{"id":2592,"date":"2015-05-08T09:25:42","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T13:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/antipaucity.com\/?p=2592"},"modified":"2015-05-08T09:25:42","modified_gmt":"2015-05-08T13:25:42","slug":"vision-for-lexington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/merikebi.warrenmyers.com\/?p=2592","title":{"rendered":"vision for lexington"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past 5 years, I have witnessed some of the growth<\/a> Lexington<\/a> KY has started to undergo. From a population in the city proper of about 260,000 in 2000 to 295,000 in 2010 to an estimated 315,000 in 2015<\/a>,<\/p>\n

While there\u00a0seems<\/em> to be something of a plan\/vision for the downtown<\/a> area, the majority of Lexington (and its urban area) seems to be more-or-less ignored from an infrastructural perspective (the last update<\/a> was in 2009, and only for a small part of Lexington).<\/p>\n

Public Transit<\/h3>\n

The public transit system, as hard as I am sure Lextran<\/a> employees work, is underutilized, poorly routed<\/a>, and has no means of connecting into it form out of Lexington (full route map<\/a> (PDF)).<\/p>\n

In comparison to where I grew up, the Capital District of New York, the public transit system is both too inwardly-focused, and too poorly-promoted to be useful more most Lexingtonians. CDTA, for example, has connectors<\/a> to other cities and towns other than\u00a0just<\/em> Albany. You can start where I grew up in Cohoes (about 10 miles north of Albany), and get more-or-less\u00a0anywhere<\/em> in the greater Capital District by bus. It might take a while, but you can get there (or get close). There are also several Park’n’Ride locations for commuters to take advantage of.<\/p>\n

Lextran doesn’t offer anything to connect to Nicholasville, Versailles, or Georgetown. With workers commuting-in from those locales (and more<\/a> – some come from Richmond or Frankfort (or go in the opposite direction)), one would think urban planners would want to offer alleviations of traffic congestion. But there is nothing\u00a0visible<\/em> along those lines.<\/p>\n

Lost Neighborhoods<\/h3>\n

There are large chunks of Lexington where the houses are crumbling, crime rates are higher than the rest of the city, and the citizens living there are being [almost] actively avoided and\/or neglected by the city.<\/p>\n

Some limited business development has gone into these neighborhoods (like West 6th Brewing<\/a>), but as a whole they are becoming places “to be avoided”, rather than places where anyone is taking time and effort to improve, promote, and generally line-up with the rest of the city.<\/p>\n

Yes, everywhere has regions that folks try to avoid, but the lost and dying neighborhoods in Lexington are saddening.<\/p>\n

Walking<\/h3>\n

Lexington is – in places – a walkable city, but for most of the residential areas, it was\/is up to the developers of the subdivisions as to whether or not there are sidewalks. And if they weren’t put in\u00a0then<\/em>, getting them done\u00a0now<\/em> is like pulling teeth.<\/p>\n

Being able to walk to many\/most places (or types of places) you might want to go is one of the major hallmarks of a city. One that is only exhibited in pockets in Lexington.<\/p>\n

It should even be a hallmark of shopping areas – but look at Hamburg Pavillion<\/a>. A shopping, housing, and services mini town (apartments, condos, houses, banking, education, restaurants, clothes, etc), Hamburg is one of the regional Meccas for folks who want to do major shopping trips or eat at nice restaurants. The map<\/a> (PDF), however (which only shows part of the Hamburg complex) demonstrates that while pockets of the center are walkable, getting from one shopping\/eating\/entertainment pod to another requires walking across large parking lots – impractical if shopping with children, or when carrying more than a couple bags.<\/p>\n

Crosswalks and lighted crossings on major roads, in some cases, leave mere seconds to spare before the light changes – if you’re moving at a crisp clip. Add a stroller, collapsible shopping cart, or heavy book bag, and several crossings become “safe” only if drivers see you are already crossing and wait for you. Stories like of pedestrians being hit, like this one<\/a>, are far too common to read in local news media.<\/p>\n

Employment<\/h3>\n

There is no lack of employment opportunities in the Lexington area – there are 15 major<\/a> employers in Lexington, hundreds\u00a0of small-to-medium businesses running the gamut of offerings from auto dealers to lawn care, IT\u00a0to healthcare, equine products, home construction, etc; and hundreds of national chains (retail, restaurants, services, etc) are here, too.<\/p>\n

Finding<\/em> said employment can be difficult, though. There are some services like In2Lex<\/a> which send newsletters with employment opportunities – but if you don’t know about them, finding work in the area isn’t as easy as one would think a Chamber of Commerce<\/a> would want. Yes, employers need to advertise their openings, but even finding lists of companies in the area is difficult.<\/p>\n

Connectivity to Other Areas<\/h3>\n

Direct<\/a> flights into and out of Lexington Bluegrass Airport reach 15 major metro areas across half the country.<\/p>\n

Interstates 75<\/a> and 64<\/a> cross just outside city limits.<\/p>\n

The Underlying Problem<\/h3>\n

The major problem Lexington seems to have is that it doesn’t know it’s become a decent-sized metropolitan area<\/a>. There are about 500,000 people in MSA, or about 12% the population of the whole state. It’s a little under half the size of the Louisville MSA<\/a> (which includes a couple counties in Indiana). There are 8 colleges\/universities in Lexington alone<\/a>\u00a0(PDF), and 15 under an hour from downtown.<\/p>\n

To paraphrase Reno NV’s slogan<\/a>, Lexington is the biggest little town in Kentucky. The last major infrastructural improvement done was Man O’ War Boulevard<\/a>, completed in 1988 – more than a quarter century past. There were improvements done to New Circle Road<\/a>\u00a0in the 1990s, but that ended over 15 years ago. Lexington proper was 30% smaller<\/a> in 1990 than it is now (225,000 vs 315,000).<\/p>\n

Lexington’s 65+ year-old<\/a> Urban Service Area<\/a>, while great to maintain the old character of the city and region, hasn’t been reviewed since 1997. A few related changes have been added since, but the last of those was in 2001.<\/p>\n

One and a half decades since major infrastructural improvements. Activities like the much-delayed Centre Point<\/a>\u00a0(which I agree doesn’t need to be done in the manner originally planned), the begun Summit<\/a>, and other development projects may, eventually, be good for business and the city as a whole, but there has been little-to-no consideration for what will happen with\u00a0traffic<\/em>. Traffic problems and general accessibility is one of the core responsibilities of local government.<\/p>\n

The double diamond interchange<\/a> installed a couple years back on Harrodsburg Rd\u00a0was<\/em> a good improvement to that intersection. But it was only good\u00a0for that intersection<\/em>. It alleviated some traffic concerns, crashes, and complications, but only on one road.<\/p>\n

Lexington needs leadership that sees where the city not only\u00a0was<\/em> 10, 25, 50 years ago, but where it is\u00a0now<\/em> and where it wants to be in another 10, 20, 50 years.<\/p>\n

My Vision<\/h3>\n

My vision for Lexington, infrastructurally, includes interchange improvements \/ rebuilds for more New Circle Road exits. Exit 7, Leestown Road, grants access to Coke, FedEx, Masterson Station, the VA hospital, a BCTC campus, and more. Big Ass Fans is between exit 8 from New Circle and \u00a0exit 118 of I-75. Exit 9 from New Circle more-or-less exists to provide Lexmark with a way for their employees to arrive. The major employers in the area are great for economic stability.\u00a0But with traffic congestion, getting into and out of them needs to be as smooth as possible.<\/p>\n

West Sixth Brewery and Transylvania University are two of the highlights in an otherwise-aging, -dying, and -lost area<\/a> of the city. There needs to be a public commitment on the part of both the city and the citizenry to not allow the city to become segregated. Not segregated based on skin tone, but on economic status.<\/p>\n

Bryan Station High School has a reputation, deservedly or not, of being one of the worst high schools in the region, because of the dying\/lost status of the parts of town it draws from. You can buy a 2 bedroom, 1 bath, 1300 square foot house<\/a> for under $20,000 near Bryan Station. It needs a little bit of work, but what does that say about the neighborhood?<\/p>\n

The leadership of Lexington\u00a0seems<\/em> to be ignoring parts of the city that are going downhill, preferring instead to focus on regions that are going up. Ignoring dying parts of the city from an infrastructural perspective isn’t going to make them any better – they\u00a0will only drag more of the city down with them. As a citizen and a homeowner, I want to see my city do well.<\/p>\n

I do not like paying taxes any more than anyone else, but I do like seeing the city taking initiative and working to both heal itself and take steps towards attracting future generations, businesses, and more that we don’t even know are coming.<\/p>\n

Lexington has great promise – it is growing, expanding, and burgeoning. But if its leadership – political, business, and citizenry – doesn’t take the time, effort, and money to ensure it’s prepared for this growth, it will become a morass to traverse, live in, and do business with.<\/p>\n

\n

Some more interesting regional data<\/a> (PDF)<\/sub><\/sup><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the past 5 years, I have witnessed some of the growth Lexington KY has started to undergo. From a population in the city proper of about 260,000 in 2000 to 295,000 in 2010 to an estimated 315,000 in 2015, While there\u00a0seems to be something of a plan\/vision for the downtown area, the majority of …
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