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Day 23

day 23Today’s walk was though a little neighborhood just off Winchester and surrounded by Winchester Road and New Circle Road.  I really expected an area of commercial property based on how this area appears from Winchester but was surprised to find that the entry street, Brown, quickly transitions to a residential street.

Remnants of an old house

There are a mixture of housing styles and types, though frame houses dominate.  Like the Golfview neighborhood, these appear to be mostly mid-century.  Some of the original houses have evidently been torn down and lots combined, so some of these houses have some very neat, large yards.  In some cases, remnants of the original homes are still visible.  In general, it felt like residents here had an independent streak and value the fact that this neighborhood is hidden.  My favorite moment came when I realize the “ding..dong” sound I heard was triggered by me walking past the last house on a dead end street and past a door sensor (such as you might see on a convenience store) nailed to a tree trunk.

The good: Some great lots, lots of character, mystery

The bad: Mysterious but also perhaps not entirely on the level.

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Day 22

day 22Today, I looked at one of the smaller neighborhoods located along Liberty Road, in this case with it’s entrance at Gerardi Road.  This appears to be an amalgamation of houses built by several different builders (some of my favorites were located along Kingsbury and were very forward-facing, with nice porches).

There were really two especially noticeable things to me here.  First, people within the neighborhood are willing to adopt creative solutions from their neighbors.  I saw two houses with garages converted into Florida rooms.  The idea of garage-as-living-space is not new–I’ve found it’s very common.  But these rooms took things a step further with the degree of furnishing and the addition of a sun screen curtain.  20140804_140350-LResidents here also have found a solution to unsightly manhole covers (another common sight in Lexington), by decorating them with large potted plants.   But something else is evident here: this neighborhood has a serious concrete problem.  For a neighborhood built in the late 90’s, the sidewalks and driveways are in generally terrible shape, though it varies quite a bit from house to house.  I’m guessing, but I think the culprit may be salt for melting ice (and which I’ve also seen used on snow in lieu of shoveling).  But perhaps the concrete is to blame as well, as even some concrete slabs appear to be deteriorating.

The good: unique solutions, and a willingness to imitate neighbors.

The bad: concrete.

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Day 18

day 18Today’s walk was through a neighborhood officially called “The Meadows”, located between Loudon and New Circle Road, behind the industrial/ commercial area along Winchester Road.  Much like yesterday’s walk, there was perhaps a bit more stimuli than normal.  Lots of smells (soapy smells, cleansers) and sounds came out of houses, leading me to think this neighborhood has a higher daytime population than most neighborhoods I walk through.  Visually, this neighborhood feels a little distressed, especially on non through streets.  In places sidewalks and even driveways are completely falling apart.  This led me to wonder, who is responsible for sidewalk repairs?  It turns out it is the homeowner.  This was a bit of a disappointment to me, though I can’t say it doesn’t make sense somewhat; I liked the idea of the sidewalk being the city’s responsibility because that would mean that sidewalks on long cul-del-sacs unevenly benefitted the people living there.  The drawback of having it as a homeowner responsibility is that a lightly tread patch of sidewalk is unlikely to be repaired, even if it is providing a benefit to someone down the street.

Sometimes it’s subtle things that make walks interesting.  Today, I walked past a house with a fence that had become warped in an unusual way because of a tree growing next to it, and it was oddly pleasing to me.

What works: Limited (if any) neighborhood design enforcement makes this interesting
What doesn’t: Sidewalks, in some places.  I love them, but I think there may be places here where they don’t provide enough value.

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Day 16

day 16Today took me to an area near Bryan Station high school.  Officially, this area is considered the Pinehurst neighborhood, but it is really pretty free-form, with the high school nearby, horse farms, part of the Cottages at Lacledes development, and lots of houses that.  Among all of this, there is one street of tract housing, probably carved out of a block of land as the land’s owner needed.  In this area, I found some interesting answers to a question I posed earlier about dealing with front yards.  Two homes had basically answered this by making them wild, though one contained bamboo and the other cacti.  Both were a kind of cultivated wild, a little beyond what might be allowed in your typical covenant controlled neighborhood but still interesting.  Very little of today’s route had sidewalks.  Comparing quiet Edgeworth with heavily trafficked Old Paris reminds me that some streets deserve sidewalks more than others.  Old Paris was treacherous on foot and to me, any street with bus stops should provide for pedestrian safety.  Alas, like many areas like it, its hard to imagine sidewalks getting a lot of use (and I wonder if the bus stops get much use themselves).

Good: Front yards getting out of the box
Bad: Lack of sidewalks on Old Paris.

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Day 15

day 15Sometimes, interesting things pop up in unexpected places.  This walk started out about as expected,with a tour of underutilized shopping areas and overgrown parking lots.  It was tempting at this point to look at these empty parcels, thing about the inexorable increase in density and imagine some nice apartments.  But the parcels are awkward, surrounded by the back end of the Eastland shopping center, New Circle Road and the light industry nearby.  Obviously, cities need industry, and industry is often functional and little else, though sometimes the functional can be elegant and thus beautiful in a different sense.

Diaz Alley
Diaz Alley

Diaz Alley meets this criteria, I think.  It is just that—an alley, for the light industrial buildings on Commercial Dr and Industry Rd.

Good: thriving light industry
Bad: underutilized areas by New Circle Road will probably remain that way for some time