Kansas City vs. Louisville vs. Omaha vs. Pittsburgh vs. Columbus vs. STL (bigger, population)

[steel03]

Originally Posted by Peter1948

These "best of rankings" are all over for any city, but appear especially prominent in Louisville this year (and these are just from 2012):


Eat

1. Louisville was named one of the “Best Foodie Getaways around the World” by Zagat.
2. Louisville was named one of the top 10 Tastiest Towns by Southern Living.
3. Louisville’s MEAT was named one of the World’s 50 Best Bars 2012 by Drinks International.
4. Bootsnall.com listed Louisville as one of the “8 of the Best American Small Towns for Foodies.”
5. Louisville made the list for “The 10 Best College Towns for True Foodies” on thebestcolleges.org.
6. Harvest was named on Food & Wine’s “Best Southern Food in the U.S.” list.
7. Hammerheads’ chef was named top 10 in the region by Food & Wine Magazine.
8. Holy Grale restaurant was recognized in Draft Magazine’s list of America’s 100 Best Beer Bars, and in Food & Wine Magazine’s roundup of “Best Sliders in the U.S.”

Play

1. Louisville was named one of the Top 10 Cities for Affordable Vacations by Livability.com.
2. GQ magazine named Louisville “the manliest town in America.”
3. Louisville was named in the Top 6 Summer “Mancations” by TravelChannel.
4. Louisville was named in “Top 25 Best American Cities for Art” by American Style Magazine.
5. U.S. News named Louisville one of the Top 12 Best Getaways.
6. ABC City Guides for Kids named Louisville one of its Top 7 Family Destinations for 2012.

Stay

1. The U.S. Conference of Mayors named Louisville “the nation’s most livable large city.”
2. Louisville made the Top 10 “Best Places to Retire Under $40,000″ on Yahoo News.
3. Condé Nast Traveler readers voted Louisville’s 21c Museum Hotel #1 Hotel in the South.
4. The Brown Hotel was named to Travel + Leisure’s 2012 list of the Top 500 World’s Best Hotels.

You've completely missed the point.

[tollfree]

In the Des Moines forum, any implication that Des Moines isn't the center of the universe is automatically dismissed as trolling. Nice for its size, but too cult-like as well.

[staylor336]

I've visited all of these cities, lived in Louisville, lived in Bloomington, IN, lived in Champaign, IL, lived in Chapel Hill, NC, and currently reside in Madison, WI, after moving up here on a whim last September. Of all those places, I miss Louisville the most. It's a really great city.

Louisville, of all the places I've lived, is the most quirky and interesting. It's different, it's mostly undiscovered. Bloomington, Chapel Hill, and Madison call themselves quirky.... I think they're full of pretentious bozos and yuppies.

Louisville just has a really unique feel. As a photographer, it's an incredibly photogenic place.

One of the things I loved about it (though there's a drawback, too) is that it's not in iron grip of a major university. It's a city in its own right with a couple of decent universities there, but you don't have to deal with the "students coming and going" that will screw with your head. I feel like entertainment and social life in college towns like Bloomington (and I imagine even Columbus, considering the size of Ohio State) really are at the mercy of whenever classes are in session. The drawback is that I thought Louisville kind of lacks the "brain appeal" of college towns or first-tier cities like Minneapolis, Chicago, and so forth. (For the record, I think parts of Minneapolis remind me pretty favorably of Louisville.... and I'd say there's probably more going on culturally in MSP.)

Louisville is a liberal city by and large, in a conservative, which is kind of what I like (though that's true of all the cities on your list....) I think the fact that it's in Kentucky keeps a lot of the liberal "crazies" away, as opposed to the more straightforward, down-to-earth kind of liberals that I like..... a lot of Kentuckians in general are that way.

I do kind of feel that whether you're talking KC, Omaha, Louisville, STL, or Pittsburgh, you're not going to find a whole ton of people moving to any of those places from outside the immediate area. When you get down to it, everywhere in the Midwest is going to be pretty insular outside Chicago. My roommate in Louisville was tired of it because he was a pretty adventurous guy and got sick of the fact that folks in Louisville tend to stay there their whole lives and not really travel much (I don't know if he was totally right about that....) That said, I've found that folks here in Madison, WI, have ZERO interest whatsoever in outsiders, and that it's way more stifling than anything I ever encountered elsewhere. If you don't talk like a Wisconsinite, if you don't root for the Packers, if you're not interested in sports, and didn't grow up in the area, NOBODY will want to get to know you. I never found that to be the case in Louisville..... might have something to do with the fact that it's where the Midwest and South come together. Come up here to the Upper Midwest and it's so Midwest you go crazy, but you'd get the same thing if you went too far South (I lived way down South, too, and got sick of it.) Louisville's about perfect.

Cheap, too. I had no trouble finding a place with a roommate a few blocks from the Highlands (the best, quirkiest part of town) for $350 a month. Found three jobs in restaurants with 24 hours of coming into town, had to turn one of them down. Don't know what kind of long-term work you're looking for.

Having lived and traveled all over the Midwest and South looking for the "right fit", I'd have to say that (as an artist), the only two places that really impress me as far as livability goes are Louisville and Minneapolis. Don't go to Madison or Des Moines, you won't have any friends unless you're exactly like them in every way.....

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by staylor336

I've visited all of these cities, lived in Louisville, lived in Bloomington, IN, lived in Champaign, IL, lived in Chapel Hill, NC, and currently reside in Madison, WI, after moving up here on a whim last September. Of all those places, I miss Louisville the most. It's a really great city.

Louisville, of all the places I've lived, is the most quirky and interesting. It's different, it's mostly undiscovered. Bloomington, Chapel Hill, and Madison call themselves quirky.... I think they're full of pretentious bozos and yuppies.

Louisville just has a really unique feel. As a photographer, it's an incredibly photogenic place.

One of the things I loved about it (though there's a drawback, too) is that it's not in iron grip of a major university. It's a city in its own right with a couple of decent universities there, but you don't have to deal with the "students coming and going" that will screw with your head. I feel like entertainment and social life in college towns like Bloomington (and I imagine even Columbus, considering the size of Ohio State) really are at the mercy of whenever classes are in session. The drawback is that I thought Louisville kind of lacks the "brain appeal" of college towns or first-tier cities like Minneapolis, Chicago, and so forth. (For the record, I think parts of Minneapolis remind me pretty favorably of Louisville.... and I'd say there's probably more going on culturally in MSP.)

Louisville is a liberal city by and large, in a conservative, which is kind of what I like (though that's true of all the cities on your list....) I think the fact that it's in Kentucky keeps a lot of the liberal "crazies" away, as opposed to the more straightforward, down-to-earth kind of liberals that I like..... a lot of Kentuckians in general are that way.

I do kind of feel that whether you're talking KC, Omaha, Louisville, STL, or Pittsburgh, you're not going to find a whole ton of people moving to any of those places from outside the immediate area. When you get down to it, everywhere in the Midwest is going to be pretty insular outside Chicago. My roommate in Louisville was tired of it because he was a pretty adventurous guy and got sick of the fact that folks in Louisville tend to stay there their whole lives and not really travel much (I don't know if he was totally right about that....) That said, I've found that folks here in Madison, WI, have ZERO interest whatsoever in outsiders, and that it's way more stifling than anything I ever encountered elsewhere. If you don't talk like a Wisconsinite, if you don't root for the Packers, if you're not interested in sports, and didn't grow up in the area, NOBODY will want to get to know you. I never found that to be the case in Louisville..... might have something to do with the fact that it's where the Midwest and South come together. Come up here to the Upper Midwest and it's so Midwest you go crazy, but you'd get the same thing if you went too far South (I lived way down South, too, and got sick of it.) Louisville's about perfect.

Cheap, too. I had no trouble finding a place with a roommate a few blocks from the Highlands (the best, quirkiest part of town) for $350 a month. Found three jobs in restaurants with 24 hours of coming into town, had to turn one of them down. Don't know what kind of long-term work you're looking for.

Having lived and traveled all over the Midwest and South looking for the "right fit", I'd have to say that (as an artist), the only two places that really impress me as far as livability goes are Louisville and Minneapolis. Don't go to Madison or Des Moines, you won't have any friends unless you're exactly like them in every way.....

Interesting observations. I am a newcomer to Madison as well, but relocated here due to a job opportunity. I live in a more rural environment (which I prefer) yet have easy access to city amenities and the outdoors very closeby. I am NOT a city person so Downtown Madison often feels quite busy and overstimulating. I agree that the smaller metros in the core of the Midwest are much more insular than those metros on the periphery, but I feel that Louisville is ultra insular as well- even though I consider it to be part of the South. The river towns are all unique in their own ways. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, etc.

[tdagarim]

Originally Posted by staylor336

I've visited all of these cities, lived in Louisville, lived in Bloomington, IN, lived in Champaign, IL, lived in Chapel Hill, NC, and currently reside in Madison, WI, after moving up here on a whim last September. Of all those places, I miss Louisville the most. It's a really great city.

Louisville, of all the places I've lived, is the most quirky and interesting. It's different, it's mostly undiscovered. Bloomington, Chapel Hill, and Madison call themselves quirky.... I think they're full of pretentious bozos and yuppies.

Louisville just has a really unique feel. As a photographer, it's an incredibly photogenic place.

One of the things I loved about it (though there's a drawback, too) is that it's not in iron grip of a major university. It's a city in its own right with a couple of decent universities there, but you don't have to deal with the "students coming and going" that will screw with your head. I feel like entertainment and social life in college towns like Bloomington (and I imagine even Columbus, considering the size of Ohio State) really are at the mercy of whenever classes are in session. The drawback is that I thought Louisville kind of lacks the "brain appeal" of college towns or first-tier cities like Minneapolis, Chicago, and so forth. (For the record, I think parts of Minneapolis remind me pretty favorably of Louisville.... and I'd say there's probably more going on culturally in MSP.)

Louisville is a liberal city by and large, in a conservative, which is kind of what I like (though that's true of all the cities on your list....) I think the fact that it's in Kentucky keeps a lot of the liberal "crazies" away, as opposed to the more straightforward, down-to-earth kind of liberals that I like..... a lot of Kentuckians in general are that way.

I do kind of feel that whether you're talking KC, Omaha, Louisville, STL, or Pittsburgh, you're not going to find a whole ton of people moving to any of those places from outside the immediate area. When you get down to it, everywhere in the Midwest is going to be pretty insular outside Chicago. My roommate in Louisville was tired of it because he was a pretty adventurous guy and got sick of the fact that folks in Louisville tend to stay there their whole lives and not really travel much (I don't know if he was totally right about that....) That said, I've found that folks here in Madison, WI, have ZERO interest whatsoever in outsiders, and that it's way more stifling than anything I ever encountered elsewhere. If you don't talk like a Wisconsinite, if you don't root for the Packers, if you're not interested in sports, and didn't grow up in the area, NOBODY will want to get to know you. I never found that to be the case in Louisville..... might have something to do with the fact that it's where the Midwest and South come together. Come up here to the Upper Midwest and it's so Midwest you go crazy, but you'd get the same thing if you went too far South (I lived way down South, too, and got sick of it.) Louisville's about perfect.

Cheap, too. I had no trouble finding a place with a roommate a few blocks from the Highlands (the best, quirkiest part of town) for $350 a month. Found three jobs in restaurants with 24 hours of coming into town, had to turn one of them down. Don't know what kind of long-term work you're looking for.

Having lived and traveled all over the Midwest and South looking for the "right fit", I'd have to say that (as an artist), the only two places that really impress me as far as livability goes are Louisville and Minneapolis. Don't go to Madison or Des Moines, you won't have any friends unless you're exactly like them in every way.....

Thank you for your insight, especially since you've lived in areas that I am somewhat familiar with. My hometown, and where I live currently is about 90 minutes south of Champaign so I'm pretty familiar with that area...and of course my recent failed move to Bloomington, IN.

[staylor336]

Sounds like you're around Effingham or Charleston. I grew up in Terre Haute. I was surprised how much I liked Champaign-Urbana when I was there (for about 6 months in the dead of winter....) Less insular than I was expecting, I'd say I even prefer it to Madison. Illinoisans in general I found to be more socially open.

[streetcreed]

Originally Posted by staylor336

I've visited all of these cities, lived in Louisville, lived in Bloomington, IN, lived in Champaign, IL, lived in Chapel Hill, NC, and currently reside in Madison, WI, after moving up here on a whim last September. Of all those places, I miss Louisville the most. It's a really great city.

Louisville, of all the places I've lived, is the most quirky and interesting. It's different, it's mostly undiscovered. Bloomington, Chapel Hill, and Madison call themselves quirky.... I think they're full of pretentious bozos and yuppies.

Louisville just has a really unique feel. As a photographer, it's an incredibly photogenic place.

One of the things I loved about it (though there's a drawback, too) is that it's not in iron grip of a major university. It's a city in its own right with a couple of decent universities there, but you don't have to deal with the "students coming and going" that will screw with your head. I feel like entertainment and social life in college towns like Bloomington (and I imagine even Columbus, considering the size of Ohio State) really are at the mercy of whenever classes are in session. The drawback is that I thought Louisville kind of lacks the "brain appeal" of college towns or first-tier cities like Minneapolis, Chicago, and so forth. (For the record, I think parts of Minneapolis remind me pretty favorably of Louisville.... and I'd say there's probably more going on culturally in MSP.)

Louisville is a liberal city by and large, in a conservative, which is kind of what I like (though that's true of all the cities on your list....) I think the fact that it's in Kentucky keeps a lot of the liberal "crazies" away, as opposed to the more straightforward, down-to-earth kind of liberals that I like..... a lot of Kentuckians in general are that way.

I do kind of feel that whether you're talking KC, Omaha, Louisville, STL, or Pittsburgh, you're not going to find a whole ton of people moving to any of those places from outside the immediate area. When you get down to it, everywhere in the Midwest is going to be pretty insular outside Chicago. My roommate in Louisville was tired of it because he was a pretty adventurous guy and got sick of the fact that folks in Louisville tend to stay there their whole lives and not really travel much (I don't know if he was totally right about that....) That said, I've found that folks here in Madison, WI, have ZERO interest whatsoever in outsiders, and that it's way more stifling than anything I ever encountered elsewhere. If you don't talk like a Wisconsinite, if you don't root for the Packers, if you're not interested in sports, and didn't grow up in the area, NOBODY will want to get to know you. I never found that to be the case in Louisville..... might have something to do with the fact that it's where the Midwest and South come together. Come up here to the Upper Midwest and it's so Midwest you go crazy, but you'd get the same thing if you went too far South (I lived way down South, too, and got sick of it.) Louisville's about perfect.

Cheap, too. I had no trouble finding a place with a roommate a few blocks from the Highlands (the best, quirkiest part of town) for $350 a month. Found three jobs in restaurants with 24 hours of coming into town, had to turn one of them down. Don't know what kind of long-term work you're looking for.

Having lived and traveled all over the Midwest and South looking for the "right fit", I'd have to say that (as an artist), the only two places that really impress me as far as livability goes are Louisville and Minneapolis. Don't go to Madison or Des Moines, you won't have any friends unless you're exactly like them in every way.....

Columbus is a city in its own right. Many are suprised to come to downtown columbus, or its surrounding neighborhoods, and see no mention of OSU.

OSU is its own "city within a city". It literally has even its own power plants, etc. The area surrounding campus is busier when students are in session, but that doesn't affect the rest of the city.

The only way Columbus is affected by OSU, in terms of nightlife/areas being active/etc, is when there's an OSU football game. The city tends to treat the OSU buckeyes as an NFL team for the city, and thus this affects business/activity. But Columbus is much larger than a college town and thus the city doesn't revolve around what is happening at OSU.

[Dayton Sux]

That was a pretty good vote for Lousiville.

Louisville is not quite that insular. Theres' this odd little NYC & Chicago back-and-for going on. A lot of folks, more the upper-middle class ones, have travelled, or relocated for awhile to a different city and returned.

However...

Louisville, of all the places I've lived, is the most quirky and interesting. It's different, it's mostly undiscovered. Bloomington, Chapel Hill, and Madison call themselves quirky.... I think they're full of pretentious bozos and yuppies.

...since you are in Madison, head on over to Milwaulkee to visit. You'll find a similar quirky vibe over there...not really "Louisville", but Milw. has it's own thing going on and I was impressed...really liked the place.

[staylor336]

Originally Posted by Dayton Sux

...since you are in Madison, head on over to Milwaulkee to visit. You'll find a similar quirky vibe over there...not really "Louisville", but Milw. has it's own thing going on and I was impressed...really liked the place.

Yeah, Madison's pretty straight-laced. They told me it was "crazy" here. I haven't gotten that vibe at all, and I'm not even a hippie, for the record. But I like it when a town has that kind of element. The Highlands in Louisville knock Madison out of its socks in every way I can wrap my mind around. WAY more open vibe, just all-round more interesting.

Funny thing about Milwaukee: since I moved to Madison, I've found that the people here from Milwaukee are the ones I click with the most. More working-class upbringing or something, I don't know. The native Madisonians seem pretty pampered and suburban-insular. Drawing broad brush-strokes here, but that's my impressions at Month 4, at least. I'm sure you can say the same thing about some folks in Louisville or the locals of any city, really, for whatever it's worth.... just sayin'.

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by staylor336

I've visited all of these cities, lived in Louisville, lived in Bloomington, IN, lived in Champaign, IL, lived in Chapel Hill, NC, and currently reside in Madison, WI, after moving up here on a whim last September. Of all those places, I miss Louisville the most. It's a really great city.

Louisville, of all the places I've lived, is the most quirky and interesting. It's different, it's mostly undiscovered. Bloomington, Chapel Hill, and Madison call themselves quirky.... I think they're full of pretentious bozos and yuppies.

Louisville just has a really unique feel. As a photographer, it's an incredibly photogenic place.

One of the things I loved about it (though there's a drawback, too) is that it's not in iron grip of a major university. It's a city in its own right with a couple of decent universities there, but you don't have to deal with the "students coming and going" that will screw with your head. I feel like entertainment and social life in college towns like Bloomington (and I imagine even Columbus, considering the size of Ohio State) really are at the mercy of whenever classes are in session. The drawback is that I thought Louisville kind of lacks the "brain appeal" of college towns or first-tier cities like Minneapolis, Chicago, and so forth. (For the record, I think parts of Minneapolis remind me pretty favorably of Louisville.... and I'd say there's probably more going on culturally in MSP.)

Louisville is a liberal city by and large, in a conservative, which is kind of what I like (though that's true of all the cities on your list....) I think the fact that it's in Kentucky keeps a lot of the liberal "crazies" away, as opposed to the more straightforward, down-to-earth kind of liberals that I like..... a lot of Kentuckians in general are that way.

I do kind of feel that whether you're talking KC, Omaha, Louisville, STL, or Pittsburgh, you're not going to find a whole ton of people moving to any of those places from outside the immediate area. When you get down to it, everywhere in the Midwest is going to be pretty insular outside Chicago. My roommate in Louisville was tired of it because he was a pretty adventurous guy and got sick of the fact that folks in Louisville tend to stay there their whole lives and not really travel much (I don't know if he was totally right about that....) That said, I've found that folks here in Madison, WI, have ZERO interest whatsoever in outsiders, and that it's way more stifling than anything I ever encountered elsewhere. If you don't talk like a Wisconsinite, if you don't root for the Packers, if you're not interested in sports, and didn't grow up in the area, NOBODY will want to get to know you. I never found that to be the case in Louisville..... might have something to do with the fact that it's where the Midwest and South come together. Come up here to the Upper Midwest and it's so Midwest you go crazy, but you'd get the same thing if you went too far South (I lived way down South, too, and got sick of it.) Louisville's about perfect.

Cheap, too. I had no trouble finding a place with a roommate a few blocks from the Highlands (the best, quirkiest part of town) for $350 a month. Found three jobs in restaurants with 24 hours of coming into town, had to turn one of them down. Don't know what kind of long-term work you're looking for.

Having lived and traveled all over the Midwest and South looking for the "right fit", I'd have to say that (as an artist), the only two places that really impress me as far as livability goes are Louisville and Minneapolis. Don't go to Madison or Des Moines, you won't have any friends unless you're exactly like them in every way.....

Cannot agree more. Excellent post. And Louisville is not insular at all for a metro under 2 million. Can you compare it to SF or DC? Definitely not, but it does it's own thing and doesn't care what others think. Its cool vibe may get destroyed if too many pretentious "yuppies' discover it, kind of like they did to Austin.

Also, I thought Louisville was cool before, but its renaissance in the last 2-3 years has been truly remarkable. Things are changing fast down there, not only downtown but especially in the immediately surrounding neighborhoods.