Louisville- bad areas? (houses, find a job, neighborhood)

[kat750]

Originally Posted by sun45

Newburg has it's crime also, gangs

Does newburg have gangs? I ride through regularly and i dont get that vibe? I really dont even get a high crime vibe. Dont hear of anymore shooting or robberies there than any other part of the city.

[blueslady1500]

As I love Kentucky,No busses run to Fort Knox not pass Watt st.

[blueslady1500]

Originally Posted by stx12499

400 is probably a bit too low for a one bedroom. It is probably in need of repair or in a bad neighborhood. I would stay away from online apartment searches, as they tend to lead you to boring apartment complexes in suburban areas. As compared to DC, almost all of Louisville is safe. The general rule is that the west side of Louisville is where most the crime occurs. As a general rule, stay away from areas west of 9th street and north of algonquin parkway.

I would search local classifieds for apartments or condos for rent in the following zips: 40202, 40208, 40204, 40205, 40206, and 40207. A nice one bedroom in these areas will usually run between 550 and 900 on the high end (we are talking about a pretty luxurious condo type rental for 900). There are very few one bedroom apartments anywhere in the city for above 1200. However, a very high end two bedroom will rent for 1000 plus. Louisville is one of the mst affordable cities in the nation. Another method of finding a cool place in Louisville is simply exporing neighborhoods and calling for rent signs that people place in yards. It gets you a feel for prices and what it gets you in neighborhood A versus neighborhood B. Anywho, those zips I listed are the cooler areas and generally include downtown, the area just south of downtown (near UofL's campus) and several neighborhoods east of downtown. 40205 will provide you with the KY version of DC's Georgetown. That is probably a bit of a stretch, but 40204 and 40205 zips are very bohemian. Look for areas around Bardstown Rd and Frankfort Ave.

The drive from downtown Louisville to Ft. Knox is very easy, about 45 minutes. Louisville has several commuter suburbs within 15 minutes of Ft Knox as well. Nashville is very far from Ft Knox, probably around 2 and a half hours.

As I love Kentucky,No busses run to Fort Knox not pass Watt st.

[bigboy82]

Can anyone give me any insight on the safety of the second street area closer to the 1000 block or Watterson pkway end. I would really aprreciate it.

[stx12499]

Originally Posted by bigboy82

Can anyone give me any insight on the safety of the second street area closer to the 1000 block or Watterson pkway end. I would really aprreciate it.

The 1000 block of 2nd is nowhere near the Watterson Expresway. Please give me an exact address and I will provide you with zip code crime stats from the FBI's uniform crime report from 2008.

[loucardslady]

Louisville has its bad areas just like any other place. People shouldn't make too many assumptions though. Not all the things going on in the west end are bad. My fiance and his parents are from the west end. His parents bent over backwards to buy the house next door to them to keep a group of dealers from turning it into a drug house. There are some people in the west end who are trying to make things better. His father grew up in downtown Louisville and the Portland neighborhoods.

If anyone is familiar with the history of Louisville, you would be laughing with me when I say that the Portland and Shippingport areas were once very prosperous parts of Louisville. The big houses you see on Northwestern were once the houses of the wealthy. And to hear it told, the houses in the great city of New Orleans were modeled after houses here in our fair city!!!!! In the Portland neighborhood, no less!

Yes, these parts of town are in need of TLC now, but no one can deny they once were beautiful places. Who knows? It seems downtown Louisville is shifting westward; gentrification can't be far behind.

[missymomof3]

Originally Posted by loucardslady

. And to hear it told, the houses in the great city of New Orleans were modeled after houses here in our fair city!!!!! In the Portland neighborhood, no less!

I thought it was the other way around lol and no, it doesn't suprise me one bit that it used to be much different there, the west end used to be the place to be! Then in the 50's, people moved out and I imagine that is when it went downhill. I would love to see it come back up though!

[ParisAsta]

My parents have decided to buy one of the old houses in Portland. I have called them crazy, but they say that the price of the house is fair and well we have lived in Newberg since we have moved back. So we are going to exchange old odd neighborhood for another.

Besides if we can help with the process of bring Portland back to its old glory, it would be grand.

[cobolt]

Ahhhhh, Louisville. I get so homesick for you. If I could only find a job that pays over 30K. I'm looking at my pics from my last Louisville visit and it just makes me sick! Guess it wasn't in the cards for me to move there.

[gocards1289]

I for one would love to see parts of the West End gentrify someday. Much of the housing stock has potential and would be beautiful if many of the homes were restored/renovated; much of the housing stock is very similar in style/era to what you'd find in parts of the Highlands and Crescent Hill. Lots of classic 1910's-1920's vintage bungalows with nice full front porches as well as 1900's-1910's vintage large 2-story frame homes, and of course plenty of shotgun cottages in Portland, Russell and Parkland/California. Even some neat late 19th-century brick homes along Jefferson, Muhammad Ali and Chestnut through the Russell neighborhood that could be beautiful if restored. Not to mention there's an abundance of classic turn-of-the-century churches that I'd love to see thrive once again.
The problem of course is most of the west end is blighted and economically depressed; hardly anybody who would be a pioneer in gentrification is brave enough to move into a bad area like that. For example, unlike other areas in Louisville that have gentrified (Germantown comes to mind) there's little in the way of restaurants/entertainment nearby although some areas (Russell) are quite proximate to downtown.
But I'd love to see the west end the way it was when my grandparents grew up there: nice well-kept homes/yards, litter-free streets (some areas now are quite offensive in this regard), an abundance of businesses such as corner groceries/markets, etc...really just an overall thriving feel that it had up until the 1960's.