Kentucky would have a stronger metro if....

[Ron Mehico]

I can't pretend to be a city growth expert. But I think some blame is on the University of Louisville.

Nashville has added the Predators of the NHL and Titans. They also started hosting SEC tournament and NCAA tournament and a dozen big concerts per year. Also, you have Vanderbilt attracting high achieving kids from a wide area.

Yum center opens and UL blocks nba expansion. Maybe have two concerts a year. And now no one goes to their basketball games. And while a Louisville degree is no less legitimate, it's not necessarily attracting young people in to the city.

I mean really at the end of the day it comes down to jobs. Whoever has the most companies and industries attracts the most people for work. Columbus for example has a very diverse market with banking, insurance, healthcare, retail, restaurant etc headquarters. Just like Austin, Charlotte, Nashville etc. Some were reliant on one industry and weren’t diversified so they got hurt (Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh). But some cities like Pittsburgh that were heavily reliant on one industry (steel) have made a comeback by attracting different diverse corporations. Attracting the different corporations is the hard part imo. Favorable taxes, a diverse employee pool to choose from, universities close by to recruit from, etc. there’s all sorts of ways to attract corporations but I think that’s the tough part and requires really organized and smart leadership.

 

[UK90]

Harrisburg, Olympia, Sacramento (I get this one though due to sheer size), Annapolis. You correctly said Atlanta which is the capital of course everyone knows that , Jefferson City, etc. Lots of capitals that aren’t biggest city. Don’t think it makes that big a difference personally.

Tallahassee has always struck me as particularly odd because it’s way up there in the panhandle SO far away from the state’s largest cities and most important places.

At least Frankfort is conveniently located midway between Louisville and Lexington. But Florida chose like the most inconvenient spot possible to put their capitol.

 

[Cotaay]

Making your city attractive enough to attract jobs is important.

Going back to Louisville and Nashville, HCA was once Columbia/HCA. Columbia was a Louisville based company and HCA Nashville based. After the merger it initially looked like Louisville would land the HQ but it ended up in Nashville. That was in the early/mid 90s and we see both cities trajectories since then.

 

[WildcatofNati2]

Tallahassee has always struck me as particularly odd because it’s way up there in the panhandle SO far away from the state’s largest cities and most important places.

At least Frankfort is conveniently located midway between Louisville and Lexington. But Florida chose like the most inconvenient spot possible to put their capitol.

Probably the reason for that is when Florida was a new state, there were no large cities at all there.

 

[8titles]

Making your city attractive enough to attract jobs is important.

Going back to Louisville and Nashville, HCA was once Columbia/HCA. Columbia was a Louisville based company and HCA Nashville based. After the merger it initially looked like Louisville would land the HQ but it ended up in Nashville. That was in the early/mid 90s and we see both cities trajectories since then.

Basically Louisville has been run by a group that was way more concerned with two things that have been very limiting.
1) The UL relationship completely alienated the vast majority of the state of Kentucky. If their “hierarchy” had any sense they would have maintained a much more balanced relationship with the state, thus opening up opportunities to host events that would pull in people from the entire state, not just one small faction. They locked down the arena, and in the process essentially gave a ton of Kentuckians a reason to never want to attend anything at YUM.
2) They have done nothing to clean up the downtown area. By that I don’t mean they haven’t spent money there, they have spent tons, but the intention to be diverse in a way that threatens a lot of peoples sense of security has limited the reception and will never result in a prosperous downtown area, which is paramount to have significant growth much like Nashville and many other major cities.

I worked downtown for several years and I never felt safe there. It’s a trashy place and reflects very much on the administration and their agenda.

 

[Nightwish84]

Can't comment on whether or not downtown is trashy but at the end of the day I think most assume it's a hassle to get down there and would rather just hang out around their own neighborhoods as you've now got little bars and restaurants around. Neighborhoods have grown, the downtown area hasn't. Fourth Street was a gimmick that locals quickly grew tired of and now that it's acceptable to work from home, there's no need to always rush downtown to that important job.

Others have said it but the local relationship with UofL has hurt the growth of the city. You don't put all your economic eggs on whether or not a college basketball program succeeds. Local leaders saw Pitino as their Phil Jackson and Louisville as their Lakers. Along the way, the push for pro teams wasn't hard enough and we opted for minor league soccer instead since that wouldn't harm UofL and their arena. Do locals really want Louisville to be like Nashville though? Many have complained about TopGolf for years. Same for Bourbon and Beyond and Louder Than Life every September. I think Louisville just wants to be a quiet "neighborhood" city that gets to party around the Derby...and that's it.