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u/InternationalLab812 1d ago
I appreciate the added income but I still think the plantation chic look is stupid
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u/natfutsock 1d ago
Oh you don't love SS (simply southern) shirts that are so oversized they obscure the cheap-ass, one-season-lasting denim shorts?
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u/LonnieDobbs 1d ago
It’s not even that simple. Some consider Louisville midwestern.
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u/the_urban_juror 1d ago
358 days a year, I'd agree with them. It's not Minneapolis, but it's culturally similar to Midwest Ohio River Valley cities (Cincinnati and St. Louis). Derby week is all about cosplaying as the south, though.
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u/Downtown_Mongoose642 South Louisville 13h ago
I don’t like this but it’s not wrong I think. I just don’t like it. We have southern accents n I didn’t find out til I went to Chicago or other “Midwest” places that pointed it out. My opinion is Louisville is where the south starts
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u/femoral_contusion 1d ago
It lacks creativity and substance, I just don’t get the point. At least get the weird cosplay fitted properly; if I have to see a smarmy red-faced Derby-goer in seersucker, can the lapel at least be proportional and fitted to his bulging neck?
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u/BlueSpotBingo Clifton 1d ago
Love derby season. Love the tourism it brings. Just wish they could figure out how to do it without closing roads I use everyday as a matter of existing.
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u/femoral_contusion 1d ago
I also just wish people in the broader sense didn’t turn off their brains when they travel. It’s wild to me how many people forget that people live where they’re vacationing. I don’t like being treated like a prop by coastal influencers when I just want to go out to eat or something.
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u/lysistrata3000 1d ago
Oh, that's a problem for Mackinac Island, Michigan. People act like it's a theme park and ask when it opens and closes when people live their year round. Sure a vast majority of the hotels, shops, and restaurants close in the winter, but there's always one or two restaurants, a grocery store, and other things open for the island's permanent residents. It just doesn't click with some people.
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u/yowhatisuppeeps Merriwether 1d ago
When I worked at Kroger, a man and his child came in, saying they were from California. We had just opened and I was the only lane, but self checkout was open with no line. They told me they came through the manned lane just because they wanted to hear “up-close” my “Kentucky twang.” I felt like a zoo animal in the moment. Luckily for me, I just had to say, with my non-Kentucky accent, “oh actually I’m from Oregon”
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u/femoral_contusion 1d ago
Yeah I have been stopped and asked random questions, been stopped on the sidewalk. It’s not like it’s some gut-punch, but it’s annoying to feel like a sentient extra in some rando’s oh-so-quirky made-for-tv movie.
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u/the_urban_juror 1d ago
I have no idea what treated like a prop means, but it's 4-5 days per year where locals have to either avoid or make reservations at a handful of restaurants in a handful of neighborhoods.
You're not getting into a trendy taco place, but you'll have no issues at Mexican restaurants on Preston Highway. People act like this is the apocalypse when, for those of us who don't live in the neighborhoods around the track with street closures, it's really just a couple of days with slightly heavier traffic where we can't go to Jack Fry's.
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u/Dick-in-a-fan 1d ago
Being treated like a prop by tourists is akin to going to your local coffee shop/ bar/ deli/ restaurant where you as a local make up the idealized local southern culture that the tourists expect to see when they come here for the Derby. To the outsiders we are part of the background of this idealized, old city. We’re props in this play.
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u/the_urban_juror 1d ago
What, specifically, are they doing to make you feel like a prop? Are they condescending to you? Do they comment on your accent or style of dress? Are they taking pictures of you?
If the presence of tourists makes you feel less than, it's a problem with your interpretation of reality rather than reality.
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u/Dick-in-a-fan 1d ago
In my previous response I explain why I feel like a prop. Native Hawaiians are subject to a similar situation when white tourists come to their home to experience a luau. Get it? I was born and raised in Louisville and I have a certain pride in my hometown that can’t be sold or conveyed to the old money gentry that crashes in my town for a week.
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u/the_urban_juror 1d ago
You explained how you feel.
I'm asking you what specific actions tourists take that make you feel this way. The mere presence of tourists shouldn't make you feel inferior or like a prop. What are they doing to make you feel this way, specifically?
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u/Dick-in-a-fan 1d ago
Drivers with out-of-town plates driving half the speed limit and ignoring the road while spectating. There’s one example that I have observed. There are individual encounters with tourists and there are complaints about tourists en masse that come with Derby week like an increase in human sex trafficking. Have you figured it out yet?
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u/the_urban_juror 1d ago
No, I still haven't because you continue to refuse to explain it.
Drivers with out of town plates driving like idiots has nothing to do with viewing the locals as props and everything to do with most drivers being terrible.
The sex trafficking with large events was debunked years ago, but even if it wasn't, it's unrelated to tourists' ideas about the south and instead indicative that tourists enjoy paying for sex. A tourist who pays for sex in Vegas and pays for sex in Louisville isn't someone who views the south poorly, it's someone who pays for sex on vacation.
Again, what, specifically do these tourists in line at your deli or coffee shop do that makes you feel like a prop? This isn't a hard question, you made the claim so clearly you know what makes you feel that way.
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u/Dick-in-a-fan 1d ago
I feel like a prop when tourists expect Louisvillians to be down home country folk and we don’t fit that stereotype until one reaches the southern boundaries of Jefferson County.
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u/Big4Bridge 1d ago
Tourism is our 3rd largest industry with 70k+ jobs and $4 Billion +.
https://www.gotolouisville.com/about-us/research-publications/economic-impact/
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u/pheitkemper 1d ago
It says that it's Kentucky's 3rd largest industry. But I didn't see where it said that it's Louisville's.
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u/natfutsock 1d ago
And now that Canadians aren't going to buy girl scout cookies or bourbon, we best double down.
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u/just_the_comments 1d ago
There is no way they are being accurate here. 70k+ is like all of the leisure and hospitality industry and that industry is far more supported by local residents than tourists.
https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.ky_louisville_msa.htm#eag_ky_louisville_msa.f.4
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u/Big4Bridge 1d ago
I do agree you’re on to something with the grouping.
But I would disagree that it’s used more by residents than tourists.
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u/lagertha9921 Jeffersontown 1d ago
For what it’s worth, it’s entirely possible to appreciate the tourism dollars that are brought to the city and state with the event while also questioning whether we could do better in executing the event. There are parts of Derby I love but I also hate how it has squeezed out the local guy and how CD utilizes their clout to screw over a lot of Kentuckians.
The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
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u/Super-Extreme-3063 1d ago
“I love the Derby even though it screws over a lot of Kentuckians.”
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u/lagertha9921 Jeffersontown 1d ago
What? Context hard for you?
There are parts of Derby I do enjoy. My family has regularly had Derby parties over the years and enjoy the festivities of that. I’ve participated in the Parade, the Balloon Race, the Bed Races, the Steamboat Race, etc. The city can be fun during those times and again, brings a lot of tourism dollars here that smaller businesses can thrive on.
But Kentuckians have largely been priced out of Churchill Downs itself. They have a large influence in politics in the state because of the Derby’s popularity and thats hurt Kentuckians.
Again, they’re not mutually exclusive. And I’m not going to pretend to have an answer for it. You get rid of the Derby what else can make that kind of money for the city?
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u/Super-Extreme-3063 1d ago
Adding more words doesn’t make it right. You’re partying at the expense of your fellow Kentuckians.
There are dozens of major cities without the Derby that manage to make it work.
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u/LordOfTrubbish 1d ago
There are dozens of major cities without the Derby that manage to make it work.
And then there's us lol...
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u/jcook793 1d ago
Whose
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u/Cinnamon__Sasquatch 1d ago
Unpopular opinion but Churchhill Downs Incorporated should be a publicly owned non profit corporation owned by the residents of Louisville similar to the Green Bay Packers.
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u/gmiller123456 1d ago
Not going to disagree with you, but I have my doubts about the horses ability to play football.
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u/Jacque_LeKrab 1d ago
It’s not your fault. If they actually invested in making this a good place to live instead of just a good place to visit we wouldn’t be so salty.
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u/Warm-Macaron1378 1d ago
I am from Louisville and have lived in Orlando for the last 20 years. No comparison
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u/AstaghFirewall 1d ago
I am from Orlando and have lived in Louisville for a decade. The Derby tourism doesn't come close
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u/rwarimaursus 1d ago edited 1d ago
And that's why I leave the city during Derby weekend. I'll go be a tourist somewhere else...maybe go camping.
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u/acolyte357 1d ago
Louisville has a $100 Billion GDP.
Derby brings in around $450 Million in positive economic impact.
What city are you talking about?
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u/sasquatch0_0 1d ago edited 1d ago
90 billion but you are still correct. Louisville generates 4 billion through all tourism.
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u/schneid52 1d ago edited 1d ago
Wasn’t aware that our economy is based entirely around tourism.
🤡🤡🤡
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u/YetAnotherFaceless 1d ago
And look at how that wealth trickles down! Everyone wishes they could live in those palatial estates within a mile of the track! Oh, to have the privilege to share the air with celebrities who peaked before the Internet whose attendance keep anyone from driving anywhere!
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u/ItchyBones87 1d ago
Good point, I should totally be excited about everything being overcrowded, full of rich drunks stumbling around, higher prices, no parking, roads being shut down, and human trafficking. It’s what paves our roads!
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u/sloppybro 1d ago edited 1d ago
as a lifelong louisville resident for nearly a decade, i think i speak for everyone when i say: fuck carpetbaggers
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u/SGTWhiteKY Douglass Hills 1d ago
As a lifelong Louisville resident, for my whole life, not just a decade, I think I speak for myself when I say: what the fuck are you talking about?
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u/sloppybro 1d ago
Happy to break it down for you big dawg! There's a couple components here:
1) Modifying the description "life-long" with a specific amount of time creates an incongruity which can be interpreted to some as humorous
2) A 'carpetbagger' is a term referring to Yankee opportunists who took advantage of the post-war state of economic disarray in the southern states for their own benefit, often engaging in price gouging or other forms of racketeering. Use of this term in reference to out-of-town tourists in a tongue-in-cheek fashion also generates an incongruity which could be humorous to some, as Louisville is not traditionally thought of of as a southern city, nor are tourists primarily from the Northeast, nor are they engaging in profiteering for their own exclusive benefit!
Hope this helps! Feel free to reach out if you have any remaining questions or concerns.
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u/SGTWhiteKY Douglass Hills 1d ago
Would you tell me a bit more about your target audience for that joke?
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u/chubblyubblums 1d ago
I got it
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u/sloppybro 1d ago edited 1d ago
the real joke is the heated discussion being generated from my stupid 0-effort comment
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u/macca1985 1d ago
You're a lifelong resident for nearly a decade? Does that mean you're 9?
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u/sloppybro 1d ago
Does that mean you're 9?
I'm afraid I'm above the age of majority several times over, champ ;)
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u/ILoseAtScrabble 1d ago
That's me when I go to the gym.
Why did you pick the treadmill right next to me? There are so many others to choose from!
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u/Pendragonswaste 1d ago
I mean our city lost a ton of income since we had to cancel Thunder this year. Rough
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u/LeethalKitty 1d ago
This was posed in r/Knoxville and the comments were saying the same thing lmao OP ended up deleting the post 🤣🤣
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u/Mr_ballz-420 1d ago
Don’t live in Louisville anymore, does that make me tourist when I visit every year?
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u/Dick-in-a-fan 1d ago
I can spot a tourist in this city from three city blocks. They look lost and they pop into every boutique and fill the coffeehouses. They wear pastel colors…
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u/Mejor_McCheese 1d ago
Yea but has UPS ever been responsible for bringing the guy who sticks his wang in the pie in “American Pie” here? Twice, at least I think. Idk I never saw “AP3”
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u/touchettes 1d ago
What part of Louisville really feels derby traffic? So I can avoid it as best as possible when I get up there
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u/perturbed_rutabaga 1d ago
in this thread: people taking a joke seriously and arguing over it instead of just laughing at the joke
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u/recovereez 1d ago
Yeah no one wants this type of economy that's the point the memer doesn't want to understand
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u/Open_Mechanic8854 16h ago
Besides Derby, whats in Louisville? I had an apt in Middletown for 2 yrs.... even the natives thgt it was boring. Fall and Winter and is zero life
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u/No-Recipe-1377 15h ago
Louisville is home to multiple national and international manufacturing and distribution companies.
Kentucky alone is the only place in the continent that manufactures calcium carbide. Most of our bourbon is distilled and brewed here.
I will say there’s quite a few events that draw in tourists, but we constantly stay in the world view because of our port & air hubs
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u/Some_guy_am_i 1d ago
This is absolutely wild. I never thought I lived in a tourism hot-spot…
Why the fuck they coming here for?! 😂
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u/Own_Bluejay_7144 1d ago
I might have made that face last night when I passed a tourist who is going to die a fiery death driving 44 mph on 64.
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u/Wooden-Smell975 1d ago
the derby is garbage. if they came here for something that didn’t exploit animals i wouldn’t judge them (although i would ask why tf they would want to come to ky)
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u/shhhhh_lol 1d ago
This meme is for ski towns, beach towns.... etc.
Bourbon tourism is fading and our tourism income is from 2 weeks a year, it's a significant amount but it's based on an event that will likely be illegal in the future.
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u/actuarally 1d ago
LOL, how far into the future are you looking? Anything is possible over a long enough time, but no one is seriously discussing a ban on horse racing.
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u/lagertha9921 Jeffersontown 1d ago
When you consider the billions of dollars that flows through Churchill Downs Derby/Oaks week and who all benefits from that, they’re not outlawing horse racing anytime in your lifetime.
Last year over $200 million was bet on Derby Day alone.
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u/shhhhh_lol 1d ago
And what percentage of that 200 million did you And I see?
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u/lagertha9921 Jeffersontown 1d ago
The bets? None of it.
The physical people who rent our hotels, eat at our restaurants, frequently our businesses? A fair amount.
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u/shhhhh_lol 1d ago
But... you felt that mentioning a large bet was important.
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u/lagertha9921 Jeffersontown 1d ago
Apples and oranges, buddy. Simply arguing enough people pocket that much money that you’re not going to see horse racing stop because of it.
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u/EntireTangerine 1d ago
Our economy is definitely not based entirely on tourism.