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Day 39

day 39Today’s walk was through a neighborhood the assessors office calls Lakeview Island and the signage in the neighborhood calls Lakeside.  The lake in question is Reservoir #3, the westernmost of a chain of reservoirs located between Richmond and Alumni just inside New Circle Road.  Though functionally a reservoir, it still provides lake-like views and lake views demand a premium.  These are nice houses, and modern ranch-style houses dominate, giving away the neighborhood’s approximate age.

A few things are evident.  First, this area does not have a high degree of turnover.  It feels stable, though too much stability can set a neighborhood up for relatively drastic change as older residents move away.  This neighborhood seems like it may be headed in that direction, with little of the evidence of young families with kids that most neighborhoods have. It also seemed to lack, not character exactly, but perhaps that level of consistent and quality effort at creating space that really impressed me in Henry Clay on Day 38. Some places did have quality landscaping or other work done, but it just wasn’t consistent.  Too many places had large unbroken lawns, often on hills that probably made them difficult to mow but unsuitable for much else (except sledding!)

Modern Ranch in the Lakeside neighborhood
Modern Ranch in the Lakeside neighborhood

What works: interesting architecture

What doesn’t: premium prices mean this neighborhood seems house rich and cash poor.

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Day 38

day 38Today took me to a small neighborhood near Liberty and Henry Clay that featured mostly modest mid-century frame houses, with some more recent home built along the southern stretch of Courtney.

This seems like a nice area, similar to the stretch in Kenwick from Day 17 in that it is perhaps more affordable than some of the areas around it but still has some of the features that generally demand a premium (well kept, tree-lined streets; nearby shops).  I think this nicely encapsulates one thing I really like about Lexington, which is that its small scale seems to have allowed (somewhat) economically diverse neighborhoods to exist close together.  Whereas larger cities deal with Balkanization, one doesn’t necessarily have to pay up in order to have access to nice things, especially at the interfaces between neighborhoods.

Cul-de-sac parklet
Cul-de-sac parklet

This neighborhood also replicates (on a smaller scale) the parklet in a cul-de-sac concept seen in Chevy Chase on Day 33.  But I think this highlights a problem, too.  This neighborhood is very far from anything resembling a public park.  As in other neighborhoods in park deserts, the difference has been made up in street play and home playgrounds.

Established Garden in the Henry Clay neighborhood
Established Garden in the Henry Clay neighborhood

I find the difference between neighborhoods with similar home prices to be interesting.  This neighborhood seems very well kept compared to other areas with similar home prices.  It feels like this is in part due to the sum total of effort put into the homes and yards, something that newer neighborhoods (with plain grass lawns and default landscaping) can’t possibly compete with based on their newness.

What works: Streets are pleasantly walkable, with lots of visual interest.

What doesn’t: Streets aren’t walkable in a utilitarian way.

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Day 37

day37Imagine for a minute that you are outside, late at night, in a quiet and remote place, perhaps  in the middle of the Great Plains.  You can see a highway, maybe a quarter mile away, and maybe a few times per hour a truck drives by.  Imagine how this truck sounds to you as it slowly approaches, passes, and drives away from you, a subdued, lonely roar mixed with road noise that sounds almost like a rainstorm.  Now imagine this roar, except now a dozen times a minute and much closer and you can imagine the lonely cacophony of Buena Vista Road.

This area has some picturesque streetscapes
This area has some picturesque streetscapes

This area is quiet and a little lonely, but it is well-suited to its location near I-75.  It is populated with a mix of car-centric businesses with motels being the dominant player, though gas stations and roadside restaurants are also mixed in. It’s a pleasant area with acceptable though not completely reliable sidewalks that do provide car-free accessibility between the hotels and restaurants.  The long quiet stretches of Buena Vista and Elkhorn also provide parking areas for truckers.  The areas seems to be doing pretty well.  Two properties appear to have been razed at some point in the past (one of which was a motel), but one hotel recently completed a remodel and a new hotel is being built nearby. Generally, the area appears to have been built out in the 1980’s and seems to be getting a breath of fresh air from recent development across Winchester.

This sign was near a stream. Any guess as to what it once said?
This sign was near a stream. Any guess as to what it once said?

What works: mix of businesses that are interdependent.

What doesn’t: Might be saturated with motels; the next higher class of hotel property might create some synergy with restaurants across Winchester but on-foot accessibility isn’t as good.

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Day 36

day 36Today’s walk took me to the Chilesburg area along Hays Boulevard and close to Todd’s Road and I-75.  This neighborhood as a whole is fairly new; new houses were under construction within view of the area through which I walked. The houses I passed were relatively old, but still built in the last 15 years or so.

Newer neighborhoods have adopted some common design elements.  While earlier neighborhoods were built on a trunk-and-branch philosophy, these areas typically feature a circle with branches.  They often feature parklets, as this area does.  They also seem to deal a little more thoughtfully with stormwater.  Perhaps this is due to required environmental impact investigation?  Streams are allowed to remain above ground and even in some cases landscaping around them (though I don’t know that we’ve reached a point where the landscaping is always suitable.)

What works: Trees work well to keep the highway sound down.  Stormwater stream is an amenity.

What doesn’t: The narrow streets caused some problems when roofers and recycling pickup (trash trucks) competed for the same space.

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Day 35

day 35Today’s walk was through an odd mix of light industrial, commercial and residential along and behind Winchester Road.  The commercial strip stood out; this stretch of Winchester is generally gritty, the kind of place you go to shop for a greasy part in your car,  not where you would go to find a trendy boutique.  The specific section I walked along featured two nightclubs, two “gentleman’s” clubs and a KFC.  The opposite side of the street has some intriguing businesses that look like the kind of nondescript places where people who know something shop for…vintage pinball machines?  I have to remember to take a closer look at those shops when I return to walk through the area on the south side of the street.

Another feature of this area is a named alley. (I love these.  Who wouldn’t want to have an alley named after them?)  But of course, street names have stories and you can learn from this Herald-Leader column that there was a La Flame nightclub along Winchester from the late 1950’s.

2014-09-04_13-19-24-M
One of the more peculiar sights among the car-oriented businesses was this car with missing and inadequate tires.

This area is surely more interesting at night; I wonder where everyone must park.  Transit in this area is evidently a challenge.  A bicyclist was using the marked bike lane, but minutes later, two vehicles parked in the bike lane so their owners could grab lunch.  Despite the steady number of pedestrians, it’s clear cars own this stretch just out of the sheer number of auto-oriented businesses.

Side note for the geeky: the geographic center of the area I walked today is due south of the center of the area I walked on Day 34; both have the same longitude, to four decimal places!

What works: This short stretch of Winchester has some unique things.

What doesn’t: Parking needs compete with bike lanes.