My laptop has been freezing up like it's the senior senator of this state, beginning to wonder if it's dehydrated. It finally cooperated enough for me to edit some shots from the part of town that was named by someone who thought they spoke teenager, NuLu.
Growing up back in the holler, gentrification wasn't something we had to much concern ourselves with. It wasn't until I moved to Louisville in 2004 and stumbled upon NuLu that I had a concrete example to go with the concept. It was just getting going then, now the hipsters have all embraced either responsibility or addiction and the luxury whatnots have taken their place.
Been a while since I'd spent any time down there so Monday I went for a look-see. Wasn't much happening so commenced to wander about in search of bit of the area's old character.
There's an element of the absurd that comes with gentrification. You'll have brand new corporate concrete 'luxury' apartments on one corner and just across the street will be something that looks straight out of a 90s crime drama.
Any neighborhood with cat friends can't be too terrible.
Did you know Thomas Edison lived in Louisville? Me neither. A 19 year old Edison rented a room here while working the night shift as a telegraph operator downtown. Neither the job nor his stay here lasted very long, he got fired for experimenting and left the city for good within a year. Well, that's at least one duplex that won't get turned into an airbnb anytime soon.
All I know is that's a well camouflaged building.
The Ohio River is the reason Louisville exists, but back in 1937 it tried to revoke that and flooded 70% of the city. Now there's more than 26 miles of flood wall, which can sometimes make for interesting place to wander.
If you stand in the right spot in NuLu and look west, you can see the concrete jungle downtown creeping ever closer. Should provide plenty of opportunity for spectacle, going to have to keep my eye on this neck of the woods.
*PS Remember, a gunshot a day keeps the gentrifiers away!