Category Archives: Uncategorized

Day 74-Elevated…

December 24, 2014 Marcel

Today’s walk focused on the Melrose Park neighborhood next to Manchester road, near the distillery district. This neighborhood seems to have been built out in the 1930’s and 40’s, and simple frame houses from the 40’s dominate. The neighborhood is also sandwiched between the railroad tracks and industrial areas along Manchester and an elevated portion of Main street, perhaps isolated in a similar fashion as the area I visited on Days 23 and 69.

My favorite part of this walk was the section along Old Main street, past houses that surely predate the elevated Main street. What a kick in the pants to have faced Main Street, only to have it replaced with a concrete pier. Yet these buildings have escaped, obstinately continuing to exist and looking good.

This neighborhood appears to be pretty stable but is in an area that is one of the more dynamic I’ve found in Lexington, if not specifically in terms of activity on the ground, then at least in terms of activity on paper. The Lexington Distillery District was approved as a Tax Increment Financing district, though the application was later withdrawn. A number of up-and-coming businesses have moved into the area recently, though the area seems to have pinned its hopes on the success of a music venue, Buster’s Backroom, which recently closed its doors.

Looking west along Manchester from Thompson Road

Though this is a setback to the district, 2014 was a good year for the Town Branch Trail, which proponents hope to extend from Masterston Station Park, past McConnell Springs, through the district and into downtown Lexington. Funding for a significant portion of the project has been promised by the governor. All in all, this reminds me of a Lexington-sized version of The Flats in Cleveland, which appeared poised to turn into a nationally recognized entertainment district before fizzling in the early 2000’s. The elements are mostly there, but there isn’t enough (yet) to build a critical mass.

Another Art Horse on the Campus of Providence Montessori School

So what does this dynamism mean for Melrose Park? Specifically, could development, under the guise of cleaning blight, ultimately destroy the current character of the neighborhood? Simply because the area already seems to draw off the existing industrial areas around it and because the kinds of businesses that are doing well are pretty blue-collar, I would say it is safe.

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Day 73-Transitions

December 21, 2014 Marcel

Today’s walk consisted of a short path through the Holiday Hills subdivision as well as the adjacent stretch of Versailles Road. The neighborhood seems to date from the 1960’s, with familiar ranch houses similar to those in other neighborhoods built at the same time. Street names in neighborhoods can sometimes be incomprehensible. The names here were not only consistent (French place names), they also managed to play off the name of the arterial, though of course, we pronounce Versailles a little differently!

The neighborhood didn’t offer much in the way of surprises, though Versailles road did. Versailles road looks different at three miles per hour, and the transition from the commercial to residential between Parker’s Mill and Bordeaux is more evident. Residential spaces along major, high-speed roads generally seem to be pretty well shielded by foliage. At 45 miles per hour, the houses may as well not exist as far as most of us are concerned and perceptually, it feels like going from commercial district to, well…, nothing. On foot (in winter, at least), the houses are visible, and one has plenty of time to wonder, When would it have seemed like a good idea to build a house along Versailles Road?

The end of this cul-de-sac offers a view into an adjacent one.

Versailles has plenty of curb breaks, along the residential section as well as the drive-through-dominated commercial section. My pedestrian paranoia kicked in while I was walking with traffic–I was concerned a car my approach from behind me and clip me while turning right off Versailles. It may sound like I don’t have much faith in drivers to spot someone walking in broad daylight, but my paranoia may have been well-founded, as I saw the same man nearly hit twice in a matter of minutes while trying to cross Alexandria and Versailles roads in his wheelchair, both times by drivers making right hand turns and not paying attention. One vehicle glided through the stop line and missed him by a matter of inches; the driver quickly made sure no cars were coming, then made the turn. I don’t the driver ever realized someone was there. And maybe that’s the point. Survival in this world requires, at the minimum, assuming drivers don’t realize you are there.

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Day 72-Defensible Space

December 15, 2014 Marcel

Today’s walk was through the Squires Acres and Squires Woods neighborhoods behind Richmond Road near Eagle Creek. The Richmond Road stretch of this circuit is commercial, consisting of strip malls with huge setbacks and a car dealership. The residential area behind Richmond is mostly multi-family; apartments on the north end, attached homes and townhomes near Squires on the south end of the area I walked through.

There were two things I liked today. I liked the narrow setbacks of the older attached houses (dating from the mid-1980’s) just north of Squires on Cove Lake. These made for a very comfortable pedestrian scale for that section of road. I also like the townhomes of Squires Woods, which, in contrast to Hamburg Farms, present sufficient space for self expression even while providing what appears to be a similar amount of parking. The planner Oscar Newman thinks that this semi-private space is a crucial aspect of defining boundaries and establishing a sense of ownership of the place, and though it doesn’t compare to Hamburg Farms in newness, this complex does feel a little more comfortable. And pity any stranger walking through here–the neighborhood watch grilled me pretty thoroughly and I’m not sure I ever convinced them I was on the level.

Sidewalk crossing Squires behind the stop line

The stretch of Richmond road that I traversed reinforces a common issue I encounter. Streets within neighborhoods are well connected, but from a pedestrian standpoint, the arterial roads are unbelievably bad. In this location, the car-oriented design is especially shameful because the homes here could have excellent access to the retail along Richmond Road up to Man O’ War and beyond, as well as Jacobson Park to the south. Instead, Richmond is a mess, with cars traveling faster than they need to, no sidewalk, and not even a curb to offer some sense of protection. At the intersection of Richmond and Squires, the sidewalk crosses a full ten feet behind the painted stop line, so someone walking here could encounter a situation where the path across the street is blocked by traffic. And, since this is a turn lane, the pedestrian may not be able to predict when the first car will turn and the line will move up. Walking along this stretch required extra attention, as there were plenty of opportunities to intersect the paths of cars whose drivers may or may not have anticipated someone walking.

I don’t really intend to use this as a soapbox, but it should be evident that I’m passionate about walking. Walking is something that most of us can do, and we have design elements available to make sidewalks accessible to people with disabilities. Driving to the store or the park may not be a big deal to most of us. But to fail to provide a basic level of on-foot accessibility is to discriminate against the old, the young, and people with disabilities. There are plenty of similar stretches of road; perhaps someday most or all of the arterials in Lexington will be multimodal. But in terms of bang for the buck, in the sense that residential density and destinations exist to support it, this stretch of Richmond seems like an excellent candidate to improve sooner rather than later.

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Day 71-Santa, baby

December 10, 2014 Marcel

Today’s walk was in the Masterston Station neighborhood. This generally felt like a pretty typical Ball Homes neighborhood from the last couple of decades (there are a few traits that seem to typify Ball Homes neighborhoods, but the giveaway here was the sign at the neighborhood entrance). The oldest homes here seems to be six years old or so, and there are still some platted lots where houses have not yet been built.

The outstanding feature of the portion of the neighborhood I walked through today was it’s numerous manger scenes, which varied from traditional to more lighthearted. There were plenty of less overtly religious light displays as well, but it was pretty clear that residents here in general take Christmas pretty seriously. I did get a chuckle out of the Santa and baby Jesus scene, a merging of traditions I guess.

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Day 70-Gestalt

December 9, 2014 Marcel

Today, I visited the Garden Springs neighborhood, along Alexandria near Harrodsburg Road, a 1960’s neighborhood with simple ranch styles.

In the first few weeks I spent walking, it was easy to make imperfect comparisons between the unfamiliar neighborhoods I was walking through and neighborhoods I am more familiar with, generally in other cities. Over time, I’ve became less compelled to do this. This stretch of Alexandria, though, reminded me so much of the street we lived on before we moved to Lexington that it’s impossible to not make comparisons. Both streets are wide, 40 feet give or take a foot or so. Both are fast for residential streets (Alexandria’s 35 mile per hour speed limit, like most of Lexington’s speed limits, is probably about 5 mph faster than a comparable street in the Denver area), and both probably carry similar traffic loads. The sidewalks on Alexandria are far nicer; the inclusion of a planting strip makes it much nicer to walk down.

But Alexandria feels wider despite the fact it is almost exactly the same width. The perception that this street is wider makes it more of a barrier. (I felt comfortable strolling across the street to talk to a neighbor, which seems less likely here.) I don’t know what exactly makes my old street feel less like a barrier than Alexandria; a recently added bike lane may have helped. It may be that the height of houses relative to their distance from each other across the street contributes as well, as houses in my old neighborhood are slightly taller, and somewhat closer, 100-110 feet apart across the street versus 130 feet here.

Sidewalks cross at intersections, providing separate crossings for each travel direction.

And of course, the sidewalks on opposite sides are further apart because of the planting strip. These seem like small differences, but the perceptual difference is very clear.