Here we are at last. Only four neighborhoods remain and will fight for a chance to win the BS Crown in the final game starting Wednesday.
The Highlands will take on Germantown-Schnitzelburg-Paristown while Butchertown-NuLu-East Market battles New Albany. There’s only one crown to win, and all four neighborhoods are looking for the inaugural victory. Voting is open for two days. Have at it.
[poll id=”18″]
[poll id=”19″]
New Albany? Really? This has got to be a joke.
Ben, I’m guessing you’ve not spent much time in New Albany in the past year or so. A lot of exciting things are happening downtown.
Ben – New Albany has emerged as one of the best places in Lou Metro in the last few years. A zip to downtown, walkable neighborhoods, lots of independent restaurant activity, great housing stock with several historic preservation districts, etc. It is certainly on par with Butchertown and Germantown areas.
Indeed. People who invested in some of the trendier metro neighborhoods twenty years ago are quite happy, I’m sure. So happy, in fact, that the cost of entry into those nabes is prohibitive. That’s not the case in New Albany- yet. It still offers the opportunity to reinvent one’s self, building equity in a community and lifestyle of your own choosing.
Buying into established standards can be fun but setting those standards is even more so.
The great possibilities in New Albany, and lower cost of entry, are the same issues which fueled renaissance in Butchertown and Clifton twenty years ago. New Albany is that opportunity today. While both choices have excellent dining options, historic heritage, and good art galleries, New Albany has a better blog (cityofnewalbany.blogspot.com), a bigger chunk of wild nature (Loop Island Wetlands), a microbrewery (New Albanian Brewing Company), a great independent bookseller (Destinations), an active art supply center (Preston), and the Carnegie Center for Art and History which has won a national award for its permanent display about the Underground Railroad.
Each of the posts in the BS Neighborhood Derby have had two “games” for readers to vote on. Within each post, the number of votes for each of the two games have been fairly close — except for those involving New Albany. In posts having New Albany games, the games involving New Albany have had significantly more votes cast than in the opposing games. As I type this, there are 287 votes in the Highlands vs. Germantown-Schnitzelburg-Paristown game, while there are 388 in the Butchertown-NuLu-East Market vs. New Albany game. Curious as to where all these votes are coming from, I checked out the New Albany blog mentioned by Mr. G. On this blog I read comments by those bragging about the number of times they have voted and encouraging others to vote multiple times as well. So while New Albany may be winning in the vote count, it would seem that this has less to do with the quality of the neighborhood and more to do with New Albanians are acting dishonorably.
Don’t hate the player…
Seriously, this “game” has done a good thing – raise awareness about our urban neighborhoods. As Ben’s comment shows, a lot of misconceptions and old biases exist out there that need revising.
For instance, New Albany holds it’s own in quality of neighborhood versus similar hoods in Louisville proper, has that strong sense of place we urbanites desire, and is a viable urban option for many folks in the wider region who might otherwise choose the burbs. A little recognition is long overdue.
Did I mention New Albany is in a Blue State?
Two or three or even a dozen people cannot vote 400 times. Also, this is not a scientific survey. What might be “dishonorable†voting to one person might be an illustration of enthusiasm and love of City to another. I have lived in several Louisville neighborhoods and in New Albany. The organization of neighborhoods, the collective sense of place, and the shared commitment to making the community a better place are far stronger in New Albany than what I have seen elsewhere.
I think New Albany is fine, but East market has some great galleries, might be a narrow view but I would take First Friday once a month over a year of New Albany. Harvest Homecoming is overrated. Props to the New Albanian and IUS.
B…if your view of New Albany is Harvest Homecoming, you need to let us show you around sometime. In fact, last year saw the first “Fringe Fest” in downtown New Albany running concurrently with HH. I’m guessing you would have approved of the craft beer, art show, fire spinning, and live music. Agreed that First Friday is awesome. It’s easy to get to from New Albany – so no reason to compromise.