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I would like to know where you live as well, ymbk. I've lived in Lexington my whole life, and it's ignorant to say that racism doesn't exist, but are people afraid of certain neighborhoods? never.
quite honestly, TC, if you want to live 45 minutes away from the cities, you can do that, and have no neighbors. there is still a LOT of undeveloped land in Kentucky where you can live in solitude, if that's what you want.
as for the racism, I've never observed anything like what ymbk described here. a friend of mine from Huntington described some black friends' accounts of being beated by the police there, and I was frankly shocked. that sort of thing would simply not happen here, or there would be lawsuits against the county and the cops in question would certainly be fired and ostracised.
I also agree that Central and Northern Kentucky are good areas to live in, that are a bit more open-minded than the mountains (Eastern KY). it's good for diversity, and also good for anyone who doesn't claim to be a devout Christian. there are a lot of hardcore values in this state, which is good for morality, but troublesome when certain people want to dictate others' lives. this is why I prefer the city in general, but like I said before, you can easily find an existing house with full electric and plumbing in an extremely rural area with virtually no neighbors. Kentucky is certainly a paradise in that respect. good luck.
Say it's not so! These are my biggest fears about a place like KY. It looks polite and lovely on the surface, but then the KKK sets up shop across the street. I want to believe that that is all in the past and that the south has progressed, but I am worried when I hear from people like you that it hasn't.
Yikes.
FYI, there is racism everywhere. Why else do you people live in far out suburbs in CA? Why not live in Compton? How about Watts? South Central LA? Come on racism is alive and well.
KY is probably the most streotyped state out there. There are still some blatant redneck towns (mostly S and SE KY, although that is certainly not universially true and their are quaint accepting towns in those areas too), but you will hardly find any in the northern part of the state. Sure, some areas will still have your Middle American, Nascar loving fans, but you can find that in any state outside the large metro areas. I would look somwhere near Louisville, Lexington, or Covington.
My vote would be for the Louisville area (including S Indiana suburbs). Louisville is a very progressive and surprisingly liberal in many parts. I heard someone mention the Highlands. It is a neighborhood in Louisville that is the most progressive and liberal in the state, and most likely among the most liberal in the Midwest. Old Louisville is also liberal and diverse where you can find gays, blacks, whites, college students, etc all living in the same apartment building.
The lead singer of MY Morning Jacket, a popular indie rock band, sums it up best:
My Morning Jacket hail from the city of Louisville, Kentucky, an odd metro-suburban mix of stark industry and fine thoroughbreds and rock and roll fevers. "It's a place with no labels," James says. "It's not the South, it's not Chicago, and you don't think of it as you think of New York or LA. It has some Southern romanticism to it, but also a Northern progressivism, this weird urban island in the middle of the state of Kentucky that has always provided a fertile, often dark, bed. For us, Louisville and the surrounding areas are the center of massive creativity and massive weirdness. The place has its flaws: You move away, but you're always going to come back."
FYI, there is racism everywhere. Why else do you people live in far out suburbs in CA? Why not live in Compton? How about Watts? South Central LA? Come on racism is alive and well.
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My Morning Jacket hail from the city of Louisville, Kentucky, an odd metro-suburban mix of stark industry and fine thoroughbreds and rock and roll fevers. "It's a place with no labels," James says. "It's not the South, it's not Chicago, and you don't think of it as you think of New York or LA. It has some Southern romanticism to it, but also a Northern progressivism, this weird urban island in the middle of the state of Kentucky that has always provided a fertile, often dark, bed. For us, Louisville and the surrounding areas are the center of massive creativity and massive weirdness. The place has its flaws: You move away, but you're always going to come back."
I realize racism is everywhere. However, there is something about people mentioning the KKK showing up at festivals in a booth (as if they are the 4-H Club or Kiwanis) that makes my head spin. And my limited knowledge of KY (and my brief visit there) was very positive. I really LIKE the idea of moving to KY--it's a serious consideration for my family and that is why my reaction was so strong. Not because I believe the stereotypes, but because that is not what I have seen.
I have a good friend who lived in Louisville and can't say enough about it. It it weren't such a big city, we would definitely consider it. I really enjoyed visiting it.
Hi, Veganwriter. As a case manager, you've seen aspects of life that most people only read about in the newspapers or hear in the evening news broadcasts. You have dealt with the extremes of your community. Aside from your education, your work experience gives you the opportunity to understand that abuse is a cyclical demon that will continue through generations until someone develops the insight to stop it. Racism, although not necessarily a form of abuse, is a deeply instilled thought (value really isn't applicable here) that is hard to shake. Other people fall into the peer pressure of acting racist for fear of their own rejection in their community.
It is my hope that people will resist the temptation to "be one of them" and rock the heck out of the racism boat. If one person stands up against inhumanity, they will find themselves followed by others. The one will be followed by one, followed by another, and soon there will be many.
My boys are bi-racial, as I'm white and their dad is black. My husband is Indian (native american), so they've got lots of diversity in their own family. We prepare foods from all over the world, watch movies and programs in different languages (well, gotta have the subtitles!), listen to music from all over, and learn dances from all over the globe. We have fun teaching our boys about the world and the people who live in it. My ultimate goal is for my boys to grow into courteous and objective men who will meet any person on the globe with a handshake and a warm smile. I also greatly enforce kindness and respect towards women. My nine-year-old big guy is already opening doors and pulling out chairs for women. My proudest moment was a year or so ago at a party where my big guy interrupted an altercation between my four year old and a girl of the same age who my little guy smacked. He yelled at the little guy, "you don't hit girls!" He was genuinely furious with his little brother!
The point is that I am doing my part to abolish negative and racist behavior for the future, and the present. I hope other parents are doing the same for their children's future. I live in Columbus, Ohio. Although I agree that racism is everywhere, Columbus isn't a bad place to be. The Ohio State University is in the northern downtown area. Every culture, language and type of food can be found in the campus area. It is a fun place to walk around and experience all that it has to offer. I feel good about the future looking at the young people happily interacting with each other, regardless of the accent that accompanies their English, or the clothes they wear.
I realize racism is everywhere. However, there is something about people mentioning the KKK showing up at festivals in a booth (as if they are the 4-H Club or Kiwanis) that makes my head spin. And my limited knowledge of KY (and my brief visit there) was very positive. I really LIKE the idea of moving to KY--it's a serious consideration for my family and that is why my reaction was so strong. Not because I believe the stereotypes, but because that is not what I have seen.
I have a good friend who lived in Louisville and can't say enough about it. It it weren't such a big city, we would definitely consider it. I really enjoyed visiting it.
Louisville is certainly not a big city in the sense of LA or even San Diego. It has big city amenties, yes, but little of the big city problems: crime, traffic, and prices are a joke here compared to the coasts.
That said, I would try to stick to the northern side of the state, and preferably the Louisville metro area which consists of 13 counties in KY and S Indiana. I think you will find that Louisville is a pretty dense city and as such you can be downtown one minute and out in the country 20 minutes later bc the freeway system is so good for its size. If you are coming to this part of the country from CA, you are really going to want to be close to Lville or Cincy probably to avoid total culture shock.
If I were you, I would look at the Northern half of Oldham County or Eastern end of Shelby County. Both areas provide good school systems but can allow you to buy several dozen acres for dirt cheap and live in isolation while being only 40 minutes from downtown Louisville.
So in short, I would look along the I-64 corridor between Louisville and Lexington and the I-71 corridor between Louisville and Cincy.
As a word of caution, Louisville has begun to catch the southern diease of sprawl and as such is starting to grow out as far as La Grange on I-71 and as far east as Shelbyville on I-64 to an extent. Still, those towns will in no way resemble the massive sprawlburbia or freeway congested areas of places like the San Fernando Valley or the Inland Empire.
I am a life long kentuckian and have lived in extreme eastern and now south central kentucky. I have frequented many different parts of the state from pikeville to paducah and from covington to somerset. I will admit that there are quite different "feels" to the state.
I lived 23 years in eastern kentucky and it gets a bad reputation but have to say it isn't near as bad as popular media and culture have portrayed. Pikeville is actually a neat little town. It has its problems, but where doesn't? It actually is a fairly diverse part of the state since the early 1900's with the influx of italians, welsh, polish, african americans immigrants as well as the old scot-irish immigrants that have been there for many years to work in the coal mines. More recently we have had growth in the hispanic population (legal and illegal?) Many of the descendants are still there. The land is rugged with some river valleys. The culture is definitely proudly Appalachian.
The feeling of northern kentucky is quite different. it has a more midwesty (i made that up for lack of a better term) feel and dialect to it. You can sense more of a of german/irish catholic culture and influence. This is probably the coldest part of the state. It also is probably the most diverse part of the state the closer you get the Cincinatti (next to louisville, of course).
Louisville is a close as we have to a "real" urban center. You get more of a big city feel there. It is a neat combination of midwest and south. Afterall the Ohio River is often the traditional marker between North and South. I personally would not like to live there, but I do love to visit it on occasion.
Lexington is an awesome town in my opinion. The surrounding area is beautiful, lush, and green. The weather is nice and moderate there and the horse farms and tracks are world class. From Lexington on south, east, and southwest you are definitely in the south now. The most dominant religion is Southern Baptist and the language defininitely changes from their and to points south, east, and southwest of Lex. Urban and the surrounding areas of Lexington such as Danville, Richmond, and Winchester has a fairly diverse population with Richmond being my favorite surrounding town, it's a college Town (EKU).
If I had to move west I would give my vote to Bowling Green. I love this town. You have lots of places to eat and things to do, and if you get bored head down to nashville for more action.
I currently live in the Lake Cumberland Region of Kentucky. We have lots of visitors from up north each summer. We have some things to do in this area with lake cumberland and laurel lake and still have a small town feel. So bring a boat or you'll have to get one within five years (that's what happened to me).
As far as cross burnings and lynchings, you just don't hear of it around here. I just think the legacy of antebellum slave-owning kentucky still lingers like the hatfield-mccoy feuds of the Mountains. Unfortunately those reputations haven't completely died out. Are there moonshining rednecks in the kentucky hills? Yes. Are their racists in the aristocracy of the bluegrass, I'm sure. But it isn't the majority by far. Hard work and good values are still respected by most Kentuckians.
The climate: We have four distinct seasons that seem to overlap one another big-time. Summers are typically hot and humid in the south and more so as you go west, but not as much so as Alabama or Georgia. Cooler in the north east and mountians. Falls are very colorful and warm with a couple of cold snaps in mid-late october bringing frost, but we can have quite warm days up til November (earlier this week it was 77 a couple days before halloween) and warm "spells" all through the winter with temps sometimes getting up into the 60's. January and February seem long sometimes but we rarely get big snows (very little snow in the west) Cold snaps are usually short-lived and rarely do we dip below zero F. Spring is absolutely beautiful with dogwoods and redbuds popping out.
As you can see, I love Kentucky (go big Blue) and I've had the chance to move away and I can't!
Sorry, I've not checked this thread lately.
Frankly, I'm a little paranoid at this point to say exactly where I am. Let's just say south of Boyle county.
If you want some verification on what I'm saying, do a Google search on the words "Klan" and "Powderly". (Powderly is a small town a lot closer than I would care to admit.)
The whole state? Hmm...no. Lexington, Frankfort, Shelbyville...ok towns. Lousiville might be, I've not spent a lot of time there. Bowling Green seems to be pleasant enough -- but all of these are larger towns, and not places you're going to be able to have that farm.
Just saying that if it were me, I'd be looking in the Carolinas, maybe south central VA, etc. I'd stay out of southern OH, IN, KY. But, hey, if you really want to come here, I'll have a house for sale real soon.
This has been a very informative thread. My husband and I are also considering moving out of Northern CA. My husband is looking at a job in the Charlestown, IN area. We are wondering if it is better to live on the IN side or the KY side, and what areas are more likely to be flooded by the Ohio River?
We too are debating the pros and cons of staying or leaving CA. For the most part I think CA is getting so expensive, I am not sure we can afford to stay into retirement.
I am ready for a change, I have moved plenty of places in my life, but my husband is not sure about the weather and tornadoes!
Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated,thanks!
My wife and I moved from Southern California to Northern KY 6 months ago. We live in a small rural town 15 miles south of cincinnati. We love it here. The country is pretty and the people are great. No signs of race hatred that I have seen. However , outside of Covington which is directly across the Ohio from Cincinnati you will not find many blacks or hispanics . I think the same thing can be said for the rest of the state. Louisville , and Lexington will be somewhat diverse but the rest of the state is white.
We could not be more happy about our choice to move out of California. We live on over 3 acres of land , have great neighbors and we love the schools for our young children.
The whole state? Hmm...no. Lexington, Frankfort, Shelbyville...ok towns. Lousiville might be, I've not spent a lot of time there. Bowling Green seems to be pleasant enough -- but all of these are larger towns, and not places you're going to be able to have that farm.
but you can have that farm just outside of those towns, easily....
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