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Day 44-Early Halloween and Duplex Row

day 44Today’s walk passed through both an area of single-family homes and of duplexes, similar to Day 43.  Unlike the Boston Road area, however,  these homes were all built in a relatively short period of time in the late 1990’s and perhaps early 2000’s.  Both of today’s areas are technically part of the Emerson Woods subdivision, located near Tate’s Creek and Laredo, though naturally the separate areas have different textures.

I probably talk about the implications of neighborhood age too much, but it’s amazing to me how strongly it impacts its feeling.  Homes in both 1980’s era Boston Road and late 1990’s Emerson Woods have Halloween decorations up.  But the decorations I saw the other day were subtle, tasteful, perhaps leaning toward being “fall” oriented rather than Halloween-oriented.  Here, they are playful, witches, cobwebs, jack-o-lanterns that have already been carved, reflective, one suspects, on the presence (and age) of children whose parents would have moved into the area as young families 15 years ago.

"Calvin-and Hobbes-esque jack-o-lanterns
“Calvin-and-Hobbes”-esque jack-o-lanterns

The single-family neighborhood, with modest homes on modest lots and streets lined with pear trees has some natural visual appeal.  The lots here are generally on the small side, probably averaging around 1/10th of an acre each (with larger lots on the ends of cul-de-sacs), meaning the density here is relatively high for a neighborhood of single family homes.  The adjacent area of duplexes, surprisingly, does little to improve the density.  The smallest parcels are 0.2 acres, and at least one parcel is well over 0.45 acres, well more than twice as large as the largest single-family parcel.  While some of this additional space is taken up with a shared wooded area behind the homes, this is only part of it.  Density has a parking problem and it is evident in this area where driveways and curb cuts dominate.  In some cases, the entire front of the house is paved.  This is clear enough with a few homes but it is striking when you have an entire street with no street trees and this much concrete.

What works: Comfortable density

What doesn’t: The separation of single family homes and duplexes is jarring.

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Day 43-Suburban Townhomes and Stormwater

day 43Today’s walk took me to an area just outside of Man O’ War at Boston Road.   My path took me through several distinct areas.  This area is being built out slowly.  Some of the older houses date to the mid 1980’s, but there are newer condos that have been completed within the last few years and there appears to be room for additional construction.  In addition to the housing, the intersection of Man O’ War and Boston Road has two shopping centers including one anchored by a grocery store.

The overall impact is positive. With a mix of housing levels and nearby shopping, the area has as much of a main street vibe as you would expect to find in an essentially suburban area.  (That is, I don’t believe the area was intentionally planned with anything along the lines of a New Urbanist approach.) Despite the rain, I ran into several other people walking which has not been a typical experience for me on mid-day walks in the suburban neighborhoods.

I passed over two separate streams (essentially stormwater ditches), both apparently on their way to South Elkhorn Creek.  The water flows in this area have a definite impact on the street layout, which has long, unconnected streets like Overview.  Some attempt has been made to make these streams pleasant (for example, a small pond along Boston Road and a trail behind the townhouses on Nadia.  The results are mixed, but it’s a step up from trapping the water underground.

What works: mixture of housing and retail

What doesn’t: Superblocks

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Day 42

day 42Today was a split day, with a portion of my walk through a residential neighborhood just south of Man O’ War called Cove Lake and the rest along the commercial corridor along Richmond Road behind the neighborhood.

The contrast between residential and commercial is very clear along Lake Wales.  This street appeals to me for a reason I can’t put my finger on.  It feels as if maybe it is just less self-conscious than most streets.  Lake Wales ends in a cul-de-sac, and it’s hard to tell from the map but it sits perhaps 12 feet over the adjacent car lot with a surprising view of brightly colored street lights at shoe level.  Here, the sounds of insects is almost loud enough to drown out the sound of traffic passing through what is probably one of the city’s busiest intersections.

The view from Lake Wales looking toward Richmond Rd.
The view from Lake Wales looking toward Richmond Rd.

The commercial strip is, of course, image conscious.  Besides, the car lot with the yellow and blue light posts, there are a number of fast-casual restaurants tending toward the trendy and up-and-coming, serving food out of buildings that weren’t here a year ago.  This being the place to be, the biggest surprise may be that a lot that has yet to be built has signs of a previous building that must have been razed.  Winding back on Eagle Creek, literally through a car dealership, puts you back in the older Cove Lake neighborhood.

Houses in the Cove Lake neighborhood
Houses in the Cove Lake neighborhood

The term “conspicuous consumption” is thrown around often enough to describe luxuries from extravagant phone accessories to large houses.  The simple houses here belie a time when the aesthetic was quiet austerity.  The tract houses built from the 1940’s through the 1960’s and into the 1970’s were generally simple.  Houses along Eagle Creek are very different than the bright new restaurants with visually interesting facades.

What works: The commercial strip is adjacent to the neighborhood but feels buffered.

What doesn’t: The maps.  Neither map provider I use correctly identified the intersection of Sand Creek and Richmond.

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Day 41

day 41Today took me to another neighborhood with lots of 1960’s vintage ranch houses.  Like several neighborhoods of similar age, it was quiet, both in the sense that it appears stable (there were few, if any, houses for sale in the portion I walked through) and in that it was literally quiet.

I tried something different today.  I’ve been hoping to work trails into the discussion because trails contribute to the walking experience as much as most of the streets I’m walking along.  The difficulty may be in working them into the project, as there isn’t a reliable, unified source for trails.  Lexington-Fayette County maintains and provides data on bike trails, for example, but the data set doesn’t include the park trails I walked on today.

Still, walking through the park gave me an opportunity to think about parks and how they work.  Large parks can be nodes of activity, an interface between communities that invites conflict and serendipity.  Smaller parks that serve limited, more homogenous areas, don’t have that same allure of spectacle even though they may similar facilities.

Dixie park has the standard park equipment plus a small disc golf course.
Dixie park has the standard park equipment plus a small disc golf course.

Dixie Park is on the small side but could benefit from big park allure because of its location within the neighborhood and the fact that unlike many of Lexington’s smaller parks, it’s accessible from it’s neighborhood’s feeder route.  It also has a unique amenity in it’s small disc golf course.

What works: Park located centrally within the Eastland area with connections to several streets.

What doesn’t: School pickup rush hour along the northwest portion of Eastland!

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Day 40

day 40Today’s walk was through the Gleneagles neighborhood, just east of I-75 and Man O’ War.  This is a relatively new area and in fact my wife and I walked through several houses in this area when we first moved to Lexington in 2006.  The street names, Market Garden, Scottish Trace, for me elicit memories of new house smell.

My impression of the area is less favorable now than in 2006, mostly due to my increased interest in utilitarian walking.  Like most of the places we looked at at that time including the one into which we moved, the walking opportunities are nice but almost strictly recreational.  Polo Club is nice and does connect into a larger network of trails and parks, though at a scale more appropriate for bicycling.  This section of Polo Club crosses a wetland preserve and some of the Market Garden houses back to the same greenspace.  At the time of this visit, the greenspace was occupied by heavy equipment.

Two houses with a mirrored floor plan
Two houses with a mirrored floor plan

Something of a consistent theme, I’ve noticed that glimpses into the hearts of houses are rare, usually confined to backyards on corner lots.  But often, especially in newer tract home neighborhoods, people have moved their lives outside to the fronts of their houses.  There are rarely porches, but garages and occasionally front yards may be occupied.  Whatever builders think people want, people are making their houses outward facing on their own.

What works: the wide trail on Polo Club

What doesn’t: trash accumulating in certain areas inside the neighborhood.