Old Louisville/Downtown night life observation (Alexandria: real estate, apartments, condos)

[Mobilemoll]

When I visited family in July, I was absolutly fascinated with the amount of cafes, nice looking pubs and whatnot downtown. My bf and I were getting lost driving my niece home (with a shoddy GPS no less...) and our mouths were gapped open looking at the bustling area. Of course we were then hit with shock as the nice buildings instantlygave away to barren areas and dilapidated shacks and homes. It's the equivalent of playing Good block-Bad block in NYC. In the real estate books, I see many ads for the growing downtown area with new highrise buildings and they are looking attractive-but the further down you head the area is an eye sore.

Also, I LOVE the make of homes in Old Louisville! The huge windows catch my eye. Anyone else like the way these (extremely) old buildings look? I just glance through the real estate section online and dream. A family friend who's into real estate warned me about moving there, saying that it's less than desirable though. Then again I believe it depends on what part you are in.

[Alanboy395]

Originally Posted by Mobilemoll

When I visited family in July, I was absolutly fascinated with the amount of cafes, nice looking pubs and whatnot downtown. My bf and I were getting lost driving my niece home (with a shoddy GPS no less...) and our mouths were gapped open looking at the bustling area. Of course we were then hit with shock as the nice buildings instantlygave away to barren areas and dilapidated shacks and homes. It's the equivalent of playing Good block-Bad block in NYC. In the real estate books, I see many ads for the growing downtown area with new highrise buildings and they are looking attractive-but the further down you head the area is an eye sore.

Also, I LOVE the make of homes in Old Louisville! The huge windows catch my eye. Anyone else like the way these (extremely) old buildings look? I just glance through the real estate section online and dream. A family friend who's into real estate warned me about moving there, saying that it's less than desirable though. Then again I believe it depends on what part you are in.

I really love just the overall look of that neighborhood. It makes it much more exciting than the concrete jungle of Alexandria, VA.

Old Louisville's desirability is more a subject of what you can tolerate. I heard the main problems there are car break-ins. Car break-ins are getting more and more numerous here in my part of Alexandria. Your best defense is to not leave anything tempting in plain view in your car. Also in my neighborhood this week there was a shooting, two guys arguing over drugs and one just starts popping bullets and the other one died. More than likely if you aint involved in that type of business or anything like it you wont have much to worry about. Also, that shooting was at night so that should tell you something there.

[KrystalKF]

Yeah, downtown is definitely a work in progress. I'm only 21 so I can't offer much firsthand history of downtown but apparently when my Grandad was young downtown was the place to be. When my Dad was young it was run down. Then when I was young we never went down there unless we absolutely had to, just because there was nothing to do. But nowadays it's getting a LOT better. There are a lot of nice restaurants, bars (4th St Live is AWESOME) and even some theaters and museums. It's still not really a place you can just walk around like what I've seen in Indy. But with all the new construction that's about to happen (new stadium, condos, hotels, MALL!!, and completion of Waterfront Park), it will get there eventually.

Now to Old Louisville. It is also a bit hit-or-miss. I actually live on S. Floyd st (in a 100+ yr old home) which is in Old Louisville but right on the border kind of. A lot of the houses on my street have vinyl siding so they're not the really fancy ones like you'll see on 3rd, 4th and St. James ct. But the good thing is that people are no longer allowed to convert SFHs into apartments and many people (like me and my boyfriend) are converting their multi-units into a SFH which definitely draws a different crowd. But yes, TONS of people share your love for the old Victorian homes.

[merti]

You just have to know the streets. Magnolia on up is beautiful, but if you get down to Hill Street, your in the danger zone.

[rbryant]

I think anything west of Sixth street in Old Louisville is sorta sketchy. The area between second and fourth street from downtown to UofL is mostly safe though. Echoing what an OP wrote, you have to know your streets.

[stx12499]

Originally Posted by merti

You just have to know the streets. Magnolia on up is beautiful, but if you get down to Hill Street, your in the danger zone.

?? Hill street is fine as long as you are east of seventh street. The OP was not in downtown when she saw dilapidated buildings, but was likely in the West End. If she was downtown on Saturday or Friday and it was warm, it probably was and indeed usually is bustling, and there is a growing contigent of downtown highrise resdidents, although much much work needs to be done, mainly on infill and retail venues.