Louisville information?

[princessrb]

I posted this on the Family Board as well, but it seems like this board is always more active. Besides I need to keep budget in mind if we're moving! LOL

DH has a job interview in Louisville and I was wondering if anyone could tell me about the area: schools, housing, kids activities, etc.?

We have 2 kids a second grade DD and DS who will start kindergarten next year.

 

[mom of princessx2]

We live just across the bridge from Louisville (southern Indiana). We moved here just over 3 years ago and we love it. Great zoo, Science center, many theaters etc. Cost of housing is pretty low right now and plenty of inventory. We live about 10 miles from downtown Louisville and I know most of our neighbors work in KY. I am very happy with the schools on this side but am unfamiliar with the Louisville school system except on the news I have heard alot about their redistricting this past year and there are some unhappy parents.

Location is also great in that we can be in Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Lexington in a relativly short amount of time.

We feel this has been the most welcoming place we have lived and hope to be able to stay here for awhile. Which ever side you live on, both have their positives. Good Luck!!

 

[princessrb]

We live just across the bridge from Louisville (southern Indiana). We moved here just over 3 years ago and we love it. Great zoo, Science center, many theaters etc. Cost of housing is pretty low right now and plenty of inventory. We live about 10 miles from downtown Louisville and I know most of our neighbors work in KY. I am very happy with the schools on this side but am unfamiliar with the Louisville school system except on the news I have heard alot about their redistricting this past year and there are some unhappy parents.

Location is also great in that we can be in Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Lexington in a relativly short amount of time.

We feel this has been the most welcoming place we have lived and hope to be able to stay here for awhile. Which ever side you live on, both have their positives. Good Luck!!

Why did you choose to live in Southern Indiana? Is it a better commute? How are the schools/shopping?

 

[left210]

Why did you choose to live in Southern Indiana? Is it a better commute? How are the schools/shopping?

We also live in Southern Indiana and commute to Louisville for work. I grew up in New Albany, Indiana but would not choose to live in Louisville as an adult. I am sure some feel that Louisville is a great place to live but for us Southern Indiana just has a small town feel with the benefit of being so close to Louisville. The schools vary in Southern Indiana so you would need to do some research. The schools in the Floyd Knobs, Greenville, Galena area all have great ISTEP scores and are considered the magnet schools of southern Indiana. As far as private schools go, St. Paul is the best rated school and is in Sellersburg. You do not have to be catholic to go there but it is a catholic school. My son went there for 2 years of preschool and we switched to another private school for Kindergarten because we are not catholic. Looking back I wish we had stayed at St. Paul. Good luck in your decision.

 

[kydisneyfans]

Just about an hour east of Louisville here.

I personally would not want my child in a Louisville City school, but many of the surrounding districts are top notch. There are good schools inside Louisville too, but for a newcomer, I would rather be on the safe side here.

Shopping really depends on what you shop for. I think Louisville is underretailed for the size of the area. There are 2 malls across the street from each other on the east side, a smaller mall on the south side, and a small mall across in IN. Meijer, Kroger, and WalMart are the main grocers, with some smaller chains and stores in the mix.

I was offered my choice of a position in Lexington and 1 in Louisville 5 years ago, Lexington seemed more family friendly to me. After spending time in both cities, it wasn't even a decision to make, I took the Lexington job.

 

[princessrb]

Right now I live within blocks of the mall and tons of other shopping, so I know I'll be giving some of that up. So long as I have access to SuperTarget and Costco I guess the kids won't starve. LOL

I've read that Oldham County is a more rural suburb. How rural? If we moved there, how far to a fast food place? Could I get pizza delivery to my house? How would it compare to S. Indiana?

 

[kydisneyfans]

There are definitely no SuperTargets in Louisville, just regular Targets. I think there is a Costco on the east side, but am not sure.

I'll keep bumping as there are many Louisville people on these boards, you may want to hit the Community Board with the topic too.

 

[mom of princessx2]

Why did you choose to live in Southern Indiana? Is it a better commute? How are the schools/shopping?

My husbands job is actually in So IN so the choice was easy for us. At the time our DD5 was just turning 2 and I was PG with DD3. We thought the 15 min drive to work was ideal. Also, as PP stated, we like the small town feel and driving through,say Sellersburg, you would have no idea you were less than 10 miles from Louisville. And it is not a bad drive to Louisville.

Also as PP stated schools can be all over as far as what would be considered great. The grade school my DD goes to is excellent but I am unsure I want to send her the the HS in our district. We will cross that bridge when we come to it!

Shopping is good and getting better. We have all your typical stores over on this side-Walmart, Target, Kohls, Kmart, Meijer...A nice mall with good stores. However I do need to cross the river at least once a month to get my Disney Store and TJMaxx fix!!!

Just wanted to add no Costco on SoIN side, we just have Sams

 

[PinkRhombus]

There are definitely no SuperTargets in Louisville, just regular Targets. I think there is a Costco on the east side, but am not sure.

I'll keep bumping as there are many Louisville people on these boards, you may want to hit the Community Board with the topic too.

They just opened up a new Target in Middletown on Shelbyville Road by the Gene Snyder...right next to the new Super Wal-Mart...that is designed to be in between what a regular Target and a Super Target are. Really nice.

If your husband is going to be working in Louisville, I would not live in Southern Indiana because of the traffic. I drove over those bridges for many years and it's AWFUL.

There are many areas that have that small-town feel to them. I'm in Jeffersontown (near the Synder) and it's very suburban. Just a few miles further is rural areas.

If you stick with the Southeast up to the Northeast part of the county...anywhere along I-265 (Gene Snyder) you'll have a lot of choices of neighborhoods WITH close proximity to shopping, hospitals, etc. I'm not beating up on the Southwest part of the county, but there really isn't a lot of shopping out that way. No malls at least.

Try visiting this site, too.

http://louisville.momslikeme.com/members/homepage.aspx

 

[djmeredith]

I am a former elem. school teacher in Louisville so I thought I would chime in on the school situation. The Louisville public school system is called Jefferson County Public Schools and some of the schools are excellent.

The problem with the public system is that students are not always assigned to their "neighborhood school." In other words, you are not guaranteed a spot in the school closest to your home. A student can be assigned to a school across town and be subject to a very long bus ride (even K students). This new student assignment system was implemented this year as an effort to maintain diversity within the schools. It is very unpopular, but the school board is not likely to make changes anytime soon.

If you are interested in sending your kids to a Catholic school or a private school, there are many good options in Louisville (although some are very expensive). If you want/need a public school option, then you should consider living in a surrounding county like Oldham County or Shelby County. Both of these counties border the eastern portion of Louisville, which is the most desired area of Louisville.

 

[mcraft17]

We moved to Louisville about 4yrs ago for my husband to go to Seminary. We love it! We live in the Cresent Hill area and find that it is less than 5 min. to downtown, and about 7 to Indiana. We have passes to the Zoo and go often as well as the Louisville Science center. My dd was in 4th grade when we moved here and the Elementary school she went to was awsome. It is called Field Elementary and has recieved the Blue Ribbon award for best school. Right now she is in 8th grade in middle school and we are very happy with them as well. We are now looking at high school and the one she is zoned for is really good as well. There are some schools that are not the best but there are quite a few that are good. The one thing as someone said before they changed the way they send them to school now. It does not go to the closest school but rather there are a set cluster of say 5 schools they could go to. You can apply for the closest one but it is not guarenteed. I am not sure how they do it in Indiana so that may be a better fit if you are guarenteed the closest school. If you have any questions just ask.

 

[Leajess99]

There are definitely no SuperTargets in Louisville, just regular Targets. I think there is a Costco on the east side, but am not sure.

I'll keep bumping as there are many Louisville people on these boards, you may want to hit the Community Board with the topic too.

There are 2 newly remodeled Targets in Louisville that do sell food. They are not full SuperTargets but pretty close. Costco is off Gene Snyder to almost I-71 but I forget the name of the road. They are on the opposite side of Gene Snyder from The Summit.

There are many things in Louisville to do for kids but I do not live in Louisville. I live about 45 minutes south of Louisville close to Ft Knox.

 

[madge]

Costco is off Brownsboro Rd, near the Summit... we make the drive from Hardin County once a month or so

 

[Leajess99]

Costco is off Brownsboro Rd, near the Summit... we make the drive from Hardin County once a month or so

I used to make the drive for Sams before we got the one here but have yet to go into Costco. We used Sams for stuff for the concession stand at soccer. Is Costco better?? Do they give you a chance to go in and look before buying a membership?? Just wondering if i should check it out the next time I have to head up that way.

 

[Poohlovr]

They just opened up a new Target in Middletown on Shelbyville Road by the Gene Snyder...right next to the new Super Wal-Mart...that is designed to be in between what a regular Target and a Super Target are. Really nice.

If your husband is going to be working in Louisville, I would not live in Southern Indiana because of the traffic. I drove over those bridges for many years and it's AWFUL.

There are many areas that have that small-town feel to them. I'm in Jeffersontown (near the Synder) and it's very suburban. Just a few miles further is rural areas.

If you stick with the Southeast up to the Northeast part of the county...anywhere along I-265 (Gene Snyder) you'll have a lot of choices of neighborhoods WITH close proximity to shopping, hospitals, etc. I'm not beating up on the Southwest part of the county, but there really isn't a lot of shopping out that way. No malls at least.

Try visiting this site, too.

http://louisville.momslikeme.com/members/homepage.aspx

We appear to be very close neighbors!

 

[jennwdw]

Hi, I just wanted to chime in because I live in Oldham County. I suppose we are rural but not really. Oldham County is rather large but has very easy access to everything you could want. Our schools our top notch and consistently #1 or #2 in the state. I'm in Goshen area and we have 3 elem schools with 5 minutes of my house - all are excellent. All 3 elem feed into one middle school (6-8) and then one H.S (9-12). (Oldham has 3 H.S in the county, not sure how many middle schools)

From my house I can be at Target, Walmart, Summit Shopping center (nice outdoor mall) and Costco within 10-15 min. I can be at the 2 big malls (oxmoor and St. Matthews) within 15-20minutes. There are 2 other brand new targets (the middletown one mentioned earlier and one in St. Matthews) and I can get to those in about 15-20 minutes. So I have 3 targets with 20 minutes of me and 2 walmarts also about the same distance. I can be downtown in about 10 minutes. I'm about 25-30 min from the airport. I find in Louisville that people always tell you everything is about 20 minutes which is probably mostly true. LOL

Some will tell you that Oldham County is far but honestly I'm as close to anything as anyone else in Louisville. I love living out here. Everyday that I leave my house I drive past several horse farms and it's just beautiful!! Our biggest reason to move out here were the schools and they are truly top notch. Plus in Jefferson County there is no guarantee you'll go to a neighborhood school. They can and do bus kids far from their homes. So while you may choose to live next to a great school you may not go there.

If you are looking in Oldham County I would suggest goshen/prospect, crestwood, pewee valley areas beacause they are closest to the Jefferson Co. line. There are other lovely communities but the drive is a little further. Not too much but if convienence is important then it's something to consider. Oh and we do have lots of fast food options and several pizza delivery options LOL.

If you have other questions about Oldham County I'm happy to answer. Just send me a pm.

 

[princessrb]

I used to make the drive for Sams before we got the one here but have yet to go into Costco. We used Sams for stuff for the concession stand at soccer. Is Costco better?? Do they give you a chance to go in and look before buying a membership?? Just wondering if i should check it out the next time I have to head up that way.

We have both Sams and Costco here and I like Costco a lot better. They will let you go in and walk around before you join, so you can check it out.

Thanks everyone for the advice so far. DH is supposed to be going down there for an interview, but I don't know when yet. I'll keep you posted as I'm sure I'll have more questions!