1. Name and what you do for a living?
Mathias Kolehmainen. I do software engineering for a living. I used to like computers. Now I hate them. But I still like solving problems using software.

2. How did you end up in Louisville?
My wife Juliet grew up here. When I met her I totally bought into the dream of moving to louisville and maybe getting a farm or something like that. And when I say farm, I mean some land in the country with an airstream on it. Think dwell, not farmers almanac. I always imagined it as a place to go where we could pursue whatever loud and space consuming hobbies we happened to be in to.

3. What did you think of Louisville before you moved here (if anything?)
The only thing I knew about louisville was that slint was from here. I am also a musician and slint-- as well as a few other louisville/louisville-related bands like evergreen, for carnation, and gastr del sol-- have been a big influence on me.

4. What preconceptions did you have about Louisville that have changed since moving here?
I thought that there really was not going to be a geek/tech scene at all. I visited several times, and came looking for a job after grad school, and was really only exposed to the large corporations (human, yum, GE). Now that I've been here a little while I've met a bunch of people (thanks really to the work that matt wynn is doing with forge louisville) who are doing interesting things with technology. It's no san francisco, but it is more than I think anyone would expect.

5. How do you like living here?
I like it. (sorry, I can't think of how to elaborate on this one.)

6. Has Louisville been a good place to do business?
I took a substantial pay cut to move here. That probably speaks more about my lack of good business sense than the louisville job scene. I'm used to doing work on the fringes of main stream software development. I do prototyping and implementations of new ideas coming out of the research community. There is definitely not much of a market for that here. I don't have a business. But I subscribe to Inc magazine.

7. What's your favorite thing about Louisville?
I like the laid back people. I like imagining that I have a job at brown-forman, where (I believe) you can have a bourbon at your desk in the afternoon. Of course that would make me completely useless at my job, but a man can dream can't he? Oh yeah, and spring is nice. Coming from california, seasons in general are nice.

8. What is Louisville missing (for my money it's a good creperie)?
Diversity. If you want to talk about food, I'd say it lacks interesting, small restaurants. I also feel like it lacks a variety of good foreign restaurants (there are some good ones to be sure, just not many).

What about a modern furniture store? Without that I'm forced to send all the money I'm saving on my mortgage out of state.

More independent cafe's would be nice, especially downtown. More bike lanes. Not that I have a bike. But I want to get one, seriously. And when I ride it, I want to ride on wide, asphalted, clearly marked bike lanes.

9. What's the one thing people should know about Louisville?
Eh... I'm drawing a blank here. Corn Island?

10. What's your favorite restaurant in Louisville?
Before I moved here I visited a lot over holidays and Derby and we made repeated visits to Jack Frys. I have a lot of sentiment for that place. When pressed I admit that it's the ambiance. The food is good, but not exceptional. It's also expensive. I can't defend my choice rationally.

1. Name and what you do for a living?
Dave Durand. I'm the president of Visual Scientists, an interactive studio. We focus on high-end online campaigns that require an engaging presentation. Flash, 3D and motion graphics let us get creative with that.

2. How did you end up in Louisville?
I met my wife in San Diego, where VS had originally started. The company being so young at the time (just me), we decided to move here so she could be closer to her family. I had driven her here from San Diego, and when I arrived I was pleasantly surprised. So it was an easy decision to move the business here.

3. What did you think of Louisville before you moved here (if anything?)
Well, San Diego is pretty amazing. The ocean, awesome beaches, palm trees... so when you think of anywhere that is deep in the mainland, it just doesn't sound appealing. So at the time, I just couldn't really grasp why it would be such a great place to live.

4. What preconceptions did you have about Louisville that have changed since moving here?
I thought Louisville was full of crazy backwood country folk. I was only partially right there. I also believed that Deliverance  was filmed here, and that also turned out to be incorrect. That being said, my first impression of Louisville was great, and all those crazy misconceptions are just laughable now.

5. How do you like living here?
I'm very happy. I have been able to start a family, get my business off the ground , and buy a house, all under the age of 30. The market in San Diego was competitive and pricey. It is comfortable here, and I think really easy to make things happen if you are motivated.

6. Has Louisville been a good place to run your business?
I would say for the most part, great. Affordable for sure. The only downside is that we wish we could do more business here. It seems like a lot of our clients are coming from cities larger than Louisville.

7. What's your favorite thing about Louisville?
The parks are great for going mountain biking , running, having a picnic, or grabbing a game of bocce ball with friends  It's all something that I catch myself taking for granted sometimes, but we are pretty fortunate to have such great places to hang out. I'm probably at Cherokee park the most, either with my wife and daughter or flying solo.

8. What is Louisville missing (for my money it's a good creperie)?
Right now, it looks like a Kroger downtown. Why build all these fancy lofts, with no place to shop? Come on guys.

9. What's the one thing people should know about Louisville?
That VS is here. I'll give you another one too though, so I don't seem selfish. Probably that it is 'Possibility City', the city did a good job on encompassing a lot of good traits of this city with that title.

10. What's your favorite restaurant in Louisville?
Right now it is a toss up between two very different restaurants. There is El Mundo. This place has excellent Mexican food, and if you ask for the 'extra super' hot sauce on the side, you are in for a treat. And then L&N Wine Bar and Bistro. Number one, they have wine on tap, and their fish and chips is mouth watering.

1. Name and what you do for a living?
PJ Chmiel, self-employed graphic and web designer, activist, photographer, vegan food critic and scooter promoter.

2. How did you end up in Louisville?
In a very roundabout way! I'd been living in Chicago for 5 years but grew tired of the harsh winters, expensive rents, cookie-cutter condos and isolation from nature. I decided I was going to move, but didn't know where to...I'd been saving some money and have long loved road trips and motorscooters so I decided to quit my job, put my things into storage and set out on the road on a 10-week, 10,000-mile cross-country journey in search of adventure (and a new place to call home). I visited 30 states and provinces and most of the larger cities east of the Mississippi. I'd never considered Louisville as a place to move (or even visit...can you say "best kept secret?") but several of my wisest friends, including Louisville artist Kathleen Lolley (see her website at www.lolleyland.com, we both attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design) *insisted* that I come through here and check it out, and I'm really glad that I went out of my way to do so.

Deciding where to move was a difficult decision, the siren songs of Toronto, New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Nashville were all strong (and I'd only spent about 24 hours in Louisville during my brief visit...the only time I'd ever been here!), but I chose this town because it offered the best of what I was looking for: a good climate, lower cost of living, quality independent stores and restaurants (I'm a vegan), fairly progressive politics, walkable neighborhoods, a nicely-preserved downtown with wonderful architecture and housing stock (one of the biggest factors for me), proximity to nature and scenery, a central location in a good part of the country, and so much more.

3. What did you think of Louisville before you moved here (if anything?)
I knew nothing about this city before my trip in 2006, save for the namesake baseball bats. My notions of Kentucky were probably typical for an unaware Northerner; caves and horses and coal-miners and banjo music somewhere off in the distance...

4. What preconceptions did you have about Louisville that have changed since moving here?
I'd say my mental image of the city is about the same as when I first visited, see 2b above, but there may be even more bearded men than I'd previously imagined.

5. How do you like living here?
I really enjoy living here, there's always something interesting to do, yet I seem to always run into someone I know when I'm out and about...so it seems less cold and anonymous than a huge metropolis. Plus it's small enough to get around without too much hassle.

6. Has Louisville been a good place to run your business?
Yes, business has been good and I think it would be easy to get more if I were out looking for it, lots of friendly acquaintances and word-of-mouth.

7. What's your favorite thing about Louisville?
Hard to choose just one! The beautiful tree-lined streets and historic architecture, the strong contingent of local independent businesses, the sense of community.

8. What is Louisville missing?
A few things that would make this a truly dynamite city would be more cohesive and greener public transit (forget about the bridges and let's lay the tracks for light rail, what are we waiting for, $10/gal. gas?!), more attention given to the marginalized parts of town...for instance the rarely-mentioned but enormous western half of the city, more diversity overall, more green initiatives like community centers and gardens, revitalized brownfields, cutting-edge green architecture, new bike trails, etc.

9. What's the one thing people should know about Louisville?
Louisvillians place way too much emphasis on college sports!

10. What's your favorite restaurant in Louisville?
Zen Garden on Frankfort. All healthy, totally delicious and made with love!

1. Name and what you do for a living?
Zach Wyer and I work as an Associate Marketing Manager at Yum! Brands.

2. How did you end up in Louisville?
Born and raised in San Diego, completed school in Arizona, and found work with Yum! which brought me to Louisville.

3. What did you think of Louisville before you moved here (if anything?)
There are tons of stereotypes about Kentucky (not so much Louisville in particular) - that it's still all country, nobody wears shoes, everyone has a thick drawl, incest runs rampant as do banjos, over-alls are the only fashion, and fried chicken and bourbon is the staple.  There are some positive associations as well, such as the Derby, Slugger, KFC, Ali, and bluegrass music.

4. What preconceptions did you have about Louisville that have changed since moving here?
I didn't expect to find much of the aforementioned stereotypes, but also didn't expect to find such a vibrant night life, music scene, and variety of restaurants.  

5. How do you like living here?
It's very nice and centrally located.  It seems that we're 5 hours from everything in Louisville.  If I were considering a family at this point in my life, I think it would be ideal, with all of the parks and children activities.  Since I'm more into the going out and partying scene, I'm pleasantly surprised to find that side of things as well... especially living in the Highlands.

6. What's your favorite thing about Louisville?
You mean besides the bourbon and fried chicken?  Definitely the people.  I've always heard how nice people are in California, but they're only cool if you know them or know them through someone else.  Louisvillians will smile and say "hello" in passing, strike up random conversations, help you with loading your car, etc.  That said, an interesting dynamic exists - you can spark up a conversation with anyone and get along nicely over a beer or two, but native Louisvillians have entrenched circles of friends that they tend not to break out of on a longer term basis.  I'm way social and make lots of friends at bars and in soccer, but never hang out with them beyond these venues.

7. What is Louisville missing (for my money it's a good creperie)?
Professional sports

8. What's the one thing people should know about Louisville?
Most of us wear shoes.  And cost of living makes this a wonderful location.

9. What's your favorite restaurant in Louisville?
I should probably say KFC, Taco Bell, or Pizza Hut, but I'm going to have to go with Jeff Ruby's on the high end meals and Nio's for tapas style plates.

A recent Bizjournals.com study comparing housing affordability in the top 50 metropolitan areas nationwide showed that Louisville, with a No. 11 ranking, is one of the least expensive markets in which to own a home.

Rankings were based on the percentage of median monthly income in 2006 that was required to meet the median housing payment per month, which consisted of the median mortgage per month and the median property-tax payment per month.

Number 11 sounds pretty good right? It sounds even better when you translate that info into an actual dollar amount. The median total housing payment per month during the time studied was $847 in Louisville.