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I second the comments. Many people in town are friendly but don't confuse friendly with making friends. There is a built in assumption that "you don't really understand" the true Lexington or Kentucky. If you don't have school age children or are one of the popular church denominations then reality may be a bit colder.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kab0906
This is the best way to sum up what I felt living there.
Yep, and yep. I agree, and I grew up in central Kentucky.
I do a lot of relocation work. I've had a very diverse clientele move here from Arizona, Texas, California, Alabama, Ohio, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Florida, Alaska and most all of the New England states. All but two have found Lexington (and Kentucky) a nice place to be. The winters are a wake up call though for people from the south or west coast!
I think Blossom hit the nail on the head when she said there is no ideal place.
I moved here from Ohio and the people are super friendly here compared to Columbus. Kentucky natives might not be as friendly as citizens from other southern states I have been to like Alabama or Tennessee but make no mistake the residents here are really polite and outgoing. I go to UK for graduate school and the students and faculty are insanely friendly compared to colleges in Ohio. Just my two cents. Have a blessed day. -RL
thanks yea I not sure KY will work for me, hard to tell, I would be open to church, though. Just thinking either staying out west, or maybe re-considering the NW Arkansas area as well....which I think is a beautiful area, great homes at great prices, but the AR seems like a tornado magnet, so that concerns me, plus I believe the area is having an illegal immigration problem with all the chicken processing plants and etc. I am not sure though. Too bad, I had like over 30 homes I wanted to look at there outside of Lexington.
I'm a libertarian from the west coast as well and think you will find more of a libertarian mindset in the Mountain West Region, and most of the Texas Hill Country. Most of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Central Texas, even parts of Tennessee (Nashville) offer a good amount of personal freedoms and a live and let live mentality not found in many other states. People there are pretty socially liberal and fiscally conservative at the same time. Also you mentioned New England - New Hampshire is extremely libertarian as you already know. New Hampshire offers economic freedoms (no income or sales taxes), and more social freedom than most free market places, along with a short drive down to Boston to provide any big city amenities you would be missing living an hour north of the city.
Even though the Libertarian Party was founded in Colorado, Austin, TX could definitely be its epicenter, it's quite a Libertarian haven with a true culture of live and let live, no state income tax, and its the most socially liberal city in a fiscally conservative state - Austin was a top zip code for Ron Paul’s fundraising efforts in 2012. I lived in Texas for five years and Austin was definitely a great place to live for this very reason.
The original tenets of Libertarian were "social liberalism, exercising fiscal restraint." The idea being small government - this is definitely not KY. Lexington is definitely part of the Bible Belt as well - very evangelical Southern Baptist and Kentucky as a whole is extremely provincial, a poor state, which is still very reliant on big Government. The top three counties in the U.S. for Federal Aid are all in Kentucky.
Much of the Midwest and Ohio Valley areas seem to have the worst mix of social conservatives, and economic liberals in the country. If you really want to live in the South, I would go with Nashville, or Austin, even a smaller college town like Athens GA might be a great option as well.
I agree, Kentucky is very evangelical, lots of Baptists and Methodists, however, I'm suprised nobody mentioned Kentucky's sizeable Catholic population as well. My family were Catholics who came from Charles County in southern Maryland and bought 150 acres on the banks of the Rolling Fork south of Bardstown and west of Lebanon Kentucky in the year 1793, just 1 year after Kentucky's independence. They followed a huge migration west. Mostly of families from Maryland and Virginia, English Catholics. They also helped build "The Abbey Of Gesthemene" in Bardstown, largest and oldest Catholic monastery west of the Appalachians.
Kentucky is definately the Bible belt, and even Ky's Catholics are very different in many ways from Catholics in other parts of the US. You'll even hear Protestant hyms and evangelical worship songs even being sung during the masses in Ky...southern Catholics I guess you could say? Just different. My grandad was 100 percent pure Kentuckian and as Catholic as they come yet he LOVED and adored listening to Billy Graham preach and also Charles Stanley and other baptist preachers like Moody.
Regarding politics, I would say the state is by and large traditional and very conservative. More fiscally " liberal" if you could call it that in eastern Kentucky as opposed to western Kentucky. That part of the state, although traditional and conservative socially, tends to vote heavily democratic. Steve Beshear in many ways is more socially conservative and very fiscally lberal.
My Catholic, Kentucky family still owns the land in Marion County Ky that my ancestors bought in 1793. They still farm Tobacco and Corn on that bottom land to this day. I have a distant cousin who completely restored and lives in the original Cabin built by my great, great, great, great grandfather and has authored a couple of books about my ancestors in Kentucky and of the local town where he even served as mayor.
Last edited by EricOldTime; 08-24-2014 at 07:00 AM..
I agree, Kentucky is very evangelical, lots of Baptists and Methodists, however, I'm suprised nobody mentioned Kentucky's sizeable Catholic population as well. My family were Catholics who came from Charles County in southern Maryland and bought 150 acres on the banks of the Rolling Fork south of Bardstown and west of Lebanon Kentucky in the year 1793, just 1 year after Kentucky's independence. They followed a huge migration west. Mostly of families from Maryland and Virginia, English Catholics. They also helped build "The Abbey Of Gesthemene" in Bardstown, largest and oldest Catholic monastery west of the Appalachians.
Kentucky is definately the Bible belt, and even Ky's Catholics are very different in many ways from Catholics in other parts of the US. You'll even hear Protestant hyms and evangelical worship songs even being sung during the masses in Ky...southern Catholics I guess you could say? Just different. My grandad was 100 percent pure Kentuckian and as Catholic as they come yet he LOVED and adored listening to Billy Graham preach and also Charles Stanley and other baptist preachers like Moody.
Regarding politics, I would say the state is by and large traditional and very conservative. More fiscally " liberal" if you could call it that in eastern Kentucky as opposed to western Kentucky. That part of the state, although traditional and conservative socially, tends to vote heavily democratic. Steve Beshear in many ways is more socially conservative and very fiscally lberal.
My Catholic, Kentucky family still owns the land in Marion County Ky that my ancestors bought in 1793. They still farm Tobacco and Corn on that bottom land to this day. I have a distant cousin who completely restored and lives in the original Cabin built by my great, great, great, great grandfather and has authored a couple of books about my ancestors in Kentucky and of the local town where he even served as mayor.
Religion seems to play a big part in the culture of Kentucky. Lot of southern baptists here and a lot of catholics as well. I lived in TN, TX and AL before my dad was in the military so I am used to the bible belt. Being that my mom is Jewish and my dad is of Swedish descent and Lutheran I am used to being different. Even in Alabama almost 99 percent of people were cool with me being Jewish and even thou I was one of the only Jewish citizens in my town. Most socially conservative christian people support Israel and are actually more fearful of Islamic culture. The only problem I have is with the right wing christian fundamentalists who judge people based on religion. I am not a moralist and don't care for those type of people. Have a blessed day- RL
thanks for all the great info, and yes as a west coast libertarian, I would prefer to keep what church I go to to myself, and not be hounded about it, I doubt anyone in Boise, Post Falls, or Billings is going to come up to me, and shun me or ask me what church I go to, even though I go, it is personal to me. As well I am a non-denominational Christian, who prefers the more trendy, modern style churches. Like the one here in Seattle with Pastor Mark Driscoll. I kind of like places that have a good amount of transplants as well. Just think living anywhere in the so called Bible Belt, might be an oddity for me, in the end. Ron Paul is my man by the way. Too bad the rest of America didn't give him a shot. Problem is the west coast including MT, ID, WA, OR have gotten rather expensive over the years, hence the reason for me looking at FL, the Midwest and the southern states. I am sure I would get along fine though, no matter where I wind up, just want to have an easy time at fitting it, that is all. I been scoping out homes around Austin as well. But seems like I would have to be out in the more rural areas to afford a home in my range there. Asheville, NC has also been on my list, but I hear something about is being high in taxes there or something. Roanoke VA was another consideration. I have not considered anywhere in TN though, but there are some real affordable homes for sale there, especially in western TN....hard to leave the west coast, just wish there more affordable areas with decent homes on acreage. Even Spokane prices are high now, and the houses are not great, imo. Only option would be in Pueblo CO....lots of cheap homes on land, but I have not read good things about Pueblo. Some pretty nice affordable homes in western KY, around Eddyville though...lol. WV is gorgeous, prices too high in Morgantown though, and Huntington is called little Detroit I read somewhere, as the crime there is very bad.
Last edited by folkguitarist555; 08-26-2014 at 01:39 AM..
Some pretty nice affordable homes in western KY, around Eddyville though...lol.
Don't you worry about that prison being down there, aint nobody getting out anytime soon..
I love Lyon county and that area around Grand Rivers and Eddyville. LBL "Land Between The Lakes" for those that don't know what LBL stands for: that area is my absolute FAVORITE part of Kentucky. Go to Cravens Bay at the mouth of Cravens Creek. You can see the glow in the night sky from Eddyville Caddy corner across the lake from there at night, it's my fav place to camp...I've camped many-a-time down in Craven's Bay in LBL. I wish I could buy that property and build me a log home and live there!!
Last time I was down there was one July, hotter than you could ever imagine, humid. Katydids were deafening and the mosquitos were bad but I had a conversation with a huge Barred Owl that landed on a tree limb just above and almost outts sight of my campfire glow. We just hooted back and forth for a while until he got bored and left. Then I went night fishin and caught several catfish and one of the worse cases of chiggars in my crotch I've ever had. I about scratched until my pelvic bone was exposed!!! BE CAREFUL down there chiggars are BAD!!!!
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