Things to Know Before Moving to Kentucky (Lexington, Louisville: fit in, homes)

[johnsonkk]

Originally Posted by georgeky

I joined just to give you a warning. It is ILLEGAL to carry a gun in the glove box. That is considered a concealed weapon, and you will be arrested for it. It must be in plain view. In other words, if you go through a check point lay your pistol on the dash or in the seat where it can be seen easily. I was born and raised/reared in KY, and it has never been legal as long as can remember to keep your pistol in the glove box. Other than that you can carry anywhere you like in plain view.

Where do you get your information?

It is legal:
KRS 527.020 - "A deadly weapon shall not be deemed concealed on or about the person if it is located in a glove compartment, regularly installed in a motor vehicle by its manufacturer regardless of whether said compartment is locked, unlocked, or does not have a locking mechanism." Kentucky State Police: Concealed Deadly Weapons

BTW, 100,000 Kentuckians now have a CCW.

[Taxed in Maine]

"1. WEATHER - The weather here is awful. It’s been cold damp and raining most of the time. What’s amazing is that even though the actual temperature may be in the thirties it feels much cooler. The humidity is very high and this makes it feel colder. In other words – the weather is miserable. Mold grows all over the place and any surface that doesn’t receive direct sunlight will most likely have mold growth. This means sidewalks, the brick on your home, decks, etc. I have lived in Chicago, Oklahoma City, Los Angeles, Germany, Spain and elsewhere never seeing anything like this."


Croce - I'll trade with you. Here in Southern Maine on Friday, March 28 we are getting hammered with snow - winter storm warnings in effect. I still have 3 FEET of snow in my yard. My kids won't be playing Little League any time soon.

At my In-Laws in Northern Maine they had areas declared natural disasters areas because of the record snowfall this winter. And if that wasn't bad enough it hit 14 below zero two nights last week.

And my friends wonder why I want to move out of Maine.

[K. Dunn]

And to that I say "BRRRRR".

[Elaine S.]

I moved here just a little less than two years ago. Frankly, I'm having a hard time feeling much enthusiasm for Louisville yet. The drivers here are horrible and rude (and I've lived in Columbus, OH, Knoxville, Richmond, & New York City, as well as Cincinnati). NOBODY knows how to merge properly in this town or use turn signals. I get rear-ended nearly every day because I actually slow down at lights that have been yellow a few seconds. People constantly crash red lights, like it's a game. I've met a few other transplants here and the crappy driving is always one of the first things that comes up. The crazy public school system is usually the second. You know it's bad when you call the public school parents' helpline three different times with the exact same question and get three different answers. I even got contradictory information from two grade school principals. I asked people at playgrounds, in parks, online, etc. and nobody seemed to have a grasp on schools or the school system. I finally managed to cobble enough info together to make a quasi-intelligent choice--at least I *think* I did. I don't find the people here to be that much nicer than the other cities I've lived in. They seem pretty average. The prices have always seemed higher than Cinti or Columbus. The Kroger stores here are not as big. Don't get me wrong, I like Louisville. I just don't love it. I'm hoping that will come in time because my spouse has a great job so we're probably here for the long haul. On the plus side, the Derby Festival frenzy is fun, there are a ton of parks, there are also a ton of independent/chef-owned restaurants, and rarely do you have to drive more than 20 minutes to go anywhere in town.

[tomocox]

Dear Miserable (aka, Elaine S), you have the same disease that afflicts millions of transit Americans. You load up your truck and move to Beverly Hills and continue to live like you are in the hills back home. We are Louisville Kentucky, not all those other places you mentioned. Actually, we drive very with tremendous courteousy. The only thing you haven't understood yet is that we don't use signals here because we are so friendly you should have already known where we were going.

Seriously, I guess I understand as I moved out of Louisville to enjoy the peace and tranquillity of Oldham County.

Welcome to Kentucky, but anytime you are ready, I'll show you the county lines do make a huge difference.

[Cattknap]

Originally Posted by dutchiris

We do have a deplorable shortage of kangaroos here in Louisville.

[loo-a-vill]

The largest city in Kentucky, with 700,000 people and another million or so in the surrounding suburbs. You know that you're from Louisville if any of the following apply to you:
*Your "International" airport has only one passenger flight that actually leaves the 48 contiguous U.S. states.

*The in-state sports rivalry is paid more attention to than the national championship.

*You live in an area that occasionally gets considerable snowfalls, floods, and tornadoes... but has no real capacity to deal with any of the above.

*You pronounce the name of your city different than anyone else you've heard.

*You think the rest of the people in Kentucky sound like hicks.

*When you think "Kentucky" you don't automatically think horse racing or fried chicken.

*You ask your doctor for an allergy cure and he tells you to move.

*You've shovelled 10+ inches of snow and worn shorts in the same week.

*When people ask what school you went to, they don't mean Vanderbilt, Yale, or Harvard; they mean Ballard, Male, Manual, Trinity, St. X., Assumption, Sacred Heart...

*You know what the Bambi Walk is.

*You say let them have their Starbucks; you've got Highland Coffee.

*Your last ten vacations were in Panama City or Destin.

*You make an emergency run to Kroger for bread and milk at the first sighting of a snowflake.

*You've lived here for years and know the place like the back of your hand, yet somehow you get hopelessly lost each time you attempt a shortcut through Cherokee Park.

*You hold up traffic to let a motorist you don't know into your lane.

*You give directions based on landmarks that no longer exist or street names that have changed, but your directions never confuse any of the other Louisvillians.

*You have never been to the Derby, but wouldn't miss the Oaks.

*You think all the REAL hicks live in New Albany.

*You think the only thing Southern Indiana is good for is buying pumpkins.

*When introduced to another life-long Louisvillian, you spend the first part of the conversation finding out how you are connected. It's never as many as six degrees of separation - usually two or three will do it.

*You think a pervert is someone who would rather have sex than watch basketball.

*You can read about Rick Pitino in at least three different sections of your newspaper, and you either love or hate this fact with a passion.

*You think the rest of the world knows what Benedictine spread is.

*You think the rest of the world knows what a Hot Brown is.

*You want another bridge built over the Ohio River, just so long as it doesn't cut through YOUR neighborhood.

*Whenever an out-of-towner makes a comment about Louisville being small, you immediately jump on them with, "It's the 16th biggest city in the country!"

[CBfromVA]

Originally Posted by Elaine S.

I moved here just a little less than two years ago. Frankly, I'm having a hard time feeling much enthusiasm for Louisville yet. The drivers here are horrible and rude (and I've lived in Columbus, OH, Knoxville, Richmond, & New York City, as well as Cincinnati). NOBODY knows how to merge properly in this town or use turn signals. I get rear-ended nearly every day because I actually slow down at lights that have been yellow a few seconds. People constantly crash red lights, like it's a game. I've met a few other transplants here and the crappy driving is always one of the first things that comes up. The crazy public school system is usually the second. You know it's bad when you call the public school parents' helpline three different times with the exact same question and get three different answers. I even got contradictory information from two grade school principals. I asked people at playgrounds, in parks, online, etc. and nobody seemed to have a grasp on schools or the school system. I finally managed to cobble enough info together to make a quasi-intelligent choice--at least I *think* I did. I don't find the people here to be that much nicer than the other cities I've lived in. They seem pretty average. The prices have always seemed higher than Cinti or Columbus. The Kroger stores here are not as big. Don't get me wrong, I like Louisville. I just don't love it. I'm hoping that will come in time because my spouse has a great job so we're probably here for the long haul. On the plus side, the Derby Festival frenzy is fun, there are a ton of parks, there are also a ton of independent/chef-owned restaurants, and rarely do you have to drive more than 20 minutes to go anywhere in town.

I am in the process of moving to Louisville and the school situation is making it very difficult to make a decision on a home. So if I may ask where in the Louisville area did you find your home and the school you finally decided was the best one for your family?

[savvywoman]

Croce you and I have had two totally opposing experiences. I grew up in Louisville and moved to central California when I married my husband. Fortunately I talked my husband in moving back here. He's been here 10 years now and said he'd never want to live any place else even though all his family is still in CA. In fact, he is trying to get them to move here.

Weather- Yes I'll give you that it does get very cold here and in the summer you will find the humidity unbearable compared to the dry heat in CA. 120 degrees there is nothing compared to 70 degrees here with 80% humidity. However, being a Kentucky native I've never seen anything like the mold growths you claimed to have seen. I would suggest that you have an expert out to find out why you are having such a problem with mold. There may be something seriously wrong with your home that is more of a health risk then radon gas. If there is, that is something that could have occurred just as easily in CA. In fact, it is actually more common in the warmer areas of the country. Or, you could be confusing moss with mold. If you live in old Louisville moss growth is common. Moss is an algae is not harmful. Mold is fungus and can cause all kinds of respiratory problems in humans.

When I lived in CA I loved the warm weather but I did miss the rain. I started yearning for rain. I could care less if I never saw snow again but the rain I missed. I felt sincerely deprived from the lack of it. Since moving back here I've loved everyday of rain we've had.

Taxes- It is not uncommon in most of the country to have a state, county and local tax. It even occurs in many CA counties.

Housing- I really didn't see anything all that great about CA homes. Certainly nothing all that energy efficient. Most, if they have any kind of heating system at all still use the old spacer heaters that the rest of the world gave up in the 19th century. Then for air conditioning they plant this huge fan on the top of the house and have it blow down into your home from a hole in the ceiling. Its called a swap cooler but wind tunnel would have been a better name. If you want to stay cool you have to have one part of your home subject to 70+mph winds at all times. Plus, you have to keep every door in the house open so it will cool those rooms. Nothing really energy efficient in that.

And the homes...it appeared to me that 70% of the state lives in trailers. I never saw so many trailers in my life. The few that have real homes lived in boxes that are covered with plaster swirled walls similar to the popcorn ceilings that are so despised in the rest of the world. When I asked my husband why everyone did that to their walls he couldn't answer. With the exception of San Francisco, architectural features were rare. There was no craftsman ship at all. Every home was built on one of 2 different plans. One faced east the other faced west. This way they could pack in the most people in a square mile. The yards are about as big as a sidewalk. These homes frequently sold for over a million dollars for a 800 square feet home. If you included the lot you might have 850 square feet. No wonder they all chose to live in trailers.

Roads/Traffic--As far as road planning everything in the CA flat lands or the valley as it is called is on a grid because there is no topography to have to deal with. It is hard to get a grid plan wrong. In the mountains where we lived it is quite a different scene. You have to have a strong heart to drive those roads. Can you say clifthanger......They also have a portion of the road between Southern and Central CA called the grapevine. You can imagine why it is called that. It makes our spaghetti junction look like a kiddy ride. It wasn't built for normal vehicles. Because they have to work so hard to get up and down the hills most cars will overheat traveling it which is why they have to have watering stations every mile. In Kentucky they would have blasted a straight road through it. Traffic is unbearable. I5 during rush hour truly makes you wonder why they call it rush hour. 5 hours to travel one mile.

The highway on and off ramps can be dangerously close to one another. This can make merging on and exiting sometimes seem like a scene from a Mad Max movie.

I had to laugh when I read this. In CA the on ramps have red lights. Of course since the traffic never moves faster than 5mph I guess it really doesn't matter if you are forced to enter the interstate from a dead stop.

On the subject of snow and ice. We lived in the mountains so we would get an occasional dusting of snow. The first time it happened while I was there I felt like I was in the twilight zone. No one wanted to drive because it was snowing. I was like, "snow, what snow? There isn't even enough snow out there to cover the grass let on stick to the road."

My auto insurance rates skyrocketed when I changed my address to Louisville.

I found this interesting since mine quadrupled when I moved from Louisville to CA and dropped by the same amount when I moved back. The fact that rates are higher in CA then most any other state in the union is well publicized.

Cost of Living-- YOU JEST! I experienced major sticker shock when I moved from Louisville to CA and not because prices were low in CA. I thought I would have a stroke every time I opened a bill. It got to the point where I would have to start taking deep breaths and brace myself for what I knew was coming. Food prices were unbelievably high. I could feed my whole family for a month on what would buy a weeks worth of groceries in CA. However, the selection was much better. I loved shopping for produce there. I still miss the selection.

There was one item that was cheaper in CA then Louisville and it was the last thing I would have expected...Medical insurance! They have huge HMO's there that keep the prices low. We got insurance through Kaiser Permante that covered our whole family for 1/10 what it would have cost us in Louisville.

The job situation in CA was horrible. When we left Louisville employers were so desperate for employees that they were paying twice the minimum wage for jobs at places like McDonald's and still couldn't find anyone willing to work at that wage. In CA they were lining up for a chance at a minimum wage job that still paid minimum wage. In fact, when my husband was laid off I talked him into moving to Louisville because jobs that paid a living wage were plentiful.

Safety-I lived in CA for 15 months. We lived in the middle of no where in the mountains up near Yosemite Park. In that time they tried to break into my home 3 times and I when I was 8 months pregnant I was chased by a crazy man with a rifle because he didn't like the fact that I delivered his mail last instead of first.

Anyone reading this I don't want you to put much stock in Croce's point of view. From the viewpoint of a native I can tell you that most of it is inaccurate and very jaded. He/she obviously misses their home and that has clouded their views. Louisville is a beautiful place to live and most that move here are very happy they came here.

[savvywoman]

You've shovelled 10+ inches of snow and worn shorts in the same week.

I use to tell my husband about how fast the weather changes here in Kentucky and he didn't believe me. He thought I was exaggerating. That is until he moved here.