What Happened to Louisville Kentucky? 

One correction, the flood was in 1937*

*Me sitting at work in Louisville, KY* "wait, what happened to us?" I actually live across the river in Southern Indiana, but most tech jobs are in Louisville. The nice thing about the area is that the cost of living compared to many other cities is quite low. Another interesting fact, is that located in Brooks, KY (part of the Louisville Metro area) actually has the largest laptop repair facility in the world: Geek Squad City. Other interesting thing: we also have Thunder Over Louisville. it's the largest annual fireworks display in North America to celebrate the Kentucky Derby.

in January 2021 i moved to Louisville. never visited it before, just wanted to get out of Boston. it was honestly one of the best things i did, met some lifelong friends, reignited my passion for music, and discovered a forgotten gem. i was only there for 6 months, but i truly fell in love with this city and want to go back eventually

Louisville has changed since the Brianna Taylor incident causing riots, and pandemic. The homeless population has more than tripled in the last 3 years. It's not safe downtown anymore. It's a shame because there was a lot of fun stuff to do in the city ...not now thanks Greg Fisher...as we call him "Fisher-Price."

I lived in Louisville 40 years ago and it was a wonderful city then, I really loved Louisville. But, all things change and usually not for the better. Unfortunately Louisville just mirrors the decline of most US cities. The death of the middle class leaves a void that struggles with changing societal and cultural realities. America is in a steady state of decline. Instead of asking what happened to Louisville you have to ask what happened to the America that many of us knew 50 - 60 years ago.

Louisville has been taken over by crime. It's very sad. I worked there for a long time at Humana. I worked downtown Louisvile and enjoyed walking around every day. It's not safe anymore

What happened to Louisville? After Abramson, we got two REALLY REALLY crappy mayors- Armstrong was a do-nothing, and Fischer has been actively incompetent.

Don’t forget, it flooded again in 2009. The issue with Louisville now is poor management.

It’s not a perfect city, but I love it, it’s one of those cities that just has such a distinctive culture, the derby, bourbon, and so much street art (usually of horses) I once saw someone refer to a fancy hat as a royal wedding hat and was like “wdym that’s a derby hat” lowkey forgetting derby isn’t a national holiday and most people don’t have a decades worth of derby hats in their closet

The worst part about this city is rush hour seems to last all fucking day now because the traffic is so congested and they can't exactly make everyone move to fix the layout.

Lived in Kentuckiana (Louisville plus nearby counties in Kentucky and Indiana) since my birth in 1990. Love it here!

Moved from Louisiana to get the heck out of the state and met my husband and love this place and people!!

It is pronounced Lou-a-vull

One I left Louisville and came back I realize how special Louisville was

I live in Louisville. Louisville is my birth place. I'm 44 and have moved out of the state several times and finally settled down for good 11 years ago.

As a lifelong Louisvillian, I really enjoyed this video. Aside from the minor error, which was corrected in the pinned comment, it gave lots of good information about our history. One thing that was NOT mentioned was the people. I've never seen a city with friendlier, more giving people. It's an amazing place to live, work, and visit, and I hope the turnaround will continue and we'll begin growing again. Also, there's no better place in the world to party. If we don't have something to celebrate, we'll make something up. EDIT: I tend to respond in kind, and when someone is a jerk to me, I'll be a jerk right back. So I have to wonder, all you guys who are arguing that there aren't nice people in Louisville, maybe it's because they were responding in kind to how you treated them.

It's still a huge city with tons to do and lots to offer people. It definitely has a lot of crime, but it's mostly confined to certain areas and pertains to drugs, gangs, etc.

The player lowered the zombie population.

Highways block the river front. Dead zone in center. Big problem. Can be fixed.

I grew up not far from Louisville, and my dad worked at UPS in flight operations (which is HQ in Louisville, and their global hub is here too!) It’s my goal to come back once I can get a job with UPS airlines.

Wow you left out a lot! Louisville is a vibrant and diverse city with a large global population. It has been certified as a Welcoming City since 2010 and is growing at a rapid pace.

I think you reaaaaally undersold the impact of ups here. Worldport being the central hub for ups worldwide. Pretty much any package shipped in the US comes through Louisville

I grew up in Louisville and started my career at the Courier-Journal. I could walk the downtown streets, even at night, and never worry about my safety. The live music scene in the 90s was like a little Seattle. There was always plenty to do and I was proud to show off my city to visitors.😊 I do miss my hometown (been in Tampa since ‘97), but it’s not what it used to be. I still visit family and have witnessed its slow demise. On a positive note, the people are still just as lovely and welcoming as ever. It’s Louisville’s people that make it special and, of course, the city will always hold a special place in my heart.❤

Thanks, nice insight in to Louisville history!

Louisville is not even close to a forgotten place.

From KY lived in Clarksville and the highlands for a few years. Some good memories

What happened? Crime, crime, and more crime.

I’ve been in Louisville for 7 years and I LOVE it here ❤

I lived in Louisville from 1990 to just recently, leaving because the city does not have an ocean next to it. We loved it. The riots of 2020 seemed to take a bit of wind out of its sails, with an increase in crime and coarsening of civil discourse. Unfortunately this stuff is not restricted to Louisville. I’d recommend it. It’s a fine city.

I remember the Standard Products building. It was in bad shape when I was last there about 20 years ago, it was in a largely abandoned industrial area - places I find interesting. It’s probably all been turned into condos now.

Lived there from 1998 through 2014. I miss living there a lot. A lot of great memories and friends made.

I've lived in downtown Louisville my entire adult life. When I moved into my first place on East Main St......it was just desolate. But now that area is called NuLu and now has many shops and restaurants and is really thriving. In fact it seems like there has been a revival of most of the downtown area

There's another factor that affected most any large city that saw a huge decrease in manufacturing jobs. It invariably causes a real-estate crash as middle class workers move away to find work and tens of thousands of homes are suddenly up for sale and vacant. This causes an influx of lower class (IE an unskilled and uneducated "workforce") to move in as they can purchase homes for extremely low prices that they could not afford otherwise. This causes crime to skyrocket, as unemployment is very high and the motivated, career-seeking number of workers in the city falls significantly. This has happened in just about any city that lost significant manufacturing, such as the Midwest cities of Youngstown, Warren, Detroit, Pittsburgh, on and on. Louisville's crime rating is 95% higher than the national average of US cities, similar to the other places I just mentioned. Once the crime rate jumps up it's very difficult to bring it down, as you cannot displace the residents that are the source of that crime, and it is a barrier preventing an influx of skilled or professional workers that could potentially rejuvenate the city with new forms of technology and industry.

I grew up there and it wasn't a bad place to live. But I sure wouldn't want to live there now. I left around 2000. I hate going there now and only do if I absolutely have to. They have a total idiot for a mayor and one of the worst public school systems in the country, not to mention a huge homeless problem, racial issues, crappy roads, garbage, litter, graffiti.....the list goes on.

I cannot express to you the level of relief I felt once you started properly pronouncing our city's name at about the 3 minute mark. For the uninitiated, chose your favorite syllables of Louisville and drop the rest. If you do that, you'll have said our name right.

Born and raised in Louisville moved to North Carolina and been trying to get back to Louisville since. I miss Louisville with a passion. The snow, the vibe, the food ( indy's chicken, grippos, kings chicken, big red, white Castle etc), music, cost of living, 4th street live, waterfront action, just pulling up to the park and its deep as fuck for no reason, etc. Everyday you have a reason to be fitted. People here Kentucky and think ppl riding around on horses yea at Churchill downs off Taylor. Go to the Westend (da whole Westend), Shively, Newburg, East Hancock, park Duval, victory park etc it's a whole other ball game but it's all love. Violence is everywhere Louisville live by the code of principle. You'll get fucked up for what you did but most of the time you'll get it for how you did it. Oh and must know red and blue is a big thing in Louisville and I ain't talking about crips and bloods. You either a wildcat (blue) or Cards (red) fan. Don't come with that flip flop shit we take this very serious. Love Louisville

The Houston Rockets owner Les Alexander threatened to move the Rockets to Louisville in the late '90s if Houston didn't build a new arena after the Oilers left town for Nashville.

As a Kentuckian, I'm surprised that this was the first thing that popped up in my newsfeed. Good job, RU-vid.

Look online at the crime map of Louisville. Or watch the local news. See for yourself.

I love my city so much. It's forever where I choose to call home

one problem, you pronounced louisville wrong.

When I saw this video I was like"Is this a joke?" I've lived in Louisville KY for around 40 years (moved here from SanFrancisco w/mom and lil sis when I was 5). I'll have to tell my friends and family about this video, they'll probably get a good laugh from the title.

I lived there for a few years about 10 years ago. Left because I was raising a family and the school system is a nightmare. However, that is true in many places now after the last few years.

I just visited Louisville a week ago. I thought it was a lovely city with friendly people all around

I lived in Butchertown for 6 years and now Jeffersontown for the last 10. Nothing happened to us, we're still here and doing fine.

As someone who lived in BG for 20 years all I’ll say about the ville is it is a island onto itself culturally speaking. It’s just not uniform with the rest of the state, an for context to this point, simply look south to Tennessee and how the average rural citizen looks at Nashville as being integrated into their state identity.

We just visited it for the first time last weekend!

Lack of hotel rooms and many expos and events leaving Louisville for Indianapolis and other cities hit Louisville big time.

Louisville is a great city but lately the crime has skyrocketed from car break ins (even in the good parts like Lyndon and st matthews) to shootings at the Jefferson mall the other day while I was there with my kids 😢 also the traffic on 65 southbound is ALWAYS HORRIBLE! But nonetheless it’s where I grew up and the city has a lot to offer in the way of jobs and recreational things to do.. and the bar scene is pretty huge as well for younger people

I just came to see Loiusville from Project Zomboid in real life.

"mild climate" It was -9° with a -25° wind chill a couple hours ago. 40mph gusts. However, snow usually doesnt stick around more than a day or two.

The main campus of the University of Louisville is south of downtown. You showed a view of the Health Sciences campus downtown that houses the medical, dental, and nursing schools.

People here from project zomboid⬇️

Louisville is a product of not wanting to catch up. The left behind and are happy and proud of such.

The birthplace of Muhammad Ali.

Its such a beautiful place too. Very accessable. If you're in the suburbs, you can walk to the city, or you can walk to a farm. Its awesome.

I have had some outstanding chow there but if you live anywhere else in KY, Lewvul is southern Indiana.

Live here, grew up here. Great city except for the west half. JCPS, the school district sucks as they have failed to combine the poor inner city with the wealthier outer city, resulting in the inner city dragging everything down.

i do miss ear-x-tacy. the highlands just isn't the same. and rocky horror at the vogue will always be in my heart

Good ol Loo"vull. One of the top places I'd consider moving. Such a pleasant city with fun atmosphere

When i see old picture of louisville, pre ww2 and pre mass car infrastructure, all i see is a downgrade in our cities structure since. We are spread out, flattened to concrete parking lots, and have destroyed too many historic structures for meaningless sprawl. Indiana side has a better chance at reviving its water front because it doesn't have a highway blocking it along the river for miles in the most interesting parts.

I lived there in my Teens in the 70s when Lums and a few other companies had their headquarters there. I hope they do revive as it was a nice place to grow up in.

I'm originally from Chicago (don't even get me started on old "Chiraq"). Lived in Kentuckiana for 12 years. Looking forward to moving back next year (God willing)!

I love history and I live in Louisville so I am constantly looking for old buildings that you can tell used to be beautiful/loved but are no longer. BUT I noticed the building in your video at 2:23 which happens to be the garage I park my car in everyday!!! I have always wondered and tried to speculate about what I thought this gorgeous building used to be, because it clearly was something. The windows, tall ceilings; theres a giant open room that goes through all four floors of the building that features some nice greenery below, overgrown now. Theres also a really nice view of the city skyline that I love. I speculated it was a factory of some sorts, I imagined seamstresses or typists 😂 But a train station?? I would loveee to know more about this building as you can tell please let me know what you know! Great video too thank you👍

As a lifelong resident the city is getting bad downright depressing. Most natives are trying to build up savings for a move🤦‍♂️

It's rough out here that's for sure

moved from texas to go to uni in louisville and been living there for almost 7 years now. its a really chill place to live. not expensive compared to bigger cities, pay is pretty decent across the board. i like it. though it can get boring if you're the type that loves going out to events.

I've lived here all my life and ever since the riots in 2020 this city has turned to crap. People have tagged all the buildings and there are gun shots every damn night and car jackings and so much crime and death. I wish I could get out of here but I'm stuck here. They only fix the city up if we have big events, so they only make it pretty for visitors but they don't care about the actual people that live here. I'm surprised they didn't nention Thunder over Louisville and The Derby and Louder than Life Concerts, it's why people cone to visit here.

I haven't read every comment but has anybody mentioned the WORLD CLASS food scene in Louisville. I've heard from and read several professional and amateur sources that our food scene, (amount of high-quality restaurants of all budget levels and Chef levels), is second to only the likes of New York City. Just on a smaller scale.

I thought it was in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, but OK.

I lived in Louisville from 72 to 84 and left the state of Kentucky in 85. It was a great place to grow up back then.

I am originally from Louisville and this is a place I get to go back to Maybe several times a year as most of my family still lives there. My mother moved us from Louisville in the late eighties because of the economy. The problem with Louisville is that it did not promote education enough. Most of my relatives did very well from the sixties up to around the early nineties because they all had good Union backed manufacturing and blue collar jobs. These relatives are now retired most of them live in Louisville and they are still receiving pensions in addition to their social security and 401k. However for we the people who came out for them that is a different story. For years people went under the presumption that you would be able to get out of high school and go work at 1 of the many factories and manufacturing locations and other blue collar jobs in the city and establish a solid middle class existence for you and your family. My Uncle's an aunt's worked at Philip Morris off of Broadway and some of them work for Brown and Williamson tobacco I even had a grandmother who worked the General Electric appliance park and my father worked for Louisville gas and electric. Before we move to Atlanta Georgia in 1988 my stepfather worked for American standard and when they finally closed out of Louisville and my mother was having trouble finding non manual labor they gave him a payout and that was one of the things we used to find our move to Atlanta. Today I see some people still think they can just get out of high school in Louisville and they will do as well or better than their parents or grandparents did in the eighties and seventies and that is not as easy as it was previously. Of the factories that are still located in Louisville the 2 Ford plants. They are not paying nearly what they previously paid and neither is General Electric. Yes they are still good paying jobs if you are able to stay there alone enough and establish yourself and they are still major contributors to the economy. But that is not enough diversification the future is in pharmaceuticals, medicine, insurance, technology. While I do see some positive changes occurring for the Commonwealth of Kentucky and Louisville they allowed other cities to pass them by and have aways to catch up. When I was growing up Louisville was larger than Nashville. Nashville is now way larger than Louisville in regards to its city and metropolitan area population and growing. One reason is because Nashville invested and embraced education before and you have universities like Vanderbilt. In spite of that I consider Louisville to be an underestimated city with a lot of positive qualities and characteristics. If they can improve their level of education which they are doing and get over some of the old mindsets that prevented businesses from growing and setting up it will be able to rival cities like Nashville and Charlotte. More college educated people will draw more companies to set up and grow in low costs areas like louisville which is still centrally locate to other markets. That's happening now.

Ain't shit happened or no more forgotten than any other city in the state's..you busting our ball's!

I live in Louisville It's Better than Indianapolis In my opinion

I like how the pronunciation got more and more correct as the video went on.

What happened? Seems like you lay it out very well. Thousands of jobs lost from tobacco and railroads. GE and Ford still around but they cut jobs as well due to outsourcing. Other cities also along the river have also been affected.

Lived in Louisville 4 years while in college, and for another 2 years afterward. It really is something special. It has a culture all its own and boasts a large religious and ethnic diversity not found anywhere else in the Bluegrass State. I was recently displaced from my home there due to a fire, but already I hope to return. The difference between the vibes of Lexington and Louisville feel about as drastic to me as between New Orleans and Detroit.

The issues weve been having with the police and the marching (and some police-anger-related vandalism) have put a dent in my hometown. The main parks (like Cherokee) arent being kept up like they used to and some of the really awsome older business had to shut down. There's still a lot of jobs here though, and the food and booze culture bustles

I was there about 30 years ago. Lots of nice old buildings at that time.

It’s Louisville pronounced locally “Lou-a-vull” and yes im a born and raised Louisvillian #502

it's like the perfect place, it has so much rich culture, history, and interesting people!!!

Louisville got overrun with Zombies, shame but without West Point and Rosewood to help them stop the hordes it was doomed

I feel the futher west you get in Louisville the rougher the area gets. I deliver often and it gets pretty sketchy downtown at night.

i've lived in louisville ky all my life its a great city truely

It’s Looahvuhl and I don’t think we’re forgotten 😅 you forgot about Humana too 😊

Well, the riots in 2020 didn't help.

Louisville, KY is still a hub for transportation of goods (UPS and Amazon do a lot of activity here).

Not sure where you got your population statistics from but the few sources i checked have the population of Louisville in 2000 being almost 600k, not 256k

Jobs left, two mayors in last 30+ years, Breonna Taylor. JCPS is one of the worst in the country if you have children. In last 24 months, 500 homicides according to local news. Metro taxes aren’t worth it, so as you said ppl have left and continue to do so. UPS is also a huge employer here and does so much all over Jefferson county, been very stable since Louisville bought the snowplows in 1997. Crime has spread with Fischer’s leadership, and Greenberg doesn’t seem to have a concrete plan. Good luck, pretty place to become so overrun.

No mention of Churchill Downs or Louisville Slugger?

Never seen a video made about my home city!

Louisville was far over 256 thousand in 2000. I'm from there and it was around 380 thousand right before the consolidation.

Facts. My city 💯💯

As a local Louivillian, I love my city. And we are currently seeing some incredible growth in all kinds of ways.

Thank you

Many of the small towns near Louisville are fantastic places to live. Affordable housing and reasonable commutes, only moderate traffic.

I LIVE HERE AND I LOVE IT

Grew up and live in Louisville, great city with great people. Glad I’m from here.

Louisville is my hometown. I had to move away in 2000 in a job transfer when Philip Morris closed their Louisville factory.

Very interesting. Thank you.