Any info on Owensboro?

[melcee]

Originally Posted by stx12499

Georgetown is not bad. Nothing special IMO. It is growing fast and is mostly blue collar, with a large and growing Hispanic population.

if you want to live in a smaller town close to Lexington, I would look at Danville, Berea, Versailles, or Nicholasville.

Personally, I am partial to the Louisville MSA. Because it is so much more populated than anywhere lese in the state, there are more job opportunites. Some smaller towns you may enjoy are Crestwood, La Grange, Shelbyville, Shepherdsville, and Mount Washington. All of these feel like small towns but they are basically exurban areas of a major metro area.

Elizabethtown-Radcliff would also be a great option. Owensboro is not bad but it has a lot of inustrial decay and near stagnant growth, so it may be tough getting a job. I would try getting a job there first if that's where you want to be.

We did find out today that if he went to Buckner/La Grange that he could get a job with Carriage House there because he works for the one up here.He spoke with the Human Resources woman in Buckner and she checked his work record,called him back,and told him as soon as he can get there to come see her. He is open to that idea,at least to get us down there.Does anyone know anything about the Carriage House in Buckner?

See,what did I tell y'all? We're just all over the place as far as cities in Kentucky are concerned.(Yup I already say y'all,we spent 2 years in South Carolina and I've said it ever since;P )

[haley06]

Buckner is located in Oldham County which has some of the best schools in the state of Kentucky, I think they are the third top district in the state. It is a small town if that is what your husband wants, but it is only like 15 minutes to Louisville. So it seems like the right place for you because he may have a job there, the schools are great, but the only problem may be that the housing is a little high there. Not as high as Louisville but still quite expensive compared to the rest of the state. But you could find something, I am not going to say it is impossible. But I do not know anything about Carriage House.

[gss1066]

I have lived in Owensboro my entire life so I feel like somewhat of an expert on the city. Owenboro is a wonderful place to raise a family. It is safe and the schools are wonderful. I would recommend county schools over city schools simply because of their schedule. City schools are on a year round schedule that does not fit into my work schedule. Unfortunately, with the loss of the largest hotel in town and the Dana corporation lay-offs, industrial jobs are hard to come by right now. Employment here would be very difficult right now due to the fact that about 800-1000 people have lost their jobs in the past two months due to the lay-offs and closings. If a job could be found, it is a fabulous place to live with close access to all of the surrounding major cities. It has a small town appeal, but everything you need. Beautiful city, green grass, horse farms nearby....very "kentuckian". Lots of old southern money in this area with alot of southern hospitality. You don't run into many rude people around here. Many northerners are actually uncomfortabe with the friendliness in this area. They are not used to total strangers coming up to them and saying hello or small-talking at the grocery store, etc. The people here are genuine and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

[sandman1]

Originally Posted by gss1066

I have lived in Owensboro my entire life so I feel like somewhat of an expert on the city. Owenboro is a wonderful place to raise a family. It is safe and the schools are wonderful. I would recommend county schools over city schools simply because of their schedule. City schools are on a year round schedule that does not fit into my work schedule. Unfortunately, with the loss of the largest hotel in town and the Dana corporation lay-offs, industrial jobs are hard to come by right now. Employment here would be very difficult right now due to the fact that about 800-1000 people have lost their jobs in the past two months due to the lay-offs and closings. If a job could be found, it is a fabulous place to live with close access to all of the surrounding major cities. It has a small town appeal, but everything you need. Beautiful city, green grass, horse farms nearby....very "kentuckian". Lots of old southern money in this area with alot of southern hospitality. You don't run into many rude people around here. Many northerners are actually uncomfortabe with the friendliness in this area. They are not used to total strangers coming up to them and saying hello or small-talking at the grocery store, etc. The people here are genuine and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

There is a reason that the hotel closed and other industry isn't doing well...the city is stagnant and has been in decline for years. I have to disagree with the picture you have painted of the city. I haven't seen a horse farm anywhere in owensboro...maybe out in daviess county somewhere but what I see in owensboro is a run down hotel, run down downtown, some ugly looking big circular building that is vacant that may have been a former hotel. Progress is not something that this town can boast about. They just voted down a project that would have been wonderful for the city...a big entertainment project with an outdoor mall and other amenities. They have resteraunts and about four stores in the mall but if you want to really go to a mall you need to go to evansville or louisville. The people are very nice but hate change and as a result time has passed owensboro by. While cities like bowling green and paducah are growing owensboro is not and has a run down feel to it. It is the industrial center of western kentucky and factories such as the soy factory and the electric plant are right in downtown and are eyesores. I know many people that left to go to college and never came back for a reason. Opportunity is hard to come by there and as was mentioned good luck finding a decent job. I think the people are great but the old southern money thing is laughable when one drives to a place like lexington or louisville and sees it. It is more an industrial town with a midwestern feel than a southern town with a deep south feel despite resenting that idea. It is afterall right across the river from Indiana and it just has that midwest industrial feel to it. The schools are very good and the people are kind but before you commit to owensboro you better take a look for yourself and get a feel for it. Trust me...when you see owensboro and then georgetown and even louisville it will be an easy choice and you will forget about wanting to move to owensboro. Would you like some sweet tea?

[LadyPathos]

I agree with the others here having lived in this city for seven years and not originally being from the area I've found it not only to find jobs but unless you plan to lead an extremely active church life, finding others to relate to or communicate with at all is a hard process. The county school district is excelent if you have school age children but the public transportation system is seriously lacking. Homes are cheep compared to national standards and there are plenty on the market if you are wanting to buy both old and new. Though as to be expected your older homes will need to be fixed up but are cheeper. If you want activities, in town there isn't really much to do at all but if you enjoy hunting, fishing and/or boating then you should be fine. Owensboro has about a 5% unemployment rate so if you are a skilled worker then you should defently attempt to find a job before moving. The average household income is around 40 to 50k per year assuming 2 people are working in the household. This of course changes depending on your skill level and where you are able to get a job. For example it took myself about 2 years after graduating college to find something 'anything' in the area in my field of course if you are in nursing or some other hospital function you should have no problem.
Several of the suggestions by others for places to live are good as well. I just know Owensboro.
Owensboro is approx. 1 hour from Evansville/Henderson, 2 to 2.5 hours to Nashville or Louisville.
A nice home you don't have to put too much into for around 1500 sq ft will be about 80 to 120k.
(Though depending on how much work you want to do I almost - til my husband talked me out of it - got a house built in 1918, 3000 sq ft for 80k.)
Owensboro is known for a great deal of resturaunts and churches.
That's about it .. at least for the time I have to talk about it.

[Sundance]

Don't get me wrong,I would love to try Louisville and see if it's as great as I think it is. My husband is used to small town rural life and has no desire to live in the city.He considers a big city to be more than a population of 30,000.The town we live in now only has 2,000,so if it would just stop snowing from November through May and if the people were nicer he'd be in heaven right here lol.

I do know that if he was able to find a decent paying job in Louisville and a home with a nice yard in a friendly neighborhood that he would do just fine.

I don't think you'd like Louisville, it's a large city. I wouldn't live in Louisville although I'm sure certain sections/suburbs could be nice.

I think you should consider Madisonville, myself....it's a small town (seems to me, the signs there say pop. 30,000) but the online stats say about 20,000....anyway, Madisonville is a place that I would personally recommend, to my friends. It's a wonderful little town, IMHO. Lots of lovely folks live there, it's a great place to raise a family. Economically, it seems to be growing; although anyplace west of Louisville in KY isn't going to be economically on the upswing, it seems. I would still recommend Madisonville to you.

[rpb502]

Buckner sounds like a good fit for you. I am a big fan of Oldham county. Its very nice and peaceful...but not far from the Big City, and has great schools.

[check mee out]

I've lived in Owensboro for 18 years. Theres nothing to do here. The population is made up of bible beating rednecks and meth heads. This town is corrupt and I'm moving very soon. I hope that clears stuff up.

[shadowgt]

First of all, Owensboro is not a dying city. In fact, the city recently purchased what used to be the largest hotel in W. KY (Executive Inn) and are planning to tear it down and build a new hotel/convention center. The Big E (as it was called) was great in it's day, but it had become dated. In addition, the city is in the middle of building a multi-million dollar river walk that is part of the revitalization of downtown. There has been tremendous growth out KY 54. There are a ton of city and county parks that are fantastic if you have kids. In fact, there are no less than 4 within walking distance of my house. In addition, there is a greenbelt that circles the city that is great for walking and riding bikes. There are two colleges here (KY Weslyan and Brescia) plus Western Kentucky now has a campus here. There are numerous community and technical colleges. There are a lot of manufacturing jobs; everything from Ragu to Toyota. It is also true that there are some great schools (Daviess County, and Hancock which is part of Oboro metropolitan area, are two of the best school systems in the state. It is true that there are not a lot of night clubs, etc. but there is a lot to do if you like the out doors. Little league baseball is king here, there are tons of sports teams and facilities. The cost of living is cheap and the crime is pretty low. If you are single and like to party, it's not the place for you. If you want to raise a family in a pretty little city, this is the place for you.

[eok]

I like Owensboro. We moved here a few years ago. We can live anywhere we want to, as long as we have good internet access, and we chose Owensboro, out of dozens of places we were considering throughout the USA. Owensboro seems like the perfect compromise between rural and urban. There is a shopping area in Owensboro that has a mall, Sams Club, Home Depot, Office Depot, Best Buy, and dozens of other such stores. A mile away from it are cornfields. The violent crime rate here is very low. I feel safe going on a long walk anytime of the day or night.

It's not hard to get to know people here. If you consider the culture to be too limited, you can find plenty of culture on the internet.

I think one of the things that makes Owensboro safer from violent crime is that it has no interstate highways. People from big city gangs often move away from the big city, to start their own crime empire. But they can't read a map, so they just follow the interstate till they come to a place that strikes their fancy. They never even become aware of Owensboro, because it never shows up on their radar.

The biggest advantage of Owensboro is that it's one of the very few low-crime cities where you can buy a nice house in a nice neighborhood for a relatively low price. Our house is brick, with a big yard, in a very nice neighborhood, and cost us less than 10% of what it would cost in a big city.

If you're going to spend a lot of time at home, like we do, Owensboro is perfect, because you get a lot more home for your money.