“Is It Just Me Or…”

We all seem to have those “Is it just me or…” moments.  I had one just the other day during a lunchtime walkabout which I take most sunny days.

This was one in which I took a usual route, west on Vine and then either going out S. Broadway or on beyond the Lexington Center.  This day I strolled through Triangle Park over toward the historic W. Short St.  The park, for all of its renovation work, still has little for the noontime pedestrian to do.

The tour down Vine St continues to surprise me these two years since the streetscape was essentially finished.  The pedestrians are few and the service/delivery vehicles seem to park with abandon on the new, wide pavers which are clearly intended for people.  There are a few “smoker’s posts” near the office tower and they can make walking past a chore for the non-smoker but otherwise there is little happening here.

I made an infrequent stop in the Victorian Square Shoppes and wondered, almost aloud, how some of those places can stay in business.  They do and more power to them, as I say about the claims that we have too much vacant office space, just because I see no activity does not mean that there is none.  Victorian Square is alive, maybe not robust, but alive.

Exiting near the corner of Short and Broadway and looking back toward the Court House is about the time that it hit me.  My “Is it just me or… moment” nearly bowled me over, like the cyclist zipping down the sidewalk.  Short St is the vibrant, pedestrian street that we all would like downtown to be.

How many hours over the past decade, and several Urban County Government administrations, have been spent of discussions and negotiations concerning Vine St and what could be done to improve the freeway-like atmosphere which has attached itself there?  How many consultants submitted options on solutions over the years?  After all that, has there been much noticeable improvement?

There it was, Short Street, stretching from Broadway to Limestone in the noontime hour just bustling with sidewalk activity, street activity and the sounds of downtown life.  What I saw before me was accomplished with minimal government dollars and much investment by the private sector.  It was not perfect but it was quite vibrant.  It has been growing that way for a while now, gradually gaining, but this day it just popped.

Main Street still has its pedestrian activity and a number of café dining on the sidewalks but not like the volume on Short.  The one-way traffic and the width may alter the cozy nature somewhat but I am not sure that it makes that much of a difference.  Main St is quite a bit longer, so that may diffuse its activity, but it also has many more blank walls with which the public must deal.

The public spaces along Main St, both Phoenix Park and the Court House Plaza, see fairly consistent use though some may find the patrons a little less than to their liking.  Elsewhere the comings and goings are a bit more sporadic.

The activity on Short St is not all a bed of roses and some of the thorns do prick at me. 

With all of the restaurant and bar venues currently in place, not all of them are open for the lunch hour, there will naturally be a slew of delivery vehicles. I constantly wonder why the restaurants can take delivery before or after the peak pedestrian times but the bars cannot.  Why does it take three men and three or more vehicles, at least two of which are extended length trailers, which block the mid-block crosswalks near Cheapside.  The soft drink companies and the spirit companies can deliver with smaller trucks on these narrow streets, but beer route drivers are special?

I also dislike the encroachment that some café diners make into the remaining walkway.  Each restaurant is allowed a limited amount of sidewalk and will not police their paying customers who - sometimes – snatch more chairs than usual at a table and spill outside the allowed space.  Common sense should kick in at these times but maybe alcohol is involved.

Lastly, there are the cyclists, the dog owners and those with over-sized strollers which try to negotiate or occupy extremely tight spaces, usually to the detriment of good circulation.  If the committee working on the food truck locations can cite pedestrian obstructions as a concern, then they should be looked at for all of downtown sidewalks.  Cyclists are currently prohibited from downtown sidewalks by ordinance, but it is rarely enforced and just plain ignored by the court system.  Should we get all of our downtown streets as active as Short St has become there will be problems, so we might as well begin solving them now.

Well, that is a lot to think about.  Now, I ask you “Is it just me or…”

Downtown Jeopardy

I'll have “Random Dates in Lexington History” for $200, Alex.

And the answer is, September 10, 1950.

What was the day when we got most of our one-way streets?

Correct. That was the day when, at least, six of the downtown streets were converted to one-way and new parking limitations for autos and trucks set in place. Today, many of the parking rules and loading zones are vastly different, but all but a few of the changed one-way streets are still with us.

One-way streets are a hot topic these days and I doubt if it is due to the changes made back those 61 years ago. Downtown traffic has always been a sore point and especially since the introduction of the automobile. Even in the horse drawn buggy and wagons era there were traffic problems. The conversation today is about slowing down the traffic which moves through downtown rather than just getting to and from downtown.

Is it not odd that the morning rush hour traffic which flows well on the two-way radial spokes of Richmond, Winchester/Midland, Tates Creek or Leestown roads need the one-way uses of Main and Vine to get to where they are going? During off-peak times are all of the vehicles solely trying to get to the other side of town since many feel that downtown is not a destination?

The 40 year experiment with one-way traffic on Main & Vine, the pattern which many now believe that we cannot do without, may be a factor in the oft referred decline of downtown and its bland atmosphere of rapidly moving traffic and lack of pedestrians. The nice thing about experiments like this is that the can be reversed.

Take the example of East Short St from around the turn of the last century. The section from Limestone to Walnut (now Martin Luther King...) was made one-way. In the winter of 1926 a delegation of Short street property owners petitioned for a repeal of that change and it returned to a two-way street. Due to the narrowness of the roadway where it passed the county jail, parking was prohibited for its full length. Twenty-four years later, during the changes of 1950, Short St was made one-way from Georgetown St to Deweese.

What has surprised me most in doing research for this is the Limestone, then U.S. 27, was still two-way and the oddest change was for Mill and Upper Streets to assume part of that traffic as it passed through town. Upper St was a southbound one-way at that point but not a part of the national highway system and Mill St (or portions of it) was northbound one-way.

Under the 1950 change, Upper became northbound and Mill became southbound. U.S. 27 traffic was diverted from North Broadway at Third and apparently used Upper and Mill to connect with Bolivar, from which one used Upper St to proceed south to Limestone and Nicholasville Rd. This only last a few short years, since, as a pre-teen, I remember Limestone and Upper as the exist today.

From the map accompanying the newspaper article, the old version of Vine St was changed to one-way from Broadway to Kentucky Ave. though I have no recollection of that at all

The plan of 1950 shows the westbound changes to Second St for both of its East and West portions and Church street for its entire length, along with Corral from Deweese to Midland.

That leaves High and Maxwell Streets which became the one-way pair as we know them today. As I have always known them from my days attending Maxwell School. I don't think that I have ever heard anyone suggest that it be any different. I do believe that if it is reverted to two-way, then any parking on them anywhere would have to be eliminated.

What will this new, nearly half million dollar study determine for our downtown streets? Will two-way streets add the necessary vitality to the streetscape? Will this be another wasted attempt at “bringing downtown back” which so many suburbanites bemoan from the safety of their insulated subdivision communities.

Downtown will never “come back” and I thank God for that. We can make it better and not just from a traffic standpoint, and I thank a whole handful of folks for that. But making it better is not as simple as doing or undoing what may be “failed” experiments. It could be tweaking some things and wholesale makeovers on others, so we need to be thoughtful in how we proceed. Since they were looking at parking restrictions and loading zones/times as part of the traffic(auto and foot) problem, then maybe we should revisit them as well.

Are Sidewalks The Road To Improvement?

Downtown has seen a lot of effort and money spent on it in the past few years. So much so, it seems like we should be looking at other areas in which to share the wealth but there is only so much wealth to go around. Still, somebody should be doing something.

Well, there are other neighborhoods which are doing something, whether with the government's help or without it. I feel that the role of government is to do those things that the people cannot or will not do for themselves. Public safety is one thing but building, repairing or clearing sidewalks is quite another.

The Main St,Vine St and South Limestone streetscape improvements clearly demonstrate the worth of making said improvements and now the Southland Dr area folks are working toward sidewalks there. Our history of auto-centric development has allowed many shopping centers built from the '50s up through the '90s to be devoid of any walking facilities of any kind. The original developers are long gone and the sidewalks need to be built, but it should not fall to the government to fund the lions share. Even in the name of public safety.

The sidewalks at your home, both the one in front of your house and the one which leads to your front door, are a focus of the curb appeal which welcome friends and family into your home. They are a big part of a first impression.

Many houses built in the last few decades seem to have walks which only go to the front driveway and appear to shun anyone who may not drive. Visitors who have to park on the street, either because the host  cannot get their autos in the garage or they have invited far more friends than they have space for, by necessity still have to use the driveway. Even the next door neighbor has to use the driveway.

I believe that by not tending to the care and upkeep of the sidewalk on or abutting ones property, one is showing utter disregard to their neighbors and, probably, to society as a whole. It is also not government's job to remind you to maintain the walks for the good of all, or to maintain them in your stead. I think that we can all agree that there are better places to apply their limited funds.

To a similar degree, the sidewalks in neighborhood shopping areas should be a large part of the curb appeal to the shops and restaurants there. Once again it should be a part of the welcoming feeling of approaching a friendly environment. Why else do you think that the office parks, despite their seas of parking, have lavish landscaping around the doorways?

When it comes to the larger “planned” shopping centers like the malls and their counterparts, it looks like the “planning” went right out the window. There may be sidewalks along the approaching roadways but getting to the entryways is strictly through the vehicular area and its many obstacles. Try walking from any of the residential areas around the Fayette Mall or Hamburg to any of their popular stores and see how comfortable you are. You might live close but the Walkscore is atrocious.

Lexington's best location for walking, with a walkscore of 85, is the downtown area. Origins and destinations within a reasonable distance, though not all of the origins are residential in nature and good availability of walking paths to take. But I wonder what the score would be if they took proper surface maintenance and simple daily cleaning/litter control into account.

Have you looked, really looked at some of our sidewalk conditions just a block or two off of the revitalized Main and Vine? What about the cross streets which connect them; Limestone, Upper, Market and Broadway which have remained untouched. Many of the sections of pavement are cracked and flaking, or the former tree wells are disintegrating and bulging. Litter and broken glass from beverage bottles are frequent sights.

I have said before that the way we use our public spaces is generally appalling and in some cases the abusers are just human pigs, but really folks don't you think that we can do better? We have a dedicated crew to police the heavily used spaces and it is the ordained responsibility of the downtown property owner/property manager to take care of the rest, but I don't think that they do that good of a job of it.

Government has the obligation to take care of the roadways and keep them in a safe and orderly manner and they have the power to enforce that the sidewalks be held to the same conditions. From where does this obvious disconnect arise? When and where was the ball dropped?

These sidewalks are the focus of our downtown curb appeal and we are allowing them to peel and fade like a bad paint job on our finest houses. When are we going to bring our downtown up to the standard where it should be? If the merchants and property owners will not maintain them, should the government do the job? Maybe yes, but the cost should be borne by those who have refused to do it themselves and not spread across the community as a whole. Or the whole nation by using Federal funds to do the job.

I think that it should be the community's desire to make our entire city into a walkers paradise, where every neighborhood has someplace attainable by walking and safe ways of getting there. It will take effort and commitment, but most likely, a change in attitude.

If it doesn't start with downtown, then the neighborhoods should start it but it need to start somewhere. I have pointed our some beginning places and I know that there are others, if you do also then lets get to work on it. 

The sooner the better.

Chevy Chase's resurgent intersection

Last Friday, as Mrs. Sweeper and I were coming home from the Gallery Hop, I saw a quite beautiful sight.  The evening was just perfect for getting out either to stroll through downtown looking at art or taking the kids to the ice cream shop for a cone or two.  Many a family was out doing just that.  Downtown, couples meandered through stop after stop of art and in Chevy Chase, hoards of families with kids were descending on Graeter's and the treats within.

 I tell you, the sidewalk in front of the Ashland Plaza was crawling with activity and both McAlister's and Graeter's were full.  The scene reminded me of the days when Romany Road was hopping.  I hope that it still is on Tuesday nights after Jazz or baseball in the park.  But this scene in Chevy Chase is today a rarer sight than some 30 years past.  The one thing that would make it better still would be the presence of some seating, you know, some tables and chairs or benches kind of like the sidewalk dining that we see downtown.

There is some sidewalk dining space already in Chevy Chase.  At Starbucks, at The Beer Trappe and Bourbon n' Toulouse, even Charley Brown's has some outdoor seating but I think that that has more to do with the smoking ban than anything else.  The area around the newly opened shops is in need of real seating.

The former Buddy's location had a so called patio for outside seating although it is right on the parking area, but it is there.

Speaking of Buddy's, it has not surprised me that it did not sit vacant for very long.  While @GossipGirl40502 will most likely tell you that the trendy things always begin early in her favorite zip code, the Chevy Chase area is just now getting in on the band wagon of brewpubs.  The South Broadway area, downtown and even W Sixth St., saw the micro or nano brewing sites before the 40502 but soon the Corner Brewpub will be taking over the old Buddy's spot and the intersection will become even more active.

I would not doubt that sometime, maybe near the end of Summer, somebody will organize a Colt trolley tour of all the local brewhouses or brewpubs in town, perhaps beginning and ending in the Distillery District.  I think that it would be great if it could benefit some local charity while exposing Lexington to the growing number of local brewers.

Update, May 3, 2012
Today, they put out at least two picnic tables in front of Graeter's and Business Lexington posted details about the brewpub.  When I mentioned the brewpub to the Lextran management and suggested a Brewhouse Hop, they seemed receptive.  What do you say, can we make it happen?

Was It Worth $7,000 A Foot?

From 2 years ago

 

The Clematis in front of our house in in full bloom, giving a bright blast of color when you walk toward the door coming home. Each year I think that it just get better and better looking with many more blooms than last.

The wire frame horse in the Court House Plaza was supposed to be full of blooms from seven different varieties of Clematis in time for the WEG.  If you look today, the vinery of the collective plants only rise to the top of the hindquarters.  Did they stop tending them with change of administrations.

That made me think of other differences in priorities and how they are handled.  I recall, as I am sure you will also, probably the most iconic campaign commercial of the victorious Jim Gray.  The one where he is standing on South Limestone near the end of the renovating construction that summer.  In discussing the overall cost of the project and the disruption it caused to so many businesses and commuters, he utters the almost comic, "$7,000 a foot".  I am sure that that resonated with the voters, especially in those slim economic times.  Times that I am wondering if we are out of yet.

Now, considering that there was a big to-do on the weekend that it reopened to normal traffic and has seen many other University related celebrations (most notably the 8th National Basketball Championship), I feel confident that business owners who stuck it out and the ones who followed construction think that the $7,000 a foot was well worth it.

There was a lot written about the timing and extent of the closing, by owners and bloggers and others who felt that this work was somehow unfair to the "stakeholders".  Since the end of construction there has been nary a peep in public from either the owners or the bloggers as to whether the redo was worth it.

The most silent is the one who, I think, benefited the most from the phrase, Mayor Jim Gray.

Earlier this week, the APA (American Planning Association concluded their 2012 National Convention in Los Angeles.  In the closing address, Renée Jones-Bos, Ambassador of the Netherlands to the United States, noted that Dutch engineers have been forced to approach large infrastructure and planning projects head on and are known worldwide for their expertise. She also pointed out that American cities may learn from their Dutch ally’s proactive embrace of cost-benefit analysis.

The Dutch are well known for weathering almost constant calamities and for wresting their country from the ravages of the North Sea.  So much so, that they have come to think of it as part of their DNA.  Another part of Dutch DNA is found at the entrance to the old port of Amsterdam in a sign which reads “The cost comes before the benefit.”

To all of those who have cried and whined about the outlandish outlays of the City and State for projects leading up to the WEG, and to all of those who have wondered where the windfall profits that were predicted have gone, I say this; the benefits have only barely begun.

But I ask Mayor Gray, was the $7,000 a foot worth it, both in the short run and in the long run?  And should we do it again?

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.

21c And The Road Ahead

It was about a month ago that I wrote about our possibility of getting a boutique hotel along the lines of a 21c in- of all places – the old First National Building.

This morning, the main headline of the Herald-Leader was the announcement of just such thing. The 21c corporation has signed on the dotted line to purchase the 3 parcels and put in motion a request of the Urban County Council for tax incentives and federal grants for this $38 million project. They may even request a TIF district of the state, though it is unclear what properties it may include or what public infrastructure needs be built.

My friend over at Kaintuckeen quoted Mayor Gray as calling it the “worst kept secret in Lexington” but this is the latest of such proposals made for this building and the only one to actually make it into the media.

You see, this building has a number of issues which may hold any redevelopment at bay. The First National Building is on the National Register as a site and as part of the Downtown Commercial District. For as much good as any such listing has afforded some other properties, after the CentrePointe controversy, our local folks would put a major fuss should undue alterations be proposed.

Any conversion of this century old building will necessitate new fire rating and sprinklers and an alternate method of egress, a fire escape. The previous proposals included various ways of accomplishing this, but I am told, either our local Historic Preservation or the lending institutions have balked and the plans wafted away like smoke. Like the Melodean Hall situation across the intersection, good new uses proposed for fine old buildings run up against safety and preservation issues which can really complicate matters.

Mayor Gray appears to have worked very hard on convincing folks that a 21c hotel needs to be in Lexington and whether his company is called upon to provide construction assistance or not, his 40 years of business and 6 years of political experience may be put to the test.

Concerning the TIF for 21c, I cannot figure out just how big on an area or just what amount of public improvements can be done in the area. I know that for CentrePointe, the district covers the primary block but also includes the old Court House and Cheapside Park, and the parking lot across W. Short St. The Cheapside work is about ¾ths done but the Lexington History Museum has major work planned. Perhaps the sidewalks and other street improvements could be made to aide the movement along Upper and Short St.

Like the journey of CentrePointe from announcement to completion, this boutique hotel may have more than a few setbacks.

On a lighter note, the people in the restaurant being finished on the corner of Short and Limestone which has a tentative name of Southern Table, tells me that they will open for lunch in the next week or two and for dinner about a week after that. The décor is starkly white on white and the menu is to be California fusion I believe, maybe not new for Lexington but not your usual fare.

With all the new openings on Short St, can it be long before someone calls for some real street work to be done on that section.

I have been trumpeting all of the new places downtown but there have been some closings also. While we were wondering about The Taste of Thai and Sam's Hotdogs since the Webbs bought that property, Giacomo's, with their bright yellow delivery scooter, has been sold and closed without explanation. I will also miss the Good Foods Chapter 2 in the lobby of the library. I don't know the whole story on that either.

I am always open to conversation so lets talk.

Where Is Lextran Going With This?

This showed up on my Twitter screen this morning.

Yes, the weather is beautiful for this time of the year.  Temperature about mid-fifties and a dry, high pressure system overhead.  Just a beautiful day to get out and enjoy.

But a bus ride?  This city’s transit system is geared toward getting the employee to his job, be he an industrial shift worker, a white collar, 9-to-5er or a service worker in the retail trades.  One thing this system is not aimed toward is the family oriented excursion to the park or other relaxing pastimes.

Those of us who were at work could find no time to get out for a pleasant ride on the bus and those of us who might wish to have an easy ride to the larger parks or entertainment locale have found that routes and scheduling are inconvenient.

All in all it is just a very confusing suggestion for Lextran to make.  Even Keeneland has no racing today.

Spring, And Development Sprouts Again

I have been watching downtown for a while and now that Spring is here we have a lot of things shaking in the wind.

I think that we all know about the new Shakespeare and Co. coming at the corner of Short and Broadway. They have been taking a long time getting to where they are, but there was a lot to do. I have taken some photos of the corner since 2008 when the old Clark hardware building was painted and the former Wrokledge space needed a little fixing up.

August 2008

March 2008

First came the outside repairs of the windows and the tin mouldings at the cornice and gutters, 

then a matching paint job. 

And then we waited. And we waited.

Oct 2010

The construction barrier went up, the roll-off dumpsters arrived and a lot of things must have gone on behind the scenes. Dumpsters came and went. Materials arrived and disappeared inside with still no mention of what it was.

Late July 2011

The name became known, but little else and that gave little indication of what was to come. It was the foreign press that gave the best information on an interesting looking restaurant (and I hate to use the word) chain out of the United Arab Emirates. With a fabulous ethnic menu and exquisitely decorated facilities, Mrs. Sweeper and I could only wait with great anticipation of an opening date.

The end of the Thursday Night Live series last year brought thoughts of celebrating our anniversary there toward the end of 2011, but the concrete floor was still to be laid. Little did I know that almost the entire foundation and structural support system needed to be replaced. It is no wonder that it took so long.

They are working on the finishing touches in the past few weeks, as seen below.

 

On the other side of the parking lot, the Behr family is now quickly working on the former Metropol building, transforming it into The Village Idiot. 

A spruced up paint job and a renewed interior will bring this place right up there with Shakespeare and Table 310. I hope that they can influence someone to replace that dead street tree on Mill St by the right hand parking lot.

Aug 2011

Feb 2012

Mar 2012

Not the same as downtown but not so far away is the seemingly equally working time on the new version of The Jefferson Davis Inn. Announced with some fanfare and replacing another proposed development, a 7 story mixed use project not really accepted by the neighborhood, the block just stood there with a hole in the ground and a construction fence. I was even asked if the guy behind it was digging the foundation and pouring the footing was doing the job all by himself.

The builder told me the other day that sometimes “it seemed that way”. This project was started during the worst setback of a recession that most of us have seen and applying for and getting a small business loan took way longer than anticipated. After 14 months the loan has come through and the hard work of preparing foundation and steel is behind them. The walls are going up and an August opening date is being set.

Henry Clay Public House

Back downtown, across Upper St from the old Court House, is the third lot of Jordon’s row. A building being lovingly restored by only the fifth owner since it was built in early 1800’s for Henry Clay. It soon will be the site of Doug Breeding’s latest venture, the Henry Clay Public House. It looks like an opening date could be as early as late May or June. This building will still have the owner’s office on the second floor and a small apartment on the third, but it will be another site for libations and snack foods downtown.

Now can we bring on the rest of the retail and housing stock to revive a real downtown?

Wasted Time In Traffic?

According to a Treasury Department report, we Americans are wasting 1.9 billion gallons of gasoline annually in traffic, mostly in typical highway congestion. That does not include whatever may be wasted just idling while waiting for moments at a time which then stretch into much longer time periods. Just think about what fuel is wasted while waiting for your kids to get out of school. At $3.75 a gallon, that adds up to a lot of dough. Traffic congestion costs drivers more than $100 billion annually in wasted fuel and lost time.

It just seems to be an awful lot of money to be spending to have the freedom to go across town whenever you want to, then find that everyone else has the same idea. They are not going to the same place that you are, but enough are going in the same basic direction or crossing over your path to make it annoying and time consuming. That is the joy of retail begetting retail in ever expanding commercial areas. Is it any wonder that online retail has grown so rapidly?

There was a time when we planned on how long it would take us to get to the other side of town. There were not so many of us then and the other side of town was just not as far away as it is now, yet we feel that we should be able to get there in the same amount of time. If only the roads could carry more traffic or maybe some of those other folks should just stay home.

America invests less in transportation infrastructure than most other countries at just about about 2% of the gross domestic product. Compare that to Europe at 5% and China at 9% of GDP. Congress is bickering about passing a transportation budget while our infrastructure continues to age and erode and the Highway Trust Fund limps along due to an inadequate gas tax or more fuel efficient cars, take your pick.

Still, we can't seem to get out of our cars. This far in the future we were supposed to have the little “Sprockets” like George Jetson had, that would speed us anywhere we wanted to go and then fold up into a briefcase for storage. That, of course, has not happened.

If anything, our cars have become more like a part of the family or and extension of the house in which we let it reside. They are pampered almost as much as our pets, just more expensive.

The average American family spends more than $7,600 annually on transportation — more than it spends on food and twice what it spends on out-of-pocket health care costs. Is it any wonder that we are always looking for that extra mile per gallon or the free parking space? Yet we will drive that extra mile or two to find a food bargain or shop where there is no metered parking.

There are those of us who say that we care about the environment, so we drive a Prius because of the fantastic gas mileage and crow about the reduced carbon footprint. But when we park it in a surface lot, we are really no better that a Hummer or Lincoln Navigator when it comes to an overall environmental footprint. The pollutants that it took/takes to build and maintain the 9' x 18' space and the increased precipitation runoff is going to be the same whether you are driving a motorcycle or a Winnebago.

Can you believe that there are an estimated three nonresidential parking spaces for every car in the United States. Enough to cover about 4,360 square miles or 15.2 times the size of Fayette County. So, does that mean that you have a place for your car at home, at work and at the shopping center? Sure, you let others use it when you aren't there but they had better be out of it when you get there. I mean, you car is in one of them about 95% of the time, and because it doesn't fold up like the Jetsons', it has to go somewhere.

For all of its faults, the parking lot may well be the most regularly used outdoor space in America. Where else do cars and pedestrians peacefully coexist for the most part? Yet I can't help but think that some of these spaces could be used for better outdoor and possibly beneficial environmental types of uses. If we could just let our imagination go, I am sure that we can come up with something

Or, maybe we can just leave the car at home and eliminate the need for most parking lots.