; I happen to like them. Many love San Diego; I don't like that city. To each their own.
lovecrowds and I have lived there. That's two on this forum. We had another poster on the Louisville forum years ago (when I still lived near the city) who was from Minnesota and did not like the people of Louisville. That's three now.
A friend of a friend, who I talked to quite a bit yesterday at a party here in Northern California, lived in Louisville for some 7-8 months in the late 1980s. My brother, like me, attended college in Louisville. Both of them have actually used the words "snobby" and "unfriendly" to describe the people of Louisville. And, like me, my brother went from loving and looking forward to living in the city to having such a dislike for it.
I'm glad, mjlo, that you've had great experiences in Louisville. I mean (for example since I now live in California), many people hate L.A. and Oakland; I happen to like them. Many love San Diego; I don't like that city. To each their own.
It's a fair assessment, I just know that on here homerism comes in waves. When I first was on here, Austin was getting pretty heavily boosted, then it was Philly, then San Francisco posters were overwhelming us with San Francisco's greatness (I am worried that even typing this might cause one of them to start making a case). Currently it seems like the Cleveland and Louisville posters are currently swarming. I know each time a cities boosters go into overtime on here I tend to have negative feelings toward the city.
I didn't know if that was the case behind the opinions, or if it was from personal experience. You can't fault personal experience
Nothing comes close to Seattle. You can leave now or flounder around for a few years, make zero friends, and then leave. There are countless stories on the web from people from all walks of life that will confirm this. The west coast can be that way to a degree, but Seattle is just ten times worse.
On the west coast, Los Angeles is actually the most down-to-earth straightforward and honest city (outside of Hollywood), and San Diego is second.
Last edited by NomadicOne; 03-14-2016 at 12:54 PM..
Im thinking that nerdy smugness in Seattle comes from abundance of high tech workers who are often eccentric and introverted, maybe it sets the tone for the whole scene even if ur not a tech worker. Same with Bay area perhaps (Silicon valley)? Im coming to a conclusion that its the typa person instead of the place that sets the tone, and theres lot of tech jobs here so u see a lot of the corresponding people. Altho there is a lot of the weird, grungy hippie types here that look dusty and trashy and thats def a local thing. I deal with a lot of older blue collar folks tho who are mostly from the NW and they seem pretty regular and flaky also seems like a younger generation thing to do.
But on another note, could the non confrontation, passive agressive style be because of the Scandinavian heritage in NW? Because I heard similar things about Minneapolis.
Last edited by trysometh; 03-14-2016 at 12:46 PM..
While I haven't been to Seattle, I've read and watched videos on it. I am currently in Eugene, Oregon, trying to get out and this attitude has gotten worse over the past 4 years (plus maybe I notice more of it now), along with rising housing costs.
The smugness I find silly considering the amount of overpriced awful housing stock, how the elderly and disabled are treated here, the amount of homeless (which ranges from typical addicted to hard working families with kids and everything in between), needles, poop & urine on the streets, and so forth. Is it pretty here? Yes, and if someone is strong and willing to camp out in a tent, have fun, but that should not be expected of vulnerable individuals. There are loads of other pretty cities & towns in the US.
Then the flakiness really gets to me. I do wonder if some of it has to do with dealing with the stress of the smugness, and housing problems. But I still have found that I'm often less flaky than people with less than half my problems (that I know of, anyways)...so..eh. Sometimes I wonder if I would fit in better in easterns states, smaller cities, it might be less flaky but not overly stressfully driven. But I would find it refreshing. I find many people are so impressed with the amount of work I put into ..well, basically staying alive, and usually it means those people don't do much to help me when they are supposed to...I also find it annoying since I know many others also have to work as hard as me. Seems like many are out of touch with reality...sometimes literally due to being high! Haha.
That seems unlikely. The majority of transplants, per the census, to Seattle and Portland are from California. In fact it's the largest "state diaspora " in the country; surpassing NY to FL recently.
I know a guy from high school who moved out to Seattle from NC after graduating college. He is probably one of the least sociable/friendly people I've ever known. Thinks he's better than everyone else and that he's always ahead of the curve on trends, social contexts etc.....really he has no friends and he LOVES Seattle and thinks it's "his type of city". He did NOT fit in here at all.
I completely agree with, "The majority of transplants, per the census, to Seattle and Portland are from California. In fact it's the largest "state diaspora " in the country; surpassing NY to FL recently".
Phoenix, Tucson and Albuqerque are far more smug then any city in California. I go to California alot and they are don't seem smug at all except and when they are smug it is because they are accomplished.
I don't consider Californians flaky either, its just that there are sorry many amazing options in the state that its like a buffet of fascinated individuals.
Albuquerque is a smug, flaky city that thinks its so artsy for having graffiti and turquoise everywhere. The whole state of New Mexico is just a very unfriendly, rude, self-serving place. Its also a state filled with heroin and meth addicts who have no grasp on reality. The people of New Mexico are just plain creepy and weird.
Tucson is another smug and flaky city. They have a few mom and pop restaurants and locally owned stores that sell tacky junk yet they think its some unique and eccentric city. They take pride in being a big city that feels like a small town but its just an excuse for having absolutely nothing compared to most cities.
Tucson also takes smugness and excessive pride in keeping their city looking like a desert, which is just another excuse for every house to have a dirt yard with some prickly cactus.
Phoenix is also a smug city. They really think they are the only city with mild winters and large hills with-in close proximity. The locals are $50,000 dollar millionaires, with 3 to 5 kids, massive SUV's and leased european sedans. Phoenix locals are obcessed with talking about money as everyone in a conversation only talks about their businesses and vast riches despite the hard fact that most of the city has crappy looking homes on tiny dirt lots.
Louisville is another one. They are pretentious and snobby for no reason. I like Louisville as a city but the locals are very smug with their hometown and see no faults in relationship to it.
San Diego and Denver are smug but they are amazing cities that are head and shoulders above comperable sized cities and have a justification to be snobby.
The bolded has been my observation based on Kentucky natives I've interacted with.
As far as the West Coast, One thing I will say about LA is that they have extremely courteous drivers to be such a big and crowded city. They actually stop to let you in if you want to switch lanes and don't get offended. The traffic is hell, but everyone has this "we're all in this together" mindset. Big difference compared to Atlanta. The combination of Chicago/Detroit transplants, NYC/Philadelphia transplants and natives from surrounding rural areas just makes for chaos on the roads.
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