Possibly relocating to Louisville (Newburg, Shively: transplants, apartment, crime rate)

[debbieturner13]

My husband and I are thinking about relocating to Louisville from Missouri. I will graduate from Rn school in December. I have been an LPN for 8 years.
Can anyone tell me a little bit about the hospitals in Louisville and which one would be the best to work at as far as pay, benefits, etc. Also, is Louisville a pretty safe city? What about buying land outside of Louisville, 3 acres or more. Any information would be appreciated. Thank you
Debbie

[tomocox]

Louisville is an extremely good place for medical practitioners. There is a brand new general hospital at I-265/71 and two new surgical centers about 3 miles south. All will have to be staffed. Louisville is the home of magnificent research into many medical sciences. From the first artificial heart to hand and face transplants to anti-cancer vaccines , Louisville has lead the world.

Safe, no. Louisville is not safe enough for me. No one should accept that 60 plus murders per year still allows Louisville to be called safe. That being said, 99% of all violent crime occurs in "the war zones". All of the hospitals with the exception of the downtown and possibly one or two more are in the "safe zones" where I would be comfortable allowing my wife and daughter to come and go 24/7/365.

Buying land is an option. 1-10-20 or more are available. The farther from the I-65 bridge over the Ohio River, the lower the per acre costs.

[Peter1948]

Despite what Tomocox says, Louisville is one of the safest large cities in America, and the stats prove it.

City Crime Rankings by Population Group

Every major city has murders; the fact is that Louisville has one of the lower rates per capita and they are ALMOST NEVER random. It is thug on thug, drug lord on drug lord 75% of the time. The rest is usually impoverished domestic related. So, if your husband doesn't kill you, and you don't sling drugs or work in prostitution, you should be fine no matter WHERE you live.

Having lived in many large cities, I find it odd anyone could consider Louisville dangerous. Perhaps it is all relative. Many people who come to and live in Louisville have a very small town mentality.

Also, many realtors and others will push you to surrounding counties as part of a "knee-jerk" reflex. Don't buy all the hypee unless you are dead set on many acres and a rural lifestyle. Explore the entire city and its suburbs and outlying exurbs for yourself, and make your own decisions.

Also, do not ever let anyone tell you the downtown medical center is dangerous! It is by far the largest medical center in KY and home to some of the most innovative medical innovations in the country such as the first hand transplant and the first artifical heart transplant. The HPV cancer vaccine was just invented there, and many more discoveries are to come. As someone who spends lots of time in that area, I can tell you it is far from dangerous in the downtown medical center. It is growing fast and an exciting time to be down there. Norton, Jewish, Baptist, VA and University are the major healthcare players in the metro area, and each run or are affiliated with several hospitals (google each name to find the hospitals they run). I believe there are around 15 full service hospitals in the metro, with several more outpatient surgery centers. The new full service suburban hospital at the Gene Snyder and I-71 will operate under a Norton flag and will be very nice. Still, it will be very small, have a limited, non diverse patient population, and only have private, older doctors which can frankly often be rude. So, keep your options open and explore all jobs available with all major health care operators. Jewish even runs hospitals in the Indiana suburbs like Clark Memorial.

So, ask yourself, what kind of patients do you like? What kind of nurse are you? Do you like teaching hospitals? Or smaller community hospitals? There are many questions to be answered, including where you are moving from in MO. Louisville is substantially safer than STL or KC metros, so crime here is a joke compared to there. If you come from Joplin, however, you may notice a difference.

[bw87a]

I cannot agree with the above poster more. Louisville is very safe and I can vouch that crime here is usually reserved to pockets in the West End and is almost always drug related.
You'll definitely be fine as far as safety goes.

[shan117]

"Safe, no. Louisville is not safe enough for me. No one should accept that 60 plus murders per year still allows Louisville to be called safe. That being said, 99% of all violent crime occurs in "the war zones". All of the hospitals with the exception of the downtown and possibly one or two more are in the "safe zones" where I would be comfortable allowing my wife and daughter to come and go 24/7/365. " Tomocox


Tom, My daughter wants to work on her PHD at the University of Louisville. I have many concerns about her safety. The main concern is the crime rate in the area of the university. She has spoken to two people from Louisville and one told her that she would be going to the ghetto everyday and the other told her she would be safer driving to the University of Kentucky. The second one moved away from Louisville a long time ago. She really likes the type of degree offered at U of L, but we really don't want to worry about her safety everyday when she goes to class. You seem to see things the way we do, so if she were your daughter, would you encourage her to go elsewhere?

[dantana]

60 plus murders/year sounds great to me. I live in Memphis, TN. Last year we had a little more than 150. 60 makes it seem safe to me.

[debbieturner13]

Thanks for all of your posts. The information you have given me has helped tremendously. I appreciate everyone's reply.
Debbie

[tomocox]

I am constantly amazed at the number of people who can't read on this forum. The OP asked if Louisville was safe. Anyone who considers 60 murders per year as a safe place to live, please stand up. What I did write was there are many safer areas of Louisville, some less safe, and some down right dangerous. For example, the area around the Belknap campus of the University of Louisville is not likely to be featured on the next Chamber of Commerce promotional material, but the campus itself seems to be a very safe place.

I also think a newcomer needs to know about more than just the dangerous areas of the west end. They should be aware of Smoketown, parts of Shively, the Iroquois apartment area off Taylor Blvd, and Newburgh.

Shay, your daughter should be very safe at any of the Louisville campuses. This would include U of L, Spaulding, Belermine, JCC, and the various extended campuses of Indiana Wesleyan, etc.

As far as the opinion about Realtors "pushing people", the other side of the coin is simply that the law requires that we serve as agents with fiduciary obligations to represent the best interest of our clients. It is both illegal and unethical for us to do otherwise. It is also illegal for us to "steer" people away from any area. To be certain that such activity is controlled, the US government has "testers" that not only investigate such civil rights act violations, but actually try trap Realtors violating the law unintentionally.

[kingcopper]

smoketown is safe Tom. You must never go downtown since moving to the burbs. 60 murders out of 700,000 per year is extremely safe in the US.

[The Dissenter]

Originally Posted by dantana

60 plus murders/year sounds great to me. I live in Memphis, TN. Last year we had a little more than 150. 60 makes it seem safe to me.

60 is cool with me too. i live outside DC which had 181 (550K population) and an hour from Baltimore 282 per yr average (650K people).

Tomocox is pretty accurate on the rough parts for newcomers. One thing i'd add would be the area on S 4th St gets more and more rough-looking as you leave the U of L area and the area outside of Churchill Downs is not one i like.