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Researching retiring to Lexington or Berea/Danville but have not visited them.
Currently live in CT and work in NYC.
Two women who live together raising 2 teenage adopted Asian kids. Moderate to slightly liberal politically. Professional and well educated. Just want a friendly town with interesting stuff to do.
I have never lived in Berea or Danville....both are nice towns no doubt, but I vote for Lexington. I am sure there are people in Berea/Danville that would welcome you to their town, but the ones that won't will be more vocal about it in those towns than in Lexington in my opinion.....Plus I know I would much rather be a teenager in Lexington!
I have never lived in Berea or Danville....both are nice towns no doubt, but I vote for Lexington. I am sure there are people in Berea/Danville that would welcome you to their town, but the ones that won't will be more vocal about it in those towns than in Lexington in my opinion.....Plus I know I would much rather be a teenager in Lexington!
I don't know about Danville but Berea has an extremely liberal/hippy/green population living in the central areas of the city like around Old Town and the College. You would most likely be well received by that community but the other parts of the town are pretty conservative about those types of things. The city has a lot going on for its size...music festivals, arts, crafts, college events, etc. It's also only 35-40 minutes from Lexington. You really need to visit the city...it's one of the most unique small towns I've ever visited/lived in and extremely beautiful.
That area of Kentucky is very scenic. In the smaller towns your attitude about Jesus may be a very important factor.
As for activities, you might want to check out the cultural listings in the Lexintgton newspaper. You will undoubtedly be unable to escape the infatuation everybody has for the University of Kentucky's Wildcats in basketball and football. Be prepared!
Interesting stuff to do...Many towns in Kentucky boast of art fairs, music festivals, gospel revivals, etc. Much of it is 'family oriented'. That means they are wholesome, sort of like Southern Baptist church picnics. If you are accustomed to cultural events in New York City area, you may be disappointed. Being fair, New York City is on the forefront of the world's culture, so it would be tough for any rural area to compete.
There's a big difference between liberal in the NYC area (or Northeast) and liberal in Kentucky. Kentucky is a staunchly red state.
Berea College is a christian oriented college. That should give one an idea of what to expect. http://www.berea.edu/about/
Last edited by Visvaldis; 09-16-2010 at 06:56 PM..
We did the Lexington KY thing for a year...please, please consider and look into Louisville as well. We came from the upper Midwest and weren't ready for it. Lexington is highly based on old money, bloodlines, horse wealth, etc. The townies from Lex on this forum know this is true; that's what their city is. Nothing wrong with that, but an outsider is going to have a hard time fitting in. Louisville has some of these aspects too, but is much bigger and has more mixture from Illinois and Indiana transplants, and the KY natives there are more open to conversing with strangers. You have a much better chance of being accepted/meeting locals in Louisville than in Lexington.
That said, if you do choose Lexington, here are the pluses: incredible horse racing tradition, facility and grounds, much nicer than Louisville's if you can believe that. Some of the best quality streets in America. Pretty cool downtown, albeit small. Great library system. Good shopping for anything you'd ever need. KY as a state is awesome and underrated, in terms of outdoors and state parks. For northerners, that means Spring, Fall, and Winter, as Summer's humidity can be tough to handle.
This news story about an event at a high school in Russell Springs, Kentucky, may be of interest to anyone who wants to bring school age kids to Kentucky.
Russell Springs is a bit further south of Danville.
Berea includes a fairly large international adoption community, along with families who've adopted domestically.
Yes, Berea College is non-denominational Christian, but it was founded by abolitionists and has a long history of social activism, with high academic standards and high expectations for student conduct. Not rigid - but expectations are clearly in place.
Berea College offers quite a number of cultural events which are open to the public (drama, concerts, lectures, etc. featuring both local and imported talent of various kinds: Gloria Steinum spoke last night).
There is a wide variety of churches in Berea. The largest church in town, Union, is very progressive, welcoming all, open-minded, socially conscious and socially (in both senses) active, much like the college.
Visvaldis, the Russell Springs incident occurred four years ago, in 2006. Have you investigated to see what may or may not have changed since then?
Is it fair or accurate to assume that the current ambiance of all the thousands of public schools in Kentucky is likely to be similar to that of a school in a small southern Kentucky town, four years ago?
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RE: Would we fit in
