Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
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Illustration by Carrie Neumayer JUST SAYIN' "Neighborhood," we all have come to learn, is an elastic term. It can mean just the block you live on — where a neighbor at one end can spot his counterpart at the other trying to sneak out on the porch in his underwear to fetch the morning paper — and it can mean a foursquare-mile former incorporated community that was annexed by Louisville long ago. In between are pockets of housing separated from one another by busy thoroughfares, creeks, difering ethnicities or precinct numbers, and sometimes by housing-stock age and similarity of style. Large municipalities determine the ofcial confguration of their interiors; plain citizens go along with those determinations or not. Tat's why arguments about neighborhood names and boundaries are such great fun in Louisville. Inside the Watterson, some generalizedterm neighborhoods, like the Highlands or Germantown, contain a half-dozen or more ofcial neighborhoods (which in turn contain, you know, neighborhoods with actual neighbors). Outside the Watterson, the suburban lexicon leans more toward subdivisions and developments, though not for everybody. You will oftentimes hear that a purely residential subdivision, no matter how huge, can't correctly be called a neighborhood because it lacks a heart — a commercial or communal component that promotes intermingling. For example, front porches and sidewalks, a bar, a hardware store. But no, literally speaking, the word does not depend on an active social context; the only requirement for a neighborhood is that it has dwellers who live near one another, whether they socialize or not. Let's not speak literally, though. Not feeling or expressing connectedness with people you live among — and I certainly don't mean to insinuate exclusivity in the suburbs — doesn't jibe with the word "neighborly." While it's true that, as with family, you can choose your friends but you can't choose your neighbors, at least a small degree of warmth and camaraderie should be part of the fabric of any bunch of houses calling itself a neighborhood. — Jack Welch Nominated Best Restaurant Patio in the 2013 Best of Louisville Awards. Our outdoor dining area is now open! (502) 423-5822 Westport Village | 1211 Herr Lane www.NapaRiverLouisville.com www.napariverlouisville.com Follow us on Facebook! Join us for wine, food and sun soon! www.eyecareinstitute.com 6.13 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 21