Getting Back To Normal?

The WEG is over and the city is getting back to doing (or completing) the public works items that they couldn't get to before.

Way-finding signs

One of those tasks is the installation of the way-finding signs along our major thoroughfares. Below is one that I found by the Lexington Center entrance.

On first glance it appears quite straight forward, but further study gives me pause. The normal rule of Interstate informational signs, especially those giving mileage, will list the destinations in order of distance from nearest to farthest. Even exit signs have a hierarchy based on location and distance. This set of signs has me a bit baffled.

The set on the left clearly shows that one has to turn onto Broadway in order to reach the destinations while the set on the right may be reached by going straight ahead. So far, so good. the first location reached would be the Lexington Opera House just two blocks away and it is listed at the bottom (I would have expected at the top) followed by the Thoroughbred Center. The Training Center is the farthest distant from this sign and well out of town. Whether we are working the distance from the top or the bottom, this is out of place. Transylvania University should be next with the Applebee's ballpark falling between the university and the Center.

The right side set is equally confusing. By going straight, you may reach the Cheapside Park(and Pavilion) , but not without making a turn somewhere. Likewise, a turn must be made to reach the University of Kentucky campus. Perhaps an angled arrow to the right should have been used instead. In any case, Cheapside is reached first and again it is at the bottom. I will point out here that there is NO sign indicating a turn to Cheapside, either at Mill or Limestone, nor is there a sign at Upper for the University. Our next closest location is the Visitor and Convention Bureau at Rose St. One may also turn here for the University but I have seen no sign or indication of one planned here. And, last on this straight trajectory would be Ashland, Henry Clay's Estate, some two miles out Richmond Rd.

All of the signs are not up yet and things may get better, but this sign is a head scratcher in my opinion.

Main St Developments

A while back I wrote about some happenings on Main St. It seems like we are not finished making news yet. It has come to my attention that the building housing the Sunrise Bakery and Bellini's private dining room along with the First National Building are going before the Court House Design Review Board concerning facade improvements.

That would make it just about everybody on that stretch of Main St is doing some sort of upgrade to their looks. If this side of the street had been included in the CentrePointe TIF we could soon be seeing some revenue generated from this, and all without CentrePointe breaking ground.

Love it or hate it, since CentrePointe was announced the downtown activity has intensified and focused around Cheapside and Short St, with bleed-over to Main and even Vine St. In my mind the demolition of the block has been a catalyst for downtown development. How many people would have seen how much potential this block-face had or thought of how to repair past damage? Historic downtown is now on three sides of the Lexington History Museum and appears to be as lively as any time in its past and is poised for an even better future.

Fellow Bloggers

Lastly, I am becoming concerned about some fellow bloggers, namely ProgressLex. There last post is over a month old and dared them to be great. Since then, nothing. As if they cannot find anything to be great about. I sort of miss them since they generated more discussion n my favorite topics than I've seen elsewhere. Maybe they are busy with election stuff or were tied up with WEG/Spotlight activities, but I hope that they are back in the fray soon.

Downtown proponents want "Vibrant"

Main Entry: vi·brant
Pronunciation: \-brənt\
Function: adjective
Date: 1616

1 a (1): oscillating or pulsating rapidly (2): pulsating with life, vigor, or activity

The Urban County Council was told today that the people want downtown to be "vibrant" in order to retain the "young professionals" that we have leaving the city in droves. Or at least that is what I got from the article in the Herald Leader, written by our own "Rita Skeeter" Beverly Fortune. Lexington needs to do more to bring in a wide array of cultural activities, which are characterized by festivals (more disorganized uses in the public spaces), bar, restaurants and other unnamed activities designed to separate you from your money. The proponents seem to require the governments help in generating the activity in the downtown area that they cannot create, even though they have spent $200 million of their own money trying.

Downtown does need to have more activity at night than it does now, but adding large numbers of music clubs and nothing else in a certain area for night time vigor will only create a dead zone during the day. We saw that with the CentrePointe block for the past few years. Another way of getting night time activity is downtown residential and we have built a substantial number of new condos in the last few years, but they are not affordable, nor are they sized for the urban family (three bedrooms or more).

Lexington does need to have more use of its public open space, but that does not mean structured activities each and every weekend with a festival or parade of some sort, just allow the people to assemble to do what the wish (within reason) and give the citizens back the streets. When the crowds attain critical mass the retail will follow.

The article did have some suggestions for bringing "vibrancy" to downtown. One of those was revamping the sign ordinance and allowing overhanging signs again. Maybe the flashing, pulsating kind that characterized the '30's -'50's . Or maybe, a sign review committee to permit signage. One supporter suggested "taking our foot off the brake", but from my reading the ordinance for downtown zones, they pretty much allow for most of these uses already.

The chairman of the Downtown Entertainment Task Force said, people want to see aggressive recruiting of "entrepreneurial activities downtown.", yet such aggressive action takes time and money, and as we saw over the weekend the Airport has come under scrutiny for their "aggressive recruiting" by their manager. Lexington would have to hire a recruiter, give them a budget of public funds, identify the specific needs and go after someone to fill the need. That sounds like a full staff to me. One more government department in times of shrinking revenue.

Government should do what the people cannot do for themselves, not will not do for themselves. Let the people create the vibrant downtown that the people want and let government stand back and smile and nod approvingly.

Downtown and Business Signs

Downtown Lexington has prohibited protruding signs since December of 1976. The exact wording is as follows:

Sec. 5-4.1. Overhanging signs in downtown Lexington.
(a) The provisions of other ordinances notwithstanding, no sign shall project perpendicularly from any building or other structures so as to overhang the sidewalk or public right-of-way within the area of downtown Lexington, said area being more particularly defined below. No horizontal or flush sign shall overhang said sidewalk or right-of-way more than one (1) foot. This section shall not affect theater or hotel marquees, nor existing marquees.
(b) Downtown Lexington is defined as follows

From here on there is a litany of street descriptions and address ranges, all of which define downtown as it was in 1976. That was 32 years ago and now I hear rumblings of a desire to amend the ordinance, but I just don't know in which way.

At first I said, "They want to do away with the prohibition of the signs." and that makes sense to me. Looking for a location while driving through downtown can be a frustrating task, even when you know the town like the back of your hand and can remember what store was there three stores ago. I can't imaging what it is like for someone from out of town.

My next thought was, "I'll bet this is in relation to CentrePointe and its hotel." But reading the ordinance I found that hotels are exempt from the rule. There is no need to change anything. Maybe they are thinking about the awnings that could be placed on the retail in the complex. When the overhanging signs were removed, the awnings were taken out also because you could have signs painted on them. Boy, I do miss those awnings. Try walking down the street in a light rain and you forgot your umbrella, now just try to stay dry.

OK, next thought, "The definition of downtown has changed in the minds of our city leaders in 32 years." Yeah, that's true. But which definition is to be used? I posted on something like this a few weeks ago, read it here.

There are a number of conflicting and competing concepts of downtown floating about in Lexington. So do we take DDA's boundary and go from Third St to Maxwell, and Newtown Pike to Midland and Winchester Rd? Should we take everything encompassed in the downtown zone categories?(B-2, B-2A and B-2B) Which ever one we pick it make a few or a lot of people unhappy. Not just the ones who have to remove their signs, but the historic preservation folks who screamed loudly about the buildings on the Main St. block "Our history is being relegated to the scrap heap or the museum," they will cry.

My conclusions on this? I'm not sure yet. I really like the old signs and I miss the awnings. I do not miss the overhead wires. I would like to see a design review for signs in the downtown area but that may be asking for too much.

However it plays out, I feel a change blowing in the winds of autumn.