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Is the keep Louisville Weird campaign effective?

Yes
17
34%
No
13
26%
Unsure
9
18%
What's wrong with being weird?
11
22%
 
Total votes : 50
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Laura B

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Re: Keep Louisville Weird campaign

by Laura B » Wed Oct 28, 2009 5:58 pm

To the rest of the state, Louisville is WEIRD with or without the slogan and I hope it stays that way. A big, small town is its best description. How many times have you run into someone who knows someone that you know/are related to/used to work with, etc.? Happens to me all the time! I was born here, moved away and came back and love it like it is. You just don't find many cities that have the same mix of urban flair and small town friendliness in one package. :)
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Aaron Newton

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Re: Keep Louisville Weird campaign

by Aaron Newton » Thu Oct 29, 2009 9:39 am

Robin Garr wrote:
Personally, I would HATE the idea of seeing us marketed as a "Southern" city. For a lot of us who grew up in the urban area, there's only a touch of the South about this place. We have a much more complicated - and interesting - cultural heritage mix.


heh. For a lot of us who grew up in the SUBurban areas it is much the same. I can remember this discussion so many times in middle school and high school - nearly all rejecting the idea that Louisville is a "Southern City" and those opinions haven't hanged with age.
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Robin Garr

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Re: Keep Louisville Weird campaign

by Robin Garr » Thu Oct 29, 2009 3:29 pm

Aaron Newton wrote:heh. For a lot of us who grew up in the SUBurban areas it is much the same. I can remember this discussion so many times in middle school and high school - nearly all rejecting the idea that Louisville is a "Southern City" and those opinions haven't hanged with age.

Did you grow up in the East End, Aaron? I have the impression that once you get around to I-65 and points west, more families have recent roots in rural Kentucky and may think of their community as more "southern" than many of the rest of us do. Obviously this is a very broad generalization ...
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Steve H

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Re: Keep Louisville Weird campaign

by Steve H » Thu Oct 29, 2009 4:11 pm

Robin Garr wrote:
Aaron Newton wrote:heh. For a lot of us who grew up in the SUBurban areas it is much the same. I can remember this discussion so many times in middle school and high school - nearly all rejecting the idea that Louisville is a "Southern City" and those opinions haven't hanged with age.

Did you grow up in the East End, Aaron? I have the impression that once you get around to I-65 and points west, more families have recent roots in rural Kentucky and may think of their community as more "southern" than many of the rest of us do. Obviously this is a very broad generalization ...

Growing up in Valley Station, way, way beyond the Watterson and I-65 Cultural Elite Demarcation lines, I can't remember ever feeling particularly southern.
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Michelle R.

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Re: Keep Louisville Weird campaign

by Michelle R. » Thu Oct 29, 2009 4:19 pm

I spent my life moving around, until we landed in KY when I was 12. I've always thought it was part of "The South." Granted, not the deep south, but still South of where I used to live, and i take pride in my "Southern" roots, earned or not. :lol:

I love it here. It has been home since I was 12, and it will remain home. I love that we have such great food, diversity, and a great music scene, arts, etc. Louisville has everything I need. It's the biggest "small" city I know of. I wish more people would ignore the redneck stereotype and give this place a chance. They'd see it for what it is, a great city, with lots of hospitable, friendly people. I think we're our own best advertisement!
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Robin Garr

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Re: Keep Louisville Weird campaign

by Robin Garr » Thu Oct 29, 2009 4:42 pm

Steve H wrote:Growing up in Valley Station, way, way beyond the Watterson and I-65 Cultural Elite Demarcation lines, I can't remember ever feeling particularly southern.

So much for MY broad generalizations. :oops: Thanks, Steve.
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Matthew D

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Re: Keep Louisville Weird campaign

by Matthew D » Thu Oct 29, 2009 6:16 pm

I grew up in the Highview area (near the Snyder) with some family roots to the Southwest in Brandenburg. I wouldn't say I ever really noticed my Southern roots growing up, as my Irish Catholic maternal grandmother's heritage was celebrated much more than the Southern roots found on both sides of my family. Once I went to St. X, I began to notice some differences, but that had more to do with the uppity vs blue collar tension. Once I went north of the Mason Dixon line, all the way to Dayton, OH, I did finally find and cherish my Southern ("Kentucky") roots.

I realized I said Kool-Aid funny, and my mother said things like Worter ("water") and DE-troit. I liked NASCAR (and thought nothing bad of it), connected with Country music, and had learned to fish before I learned to ride a bike. Southern Food (BBQ, Okra, Real Fried Chicken) were pretty foreign to my friends from OH, MI, and PA. No one distinguished between unsweetened tea and sweetened tea. Significant tax dollars were not generated via tobacco farming. The small city system - a hardline tradition in many midwest area - seemed foreign to the Louisville model of one big city and a bunch of neighborhoods. Along the same lines, no one understood the busing issue or how a whole county's population could explode as a result of integrated schooling ("white flight"). And I steadfastly refused to order anything but "Coke" even when I wanted a carbonated beverage other than coke.

I have Swiss Protestant, Irish Catholic, American Redneck Southern Baptist roots. I was pretty unaware of my Southern roots growing up, but now tend to overplay them now that I have returned from Ohio. Louisville's not a Southern city by any stretch (see Oxford, MS; Montgomery, AL; etc.). But there's Southern roots in this city for sure (see the Confederate statue on 3rd, for example). For many of us who grew up closer to Bullitt County than downtown, those Southern roots may be a little stronger. I'll say this. I knew alot of East End folk in my high school years and still now many - none of them can bring out the redneck* like I can. Might explain why I was able to actually make it (and make money) as a server at the Tumbleweed on Outer Loop.

Now that I'm on the path to being a college professor with the cultural baggage and privilege that comes alongside, I appreciate my country roots just a bit more. In fact, I often wonder the difference between Southern roots and "Kentucky small town" roots. I like to think I have more of the second. In other words, the term Southern may just be too broad. But, many of us from Louisville, have some form of Southern in us.

*Although a pejorative term, I appreciate the redneck in me, so I claim that term as part of me.
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John Hagan

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Re: Keep Louisville Weird campaign

by John Hagan » Fri Oct 30, 2009 8:33 am

Matthew D wrote:The small city system - a hardline tradition in many midwest area - seemed foreign to the Louisville model of one big city and a bunch of neighborhoods. Along the same lines, no one understood the busing issue or how a whole county's population could explode as a result of integrated schooling ("white flight"). And I steadfastly refused to order anything but "Coke" even when I wanted a carbonated beverage other than coke.


Thats interesting,sense we moved here I have always thought one of the things that made Louisville more like a northern midwest city was its "bunch of neighborhoods"feel. Chicago,Milwaukee and Detroit all seem like good examples of this. I also think the "coke" thing is universal. I have friends from all over the country and most of them grew up saying coke for any type soft drink. What did seem to differ from region to region was the pop vs soda term.
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Steve H

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Re: Keep Louisville Weird campaign

by Steve H » Fri Oct 30, 2009 9:30 am

John Hagan wrote:Thats interesting,sense we moved here I have always thought one of the things that made Louisville more like a northern midwest city was its "bunch of neighborhoods"feel. Chicago,Milwaukee and Detroit all seem like good examples of this. I also think the "coke" thing is universal. I have friends from all over the country and most of them grew up saying coke for any type soft drink. What did seem to differ from region to region was the pop vs soda term.


The Pop vs. Soda (vs. Coke) Map
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Kyle L

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Re: Keep Louisville Weird campaign

by Kyle L » Fri Oct 30, 2009 10:09 am

I had a girlfriend order using "Pop" and it made me cringe every time. She was Cleavland. I'm not sure if anyone else is familiar in Cleavland speak. :wink:
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Matthew D

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Re: Keep Louisville Weird campaign

by Matthew D » Fri Oct 30, 2009 3:11 pm

John Hagan wrote: Thats interesting,sense we moved here I have always thought one of the things that made Louisville more like a northern midwest city was its "bunch of neighborhoods"feel. Chicago,Milwaukee and Detroit all seem like good examples of this. I also think the "coke" thing is universal. I have friends from all over the country and most of them grew up saying coke for any type soft drink. What did seem to differ from region to region was the pop vs soda term.


To me there's a difference between a feel and a clear, legally defined city. In Ohio, every third turn you take puts you into a new incorporated (tax) area with its own schools, own police, own library, etc.

Sure there are many small neighborhoods in Louisville. There are also smaller incorporated areas, some with their own police. But, for most of us, we say we are from "Louisville." And that's the key for me. I've never once, outside of Louisville, said I'm from "Highview." I know "Dayton" people from Centerville, Kettering, Oakwood, Miamisburg. Shit, I know people who fervently distinguish between the 5 points of Grosse Pointe, (Detroit) Michigan, which would be like distinguishing between different areas of Old Louisville or, legally distinguishing between Clifton, Crescent Hill, and whatever other "feel" areas there are on Frankfort Avenue.

I've never been able to get my head completely around why this topic interests me or what it means, but it has alot to do with the small-city government model versus the metro/consolidated government model. Both have their strengths, weaknesses, and consequences. All I know is I could never, for the life of me, figure out what to make of the reality that I went through four different "cities" in the Dayton metro area to get to Meijers!
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Robin Garr

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Re: Keep Louisville Weird campaign

by Robin Garr » Fri Oct 30, 2009 3:38 pm

Matthew D wrote:... To me there's a difference between a feel and a clear, legally defined city. In Ohio, every third turn you take puts you into a new incorporated (tax) area with its own schools, own police, own library, etc.

Sure there are many small neighborhoods in Louisville. There are also smaller incorporated areas, some with their own police. But, for most of us, we say we are from "Louisville." And that's the key for me. I've never once, outside of Louisville, said I'm from "Highview." I know "Dayton" people from Centerville, Kettering, Oakwood, Miamisburg. Shit, I know people who fervently distinguish between the 5 points of Grosse Pointe, (Detroit) Michigan, which would be like distinguishing between different areas of Old Louisville or, legally distinguishing between Clifton, Crescent Hill, and whatever other "feel" areas there are on Frankfort Avenue. ...

One of the primary purposes for metro merger, initially, was to clean up some of that mess. It was only a political compromise that allowed the "little cities" in the suburban area to keep their legal incorporations, tax base, city councils and, in some cases, local police.

As for the city neighborhoods, while most of them are rooted in tradition, not law, they've been legally delineated for purposes of community development grants and neighborhood boards since the 1980s. They're not just "feel" neighborhoods, although their power and authority is limited at best. You can probably find a map of them all on the Louisville Metro website.
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Will Crawford

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Re: Keep Louisville Weird campaign

by Will Crawford » Thu Nov 05, 2009 8:46 pm

I think this, lyrical line from Kentucky's late poet laureate, sums up the southern, mid west thing.

"Kentucky is neither southern, northern, eastern or western,
It is the core of America.
If these untied States ca n be called a body,
Kentucky can be called its heart."

-Jesse Stuart, Kentucky Is My Land
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Kyle L

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Re: Keep Louisville Weird campaign

by Kyle L » Thu Nov 05, 2009 9:02 pm

Kentucky is a cultural Switzerland.
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Steve P

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Re: Keep Louisville Weird campaign

by Steve P » Thu Nov 05, 2009 11:45 pm

Kyle L wrote:I had a girlfriend order using "Pop" and it made me cringe every time. She was Cleavland. I'm not sure if anyone else is familiar in Cleavland speak. :wink:



Kyle,

Grew up about 40 miles south of there and speak the language fluently. To get you started from the ground floor, it's spelled Cleveland...and the name of the local pro football team is S-U-C-K-S. (as a loyal Browns fan I am permitted to say that, the rest of you are not)
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