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Today’s route brings me back to Joyland. Similar to some of the neighboring areas I’ve visited, this neighborhood was quiet, almost subdued. There are positives here: access to a park, an elementary school, even (in a limited sense) shopping. The housing stock appears to be in good condition, too. Someone has to do something about the struggling retail, though!
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This route took me past some apartment and condo complexes, but also the headquarters of Ashland Oil. As if passing a business part and residential area weren’t enough, I was also treated to the smell of fresh cut grass courtesy of a tractor mowing just south of Yorkshire Boulevard.
The impressive thing about the residential parts of this area is that it hits a golden zone in terms of how building height, street width and landscaping create a sense of human scale. It’s difficult to capture in photos, but the feel, in the residential areas, is that this is just right. I also like the stairs up into a common area shared by several townhomes. This seems like an appropriate way to separate public and semi-private spaces (if done right) and it lends a little intrigue as well. (You may have noticed I like this sort of thing!) I wish that developers would spend more effort on aspects of construction like these, which are easy to overlook but critical to creating a comfortable place.
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This walk in the Easthills neighborhood featured a tremendous amount of tension. There was quiet drama. I don’t know if it was impending storm clouds, the grass brown and dormant already in mid-June, the number of people out despite the heat. But it was unique, memorable, enjoyable even. There was just so much atmosphere… It was dogs barking, planes flying overhead, a truck with a loud exhaust pipe. It was the smell of juniper and spruce trees. These things are everywhere, but there was something about how they came together here that was special.
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Today brought me back to the Eastwood neighborhood. I don’t know that I really came up with a lot to add. I spent a fair amount of time navigating Liberty Road, which recently recorded a pedestrian fatality near here. If I could be mayor for a day and could add a sidewalk to any stretch of any road in Lexington, it would be this stretch of Liberty.
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Today’s walk was through a picturesque Shadeland neighborhood near Ecton Park. One notable feature: this neighborhood has the market on tree swings cornered! A section of Turkey Foot also features a little segment, a parkway including a bench which looks like a nice place for a respite.
