thinking of moving to Louisville from Raleigh, NC - please help

[EclecticEars]

Originally Posted by jp1251

I would say it was probably newcomers to the city being rude and snotty. true locals are not.

I don't know about the pregnant lady in church. However, after more interaction with these people, I can assure you that these were natives. Or, at the very least that I know of, attended high school in Louisville.

I wish your statement was true.

Originally Posted by Gimme3steps

EE, somehow I get the feeling you'll be treated this way no matter where you go.

Cincinnati/N. KY is NO "Candyland" at all, but my overall experience has been slightly more positive/less negative here.

When I move to CA, TX, WA, OR, or NC, I'll finally have some vantage point of comparison.

Your statement doesn't fly. Sorry. I was nice and still am.

[dallasdee]

Originally Posted by cicada

Hi everyone,

I moved to Raleigh from Bowling Green, KY about a year and a half ago to live closer to family, but now I am thinking of moving back to Kentucky. I am an early 30's single female and feel really out of place in family-oriented Raleigh. I also hate suburbs and really miss Kentucky's hills and rivers. I never visited Louisville much when I lived in BG, but I have heard a lot about Louisville being artistic and "bohemian" and having a lot of beautiful old houses and buildings.

I am planning to come visit before I decide, but would love to hear any opinions about whether Louisville might be a better fit for me.
(btw I work with Kroger so I am thinking it would be possible for me to transfer my job)

Has anyone lived in both Louisville and Raleigh and could compare / contrast the two?

Is Louisville really very "bohemian", artsy, and liberal?

Are there art classes, co-ops, etc for artists?

Anyone know of any urban intentional communities, co-housing, communes - do things like this exist in Louisville?

Is there anyplace outdoors (a particular park maybe) where people hang out regularly - somewhere I could just go and have a picnic by myself and not be out of place?

How is Louisville for 30's+ singles? Are there a lot of other singles who are enjoying their lives (as opposed to being chronically sad and desperate)?

Any advice / opinions appreciated!!
Thanks!

I can personally attest that the single life in Louisville was awful. On several lists, it is ranked in the top 5 worst cities for singles. I lived here from when I was 26-29, and was very active in Southeast Christian Church. My problem was not with finding guys to date- it was in finding other single women to hang out with. When I moved to Louisville, I was looking to stay single for awhile. My time in Louisville led me to form the follwing opinion:
Louisville was very stuck up and snobby. Natives always ask you what high school that you went to, as a way to suss out if you are really from there. It does not matter if you have years of education beyond high school- they still ask. I was in a Master's program here, and was asked about high school before I was asked where I went for undergraduate.

Louisville was very pretty, and a good place for me to figure out where I wanted to go next.

[cicada]

Originally Posted by dallasdee

. My problem was not with finding guys to date- it was in finding other single women to hang out with. When I moved to Louisville, I was looking to stay single for awhile.

Yeah, this is the problem I am having in Raleigh as well. Not to mention all the men seem hell bent on getting married and having kids immediately. Seems like once you get to a certain age its just difficult to have single friends anymore except perhaps in some of the major cities.

I think people in Raleigh seem pretty friendly, but they revolve their lives around careers (usually computer related) and family, so if you don't fit into this model, its hard to make friends.

(If you are a 20-30yr old single lady, looking to meet marriage-minded men, don't mind a little geekiness, and dream of a family with a big house in the suburbs, then move to Raleigh - its awesome! )

Going to check out Louisville in a few days...

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by cicada

Yeah, this is the problem I am having in Raleigh as well. Not to mention all the men seem hell bent on getting married and having kids immediately. Seems like once you get to a certain age its just difficult to have single friends anymore except perhaps in some of the major cities.

I think people in Raleigh seem pretty friendly, but they revolve their lives around careers (usually computer related) and family, so if you don't fit into this model, its hard to make friends.

(If you are a 20-30yr old single lady, looking to meet marriage-minded men, don't mind a little geekiness, and dream of a family with a big house in the suburbs, then move to Raleigh - its awesome! )

Going to check out Louisville in a few days...

I think your first paragraph is probably true. Outside the top 10 largest cities, many cities become similar in this regard. I do think the advantage Louisville has over Raleigh is that its urban neighborhoods are much more centralized and "fan out" from a centralized downtown. Raleigh is a similarly sized metro but is more "multi=modal" with several different downtown centers but a similar metro sized populations, so naturally people will be more isolated.

I have a friend who had luck with this group

http://www.meetup.com/New-2-Lou/

If you check out my sticky you will se ethey have facebook and twitter too. This is one of many such groups you can join to meet people. I think it is all in the effort you make....

[The Dissenter]

Originally Posted by dallasdee

I can personally attest that the single life in Louisville was awful. On several lists, it is ranked in the top 5 worst cities for singles. I lived here from when I was 26-29, and was very active in Southeast Christian Church. My problem was not with finding guys to date- it was in finding other single women to hang out with. When I moved to Louisville, I was looking to stay single for awhile. My time in Louisville led me to form the follwing opinion:
Louisville was very stuck up and snobby. Natives always ask you what high school that you went to, as a way to suss out if you are really from there. It does not matter if you have years of education beyond high school- they still ask. I was in a Master's program here, and was asked about high school before I was asked where I went for undergraduate.

Louisville was very pretty, and a good place for me to figure out where I wanted to go next.

I'm a transplant from the DC area and have kinda noticed the same thing about the native syndrome. I got asked this a lot, I went to HS in Virginia and my college is an online one based in Missouri, I have no real experience in Louisville. While most of the Louisvillians I've come across are mostly decent folk, I have to admit most of them come from SW Louisville, the South and West Ends, Okolona, Old Louisville which seem more "humble" than the east end (which I've heard stories about snobbishness). All I say there is a big difference in the Ft. Knox area which is military and is all transplants and Louisville which is mostly natives.

The single friends issue can also be problematic especially if you work at Ft. Knox and choose not to commute from Louisville.

While I generally like Louisville, I'm pretty doubtful it is a permanent home for me at this stage of my life.

[cicada]

Originally Posted by stx12499

Raleigh is a similarly sized metro but is more "multi=modal" with several different downtown centers but a similar metro sized populations, so naturally people will be more isolated.

This is very true. I have never had to drive so much for a social life as I have here.

I will definitely join that meetup if I decide to move.

[cicada]

Originally Posted by stx12499

Raleigh is a similarly sized metro but is more "multi=modal" with several different downtown centers but a similar metro sized populations, so naturally people will be more isolated.

This is very true. I have never had to drive so much for a social life as I have here.

I will definitely join that meetup if I decide to move.

[EclecticEars]

Originally Posted by pj1964

ElecticEars is a traveler and he posts a lot in the threads of cities he visits. Just because people in the cities he visits doesn't live 'up' to his preferences, doesn't mean his comments are productive for others to read. As far as rudeness, maybe he and others like him, might want to be accountable for there OWN actions. Southerners are polite. It's called southern hospitality. Southerners might be nice, polite, etc., but we ain't 'toilet paper'!
Others on this thread are amazed by people who let others into traffic voluntarily. It's second nature for southerners!
I think EclecticEars needs to stifle his comments more. He's a frggin visitor! And from California, at that. I'm from another southern state, looking to move for a change of scenery, considering Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina and MAYBE Colorado. As you can see, all but one are southern states. I've been treated rudely in the south too, but it was MY FAULT!!
I guess what I'm saying here is, E.E. thinks he's doing people a favor, I guess, but his comments need to be read with little credibility. A lack of a personal accountability and experiences based on travel. Visits. Working in other cities. Places he HAD to go to, not places he CHOSE to go to.
Maybe he should stick to posting in threads inside his own state/city.
To all that read in this post, I wish you the best of luck in your journeys.
Take care and stay safe.

Okay, I'm also not going to sweet talk or beat around the bush with negative experiences. I call them as I see them. Period.

As for the Southern hospitality thing, I am a very polite person. Maybe not extroverted like many Southerners are in their friendliness, although I personally find Kentucky to be a little more reserved than other Southern counterparts. In fact, my experiences in Louisville and, to a lesser extent, Northern Kentucky was that people could be aloof or cliquish to the point of rudeness. Even growing up in rural Kentucky, I seldom saw people just striking up a conversation in the grocery line, saying "hi" in the park or making you feel all "warm and fuzzy" in church.

If cities don't live up to my preferences, I don't call them bad places to live. I hated Louisville but I'm sure most of its 750,000 residents find it a nice place to live. To each their own.

And as far as polite drivers, the Bay Area, while not having the most polite drivers in the U.S., blows Texas' cities out of the water. A recent most crappy experience I had in a restaurant was in the Texas panhandle; I was nice, polite and down to earth but the lady apparently could tell I wasn't from there. She never checked up on our table, no smile, no "How was your meal?", NOTHING! We just ordered and she coldly brought our check out to us as soon as she served. Meanwhile, she was chattin' and laughin' it up with the apparent locals. I made a comment to my family about my observation that was loud enough to evoke some dirty looks from a couple of locals. Oh well, I'm not sorry, bad service is bad service. So, I love the Lone Star State, I really do, but not everyone is friendly and polite.