A Ways To Go On Food Trucks

I seem to have a lot of entries about dining and all of the new places going in downtown, but short of Centrepointe and 21c there is little else to speak of.  Any new offices lease their space and (sometimes) remodel, then just set up and go to town. No major announcements, no fanfare.  I guess the dining and entertainment news will have to suffice as development news.

One subject on the dining front is the movement toward food trucks and carts.  It does seem that we are again trailing the rest of the country in allowing food trucks, but we also appear to be looking at allowing them just in the downtown area.  Is this not a community wide service for which we have little or no rules?  Should not all of our ordinances apply across the whole of Fayette County?  Is downtown the only location that the food trucks wish to serve?

There are many websites which describe  the food truck situation in cities throughout America and a few of them have maps which display the locations of certain vendors, either on a semi-permanent or rotating basis.  The site for Austin, Texas is broken into several sections and shows only four food trucks in all of their downtown.  Far fewer that any other section mapped.  It also appears that their downtown covers much more territory, as one would expect for their population.

A larger population, a larger area, more density and greater diversity and only 4 food trucks to serve them.  Why are we trying to be so different?

I have heard some news reports that there is fear that food trucks could impinge upon parking spaces or loading zones for hours at a time.  I can see the concern, but I look at the timing and size of the local beer delivery vehicles as more of a problem.  Food deliveries do not seem to be a major factor for all of the restaurants and, I guess, they take place in the early morning. On my noontime walkabouts, it is the sheer number and size of the beer delivery trucks (and where they park) which I see as a deterrent to downtown traffic movement.  

One day I saw 4 or 5 extended length trailers on Short at Cheapside at one time, three were from the same distributing company.  Three truck, four or five men in one location blocking a full lane of traffic for an unknown time span.  Should we not be doing something about that?  I seriously think that the situation is worse by campus on most days.

Comments have also been made about the two announced hotels and their delivery docks or lack thereof, but our growing dining and entertainment district draws no such attention.  I believe that it should.

The proposed regulations have provisions for length of stay at any one location and the frequency with which any particular food truck may return to said locations and they all look to be centered on the downtown area.  Could that be because our suburban streets are not amenable to locating such street vendors on public property?  What should stop several of these vendors from setting up along side some of our larger parks this summer and appealing to the visitors of our evening sports or music events?  I can imagine the Big Band and Jazz series or afternoon/evening ball games with specialty foods for a quick dinner, can't you?

The discussion on food trucks looks to me to have a long way to go, but at least we have a start.

Lazy Summer Days

I don't find much I really want to talk about these days, other that commenting on other blogs and the online news.

I have walked the new South Limestone several time and we intend to attend the street party. Mrs Sweeper and I have enjoyed the Thursday Night Live evenings despite the heat and humidity. I even found time to go to the airport and ride on the new runway on Second Sunday.

South Limestone looks vastly different after a year of construction. All it needs now is a few towering street trees for daytime shade or the filtering on the streetlights, and we can all be transported back in time to the beginning of the last century. Mrs. Sweeper commented how the Tin Roof building now looks slightly out of place in the transition from restored residential toward the adapted commercial and the university. Maybe some design guidelines could help in a future redevelopment of the site. I also think that the hospital's parking lot begs for a street front use to hide the autos.

Thursday Night Live is something that we have talked about for a while and recently began attending in addition to our Tuesday jazz evenings. For this one we leave the guys at home and just have some "us" time. I have probably seen more old friends there than at Ecton Park and the food and drink are more varied. I just have to remember that the sling chairs are in MY car and get them out before I go to Cheapside. With so many people crowded into such a limited area it is still so strange to find that all the circulation paths can be fouled by one or two quick conversations in inconvenient locations.

Regular readers will know that I don't totally agree with the Second Sunday events held in Lexington, but this past Sunday was a really unique situation. The chance to ride on the new airport runway was just too much to pass up. Wide open space and basically very flat for 4000 feet. And then another 4000 feet back again. I saw my friends from Sprocket Jockeys(the pedicab folks) and just a ton of kids. The airport, for all their bad press, really did a super job and the DLC put on a good program. Maybe they are working the kinks out.

I heard the Mayor speak today about his efforts on historic preservation and came away with the impression that some things could be strengthened and that we will probably get some design guidelines, but that he will not try to impose any personal preferences on the outcome. Some of you will call that weak leadership but I am not so sure about that. I will have to wait until next month to see what Mr Gray has to add to the discussion.

Maybe something will break lose and strike my fancy in the next few weeks. We will see.

Today At The Art Fair

This weekend was the Woodland Art Fair and, as a playful jab, I suggested to Mrs. Sweeper that we should bike in this year. We have walked to the fair when we lived closer and usually find some way to get there, just to see what is available.

Then, while watching the news last night, they gave a report on a new service at this years fair-a secure, monitored bike storage for those who bike to the fair. Mrs Sweeper said "We should ride our bikes in and use that".

Oh boy, now I was now in trouble. I have, in the PAST, done a whole lot of biking. I used to ride to work every day unless the weather was just too bad. There were days when I used to go home for lunch(3 miles each way) or go for a ride in the country on the way home(an extra 20 miles or so). Every weekend I could be found out riding through some portion of the county and a trip to the river was not out of the question. Like I say, that was in the past. At least 25 YEARS in the past.

My two youngest boys have recently decided to take up cycling and I have, just this summer, got my bike back in working order. Last week I and one of my youngest did make it to Woodland Park, along with my eldest who has been biking around town for a while now, and I did pay for it for the next few days. I am basically out of shape.

This morning, after breakfast, the Mrs. and one son(the one who had not made the trip before) struck out to trek to the Art Fair and try to get back in one piece. Half an hour later. a bit winded and a little sore, we found the bike corral and had our bikes taken care of for the next few hours.

This years Fair had been spread out over the park in a much more logical manner than in the past and refreshment were more interspersed on the Clay Ave side of the exhibits. I can't help but compare it to the St James Ct Art Fair in Louisville and still the Woodland Fair come up short but it is growing. Maybe when it spills out onto the surrounding streets on more than one corner we will have arrived.

The one thing that still irks me about the people who attend these type of events is: the fact that they bring their dogs. Their strollers with the kids and the wagons so that the kids can ride around is understandable, but the dogs? Can the dogs appreciate the artisans or the craftsmanship? No!!! Take the dogs to the dog park for a run with companionship, but leave your DAMN dogs at home during such things as an art fair or an outdoor concert(Ecton Park, Thursday Night Live, etc...). If you need to spend more time with your dog, then stay home a little but we don't need them to be underfoot at every event we attend.

We spent two and a half hours at the Fair, went back and collected our bikes, thanked the attendants and slowly made our way back home. Today did prove one thing to all of us, that we could make it to Woodland or Ecton, or even the grocery, but more than that that we needed to do it more often.

Lets Include All The Jazz Artists

Tuesday nights in the summer are reserved for the Big Band & Jazz series in Ecton Park. They have been for about 17 years. We used to take blankets and the kids, have a picnic dinner then the kids would run and play while we listened to the music. We have graduated to collapsible chairs and a bit more adult fare now that the guys are teenagers, but they still go off and play with friends.

The musical groups originally would alternate weeks, with Big Band on one week and jazz the next, but lately the schedule has leaned heavily toward the jazz. I can see a possible explanation. I think that most of the Big Band enthusiasts are dwindling in number and moving on to the Big Band in the sky. And I won't say that it is a bad thing because there are a lot of young people out every Tuesday night.

Tonight I took a good look at the crowd while I listened and Mrs. Sweeper read a book. Here we were, smack dab in the middle of the lily white 40502 zip code, listening to jazz from an all white jazz band. Again this week, a black family arrived after we did and the disabled father rolled his wheelchair into the park to enjoy the music. This made me look around for additional similar families or couples...and there were a few...very few.

Twenty years or so ago I used to frequent a place in Chevy Chase called The Bistro. They usually had a jazz trio playing in the corner of the bar area. The owners wife and a small contingent of older couples or older ladies would spend a few hours sipping drinks and listening to the musicians. The majority of these musicians were black. Sometimes, the owner chef , his wife and a few of the regulars would be invited to a small storefront restaurant on Georgetown St for a Sunday evening jam session of the local talent. You never knew who might show up or how long they might stay, but they put out some mighty fine tunes. As white folks we were a tiny minority in that place, but we enjoyed going.

So, if the long running Big Band & Jazz program can be called Lexington's showcase of the talent in that genre, where are the black musicians? I can't believe that they all left town. I doubt that they all passed on. But maybe they aren't members of the Jazz Arts Foundation.

Can anybody answer these questions for me?