Why London/Laurel County??? (Lexington, Louisville: attorney, military, travel)

[nathandloper]

My wife and I are looking at moving to Kentucky. We are originally from a small town in Colorado, but moved to LA about 2 years ago. We are looking at moving to Kentucky within the year and have heard good things about the London area.

My question is...why London? Is it considered part of the ominous and backwards "Eastern Kentucky" area. Do people there have deep Southern accents? What is the culture, lifestyle, and job market there like? Anyone from the London area have an opinion? Thanks!

[censusdata]

Laurel County has good population and job growth, although culturally it still is very rural. As for whether it's "backwards", that would be in the eye of the beholder, you would probably want to visit to see if it would be right for you.

[teebird1012]

I just got back from Laurel County about 30 minutes ago and thought it is in the middle of backwards SE Kentucky, London and Laurel County are a huge step ahead of the surrounding areas and plus you're 1- 1.5 hours from both Lexington and Knoxville. Define a deep southern accent. Are you thinking of a GA or SC accent? If so, then the answer to your accents question is no- we don't have them, but Kentucky does tend to have a special accent of its own- I can't really describe it, but when I travel, people notice how I talk, but they can't put their finger on where exactly I'm from. Job market in London/ Corbin is growing while the majority of SE KY (examples: Hazard, Pikeville, Irvine, etc.) tend to either stay put or decline. There is always new construction in London it seems- they just got their first Starbucks- wahoo for them! Yes it's still behind places like Lexington, Louisville, Cincinnati, or Knoxville, but compared to the rest of the region, it's miles ahead. Oh, come during September and visit the Chicken Festival (1st KFC is in Corbin but the festival is in London).

[censusdata]

Has for "why London?", I think it is recommend because it is really the only place in Eastern KY with a good economy, due to being located off of I-75. I have several relatives who moved to nearby Corbin from Harlan County for that reason.

London is kind of interesting because it is in a very flat area of land surrounded my mountainous areas on all sides. It is centrally located around many of Southeastern KY's attractions like Renfro Valley, Cumberland Falls, Big South Fork National River and Rec. Area, and Cumberland Gap.

The London-Corbin area is the only reason Eastern KY isn't losing population as a whole, since nearly every other county there is losing population. It does have good job growth, although it is mostly blue collar type jobs. The county's median household income is only $27,000.

You also might want to check out Somerset, which is 30 miles to the west. It has a lot bigger feel to it and is also located on Lake Cumberland. There are some really nice lakefront houses in that area

[InLondon]

Originally Posted by nathandloper

My wife and I are looking at moving to Kentucky. We are originally from a small town in Colorado, but moved to LA about 2 years ago. We are looking at moving to Kentucky within the year and have heard good things about the London area.

My question is...why London? Is it considered part of the ominous and backwards "Eastern Kentucky" area. Do people there have deep Southern accents? What is the culture, lifestyle, and job market there like? Anyone from the London area have an opinion? Thanks!

Hi, I have lived in London my whole life. London is the county seat of Laurel County. The area is fast growing, population estimate for 2010 has us at 61,000.

As for "deep southern accents," I don't think you'll find it here but you will find a unique Kentucky accent with a Southern ring.

West of London is considered "the" place to live around here. Very nice homes in that area. Also I would suggest looking in the eastern part of Laurel County. It's very beautiful out there, mostly farmland but it's turning into more residential in some areas.

[williams8646]

Hello,
I have my own story to tell about Corbin and London ky area. Me and my family moved from LA California back in September 2007 and we moved her due to the fact that Corbin ky has one the top 25 model high schools in the nation and the schools her for our 5 children were much better and the cost of living is much much lower than southern California and my mother married a gentleman from Harlan Ky and so we wanted to be closer to her for the kids need their grandmother in their lives. So i found a job here after about 2week of our arrival here. I worked very hard at my new job i worked 7 12hour days for 2months straight just because i tend to be a little bit of a work workaholic at times. My husband is African American and we have mixed children. There is not alot of high paying jobs in the area and there is alot racism still here in Corbin. So i got fired from my job when my supervisor caught sight of one of pay stubs when i accessed it from Ipay website as she was walking around the office and she got angry becuase i made more money in one pay check than she did all month because she was salary and i was an hourly pay employee. So she was not able to work the Over Time like was. So she went to her boss and friends and other co-workers telling them that she didn't like people like me that move here and make more money than her and that she works her butt off and besides that i am married to nothing but a ****** and i have ****** babies so she tried to get me for stealing company time and so after and investigation to that allegation there was nothing to be found i was not stealing company time so we were on point system there and so since she couldn't get me for steal company time then she tried another way to get me legally fired from there. So I went to the EEOC which the closest one is in Louisville Ky
And one in Lexington KY. I was able obtain and e-mail that she sent to another co-worker that went around to certain people there for she has been there for years.
The EEOC filed charges on the company and now i am in the waiting period. Waiting for a Mediation date to be set . But in the mean time this supervisor knew what she was doing by getting me fired. knowing how hard it is in this area to find work that you can support a family on and how hard it is in this area to find jobs like this one. The company dose not protect their employees from this kind of behavior for they still have not fired her or done anything about it. Yes for the most part the people are nice to you in your face but the min. i get out of ear range they start their comments and jokes racial ones that is. Now my kids and i can not go out to stores and restruants and eat out as a family with out feeling out of place and getting stares the whole time and snickers and you can just feel the eyes on you. It is really sad and crazy. So the result from all this is that due to me not being able t get another job that can support my family i have to move out of our home due to no income i was able to maintain for 2months now with money that i had put away. But now it is exhausted and still no job and my husband being African American he has not been able to even get a job yet since we moved here. Even with his military background in the air force honorable discharge good work history. But is not said to your face around here that he can't get a job in Corbin due to his skin color. For you need to type in to your Google search " Racism in ky and read about some of the history this area has and know that it still alive and well here in 2008. I have lived in alot of different placed such as Texas, AZ, California, Nashville TN , Germany, SC and i really didn't even know that places like this still even existed. For know that not all the people here think like this but on the same note realize that there is alot more than you could really ever imagine behind closed doors so to speak. Now it is beautiful here and the cost of living is very low and they have great public schools. But the Jobs are hard to come bye here. I am moving some where away from here for my funds are limited now so i may in end up moving to London ky or some where in the surrounding areas. But if i can i would like to move and will as soon as I can move away from this area period. For i do not want this kind of thinking and discrimination to effect my children anymore than they already have . Now i have only been here going on 7 months now. If would like you may e-mail at williams8646@newwavecomm.net Hope that this help in your choice of moving here.

God Bless you and your family..

[williams8646]

Well you guys i guess this is it for me and my family for I just talked to my landlord here his name is Shane Romines yes the attorney " when in pain call Shane " commercial on tv.
and I told him what was going on for i have kept him updated on a reg base's .

this place put the icing on the cake and lit the candles and all when my 7yr old daughter came home today with choke marks all the way around her neck from a little boy on the bus that kept being mean to her today calling her name names i don't even want to repeat they were so honorable i didn't think kids this age even talked like and behaved in this manner for the kids in LA California never mis treated my kids due to the color of their lettle alone get choked. She told the bus driver and then the little boy started crying and so the bus driver told my daughter to stop her lying and to sit down and be quiet for my daughter is not perfect but she dose not lie. so then she said she looked for another seat to move to and they were no where she could move to for all the seats were taken. Her brother that is 8yrs old tried to help her and the bus driver told him that he could not get out of his assigned seat or he was going to get in trouble so i will be making a trip to the school and all in the morning to get to the bottom of this SH** sorry the cursing for it is not like me but these are babies for what are these people around here really teaching their kids. That is it I don't have hardly any money to get of here this town this city Called Corbin Ky is i don't even have a word bad enough to even come close to describing how awful this is. for i am moving my family out of here any where that my kids are safe and i can get work and i can't even get anyone to rent me house becuase my husband is black and i have mixed children. I have 500.00 saved and i am going to go tomorrow and get a uhual trailer and a full tank of gas and going towards TN away from all this madness and sickness and evil that is here in Corbin KY and try to get some help or something from somewhere some how for God has been good to my family and took care of us. For we know it is not all the people her that are a couple of people here that is not racist and think like this and teach their kids to treat other kids in this manner cause of their skin color. I am just sick for i have not ever had my faith in people torn so down before. I have lived in many places LA California, TN, TX , Germany , Mississippi,
and have experience the things that my family is going thru and having the feelings that i do about people from here. FOR YOU SHOULD BE A SHAMED IF YOU THINK LIKE THIS FOR GOD WILL BE YOUR JUDGE AND JURY. Not no man that is telling you that this okay. any replies or suggestion from you guys that are not like this you can e-mail me at williams8646@yahoo.com and my phone number is 1-606-404-0371

[InLondon]

The unfortunate thing williams8646, is that this goes on all over America. To say it only happens here is just not true. I'm sorry that this happened to you. Good luck. Listing your phone # on here is probably not a good idea.

[rbryant]

Originally Posted by InLondon

The unfortunate thing williams8646, is that this goes on all over America. To say it only happens here is just not true. I'm sorry that this happened to you. Good luck. Listing your phone # on here is probably not a good idea.

Sorry about your experiences, but I agree..posting your phone number on here is probably a bad idea.

[AmeriDutchFam]

My husband and I have lived here for almost a year and we plan to move this summer. In my opinion, it is very difficult to find a job in this area. As one poster said most of the jobs are bluecollar type jobs, so even if you have an education you will be hard pressed to find a job that pays a salary equivalent to your degree.
If you like living in the country then this is a great place. The people are all very friendly and yes they do have very southern accents and the word "ain't" is a major part of the vocabulary here. My daughter is in kindergarten and she came home after her first week of school and used the word "ain't", I immediately corrected her and she said "My teacher says ain't." Now, this is a very minor issue of course but just a major pet peeve of mine.
The lifestyle is very laid back with not much to do unless you like to eat out and the restaurants are limited to mostly fast food type places. Lexington is a little over an hour away, so if you don't mind the drive there is a lot of wonderful shopping and many different types of restaurants. There are a lot of nice parks for children and from what I understand a few nearby water parks, although we have not been.
If you are a smoker, then this is a great place. There seems to be a tobacco barn every 1/2 mile or so on all the roads. It seems almost everyone here smokes and smoking is allowed in public places such as convenience stores and restaurants. So, if you are a non-smoker there is no escaping the fumes.
I am definitely not saying it is a bad area by any means, but for my family and the lifestyle we live it is not for us, which is why we are moving. As I said before the people are great, but we want to have access to more cultural opportunities for our children.
I think it would benefit you to visit first before making a decision to move, regarless where it may be. You can learn much more by immersing yourself in the town.
Good luck with your choice.