Florence has the unusual distinction of being NKY's most practical city and its most accidentally charming one. The practical part: it sits at the intersection of I-75 and I-71, which makes it the retail and logistics hub of the entire region. The CVG airport is minutes away. Every major chain you need is on Mall Road or US-42. The charming part: its most famous landmark is a water tower that says "Y'all" because the city couldn't afford a better solution to a trademark dispute, and residents liked it enough to just leave it.
The Water Tower Story
Ground was broken on Florence Mall on December 31, 1973, and when it opened in 1976 it was eventually the largest shopping center in Greater Cincinnati. A water tower was painted "Florence Mall" to advertise it. The Bureau of Highways wrote to the city saying the tower violated advertising regulations — it was too big for highway signage rules. Mayor C.M. "Hop" Ewing needed a fix that wouldn't cost much. The solution: repaint the M as a Y, add an apostrophe, spend less than $500, and suddenly the tower reads "Florence Y'all." The locals liked it. It stayed. The Florence Y'alls minor league baseball team eventually named themselves after it. What started as a bureaucratic workaround became the city's identity.
Florence Mall, meanwhile, peaked decades ago. By January 2025 it was nearly 50 percent vacant, with all four anchor stores for sale. The mall's decline is a regional story that plays out in a lot of American mid-sized cities, but it lands differently when the mall was once literally the most prominent thing on the skyline. The retail corridor along US-42 and Mall Road has largely replaced it — every big box and chain restaurant you could want is within a few exits — but the mall itself is a reminder that Florence's commercial identity is in the middle of a transition.
CVG and the Logistics Economy
CVG Airport is technically in the Boone County territory between Florence and Hebron, and despite carrying Cincinnati's name it's entirely on the Kentucky side of the river. It's been repeatedly recognized as one of the best mid-sized airports in the country — easier to navigate than Columbus or Dayton, with major carrier service and significantly less congestion than larger hubs. For anyone flying regularly, living within a few miles of CVG is a genuine quality-of-life advantage.
The airport's transformation into a major cargo hub — accelerated by the Amazon Air facility that opened in 2021 — has reshaped Boone County's economy significantly. The region around CVG and Florence is now one of the most important logistics corridors in the eastern U.S., which means steady employment in warehousing, transportation, and logistics management. It's not glamorous work, but it's stable and it's here.
Schools and Neighborhoods
Boone County Schools carries an A-minus rating from Niche and covers most of Florence and the surrounding county. The district runs 15 elementary schools, six middle schools, and four high schools — built out over decades as the county's population grew from a few thousand to over 140,000. The Oakbrook area of Florence has a particularly good reputation for families, with access to A.M. Yealey Elementary and proximity to Boone Links Golf Course and established parks.
Florence's residential neighborhoods are a mix of postwar ranch-style homes near the commercial corridor and newer development pushing south and west toward Burlington. The older neighborhoods are affordable and established; the newer subdivisions are competing for buyers who would have gone to Union a few years ago. Housing prices are generally below Boone County's southern communities, which makes Florence attractive for first-time buyers who want the same school system at a lower entry point.
What Florence Is Good For
Florence is the right answer if you need CVG access, want Boone County Schools, and want to spend less than the Union or Burlington price points. It's car-dependent in the way that all of Boone County is, but the I-75/I-71 interchange makes it genuinely convenient for commuting in most directions — north to Cincinnati, east toward Campbell County, south toward Lexington. The commercial infrastructure is complete enough that most daily errands stay local.
It's not the most scenic part of NKY, and it doesn't try to be. Florence is a working city, and it does that job well.
What People Actually Do in Florence
Florence is not a destination. Nobody drives in from Cincinnati specifically to spend an afternoon in Florence the way they might for MainStrasse or Newport on the Levee. What Florence is — and does well — is function. The Boone Links Golf Course gives residents a public course without driving far. The parks system is solid. And because every major retail and restaurant chain is within a few exits, Florence is one of the most self-sufficient communities in NKY for day-to-day living. The independent local business scene is thinner than in the river cities, but it exists and it's growing as the population has grown. The city rewards people who aren't looking for urban character and just want a functional, affordable place to live near good schools and the interstate.
Turfway Park: An Underrated Local Asset
Florence has its own horse racing facility, which surprises people who assume that's strictly a Lexington thing. Turfway Park sits within Florence's city limits and was completely rebuilt after Churchill Downs acquired it in 2019 for $46 million and put $150 million into a new facility that opened in 2022. The original track on this site opened in 1959 as Latonia Race Course, carrying the name of the historic Latonia track in Covington — one of Kentucky's most significant racing venues before it was demolished in 1939. The rebuilt Turfway has live racing, over 800 historical racing machines, two restaurants, an event center, and simulcast betting. For people who don't want to drive to Keeneland, it's a genuine local option.
Florence isn't the most glamorous city in NKY, and it doesn't need to be. It's a functional, affordable, well-positioned community that serves the people who live here effectively. That's a harder thing to achieve than it sounds, and it's underappreciated.