Un-intended consequences?

“Un-intended consequences”

These words are usually spoken when an action, taken for very good reasons, is responsible for a debilitating harm done to a minor portion of those affected by the action. It is always nice to see it when those actions actually help that minor portion.

I don’t think that I have been shy in my outspoken criticism of the downtown circulator “trolley” and it does look like some of the suggestions that I made have been incorporated into the current routes, especially the Green Route. I am glad to see that many more of the local businesses have embraced the service and that Lextran has responded in such a positive manner. This service has had a much bigger impact than the initial downtown concept ever imagined

As I understand the original concept, the circulator was to enable those on the farthest edges of downtown to get to the center of activity and back to their offices with enough time to actually eat or shop during lunchtime. Evening activity was for downtown residents to traverse empty city blocks from housing to the nightlife and back safely. Though these are still of concern, they seem to be more minor today.

Today, we not only can get from one end of downtown to the other but also just a bit farther out and hit a little bit more shopping, dining and nightlife. I have seen and heard of many uses for the circulator since the routes expanded but I have not read any hard figures of ridership. Hopefully these will be forthcoming.

I have heard from my friends at West Sixth St Brewing, that quite a number of their patrons are arriving by ”trolley” since it eases the parking situation and the risk of driving while intoxicated. This will work to their advantage if those folks are coming from the Aylesford – Bell Court area and not just downtown.

But this is a two-way benefit. There are also folks from the Coolavin apartments just next door to West Sixth’s taproom who are making their way to the Kroger store on Euclid and coming home with the groceries for the week. In an area that has been identified as a “food desert” this access to fresh food without carfare is a win.

Coolavin is not the only example of this. The circulator travels past other assisted living facilities downtown so I doubt that this activity would not go on there also. Mrs. Sweeper and I watched as two ladies made their way from the Christian Church facility on Short St to the designated stop just to ride around town on a warm summer evening. The simple pleasures of life know no age limits.

So far, this phenomenon exists on the Green Route which cycles between the affluent neighborhoods near Chevy Chase and the resurgent commercial parts of Jefferson St. The Blue Route, running between the two University campuses, sees some mixing of the student bodies but mostly just due to their choices of dining and drinking locations. The other neighborhood residents do not tend to use the service much.

I believe that none of this was intended by those who arranged to fund the operation just a few years ago. Who could have thought that things would change this much? And does this mean that the local businessmen, who banded together to promote their downtown businesses, and now see as many or more folks leaving the downtown confines for other businesses, could give their support? I suppose so, but I hope not. If so, then the additional beneficiaries will need to stand up and continue this proven success.

I also believe that if it works in the downtown, then it can be successful in the subdivisions too, if done right.

If you have any thought on this, I would appreciate hearing them.

Missing, But For How Long?

Taking care of getting a Henry Clay statue for downtown could be a simple task if.  If we had a more motivated citizenry.  A citizenry not focused on letting the government do all the fund raising and arranging of the details.  Or maybe a government which could stay on task for more than an administration's four year term.

From what I can tell the other two monuments were funded by single minded groups and focused fund raising, some things that I find in short supply these days.

Or at least I thought so until today.

How many of us remember when they removed the Skuller's clock from Main Street during the streetscape work?  I, like many others I guess, thought that we may have seen the last of this old beauty or that it would end up in the History Museum like so many other relics.

I was there when they removed it and took the photo to the left.  I will be there when they reinstall it.

I heard today that the necessary funds were raised and repair of the timepiece is nearly complete.  Soon I hope to see some movement to prepare the base in the sidewalk and a triumphal ceremony of re-dedication and this side of the block's street work will be done.

The 21c hotel and a bit of facade work on the Odd Fellows Hall building and this block will be primo, well except for the "blue ghost".

Keep your eyes peeled for this exciting event.

Yes, Something Is Definitely Missing

After my last post I did receive many comments, which I published, and a number from friends verbally.  To you all, I say thank you.

Other than the comments idea, I have really noticed that something is indeed missing from downtown.  I have asked some friends about it and they agree, it IS missing.  It is not something that we all knew where it was and now it is gone, but something that has not been there for more than a century.

I have been drawn to the Courthouse Square for as long as I have been working downtown.  There is something about it that just keeps bringing me back.  I think that it is the monuments and the people that they represent that start to bring history alive for me.  The trees and the fountains(even when they didn't work) helped make the place livable and though they are now gone I still go back for the history.

It was November of 1887 that the people of Lexington unveiled a statue honoring John C. Breckinridge, the youngest Vice-President in American history.  He was placed right in the middle of Cheapside, whether it be a park or a parking lot, and only recently was moved to make way for the pavilion.

October of 1911 saw the displaying of the statue honoring Gen. John Hunt Morgan and whether or not you can get past the anatomically inaccurate depiction of his steed "Bess", it is still a grand statue.  It proudly sits on the courthouse lawn just a few blocks from the family home and hails the love which he had for the Southern cause.

Elsewhere around town, there are other signs and plaques which tell the tales concerning these two men.

Now, I ask you, with the newly opened Henry Clay Public House overlooking the old court house and the restored Henry Clay law office just up Mill Street, and the former location of the Henry Clay High School about a mile out Richmond Road, and the legendary "Ashland estate" even farther out, are we not missing something?

This city has made a big deal about Henry Clay and everything connected with him for a good long time, yet the one public statue that we have of him is stuck in the cemetery, high on a pedestal, where nobody can appreciate it.  Why is that?

This whole idea struck me when I saw this photo a few weeks ago.  How does New Orleans have a Henry Clay statue at ground level and we don't?  How could they have had one since 1890 and we don't?

I really do think that something is missing.

Is Something Missing?

I began this blog nearly four years ago.  Somewhat in the hope of getting my thoughts of what is happening in Lexington out there and partially at the urging from Mrs. Sweeper, to put together information on Lexington's development history.  Mrs. Sweeper is hoping for a book on the subject but I'm not so sure that I can do it.

I have left my comments on things on many forum threads concerning Lexington like Skyscraper City's and CityData's and not always to the appreciation of the other forum members.  It took several years for them to see that I was leaning in a right direction.  It is that back and forth postings of those forums that I miss in this blog.

I also leave comments on the blogs of others, usually if I believe that I can clarify some of the assumptions made by those outside the loop or correct some outright misconceptions.  I have not always been received warmly when I do that, but it is nice to see later that I am quoted or cited somewhere down the line.

That said, what I find missing from this blog is a sense of dialogue with my readers.  I know that they are out there.  You are out there aren't you?  I watch my stat counters every day and see where I have recurring reads from all over the country. I hear from some of my sources that they know of folks who read  and take note of the posts.  I even see that there are numerous reads from the LFUCG personnel, though it sometimes appears that I take them to task about things.  Still, anything resembling a dialogue is missing.

I have taken to asking questions in my entries, either to find out more information or to determine if there is a direction that the readers would like me to go.  Without feedback it is like listening to crickets chirp on a still night.

I am not asking for validation or condemnation, just dialogue.  Is it out there?

Was The CentrePointe TIF Area Not Well Thought Out?

As of Friday afternoon, the Lexington History Museum has been closed due to excessive paint dust which contains lead. Lead paint was used almost exclusively in the prime years of the old court house, both before and after the major remodeling which took place in the '60s.

I find it interesting that this announcement comes just after I posted about Lexington's lack of will to maintain (or complete) many of their projects of late. This is just another example.

For the last 4 years now, the old court house has been THE major building residing in the Urban County Council designated Phoenix Park/Courthouse Area TIF district, or what everyone else calls the CentrePointe TIF area. Almost all of the rest of the properties are street rights-of-way, parking lots or other government owned park property. That makes the CentrePointe project and the McCarthy's block of buildings the sole generators of any taxes which may be incremented.

The beneficiaries of these funds are quite specific:

• A tunnel connecting Phoenix Park to CentrePointe. (No longer a part of the Project)
• A pedway connecting the Financial Center Garage to CentrePointe. (also not a part)
• A Phoenix Park Garage. (has been removed from project)
• Restoration of the Fayette County Courthouse and Cheapside Park / Plaza.
• Makeover of old courthouse building including new roof, windows, atrium, and infrastructure. In addition, the courthouse plaza will be redeveloped to include the proposed closing of Cheapside Road. (Except for the restoration, all of this has been done)
• Permanent display space and building for the Lexington Farmer's Market. Though not built to the detailed specs, this is essentially complete.
• Streetscape improvements including street art. Main and Vine are done Lime, Upper and Short are lacking.

That is it. Straight from the TIF agreement of September of 2009. CentrePointe has been scaled back and much of the other work has been financed by some other method. And the old Court House waits, and waits.

The taxes from which these funds are to come are also spelled out in the document:

• Ad Valorem Property Taxes levied under KRS 132.020(1)(a)
• Individual Income Taxes levied under KRS 141.020
• Sales Taxes levied under KRS 139.200

At present, I guess that only the McCarthy's crew and the reduced property value of the pasture are paying into that amount and it is well below what was projected on that block.

Meanwhile, as documented here and elsewhere, the Short St blocks (plural) are very much alive with NEW businesses, NEW sales and NEW property values due to the renovation work being done. This is money that could have and should have been added to the TIF calculations. I don't think that many people saw the revitalization of Short St four years ago and certainly not without government support. I can see success building on success in this area and yet I also see the opportunity to leverage this growth into the repair and renovation of the Lexington History Museum slipping quietly away.

I have been a very big supporter of the CentrePointe project from its initial announcement and still believe that something will break soon. I see the 21c hotel as being one more major enhancement for downtown but the ability to use its increment for public projects will also be lost if something isn't done soon.

If I read the agreement correctly, the agreement is self renewing unless one of the parties gives written notice 60 days prior to the annual termination date of Sept 23. I have heard of no public declaration that anyone has asked for a termination, but it may have happened.   Perhaps we should terminate this one and prepare a new one in order to fulfill the promise which the revitalization of Short St has shown for downtown.

If you wish to read the agreement, you can find it here.  The map of the TIF district is on page 18.

Why Do We Let This Go On?

I read recently where Council member Doug Martin was extolling the good times that he had on the latest CommerceLex trip to San Antonio, Texas. Many good ideas are attributed to these “investigative”trips. Some of which we have actually implemented and some are still on the sidelines.

That a number of those ideas remain just that, ideas, is somewhat explained by a Business Lexington article  which questioned our local taxing abilities and even our local commitment to pursuing an idea imported from other cities.

Both of these articles do well to help understand the confusion and frustration of all our residents who complain that we don't have a good array of urban amenities. I still read about those who ask “Where are the free museums?” or “Where can we go to do something fun with a family?” and “Why are the amusement parks so far away?” , but I don't have an answer. The thing is, the ideas which come back from these trips don't have the answer either.

I seem to be looking at finding the answers to, what I consider, a much better set of questions. Of all the ideas that our leadership has attempted to implement, all the civic improvements which were started (and “finished”), there is a mostly unperceived gap in our vision and our sense of finality. We get things kicked off and basically hope that folks will consider them complete.

My first case in point is the Fifth Third Cheapside Pavilion. The following thoughts come to mind: 

1) I keep hearing that there is more to do in terms of booth space along the old court house side of the space. Be it temporary or permanent stall space, it should complete the current space correctly. 

2) I remember the old arrangement, which had shade trees and plenty of well used public seating. Any seating now is reserved and controlled by the adjacent retail establishments and without any shade at all during noontime usage. 

3) The tree wells, ostensibly for the proper watering and feeding of the small trees, have become packed earth and a materials storage site during Thursday Night Live performances and smoking litter receptacles the rest of the time. One would have thought that they would compliment the rain garden planters of the new Main Street streetscape.

Speaking of the streetscape project, case in point number two. Since this was a project which included Federal funds, there had to be a definite end and we have seen it. But, to me, it looks like some unnecessary short cuts were taken. All of the decorative street lamps were taken down and reinstalled, some with extensive damage to the green enamel paint job. Simply reinstalling these 'less than beautiful” lampposts tends to detract from the finished look of the job.

There is also a portion of the decorative stone wall separating the sidewalk from a rain garden on West Vine which has been struck and damaged. Since it is outside of a building full of attorneys and generally they tend to care about appearances, should this not have been attended to before now? The law does say that the adjacent property owner is responsible for the sidewalk maintenance, even in the downtown area, does it not?

The way-finding signs, which I have complained of before, should have been installed during the streetscape project but followed by a good deal and there are places where it shows. There should have been a coordination of the contractors on locations of the bases which hold these signs but many time it just looks like the posts were jammed in helter-skelter. Even some other post completion construction work looks to mar the fine job done by the original contractors.

Case in point number three, an ongoing commitment to the status quo when there are massive changes in the surrounding area. For the most part, our downtown situation has changed for the better and that change has been well accepted. But some of the older, less noticed traditions apparently need to be retained. One of those recent traditions is that of delivery vehicles and where they may park.

Delivery vehicles used to have designated curbside locations for certain times of the day and, in general, many of the vehicles were small to moderate in size. They delivered to a handful of places and a somewhat limited quantity of products. There was a flow of vehicles moving down the primary streets, from block to block and taking up just so much space as necessary, then moving on.

Not so today. They use much larger vehicles and at times they tend to take much more room, whether there is available space or not. The vehicles are allowed to block crosswalks and pedestrian curb cuts or even entire lanes of the street during some peak travel times. Now that we have so many more bars and restaurants in the downtown area than in recent memory, can they be of greater number than during downtown's heyday? In my opinion, delivery vehicles are service vehicles and in performing their duties, should NOT be doing a dis-service to all else. I cannot understand why we continue to allow it.

One more case of “finish it and forget it” could be the Court House Plaza. Ten years or so after completion and multiple festivals where we have been tramping allover the grass, the smooth transition from grass to pavement appears to be fraying. Good sized metal or concrete junction boxes rise above the ground level and the irrigation heads stand quite proud of the grass in some spots. Here too, the tree wells are quite bare and are quick to accumulate trash and cigarette butts. A regular morning cleaning currently does some good, but is that the most efficient use of personnel?

Finally, the case of overall pedestrian movement in a downtown that is given high marks for walkability. Just having sidewalks, and especially new sidewalks, should not equate into high mobility scores. There are two other important factors to consider. One is to look at the ease of movement past the sidewalk landscape and furniture as well as the other pedestrians out there with you. The other is to look at the ease of locating your destination if you are a relatively new resident or a first time visitor.

Now that we have all of these new sidewalk amenities, we should be able to use them without impedance. There are three, possibly four, new segments of sidewalk and two of them intersect. Four if you count the renewed sidewalk of Triangle Park between Main and Vine. Any other pedestrian connections to these new segments are definitely showing their age with cracks and wrinkles.

I fully understand about the CentrePointe block and can overlook that since I expect something to change there soon, but all the other streets tend to need some sort of work. I also have pointed out that with the growth of Short St, that main and Vine are not the only, or major, walking areas of town. The Cheapside Park and Court House pavement seem to be the only well maintained walkways on the north side of Main. 

 

When we add in the sidewalk dining spaces, which can become a sprawling intrusion at times, and the attendant umbrellas dipping to just over six feet high, making your way through the required 4 foot pathway can become difficult for taller folks.

Not all restaurants will place their tables either next to the building or next to the street in order to leave this 4 foot space, some will occupy the full center of the walkway. I would like to see a consistent pattern here and some way of enforcing it. I believe that we used to somewhere in our 200 year past, why not now?

Other street furniture and its proximity to the tables is a consideration to reduce certain “pinch points”. Perhaps some of the parking kiosks could be rotated 90 degrees so as to have the customer standing closer to the curb rather that blocking the walkway when crouching to read instructions or complete his transaction. This is further complicated when it takes a committee to make it work.

Finding ones way as a pedestrian is sometimes a different matter. I think that it is a good thing that downtown Lexington is as small as it is. Most of the downtown attractions are not so far from each other as to make it impossible to get there, therefore we have no posted maps of the area and a “you are here” arrow. Still, there seems to be a need for better signage at the pedestrian level, particularly some signage which is not dependent on facing in the direction of the flow of traffic.

It is interesting, if not ironic, that two short years after the current automobile oriented signage was decided and installed, that the Legends ballpark took a new moniker and the Lexington Visitors & Convention Bureau - a place tourists want to go - moved to the opposite end of downtown. Each of these means that a change in signage has to occur and while the ballpark change has been made, the other has not. I'm betting that another change will occur next year come spring. Will the Distillery District or some other growing attraction make it to the importance of being included on more signs and is there enough room?

So, where is all of this going? Instead of looking for the next big idea that we can import on a shoestring or without bringing all of the supporting public interest and funding, why not find a way to enhance the last few big ideas with proper finishing touches and real support of the downtown property owners and tenants? Why is sidewalk maintenance the sole purview of the city when, I believe, the law says otherwise? When did the delivery of goods to our “service industry”supersede the accommodation of those being served? When did the appearance of our downtown start to take a backseat to expediency and the dwindling fiscal year coffers?

Maybe we can do it all. Lets find some new ideas – AND – build us a good financial foundation with which to accomplish them – AND – make sue that we follow through with the real finishing touches, gild the lily, and live with some design excellence.


Update:  As of earlier this week there looks to be improvements to the tree wells in Cheapside Park.  Sometimes progress can take so long to occur.

Heat Wave And The Fourth Of July

I doubt that many of us remember how it was during the days before air conditioning when heat waves would come rolling through the countryside, but I can just imagine what the public warnings could have sounded like. Since there was no such thing as radio or TV in the 1800's, and the newspapers of the day were reporting the weather not predicting it, many folks simply relied on common sense and practical measures

For instance, residential housing was built in such a way as to take advantage of the natural breezes and air currents with strategic placement of windows and doors. It even extended so far as to include landscaping and trees. It was the city densities and commercial buildings which began to plague the occupants during the hot spells and made city life nearly unbearable.

Today, the public announcements call for those with ailments and allergies to stay inside and for others to keep a check on the elderly or disabled. Places which were recommended for relief (Woodland Park or country outings) are now to be avoided since they are equated more with physical activity than with passive recreation. Those who wished to find a swimming hole could locate a shaded body of water, whereas now there are just expanses of sun-baked concrete and rules.

Lexington, like most urban areas, is not the small, ecologically designed community that it once was. We, and they, have sprawled out and built fanciful imitations of homes which remind us of what was, but cannot function without mechanical, environmental aids. This we call progress.

While ruminating on these processes of the past, I am also brought to consider the upcoming 4^th of July activities and the events surrounding a fireworks display. The events of these days seem so different from those of my youth. Time may have moved much slower back them but, then again, it may be a matter of perspective.

I have read where this year's celebration will be capped off by a 17 minute aerial display (providing the fireworks are allowed at all due to weather) and it hardly seems worth it. I can remember when the 4^th just seemed to never get here. Also, there was not a downtown based, community event.

Lexington's involvement was limited to the individual parks preparing decorated floats (flatbed trailers generally provided by a local transfer company) for a parade through downtown to the football stadium at UK. Most floats were designed and decorated by the older park regulars and directed by a team of parks staffers. The inter-park competition caused some floats to become quite elaborate. Probably the best part was the total lack of overtly political interjection.

Drivers would haul their park's float to Woodland Park and line up on Kentucky Ave. Then, at around 7 or 7:30, the parade would begin. From the park to Main St. and right down through the middle of town. A turn on Broadway and up the hill to Maxwell and back to Rose St.   Out Rose to the Avenue of Champions and ending between McLean Stadium and Memorial Coliseum.

Many of the participating parks had had their cook-outs and neighborhood celebrations or parades earlier in the day, but the kids still had their sparklers and flags for the evening. There was enough light left in the evening to get to the seating and maybe get a drink. Climbing to the top of the stadium and looking over onto the street below was a thrill to many a kid as was watching the sun dip below the treetops in anticipation of the “real” show. (Sunset would have come about 9 p.m. since this was before the Uniform Time Act of 1966 and there was no Daylight Savings Time.)

The fireworks were set off from the field where the marching band now conducts practice and the western end zone seats held the constructs of the so called “ground displays”. At dark the stadium lights would go out and a “test” shot would go up, I believe, to determine the wind conditions. Then the show would start.

There was an intermission during which music was played and the parade float winners were announced. More drinks and hot dogs and then back to the seats for some more show. An interspersing of aerial and animated ground displays later and the grand finale of bombardments over, it was time to go home. The parks staff rounded up their charges, got back on the floats and went to their respective neighborhoods. Even though I lived close to the stadium, I got home around 11 p.m. and sent to bed, one tired puppy.

Daylight Savings Time, a much larger parks network and insurance/litigation issues have surely put an end to such happenings but simple memories of simpler times make it rough to not long for those days again. I am sure that many of you have your own memories and will be making more this coming week, so I hope that the weather is kind to you and that we all play it safe this year.

A Sustainable Food Policy For Lexington?

I was recently caught by a tweet from Mary Newsom, an urban aficionado and writer from Charlotte, North Carolina, about a local government's support for local food production. Mary does not know this but she has had a great influence on what and how I write on my topics.

The link that Mary supplied led me to a new and different take on local, sustainable agricultural development. I don't understand why many other local communities are not looking at following a similar path.

To begin with, this NC county wanted to re-evaluate its economic development efforts, which it and most others have followed for years with mixed results. These efforts are usually characterized by luring (or poaching) the jobs from some other community through wage and tax incentives. It does not “grow” the local economy with new jobs without paring down some other community's economy in the process. How often will some other desperate community come along and “raise the ante” just as he “exemption” periods expire.

As an alternative, they began viewing the development of local food production for the growing farmer's market movement and an eye on making it a sustainable process.

Some of the alternative strategies to be employed included;

• Hiring a local food system program coordinator.
• Establishing a Food Policy Council.
• Hiring a sustainable local economy project manager.
• Establishing a Council for a Sustainable Local Economy.
• Commissioning a consultant to study the local economy and recommend ways to bolster local entrepreneurship.
• Paying to build a slaughterhouse to allow local farmers to harvest livestock close to home.
• Starting an incubator farm to cultivate a new generation of farmers.
  

In a county of 178,000 people and considerable tillable land, does this sound too far fetched to work? I think not, because given time I believe that it will work and will grow. The natural foods movement, which I think that we can trace back to the '70s and probably the Foxfire book series, has started to gather a good head of steam and become a bit more mainstream of late. Farmers markets add locations and growers every year to the point that the larger agribusiness folks want a piece of the action.

But will something similar work for Lexington and surrounding counties?

Take a look at the Homegrown Kentucky project being started down in Owsley County, The county high school has an extra 10 acres of rich bottom land, much better suited to teaching sustainable agricultural practices than other education functions. When they pair the student and community gardens developed there with the relocated farmers market on the school grounds and the school cafeteria needs, it looks to be a winning situation all around.

I feel that some of the results of activities like those list above could fall in line with the motives and efforts of existing organizations such as the Fayette Alliance and the PDR program without mentioning the mayor's support of the Local First movement. Are the thoughts behind the Locust Trace AgriScience Farm, which the Fayette County Public Schools is developing, not working toward sustainable, entrepreneurial graduates to enter the local employment scene? This latter sounds like an incubator farm to me.

I have watched the growth of local food programs like the Good Foods Co-op and the various farmers markets and they seem to each have a separate, yet similar, food policy. No one is attempting to establish a coordinated policy for our city or region, even as a guard against an economic disaster. If the ongoing debate and wrangling on the subject of food trucks is any indication, I am not sure that our current council could come up with a valid local food policy in less than the time it would take to starve to death.

The attraction of high paying jobs and the expansion of local organic farming are topics which the media seems to trumpet from time to time but we must not lose sight of those on the other end of the economic spectrum. All cannot make it to a farmers market on a regular basis, either on a scheduled day or due to distance/transportation issues. Some families cannot get to a grocery nor afford the meals which use ingredients on minimum processing. What if there was a coordinated way of guaranteeing access to some community farm/garden plots for anyone who wished to participate? Not someone to do it for them, but access or transportation to the plot.

From what I understand, most residents of Lexington do not realize that we have probably the largest stockyard operation in the state if not the region. But there is no local slaughterhouse in town. We have a number of beef producers in our county who raise grass finished stock and sell to the more finicky buyers at the farmers market. The Good Foods Co-op buys whole meat carcasses and trims out cuts for their members. So, where is the closest slaughterhouse for these dedicated folks? The answer is, either in Garrard Co. or in Bardstown. This a great deal better than Chicago or elsewhere in the mid-west, but it still adds to the transportation cost of supplying it.

Do, or could, any of our myriad of new restaurants downtown plan to raise their own herbs and savories in close proximity to the kitchen? Some of them have planned for rooftop patios or could bargain for the seldom used roof space in our parking garages. It amazes me the amount of wasted solar energy that we allow to escape each and every day.

I do not think for one minute that CommerceLex will pick this up as a possible economic development tool but as I have pointed out, it seems to have a decent foothold in Cabarrus Co. in North Carolina. At least some people are looking toward food sustainability and somehow a balance can be struck. The above ideas may be well worth trying and Charlotte is not that far to go to check it out.

“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.