Kentucky(W) vs. Kentucky(E)? (Lexington, Louisville: home, living, eat)

[EclecticEars]

I've been to 97 of 120 counties and have traveled extensively, also, for school, visiting friends, pleasure, etc. I'd prefer the western half. I would divide the state into halves along US 127, approximately. Any county along AND east of US 127 generally has more in common with what's known as eastern Kentucky in terms of culture, accent, and its acknowledgement of Lexington as its regional core. Now, every county west of US 127 tends to identify more with Louisville using these same criteria.

Western Kentucky is, in many areas, flatter, so you can see more into the horizon. The lakes are bigger and deeper. The barbeque is great. There are plenty of historic towns that are not run-down and have kept their charm, yet are not unnecessarily and strangely pretentious like many towns around Louisville and Lexington (for example, I HATE Bardstown, Georgetown, and Winchester. I won't even stop at all in those places when I'm driving through. But, in the west, I like Princeton, Cadiz, and Paducah alright.) The economy is neither declining nor improving, and while the economy isn't greatly diverse, you can at least know that if you actually do secure a job in west Kentucky, chances are you'll keep it.

Can the same be same for eastern Kentucky? Well, east of US 127, the Lexington metro area (much smaller than Louisville) and London (which isn't saying a great deal) are holding that region together. West of US 127, there's Louisville, Elizabethtown (which can be tied into the Louisville region), and Bowling Green. Fort Campbell also has a lot of jobs in the southwest portion.

[Future Trooper]

thank you for information guys keep the posting coming!

[Future Trooper]

Originally Posted by jcm1986

I've been to 97 of 120 counties and have traveled extensively, also, for school, visiting friends, pleasure, etc. I'd prefer the western half. I would divide the state into halves along US 127, approximately. Any county along AND east of US 127 generally has more in common with what's known as eastern Kentucky in terms of culture, accent, and its acknowledgement of Lexington as its regional core. Now, every county west of US 127 tends to identify more with Louisville using these same criteria.

Western Kentucky is, in many areas, flatter, so you can see more into the horizon. The lakes are bigger and deeper. The barbeque is great. There are plenty of historic towns that are not run-down and have kept their charm, yet are not unnecessarily and strangely pretentious like many towns around Louisville and Lexington (for example, I HATE Bardstown, Georgetown, and Winchester. I won't even stop at all in those places when I'm driving through. But, in the west, I like Princeton, Cadiz, and Paducah alright.) The economy is neither declining nor improving, and while the economy isn't greatly diverse, you can at least know that if you actually do secure a job in west Kentucky, chances are you'll keep it.

Can the same be same for eastern Kentucky? Well, east of US 127, the Lexington metro area (much smaller than Louisville) and London (which isn't saying a great deal) are holding that region together. West of US 127, there's Louisville, Elizabethtown (which can be tied into the Louisville region), and Bowling Green. Fort Campbell also has a lot of jobs in the southwest portion.

so would you say the people of Western Kentucky are better than people in Eastern Kentucky?

[InLondon]

Originally Posted by gdude

so would you say the people of Western Kentucky are better than people in Eastern Kentucky?

Hmmm, what is your deal with being all "superior" exactly? You're from Indiana, you're not better than other people. All of your posts are rude and plain snotty.

[Future Trooper]

Originally Posted by InLondon

Hmmm, what is your deal with being all "superior" exactly? You're from Indiana, you're not better than other people. All of your posts are rude and plain snotty.

i am not being superior and i know i am no better than other people out there and i am not rude or snotty!

[Lemoncello]

I grew up in Webster Co. which is in western Kentucky, received two degrees from U of K, and via U of K had friends all over the state.

From life, observations, and travel, I'd say there are 6 Kentuckies: The Jackson Purchase area (Paducah and south) which is more southern and vaguely old fashioned in a 1930s delta-backwater way; Southern Ky. that stretches east of Bowling Green to west of Corbin, which is a pseudo-Tennessee, but a bit more reserved possibly. It's a "Southern Mid-west", very generically South and has an "in the middle of nowhere" location-wise feel; Northern Kentucky in a semicirlce south with Covington as its center, which is the closest thing to Yankee territory in Ky. with a lingering Germanesque essence. All of this makes it just a little like Pittsburg somehow; Eastern Ky. east of I-75 which is interiorly stand-offish and for some unexplainable reason, home to great oddities befalling its children growing up; Lexington = horse cliquety-clique, blase, and somehow "in the know about not much at all" and rather blue as the region's name implies, a mint julep without the mint or julep. The area immediately around Lexington is so beautiful you want to chocolate-coat the horsefarms and eat them; Louisville which is really small town America with a bigger population. It is exactly what a Kentucky city should be... not a city at all really, i.e, an urban area; and Western Ky which runs along a line from Ft. Campbell north to Owensboro and roughly 60 miles to either side of it. Possibly because this area sits on the Dixie Beeline (Hwy 41), it has something slightly more worldly overlaid with family values and a number of 20k plus towns that are nice: Henderson, Madisonville, Hopkinsville, BG, Owensboro, etc. all big enough to make you feel like nobody much wants to peep over your back fence.

I've never met better people than Kentuckians no matter where I've gone. The great charm of Kentucky is that it is interesting in its plainness and one always feels that there are stories behind Kentuckians' lives and they'd tell the truth of them to you, if you wait around awhile.

[timelesschild]

Western Kentucky looks like southern Indiana or western Tennessee. They are all the same sort of place, topographically, with many rivers and rolling green hills. It is very rural with declining population in many counties. In Crittenden County, for example, the main crop grown is grass, and the main employers are the school system and the hospital. Not a lot going on, eh?

Eastern Kentucky can be the same way in terms of economic lackluster, but the terrain looks much different because of the mountains. In the springtime, you can drive down a mountain road, where the steep mountainside is covered with fragrant honeysuckles... pure magic.

I think Eastern AND Western KY have their southern identities. The only places in the state where you don't find that, are Louisville and the greater Cincinnati suburbs (and possibly that area between them - not sure). Lexington is definitely a Southern city in feel and self-identity.

I am not sure that there is a line that can be drawn between Eastern and Western Kentucky, or that the culture is significantly different between the two. I've lived here a very long time and just don't see that. Certainly the mountains are different from the "flatlands" (actually rolling hills), and possibly there is more of industry by way of factories, in places where it makes sense to drive big trucks (flatter land).

There is a wonderful characteristic of Eastern Kentuckians to use very colorful metaphor in their daily speech. Possibly THAT is a regional distinction that can be drawn.

It's an interesting question...

[Future Trooper]

Originally Posted by timelesschild

Western Kentucky looks like southern Indiana or western Tennessee. They are all the same sort of place, topographically, with many rivers and rolling green hills. It is very rural with declining population in many counties. In Crittenden County, for example, the main crop grown is grass, and the main employers are the school system and the hospital. Not a lot going on, eh?

Eastern Kentucky can be the same way in terms of economic lackluster, but the terrain looks much different because of the mountains. In the springtime, you can drive down a mountain road, where the steep mountainside is covered with fragrant honeysuckles... pure magic.

I think Eastern AND Western KY have their southern identities. The only places in the state where you don't find that, are Louisville and the greater Cincinnati suburbs (and possibly that area between them - not sure). Lexington is definitely a Southern city in feel and self-identity.

I am not sure that there is a line that can be drawn between Eastern and Western Kentucky, or that the culture is significantly different between the two. I've lived here a very long time and just don't see that. Certainly the mountains are different from the "flatlands" (actually rolling hills), and possibly there is more of industry by way of factories, in places where it makes sense to drive big trucks (flatter land).

There is a wonderful characteristic of Eastern Kentuckians to use very colorful metaphor in their daily speech. Possibly THAT is a regional distinction that can be drawn.

It's an interesting question...

Thanks for that wonderfull post! i have the same feelings when it comes to my homestate indiana

[cincyUK]

IF you want to see what eastern ky is all about, take a trip to the daniel boone national forest and surrounding areas.

I agree western KY is basically IN.

[Kentuckyguy]

Originally Posted by timelesschild

Western Kentucky looks like southern Indiana or western Tennessee. They are all the same sort of place, topographically, with many rivers and rolling green hills. It is very rural with declining population in many counties. In Crittenden County, for example, the main crop grown is grass, and the main employers are the school system and the hospital. Not a lot going on, eh?

Eastern Kentucky can be the same way in terms of economic lackluster, but the terrain looks much different because of the mountains. In the springtime, you can drive down a mountain road, where the steep mountainside is covered with fragrant honeysuckles... pure magic.

I think Eastern AND Western KY have their southern identities. The only places in the state where you don't find that, are Louisville and the greater Cincinnati suburbs (and possibly that area between them - not sure). Lexington is definitely a Southern city in feel and self-identity.

I am not sure that there is a line that can be drawn between Eastern and Western Kentucky, or that the culture is significantly different between the two. I've lived here a very long time and just don't see that. Certainly the mountains are different from the "flatlands" (actually rolling hills), and possibly there is more of industry by way of factories, in places where it makes sense to drive big trucks (flatter land).

There is a wonderful characteristic of Eastern Kentuckians to use very colorful metaphor in their daily speech. Possibly THAT is a regional distinction that can be drawn.

It's an interesting question...

I am confused...you say that Western Kentucky looks like southern Indiana and Western Kentucky is southern in culture?!? Last time I checked Indiana was located in the Midwest, not the South. So how then is Western Kentucky southern if you believe it to be "just like Indiana?" Furthermore, have you actually lived in Northern Kentucky or Louisville for that matter? I can say from living in Indiana for quite sometime as well as Kentucky that Kentucky as a whole is very different from Indiana in terms of culture and that includes the entire state not just parts of it.