Possibly Moving to Lousiville

[missymomof3]

Originally Posted by Scrabble75

There are some affordable houses in a really nice area of 40241 area code near The Summit/ Springhurst area in East End.

I grew up in the Brownsboro Farm neighborhood/ city, which is perfect for families. It is the ideal surburban dream complete of nothing but minivans and strollers.

Check out Highway 22(aka Old Brownsboro Rd) and Barbor Manor Lane areas......some decent prices $200-$225 area....

someone said something about the weather.....well....it sucks. Kentucky weather has always been fickle. In recent years the wind has been nuts, last year we had a wind storm that ripped up the city, ice and snow knocked out power for 10 days last winter citywide, and temperatures can be nutso hot., in 2007 we had nearly 2 weeks of nearly 100 degrees....oh and last but not least....the allergy capital of the world!

I won't even mention the deep, deep depression that happens every February from perm. cloud coverage.

I don't remember about last February but this one had a stretch of 50's and 60's and it wasn't hardly cloudy at all. My step-MIL lives out in the Brownsboro rd area and her neighborhood is full of very nice people and it is beautiful.

[HatesWinter2118]

Originally Posted by artifact

I have read through numerous posts here about the different areas in Louisville and differing opinions on where are good places to live. I mostly wanted to make sure I have everything summarized as best I can and make sure I am not missing anything as I research the possibilities.

I am considering a position in the Louisville area. I currently live in the San Diego area and for a variety of reasons, I am considering leaving for better/different pastures. I am married with 2 (3 in May) children. My wife does not work and my oldest child will start school next fall.

To answer the standard questions:

1. The company has a couple of locations, but I would most likely be working in the downtown area.
2. I can't say for certain how much I would be willing to spend - depending on potential salary, probably between 150K and 200K. I would most definitely look to rent for a period first to get a feel for any area I was in. I pay 1600 per month now for a small 2 bedroom apartment - I would prefer to pay less than that for a 3 bedroom. That may give you an idea of reasons to leave San Diego!
3. Shorter commute is better, but depending on other factors commuting 30 minutes would not be a deal breaker.
4. My kids would be in public schools - more below.
5/6. Neighborhood. Both my wife and I grew up in smaller towns, but have lived for a while in bigger cities. We want to live in an area that has other families around and children to play with, parks for children, but not so packed in as we see here in the newer developments - a decent sized back yard. If we went further out we would obviously expect to get more space. We will want to have access to the amenities of the urban city - museums, medical care, restaurants, etc. - but would be willing to drive to utilize them.

I think for us the two biggest things will be schools and healthcare. My youngest child has a medical condition that requires us to at least stay close to urban centers with adequate pediatric specialists. This also includes trips to physical therapists etc. This will also mean that she needs a public school with good services - help with an IEP, onsite therapists if possible, etc.

Schools in Louisville seem difficult to pick - like a lot of other bigger cities, it seems pretty hit and miss - a great elementary school may feed into a not so good high school (e.g. Audubon Hills elementary looks pretty good, but I think it feeds into a not so good high school?). The more sub-urban you go that seems to be easier to pin down (e.g. Middletown seems to have good elementary schools and feeds into Eastern High school which looks to be pretty good).

We also eat pretty healthy. That includes some organic foods - so the usual suspects on restaurant row are not a necessity, but good produce markets are.

So getting to the point and summarizing what I have put together from reading through the other posts:

Oldham County (Crestwood, etc.) - longer commute, more space, less urban, good schools - for us, farther from the bigger medical centers.

Anchorage - sounds great, but not in my price range

Middletown, Lyndon, etc. - More sub-urban than downtown, but less rural than Oldham County - Middletown in particular has good schools, harder to tell with Lyndon.

Closer in - St. Matthews, Audubon Hills, etc. - these are obviously the shortest commute and closest to medical centers, but are more hit and miss for schools, and possibly the least amount of space for the money.

My gut feeling is that most likely areas like Middletown are maybe the best fit for us, basically because they are in the middle - not so far out, but not right in the middle of the city either. The extra space that might be a possibility in Oldham county is appealing (my wife would want horses) as are the good schools there and it really does not seem like the commute is that bad. The alternative is that living closer to the city has its advantages as well.

I really have no knowledge of the Louisville area, so that is feeding into my seeming indecision. Are there other areas I should look into? Any input on the school situation in the more urban areas?

Thanks for reading this far and for any help!

Oh - I prefer Ice Cream over Pie and Cake, but if I had to choose...I guess pie!

After reading your post I think you've done your homework and are pretty dead on with your assumptions. Before I read most of it I was going to tell you Middletown would be the best, esp. the Plainview neighborhood. It's close to I-64 and would take less than 10 minutes to get to a hospital in St. Matthews (traffic pending of course). The only problem I must warn you is that Hurstbourne Pkwy in that area at 5pm rush hour can be brutal. Hope this helps!

[gocards1289]

Originally Posted by artifact

Thanks again for the input. I still have no word on the position in Louisville and I have interviewed for a couple of positions in other cities (Austin, Portland and Durham), but I did have one follow up question.

In looking at the schools, I saw that Hawthorne Elementary in the JCSD has a dual language program that looks interesting - my oldest child speaks both English and Spanish fluently and we would like to continue encouraging that. So my questions are:

1. It appears that Hawthorne is a pretty good school (at least as much as you can judge by scores and rankings) and I think it feeds into Atherton High School which also looks good, but it is not clear what Middle School it is - the 3 in the area do not rank as high.

2. I assume there is a lottery to get into the program, which we will probably miss unless I hear something really soon. Does anyone have input on how hard it is to get into the program?

3. I also assume that you can apply for the program from anywhere in the district, but what is the area like right around the school as far as a family living there? It looks like there is a small airport close by, but it is also close to one of the bigger parks.

Thanks!

I'm pretty sure Hawthorne feeds into Highland Middle, which is one of the better middle schools in JCPS. The area around Hawthorne is close to Bowman Field, which is the small airport you mentioned and Seneca Park is right on the other side of Bowman. That neighborhood is called Strathmoor Village and has some fairly nice houses in your price range, quite a few ranch and "cape cod" style homes built in the 1950's. About on the order of something you'd get in St. Matthews but probably a little cheaper.
You mentioned that you liked Middletown; the schools in that area are very good (as long as you can get into them). Those schools are Hite Elementary, Crosby Middle, and Eastern High; all of these schools are among the best in the district. One of the nicest neighborhood in that area is Douglass Hills (off of Blankenbaker Pkwy by Southeast Christian Church), mostly large (2-3000sq ft) colonial 2-story homes and ranches built in the 1970's although maybe a little pricy (mid-200's). Hope this helps!