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Wow, your complaints are ridiculous. First of all the location of Hamburg is perfect. Being directly off 2 interstate exits makes it more convenient for thousands of people from Southern and Eastern KY. Which means more business for Lexington from all the out of towners. Your posts remind me of another person on here who is constantly negative. Are you people just miserable babies that whine all the time??
And you remind me of someone who can't take a bit constructive criticism about their town & somehow feel obligated to respond to every critical comment in this (and many other) threads.
I made a lot of valid points, so why dont you try actually dismantling my post then if you're so gung-ho to dismiss them instead of simply calling me a "whiny baby"? Because you contributed absolutely nothing besides reaffirming you're a "state fanboy" & KY/all its cities/people can never do any wrong. You're part of the problem, pal, not the solution because you have blinders on.
So why dont you elaborate what part of my post you found so "ridiculous"?? Now, go ahead & try to tell us all that Lex's city planners havent done these things, or if they have, how awesome you think they are.
P.S. I didnt say a thing about Hamburg "location", so obviously you didnt read too well & are just letting your unbelievable bias write your little snippy comebacks. Try to keep up or just dont litter the threads with your posts.
KerryB is spot on, what a sad city this place has become. Coming back to visit is painful. I have to wonder if the people who suggest that Lexington is so great have ever lived elsewhere or had the chance to travel to real cities.
Hamburg is a terrible design with a completely un-walkable, pedestrian unfriendly layout. The Levis Commons looks nothing like Hamburg's layout, notice the lack of roads cutting through the development? Parking should be under or over the developments, not on the outskirts. And housing stock should be integrated into the design, not in the surrounding areas. Who wants to cross Man O War on foot to go shopping?
This is a much better execution of a mixed use development. Home | Santana Row
The first part, I couldn't agree with you more! Not a fan of Lexington myself, that's why I don't live anywhere near it anymore!
As for your living in a "real city," all I can say is HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I needed a good laugh today and you provided that. I'm so thankful I saw this post.
Do you mean that you like my post overall or not? (Not being smart alec or defensive, just inquiring.)
Hamburg is a terrible design with a completely un-walkable, pedestrian unfriendly layout. The Levis Commons looks nothing like Hamburg's layout, notice the lack of roads cutting through the development? Parking should be under or over the developments, not on the outskirts. And housing stock should be integrated into the design, not in the surrounding areas. Who wants to cross Man O War on foot to go shopping?
Spot on.
A city that brags about its beauty loves to take drastic measure to ruin its beauty? Juxtaposition, agreed? In 25 years Hamburg will look like overgrown, aged crap; now it just looks overgrown with largely empty parking lots. Just another example of the comprehensive planning brilliance that is part of Lexington, as well as its wonderful regional planning.
Crestview Hills Town Center in Northern Kentucky is more of an outdoor mall than a lifestyle center (b/c there's no real residential development in the complex,) but it is very easy and safe to navigate by either car or foot.
I looked up Levis Commons. Interestingly it's exactly like Hamburg. It's on the outskirts of town and next to an interstate. Only difference is that it's smaller than Hamburg.
The locations are similar, but the design is completely different. When you walk around the entire development Levis Commons is actually much, much, much more dense. There are no large parking lots like Hamburg, and all the stores are incorporated into "Main Street" development as opposed to having big box chains spread out with 250 feet of parking lot between them. The housing (which is dense as well) is also literally within a stone's throw of the shopping and entertainment. They also have second floor offices above the retail. So instead of isolating all the businesses in one quandrant of Hamburg, Levis Commons has leased office space above their retail stores.
On the whole, Hamburg is much larger (in square footage, amount of housing, and land area). However, the "main streat" area of Levis Commons is larger and is more central to the design of the entire development. 80% of the people going to Hamburg will never even visit the "main street" area because the vast majority of stores are far away from it.
I would like to defend part of Lexington. Lexington inside New Circle is wonderful (with the notable exception of the Winchester Rd corridor). It has character, good density, moderately varied architecture, and great neighborhoods. Downtown has a lot going for it compared to most cities Lexington's size and is nicer than most cities much larger than it. (For example, downtown Lexington seemingly offers more restaurants and shopping than downtown Cincinnati.....or at least what it does have is much less spread out).
Outside of New Ciricle it's like someone took a blender to development and made it all homogenous. You can drive for miles around Man O' War and feel like you're in the same neighborhood, the road grids of individual housing develpments are rarely intertwined with one another, and there are more surface parking lots than green areas.
Fortunately, I think development will leave the outskirts and we'll see much more infill. A lot of the residential neighborhoods around Hamburg and the like are dangerously close to having home values collapse. Meanwhile, inside New Circle, home values are very stable. I recently bought a house inside New Circle after moving here from Ohio. After driving around the neighborhoods in the Richmond and Man O' War and Hamburg areas, I wouldn't touch that area with a ten foot pole. There were for sale signs are a third of the houses in some neighborhoods. Development like that going on at The Lex on Broadway and the development that will be happening off of Angliana will be where the majority of development takes place over the next 5-10 years. The Distillery District may also be a major catalyst to urban infill development when it is completed.
Lastly, Lexington isn't the only place that messed up development in the 90s and early 2000s. Cincinnati did the same thing. Louisville did the same thing. Nashville did the same thing. And now all of those cities are reverting back to their urban core for future development along with Lexington.
KerryB is spot on, what a sad city this place has become. Coming back to visit is painful. I have to wonder if the people who suggest that Lexington is so great have ever lived elsewhere or had the chance to travel to real cities.
Thanks.
Yeah, Im guessing most have not. The thing with Lexington is, aside from people affiliated with the University, the vast majority of its influx of new residents (and visitors) come from central & eastern KY. So to them, its all good & this is "the city" to those folks (trust me, I was one of them at one time). And thats fine if they like it & it works for them. There's nothing wrong with that.
However, anyone who's moved around, or at the very least traveled a lot sees a much different picture when they look at Lex & its actually quite the opposite. The reality is, its just a very poorly planned town & has little to offer that you cant get in any other suburban small to mid-sized town. Sure, Louisville & Cincy have degrees of that, but they're FAR from where Lex is in this regard. They do still have character, some uniqueness & an urban core. They get a much broader ranged influx of residents too from many different places. And they act quickly, while Lex is puttering about in the slow lane on fumes. Again, look at how long its been since they leveled that huge chunk of downtown & let it sit there. Do something already! It would almost be laughable if it wasn't so god damn tragic.
Anyways, I am willing to bet that most the people on Lex's city planning committees have lived in or around Lexington their entire lives. Which is NOT what you want to happen.
Yeah, Im guessing most have not. The thing with Lexington is, aside from people affiliated with the University, the vast majority of its influx of new residents (and visitors) come from central & eastern KY. So to them, its all good & this is "the city" to those folks (trust me, I was one of them at one time). And thats fine if they like it & it works for them. There's nothing wrong with that.
However, anyone who's moved around, or at the very least traveled a lot sees a much different picture when they look at Lex & its actually quite the opposite. The reality is, its just a very poorly planned town & has little to offer that you cant get in any other suburban small to mid-sized town. Sure, Louisville & Cincy have degrees of that, but they're FAR from where Lex is in this regard. They do still have character, some uniqueness & an urban core. They get a much broader ranged influx of residents too from many different places. And they act quickly, while Lex is puttering about in the slow lane on fumes. Again, look at how long its been since they leveled that huge chunk of downtown & let it sit there. Do something already! It would almost be laughable if it wasn't so god damn tragic.
Anyways, I am willing to bet that most the people on Lex's city planning committees have lived in or around Lexington their entire lives. Which is NOT what you want to happen.
Dude, I have traveled extensively in my life to many large cities. I am very aware of the world outside of Kentucky. Most cities have "poor planning" in certain areas. Look at Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, etc. They all have areas with "poor planning." Is there any city that is perfectly planned? No KerryB there isn't.
Dude, I have traveled extensively in my life to many large cities. I am very aware of the world outside of Kentucky. Most cities have "poor planning" in certain areas. Look at Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, etc. They all have areas with "poor planning." Is there any city that is perfectly planned? No KerryB there isn't.
I dont doubt that you have & I honestly wasnt referring to you personally. But have you only visited, or have you actually lived in other places outside the region for an extended time? That does matter you know. Living in & just visiting are two different things. I mean, I've visited NYC, but boy oh boy, that sure doesnt make me an expert on the place & Im sure living there would be an entirely different can of worms.
We've already established that no city is perfect & they all suffer from this in one form or another. Anyways, comparing Atlanta & Chicago to Lexington is apples & oranges. So its really beside the point, as we're discussing Lexington & other small/mid-sized cities.
The cities that Lex can be compared to in the general region (Cincy, Louisville, Knoxville, Asheville, Greenville, Charleston SC, etc) fair much better in this regard, are unique & have a "vibe" to them. But, there are some that are MUCH worse than Lex. I'd say those would be Huntington, Charleston WV, Dayton, Roanoke, Fort Wayne, Huntsville, etc. They have similar population to Lex & they're really REALLY terrible. So I'm def not saying Lex is awful.
All things considered, if I personally were scaling Lex, I'd probably give it an average 5 outta 10. Not good, not bad. I def thinks its starting to go more towards the "bad" end though. They literally havent done anything to the town in so many years. At least anything for the better. It doesnt have to be that way & I wish it wasnt. They do seem to be trying things here & there, but its just bad ideas & bad planning. Thats obvious now with the way things have turned out.
But like I said, I could think of (and have also experienced) a LOT worse places to live.
My wife and I cannot wait to move because of the unbelievable snobbery (and horrendous traffic layout) here.
I have thought about why this place is so snooty and may have an answer. Most people don't think very highly of KY, but there are a lot of students who come from other parts of the country to attend UK. I also believe that there are quite a few graduates who for some reason decide to stay. The college graduate rate in KY alone is something like 30% so these people who graduate truly believe they are above the rest of the KY 'rednecks' Also, Lexington and Louisville receive the majority of the state funding because of their universities, while areas like Hazard are absolutely dirt poor. This provides for the snooty attitude that so many 'outsiders' refer to when discussing Lexington. Also, the fact that KY is traditionally a fairly poor region and the select few in Lexington/Louisville have multi-million dollars horse farms, doesn't help. Just my 2 cents.
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