Moving to KY from CA

[lovintexas]

Originally Posted by Toria

hmmm, not my impression of the Lexington area at all...I haven't met any "snooty" people, quite the contrary. If you think people don't drive well here, you ought to try some other parts of the country (ever been to Boston?) My understanding about the schools is that (like anywhere) there are some very good ones, and some not so good ones - why would that be surprising? While Danville is very nice, so is Georgetown, and other surrounding towns. The scenery of Bourbon and Woodford counties can't be beat. And, she was looking for a horse farm....while there's lots of nice areas that might work for her, what better area than greater Lexington (and the hunter/jumper scene is WAY more active than other parts of the state!)

If you've lived in and traveled throughout the north, I can see why you'd think Kentucky would be friendlier and less snooty. Truth is, we ARE much friendlier overall than most places up north (north of the Ohio River.) However, if you've traveled extensively throughout Texas and the South, your whole perspective also changes about Kentucky, but in a more negative light.

Schools: Some of America's best schools are found well south of Kentucky. Birmingham, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Fort Worth all have top 100 American high schools (public and private.) Kentucky's highest ranked school? Dupont Manual, and it isn't even in the top 100. (I acknowledge, if I were going to send my kid to a public school in KY, Manual would be the one. Other than that, we have dozens of outstanding private schools I'm willing to cough up change for.)

Terrain: I think the gently rolling hills of middle Tennessee and the Smokies (also in Tennessee) are the most beautiful area east of the Mississippi River; as pretty as Kentucky is, I'd still take those even over Kentucky's Bluegrass Region ANYDAY.

Service: The best and friendliest service (and least snooty) I've ever received in the service industry has been in or by people from Texas, Oklahoma, or Georgia. I've traveled throughout the north and the South, and the worst state for service is still KENTUCKY!

Sorry to say.

[lovintexas]

Originally Posted by nlschr0

Those are some pretty broad statements about a very large group of areas. There are some great schools in Fayette County, and some not very good schools as well. Like Jefferson County, the school district is very large has schools that score across the board.

I agree that the roads and traffic system in Lexington have not kept up with the growth. I'm looking forward to the changes that the county is making in prep for 2010 Eq Games and hoping that it relieves some of the congestion issues.

I also wouldn't consider the outlying areas to be dumps. Personally, I think that the downtown Georgetown area, with its historic main st and neighborhoods near the college, is very quaint and well used. There has been a lot of growth in all of these areas lately, and there are the unfortunate tracts of big-box shopping and Wal-mart epidemics, but there are plenty of nice neighborhoods and pastoral charm around. There is more of a small-town feel and agricultural influence, and you sometimes get the feeling that Jeff Foxworthy might have used some of the areas to create his redneck jokes, but I wouldn't consider that much different than the areas you mentioned.

Can Lexington keep up with its growth and improve its roads enough to be ready for the 2010 Eq Games? I doubt it. Apparently, the state is not very willing to offer funds for transportation improvement projects in the city, either (such as widening New Circle and Newtown Pike, improving the synchronization of lights on Nicholasville Road, etc.) I hope just the countryside enough will be enough to render a great impression of our state on guests from around the world.

About Georgetown: for a small town, there are some neighborhoods I wouldn't feel comfortable walking around in at night. This, coming from somebody who has walked alone in Harlem. That's the reason I said it was a dump. I'll give you points for G'Town maintaining a nice downtown; they also have a decent parks and recreation system, and Scott County, away from G'Town, is beautiful.

[CynHunt]

We returned from horse farm hunting in Fayette and surrounding counties. We also looked up in the Louisville area, and though I like Louisville very much, we decided, for our needs, that we would like to concentrate on the Bluegrass area. Didn't meet any snotty people (hey, I live near LA, in Orange County...talk about snotty people!!), in fact, everyone was very friendly and helpful. School systems aren't an issue for us as the kids are grown and out of college. One thing that struck me was how close everything is. Compared to traffic on the 405, Lexington's traffic was a piece of cake, though I understand the comments made about it's roads needing updating.
We saw a lot of wonderful country. Can anyone tell me about Bourbon County? We found a farm there we really liked.

[Eddie0101]

WOW!!
I move from LA to KY a while back, but now I am in michigan.
I love Kentucky, specially Lexington Area. Everything is so close, dont have to travel much. Like you mention, people are alot nicer then LA. Everyone is LA think they are somebody for some wierd reason.
Anywhere you live in the central KY, you will be fine.
You are going to love it.
I travel back to KY quite often due to Friends and Fiance's family. Every time I go back I wish I didn't take this job in michigan. =(

Eddie

[AnnaliaFarm]

Bourbon Co. is okay. More affordable than Fayette Co. and lower taxes. Which part of Bourbon Co. are you looking? Personally I wouldn't want to be too far out. I currently live in Woodford Co. and have a farm in Fayette Co. adjacent to Keeneland. I love this side of Lexington. You might also want to check out Scott Co. as well. Bourbon Co. is home to lots of beautiful Thoroughbred farms, such as Claiborne Farm. Good luck and if you need insight or help with areas feel free to email me. I'm a transplant from Indiana, have been here since January and love it. Though I've been called a Yankee a few times.. lol which I find odd since I thought I was a Hoosier. Guess living on the East coast for a few years has affected my accent

You're welcome to email me anytime: gonickgo at gmail.com (replace at with @)

[K. Dunn]

I find it funny too being a Southern Californian for the last 24 years, when Kentuckians mention there traffic problems, in general you haven't seen anything compared to our 405 and now 101 traffic. 5 lanes across and it's still wall to wall standing room only. Aargh. I am lucky I do not have to travel in it very often working close to home. Now that being said on my last visit to the Lexington area I got caught up in rush hour traffic on your circle highway 4 which cost me about a extra hour, then I actually started to compare that to our zone. So it obviously is a problem that I hope Lexington/Kentucky will address, especially before the 2010 Eq Games, will see eh? I took some beautiful shots of a couple of horse farms between Versailles and Frankfort that you can see on this forum under "I'm back from Oldham County..."., or Welcome to Flickr - Photo Sharing (http://www.flickr.com - broken link), just type in oldham county, Kentucky [ I am "wandering photo nut"], I have several sets of photo's from the area between Lexington and Louisville. It sounds like she has already made a decision, and none of them can be bad for a Horse lover! Good luck.

We have had a hard time deciding between the two, and then finally realized, there both close to each other anyways, pick one and go! Hope to go soon too, just need this housing market to stabilize, have lost like $50K in value in just the last 2 years. Waagh. Ciao.

[easydoesit]

Originally Posted by stx12499

Louisville has suburban and surrounding rural areas located in the bluegrass region. Generally, this region stretches from Louisville to Lexington and points a bit north. Its all around a beautiful area. Living closer to Louisville will put you much closer to more amenities without the hassles of big city life, but then again, some people do not like Louisville and prefer Lexington, which is quite a bit smaller.

stx, I don't know if make it down often but Lexington seems to be getting A LOT more crowded - as if the city has really outgrown its infrastructure. I can really appreciate L'ville's efforts to manage its growth/traffice better. Despite the size difference, I would much rather drive around L'ville. Might be moving there in the near future.

[LosAC]

Have to say both have good and bad-like most things in life. Nowhere is perfect

Man, I love the weather, diversity, and things to do in LA. Man, I do not like the traffic and price of housing here.

I love the accessibility and cheap housing in Louisville. I do not like the relative lack of diversity there. Louisville has lots of activity-not as much as LA-but nowhere has as much as LA.

Comparing locations is never black and white. I would say, when you look at all factors, housing prices, schools, activities, sense of community, job opportunities, etc. it is pretty hard to beat Louisville for raising a family. I heard once from a corporate person it is hard to get corporate people to relocate to Louisville but even harder to get them to leave once they are here.

[censusdata]

Lexington traffic sucked when the population was only 50,000. It's not the way the lights are timed, has nothing to do with growth

Source: Ex-Lexingtonian