Monthly Archives: August 2014

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Day 28

day28Today took me to an area roughly between Palumbo and Woodhill, just outside New Circle Road.  I knew that Palumbo is very industrial in this area (which borders the RJ Corman line) but wasn’t sure what else I’d find.  It turns out that the industrial properties on Palumbo back right up to residences on Mirahill, and this is part of the Woodhill neighborhood.  This area seems quiet and unassuming, with lots of toys in yards, probably quieter than usual on a rainy afternoon like today.

For Lease signage along Codell
For Lease signage along Codell

Similar to Mirahill/Palumbo, Codell is a clear dividing line between uses, with commercial uses on the east side (a fairly successful strip mall facing New Circle Road and very empty office/commercial space facing Codell,) and apartments and condos on the west side.  This area seems pretty well connected; a bus runs down Woodhill and Codell, surely there are plenty of jobs in the area.  Nonetheless, the apparent vacancy rate of the commercial space isn’t really shocking based on age and appearance.  It’s not easy to compete with new.  One has to view this area as an opportunity.

The good: nice mix of uses

The bad: commercial space isn’t creating opportunity

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Day 27

day 27Today took me to an area off Chilesburg road, officially part of the Anderson Property neighborhood and a subdivision called Still Meadow.  This is a new neighborhood with larger homes.  The neighborhood has aged well in these critical early years, and benefits from a degree of visual variety that lower-end tract neighborhoods don’t get including an expanded pallet of siding colors.  This area also manages to fit in some townhouses, which are amazingly in the 2,500 square foot range.  The houses and lots are large and there is a lot of interstitial space (sometimes programmed as greenspace or park), including some interesting areas behind Ridge View that must border Jacobson Park but which are too large to belong to the neighborhood.  All this space makes this neighborhood genuinely quiet.

A dead end street segment programmed by the neighborhood.
A dead end street segment programmed by the neighborhood.

This neighborhood repeats a common Lexington pattern of dead-end streets that look prepared to connect somewhere else…someday.  Here (as elsewhere) these short segments get taken over with uses, in one case here,  turned into a little playground.  This neighborhood also has it’s own small park, complete with exercise circuit.

Water feature at the entrance to the Still Meadow subdivision
Water feature at the entrance to the Still Meadow subdivision

Sometimes it seems like subdivisions get features from their developer that are showy but that probably don’t add value, and the water feature at the entrance fits this well.  It would work in a backyard, but it’s too easy to drive by without noticing and not robust enough to be played upon.

The good: Visual diversity.

The bad: Too young to have much personality.

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Day 26

day 26Today’s walk took me east of Castlewood and into what is officially called the “Downtown” neighborhood, into an area bounded by Loudon, Seventh and Limestone.  This is an area that would be easy to label as distressed.  Indeed, there are quite a few boarded-up houses and at least one which had been condemned outright.  But there are interesting things going on as well; one house I passed had chickens in the yard, in another, a whole row of shotgun houses were having work done.

A small grocery store
A small grocery store

There is a very local feel; local grocers, neighbors out on porches and chatting with passers-by.  This was a much more interactive experience than my usual walks…simply being here makes you part of the story.

It’s easy to romanticize things like a healthy mid-day population out on the stoop, but there are other indications of trouble, like the numerous signs on doors advising people that the house is private property, as if the purpose of the door in unusually unclear.  Many residents noted they had cameras as well; spray painted on one structure was this warning for trespassers caught on camera: “You will be shot”.

A tangle of wires feeding shotgun houses
A tangle of wires feeding shotgun houses

Police presence was high, here too.  At one point, just after I started down the long length of True Alley, a police car pulled into the alley and stopped at the entrance, blocking it.   It stayed there as I walked to the end of the alley and headed back.  I really expected that I was going to be asked at the least to explain my presence if not actually detained.  But not so; as I neared the entrance again, the car pulled forward, the officers smiled and waved and passed by, then a LFUCG truck entered the alley behind them.

The good: This area appears to have a strong sense of community

The bad: That’s not enough to make everyone feel safe.

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Day 25

day 25Today’s walk was a quick one, through an office park and industrial area at the interchange of New Circle Road and Winchester.  There weren’t a lot of surprises for me here, likely because I’m already familiar with this area.  But, some of the industrial use is a little more intensive than I expected.  It was also neat to see the back of one of the neighborhoods I walked recently (Brown Ave, from day 23) from the adjacent commercial/industrial street.

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Walking trail signs along Beasley and Fortune allow lunchtime walkers to measure their walks

The south side of this stretch of New Circle Road is home to Paul Miller Ford and Paul Miller Mazda.  The Miller Family also has hands in a number of other area businesses, including Fortune Realty, Beasley Digital Printing and Fortune Collision Center.  Meanwhile, a business on the north side of the street features a large poster supporting Alison Lundergan Grimes as a Senate candidate, a tour bus for said candidate is parked nearby, as are a whole lot of cars with lots of “Alison” bumper stickers.   Two prominent local families have made this interchange a focal point, and this should emphasize its importance.

Back to street names.  “Jingle Bell” seems like an unusual name for a street, especially one that is so industrial.  My assumption has always been that, like many other streets in Lexington, it is named for a more or less famous Thoroughbred racehorse.  And though it may be named after a horse (three horses named Jingle Bell have their pedigrees listed), I think the “famous” part is in serious question.   And, the Paul Miller Ford building (at Jingle Bell and New Circle Road) has a hyperbolic paraboloid “saddle” roof  and is probably a lot older than the most likely Jingle Bell.

 

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Day 24

day 24Today took me to another late 90’s suburban neighborhood, fairly similar to the Eastwood neighborhood I visited a few days ago.  This area felt, structurally to be very similar–similar construction, similar era, similarly sized houses.  Since I visited Eastwood quite recently, the differences were probably more striking than they would’ve been otherwise.  For one thing, there were none of the creative things we saw in Eastwood (though it should be mentioned that those really awful manhole covers were not present here).  Also note that while many of the houses here back up to the reservoir, these are not exactly waterfront views.  The reservoir is screened from view (at street level, at least) by thick forest behind a chain-link fence.

Most of the stimuli in this neighborhood came from the apartment complex that Brookewind cuts through.  Someone was playing music at the pool, which generally seemed to be a focal point of activity.  The rest of the neighborhood featured kids solemnly enjoying their last few days of vacation.  Back-to-School creates some cognitive dissonance for me because it signals the premature end of summer, and even though it’s still mid-August and very warm, pools will be closed or empty and a lot of this summer noise will be gone.  It feels like we write off the last month of summer.  Today’s walk really hit home this reality…the noise was subdued, it felt hot and empty, as if the spiritual experience of  “summer” had already passed into memory even though the corporeal  experience was still present.

The good: Apartment complex, single family housing and even a nursing home provide a good mix of populations.

The bad: It’s disappointing to not see the reservoir.