Drive By Review: Louisville, Kentucky

After an overnight rest in Elizabethtown, Louisville was the next major city on our long journey home. Louisville is very similar in population sizes to Columbus, but seems to have a bit more in common historically with Cincinnati. Must be the riverfront.

We got off the highway (I-65) near the University of Louisville and make our way through the campus area. After a few turnarounds, we made it onto Second Street and started heading towards downtown. Some very nice historic neighborhoods in this area, including Old Louisville. We cut down Hill Street over to Fourth Street and drove past the iconic Werne’s Row on the corner. Beautiful old buildings. Reminded me a lot of Victorian Village in Columbus and driving down Neil Avenue.

Very dense neighborhoods coming into downtown, and Fourth Street puts you straight into the Fourth Street Live! development that reminds me of some sort of Columbus mash up between Park Street, the South Campus Gateway, and what could become of a revamped City Center. The focus seems to be primarily on retail, restaurants, and nightlife there. I noticed a lot of chain restaurants (TGIFridays, Hard Rock, etc) but I honestly wouldn’t mind having those places setting up in downtown Columbus even if I don’t plan on patronizing them myself. This could be a great example of what a revamped City Center could look like in a few more years.

Anyway, we turned around at the riverfront and drove up and down several other streets. Many looked vibrant on a Monday morning, and there was plenty of new urban development to be spotted here as well. Main and Market Streets looked particularly lively. We decided not to stop as we still had several hours before we got home, and Louisville is very easy to come back to from Columbus for a weekend getaway.

The good:

• Fairly dense downtown. Beautiful historic neighborhoods.
• Good amount of urban development going on.
• Fourth Street Live! looks great. Love the street open to through traffic but slowed WAY down.

The bad:

• University Area feels disconnected from downtown.
• Some streets were a bit confusing to navigate. Not too bad though.
• No rail transit.
• Downtown riverfront seems underutilized with I-64 overhead.

Verdict:

Louisville is a mere three hours from Columbus. There’s really no reason for us not to go back and spend a weekend there. Multiple weekends even. Will definitely be headed back soon.