"To die young or live forever, I'm just trying to get thru the night." Think that goes a long way to describing Louisville I reckon. Carjacking is the favorite sport of teenagers around here, you can get shot over a Hot Pocket, and no Big Boy is safe.
Could just be all the bourbon. Louisville's got a few blocks of downtown and then the rest of it is just the biggest damn small town you ever laid eyes on. Close to three quarters of a million people here and nobody can go to the bar without running into someone they've slept with.
For the longest time here in Louisville you had to have white skin to live north of Broadway ( i.e. downtown). When that restriction finally started to falter in the 50s and 60s, the white people fled east and the money followed close behind.
What remained faced that invasive species commonly known as the interstate, which quickly took root, accompanied by a bad case of neglect and economic decline.
Crumbling buildings and crumbling property values make for prime pickings for gentrification. Eventually the money that fled east came back to displace the folks and businesses that'd hung on and hung around.
Back when I moved to Louisville in 2004, NuLu (New Louisville? Fuck if I know.) was more of a PR campaign than anything, it was still 'too dangerous' to be quite trendy yet. Now it's a playground for former hipsters with jobs that pay six figures.
Which is kind of funny because it's right next door to the area we call Butchertown. Butchertown is known more for the particular aroma that sometimes saturates the area than anything else. Nothing like it used to be though, there's only one place still up and running.
That A in the window above is a health department rating, which seems to indicate that this is a restaurant. Nothing else about it does, still not sure what's going on here.
My recent trip out west got me paying more attention to architecture, particularly Art Deco type stuff. Before that I'd never given much thought to Iroquois Manor, it was just the grungy old neighborhood shopping center with the good Vietnamese restaurant. That sign seems to indicate there's some history here somewhere, will have to do some digging and report back.
That's enough random bits of Louisville, Kentucky for one day. Y'all stay safe out there and try not to shoot down any power lines.
