Tag Archives: Brookmeade

Uncategorized

Day 56-Youth and Wisdom

day 56Today I took another trip out along Bryan Station and walked through several smaller subdivisions.  The big surprise here was the variety of housing ages (and sizes) that I encountered over a fairly short stretch with houses from the 1950’s and 60’s next to a subdivision with lots that have not yet been built.

There is a lesson here about growth patterns and maybe about entropy.  This newest subdivision appears to have been cut off a neighboring parcel belonging to a church.  In a lot of ways, this reminded me of the Pinehurst area from Day 16, and oddly enough, this neighborhood is listed under the same “neighborhood” name by the assessor’s office.  The other Pinehurst is close but it’s not obviously connected and my belief at the time I walked it was that it was cut off a privately-owned property (so perhaps using the same name is a simple convention for the assessor?)  But there are similarities, in that both appear to have been divided off larger properties, not exactly as infill but almost having the affect of a small infill project.  Anyway, I think this area’s strength is in the range of housing ages, something made possible by this subdivision of larger parcels.

Subdivision of property is interesting though.  It’s never as easy to assemble pieces back together as it is to subdivide.  It usually takes concerted effort.  It reminds me of watching oil in a pot of boiling water while it separates and then recombines.  And so, I would say that watching the development patterns of Lexington  is sort of like watching that oil.  (This is true of any city, really, but particularly Lexington because of the value of the agricultural lands surrounding it.)  Larger parcels get broken down and sometimes these are broken immediately into small pieces like house lots.  Other times they are medium-size parcels, an agricultural reserve, a church, maybe a house with acreage.  These midsized lots can be broken down further and often, eventually, they are.  And this is sort of fascinating.  Looking at the map of this area, there are places where this sort of thing could easily happen again.

Among all of this, I found among a couple of my snapshots a couple of photos of similar scenes in different subdivisions.  I think seeing these two photos side by side is a nice way to show the impact of setbacks on the “feel” of a street.

View of a street in Northwood constructed in the 1950's
View of a street in Northwood constructed in the 1950’s

The first photo is from the Northwood neighborhood.  Here the houses are mostly 1 or 1-1/2 floors.  Houses are set relatively close to the sidewalk.  The street feels cozy.

View of a street in Kenawood constructed in the 1960's.
View of a street in Kenawood constructed in the 1960’s.

 

The second photo is from the Kenawood neighborhood, just across Bryan Station.  This area was built only a little later, in the early 1960’s.  Houses are ranch style houses, so they are probably  close in size, but they are set back further from the street.  This street feels more open.  The difference is subtle and other elements, like street-parked cars and trees, have an impact as well.

A final though.  I took advantage of this walk today to walk through the area I first wrote about on Day 5.  One of the questions I had at that time was whether my expectations about political leanings would be borne out by the yard signs that would inevitably appear.  As it turns out, sort of.  That neighborhood seems to be pretty evenly mixed, befitting of the mixed signals I was getting then!

Uncategorized

Day 5

1 Comment

Today’s walk took me to a neighborhood just outside the loop and along Bryan Station.  My first impression of the neighborhood was that it was not parking friendly.  My initial plan had been to park near the outlet of the neighborhood onto Bryant Station, but the streets in the neighborhood are one-way couplets with a grassy median between each side.  Some cars have parked on the grass, but I wanted to avoid this (especially near the front, where the median has recently been reseeded.  I parked nearby and walked into the neighborhood.

I was somewhat surprised by the large houses, a few of which were undergoing significant work.   The housing stock seems to reflect a variety of styles and to have been constructed over a wide period of time.  The yards tended to the wild side, but perhaps a cultivated wild.  I was also pleasantly surprised that despite the lack of sidewalks, the neighborhood felt quite walkable, and I suspect the medians on most of these streets added to a sense of street safety.

When I pass through a neighborhood, I try to get a feel for its inhabitants, and in Lexington in particular, a couple of things stand out to me.  I very much notice neighborhoods without sidewalks (as you might imagine), and I also notice (when it is trash day) when neighborhoods have private trash service.  I tend to see both of these attributes as pointing to a more politically right-leaning demographic.  Favoring private services over public ones is a fairly straightforward expression of limited government, and sidewalks could be seen as taking private land for public good.  In older neighborhoods, I suppose its best to be cautious of this.  After walking through this neighborhood, I had a sense that it was more likely a little left leaning.  It would be interesting to take another look when the yard sides come out this fall!