Monthly Archives: November 2014

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Day 65-street names become eclectic

day 65Today’s walk was my first journey to the 40513 zip code, to a neighborhood know as Harrod’s Hill, just west of Harrodsburg and to the south of Beaumont Centre and New Circle Road.  Houses here appear large…super-sized versions of the ranch-style houses from many of the 1970’s and 80’s neighborhoods I’ve passed through.  Not surprisingly, the older portions (on the Ft. Harrods side) are from the early 1980’s, perhaps representing an early spike in increasing home sizes?  The street names in this area were fascinating, too, with esoteric object names from Snaffle and Mantilla to foreign names like Bamboo and Mesa, common names like Mallory and historic names like Webster (behind the Beaumont branch of the Lexington Public Library and next to Literary.)

A selection of the architecture style in use in the Harrod's Hill neighborhood
A selection of the architecture style in use in the Harrod’s Hill neighborhood

This area repeats a theme that I’ve seen occasionally in other Lexington neighborhoods, a series of long parallel streets, usually a set of three or four, connected at the end but without repeated connections to an arterial street.  In a way, areas like this feel more like neighborhoods to me.  (I grew up in areas with a very regular street grid, and I don’t doubt this factors into how I feel.)  There are benefits to well-connected streets–that is, ones that allow many possible paths between two points.  I enjoyed being able to choose between multiple routes in order to vary the scenery, but alternate routes are also helpful if you’re avoiding, say,  a mad dog in a front yard or a bully.  Street network analysis is fascinating, and hopefully I can work in some of the interesting thoughts I’ve come across on this in the future.

A limestone fence surrounds a yard in the Harrod's Hill area
A limestone fence surrounds a yard in the Harrod’s Hill area

I noticed something unusual in this area–it seemed much more willing to express religious views than I’ve seen in other areas.  This was evident not just in holiday light displays (which are just beginning to appear) but in other ways–with license plates, or a biblical passage engraved on a mailbox.  This is somewhat unusual for upper middle class neighborhoods which as I’ve mentioned before seem to be somewhat reserved in terms of how residents present themselves to the outside world.  I’ve heard people express concern recently about what they perceive as our growing tendency to “self-sort,” to choose neighbors whose views mirror our own.  And sure, plentiful outward signs like these could lead some house-hunters to avoid this area or others to favor it, perhaps leading to some self-sorting.  But I really appreciated the willingness of residents here to express themselves, and I have to thing that our collective views are so fluid (even a group of people with the same views could have significantly wider range of views after a generation) that self-sorting itself, at least at the neighborhood level, is probably an insignificant issue.

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Day 64-Hiding Springs

day 64I walked through the Cardinal Valley neighborhood today.  This is a residential neighborhood with small, simple 1960’s era homes.  Though simple, these houses look pretty well built, though not as universally well-maintained as, say the homes in Chevy Chase I passed by a few days ago.

Simple early 60's era houses in Cardinal Valley
Simple early 60’s era houses in Cardinal Valley

The houses I passed by were pretty similar, representing a narrow range of styles and sizes. There is an apartment complex at the front of this neighborhood.  I also passed a school and two churches, located at the back of the neighborhood.  It’s unusual to see churches located deep within neighborhoods; oddly enough, the other place I ran into this was on Day 31, not far from here.  In that case, the church was a Spanish-language church, as these two were.

Near the churches is an inconspicuous entrance to a park which sports the historical marker shown above. I would think it would be neat to have something like this nearby, but every indication was that this park entrance was rarely used.  In fairness, I didn’t venture into the park, which will feature more prominently in future walks, but this would be far from the first place that seemed to shy away from allowing water to be a focal point of open space.  This green space blind spot may stem from the fact that little streams are everywhere in Lexington, which is a good thing. (By contrast, in other places, streams like this have generally been covered over in concrete, though more recently have been benefactors of “daylighting” projects.)  The benefit, then, might be more awareness of the ecological benefits, less taking these spaces for granted; perhaps an incremental decrease in the amount of trash and other pollution that is winding up in streams.

Shopping carts are easy to clean up...all the other trash is a problem.
Shopping carts are easy to clean up…all the other trash is a problem.

How does this happen, within the confines of limited budgets?  I think a little communication could go a long way, starting with improved signage.  (How many parks have entrances similar to this one with nothing more than a “Park Closes at Dusk” sign?)  I love the mystery here…after doing more research and looking at the satellite images of Preston’s Spring Park, I’m itching to get back to this area.  But I’d like to see a little more direction, a simple trail with an online guided tour or at least something explaining why there isn’t a trail here.

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Day 63-Relatively Small Houses

day 63I spent some time today walking through the Hartland neighborhood.  Sometimes I find it hard to tell where neighborhood divisions are from looking at the map and other times I get lucky.  In this case, the area I passed through is distinct from its neighbors, who generally feature even larger lots and fancier houses–some of these are places you won’t believe.  Houses here are on the large side, probably in the neighborhood of 3,000 feet on average, usually brick and in the contemporary vernacular.  The neighborhood is well-kept, from the not-a-blade-of-grass-out-of-place school, with remarkably leaf-free lawns for the time of year.  These houses are nice–lots of curb appeal.  But residents really let the houses serve as their expression to the outside world.  Landscaping was bland, the seasonal light displays tasteful.

Street signs in the Hartland neighborhood
Street signs in the Hartland neighborhood

The cars in this neighborhood stood out to me.  The cars I saw were pretty consistently modest, with not as many newer cars and few luxury makes.  And these could be cars driven by household help–handymen, maid services.  But the observation seemed to hold even for cars that definitely belong to residents–cars pulling into or out of garages.  (It’s amazing how many people are moving on weekday afternoons!)  In some neighborhoods, I get the clear impression that people put a higher priority on their cars rather than there houses; this neighborhood seems to be filled with people making the opposite choice.  And it seems to be working for them!

The best surprise of the day has to be the old oak tree standing in a yard on Hartland, pictured above.  Preservation of old trees has been in the news here recently you might enjoy Tom Eblen’s October 2013 column on old tree preservation.

 

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Day 62-Walking Distance

day 62I returned to Chevy Chase this afternoon.  This area is a mix of residential with a strong commercial district along this block of Romany and Duke, which includes a grocery store. My first visit to the neighborhood was on Day 33, though this portion of Chevy Chase reminded me a little more of the Southland Drive area from Day 46, with lots of Cape Cods and large front yards.  I’m surprised by the number of multi-family homes here, especially in the form of four-unit apartment buildings. Most of the buildings here date from the 1950’s, though there were some apparently newer places (for example along Providence near Romany).  Even including the apartment buildings, the housing stock here appears to be in good shape, and I saw indications of number of remodel projects of various scales today.

The Romany Road Kroger
The Romany Road Kroger

This area, with its mix of single family, multi family and commercial seems well-suited to walking, but walkability suffers from some really wide corner radii.  This area (like many others) would benefit from some sidewalk bump-outs.  Bump outs shorten the distance between curbs.  This has two impacts.  One is that it forces drivers to take turns more slowly (giving them more time to spot pedestrians and less lethality if they hit us).  The other is that by shortening the amount of road to be crossed, bump-outs lessen the perception of the street at a barrier.  In at least one place, a solid white line is painted with the intent of making the radius smaller, but lines like these seem to be seen as suggestions or outright ignored by drivers.

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Day 61-The more things change

day 61Naturally enough, as one gets closer to downtown and into older areas, uses become mixed.  Day 61 brings me to the Aylesford area, near Woodland Park and past an eclectic mix of early 1900’s houses, houses converted to apartments, botique-y shops in older buildings, businesses in functional mid-century buildings.   There is always a little bit of infill in neighborhoods this old, and it’s hard not to imagine what this area looked like 40 years ago or 70 years ago, especially when you come across street names like “Old Vine”.

Businesses along High street; note parking takes the place of sidewalk.
Businesses along High street; note parking takes the place of sidewalk.

The amount of surface parking stands out.  Since many of the businesses here are niche businesses, there certainly needs to be a way to get people here and cars are filling that need.  Maybe what stands out is that, given the creative lean of the business mix, the parking is…inelegant, often carved out in front of businesses and creating a strip-mall feel when this could have been avoided.

Apartment entrance
Apartment entrance

I was a little disappointed with the lack of vitality, as well.  There were bright spots, like the decorated cul-de-sac on Preston (highlighted by the cow skull scarecrow seen above). And maybe it’s unfair to judge the vitality of a commercial district based on a chilly November workday.   But a lot of places, businesses, homes, felt like they were kind of phoning it in a little bit.  And maybe this is part and parcel of being a car-reliant neighborhood that was not designed for cars; people are moving, but generally from a store or home to a car parked nearby.  This means there is with no opportunity for window shopping as you might have along a pedestrian-oriented commercial district, a shopping mall or even a strip mall.   The parking requirements displace public space and particularly sidewalks and actively discourage the types of behaviors I expected to see here.  There is no reason to adorn houses or yards, either, and houses here feel more introverted than houses befitting typical suburban typologies.

Nonetheless, and even though this area isn’t a destination in the same sense as say, downtown, it still provides a lot to take in, hints of the timbre of the Lexington creative class as well as its history.