Truth About Lexington, KY (neighborhoods, construction, public school)

[censusdata]

1. Homicides are concentrated along Georgetown STREET (Road - outside New Circle - quite safe), North Broadway, and Gainesway area off Tates Creek Road. Car break ins, theft is frequent anywhere along and north of US 60, in Gainesway, and the older areas off South Broadway just west of UK.

The safest area of Lex is the SW, anything off Harrodsburg Rd and Clays Mill Rd is upper middle class with nearly zero crime.

2. Older neighborhoods off Clays Mill Road

3. Not exactly born here but lived here a long time (ages 11 to 19, and since age 25. I'm 28 now). Moved to Louisville right after high school, really enjoyed the change. A bit more to do, lots of great architecture, better road system (by far), and I generally get along better with the people.

I had a huge amount of problems in middle and high school, which used to skew my attitudes about Lexington towards being very negative. (Check some of my posts from a few years ago on Lex).

Having matured into my late 20s I know have a more level attitude towards Lex. I think it has some good points - especially how the unified city county gov't and tax system prevents the mass decline of older neighborhoods. There are defiantly neighborhoods here that are bad, but not to the degree you see in Cincinnati (to a lesser extent Louisville) where high taxes and terrible schools have made the city limits a wasteland of drug dealers and homeless. Overall the city is clean, and the urban growth boundary gives the cool feeling of leaving a dense suburban area and immediately being surrounded by horse farms and stone fences.

As of now I am thinking about moving to Northern KY after I graduate college. There's more to do there but it has almost no crime at all. 3 murders per year for 400,000 urban residents is incredible! It's right across from one of the larger "old school" American cities. Great architecture in the older river towns and super clean suburbs off the river valley with tons of places to shop and eat. Also have as much family in Greater Cincy as Lex, so that issue is a wash. I have no family in Louisville (which was an issue when I lived there)

[ASpoon]

Originally Posted by censusdata

1. Homicides are concentrated along Georgetown STREET (Road - outside New Circle - quite safe), North Broadway, and Gainesway area off Tates Creek Road. Car break ins, theft is frequent anywhere along and north of US 60, in Gainesway, and the older areas off South Broadway just west of UK.

Thanks for the informative info...I'm just trying to get outta Cincy and never look back...but I can't afford to move back home to Chicago...I've gotten comfortable living modest oppose to high cost of living and high sales tax in Chicago..and not to mention the high price in gas...it's higher up north. But I figure Lexington was nearby Cincy (not next door) but far enough...

[UKUKUK]

Originally Posted by InLondon

So you'd raise a family next to a large university like UK?? With all that goes on in those type areas?? Yeah, I'd pick a whole lot of other areas in Lex to live if I had a family, not a good environment. Again, someone that is just 20 (as I suspect you are) wouldn't know about this stuff....

What goes on in the campus area aside from all of the cultural opportunities Lexington has to offer? Yeah, college kids drink and party. It happens. It happens with adults and high schoolers too. College kids don't have to hide it as well as your neighbors' 16 year olds do either.

I'm 24. Anyways, yeah, I would. Most college students, when they see a little kid either "d'awwww!" or are indifferent. They're not out to get your babies. The only place I'd avoid is the Elizabeth Street area.

Beats living in Woodhill, at least.

[cartomanlex]

Originally Posted by InLondon

So you'd raise a family next to a large university like UK?? With all that goes on in those type areas?? Yeah, I'd pick a whole lot of other areas in Lex to live if I had a family, not a good environment. Again, someone that is just 20 (as I suspect you are) wouldn't know about this stuff....

I would not call UK a large university in this day and age. I would, and did, raise my family next to the University of Kentucky. I was raised within a mile of the campus and have spent my life working and relaxing near the UK community.

I turn 61 this month and would not change how I feel about being near a college aged campus. I would consider most graduates as lacking in real world experience but they are not dangerous to be around.

[CraigCreek]

UKUKUK, I suggested the Southland/Twin Oaks area to the OP. I'd hardly term the three bedroom 1950s ranches which predominate in that area "McMansions". There are good public, parochial, and private elementary schools within walking distance of this neighborhood, certainly a draw for young families, as are Southland and Hill'n'Dale Parks. Shopping is also convenient, and while UK is not that far away, it's not next door, either. City buses run from Southland to UK and on to downtown, however, thus providing the best of both worlds.

And the crime rate is considerably lower, surely a factor for anyone with children.

The many young families who live in my own older neighborhood, about a mile from UK, certainly DO object to the loud parties, litter, and drunken and boorish young people spilling over into our otherwise quiet neighborhood, as do I and the other older residents.

[UKUKUK]

Originally Posted by CraigCreek

UKUKUK, I suggested the Southland/Twin Oaks area to the OP. I'd hardly term the three bedroom 1950s ranches which predominate in that area "McMansions". There are good public, parochial, and private elementary schools within walking distance of this neighborhood, certainly a draw for young families, as are Southland and Hill'n'Dale Parks. Shopping is also convenient, and while UK is not that far away, it's not next door, either. City buses run from Southland to UK and on to downtown, however, thus providing the best of both worlds.

And the crime rate is considerably lower, surely a factor for anyone with children.

The many young families who live in my own older neighborhood, about a mile from UK, certainly DO object to the loud parties, litter, and drunken and boorish young people spilling over into our otherwise quiet neighborhood, as do I and the other older residents.

Actually, if you have the UKPD on speed dial and bust up a party once or twice, they quit having them in that neighborhood. How do I know? I used to party off of Park all the time The nice old ladies on Kentucky put an end to that way back then.

Lextran? Are you kidding? It's the most ineffective way of getting around town there is. The buses are never late, are dirty, and rarely even have their stops marked.

The housing stock is good there but still very suburban in comparison with what you get closer to campus.

That being said: UK is nowhere near a party school anymore. Most nights those I know that still attend have trouble finding something to do aside from Two Keys. If you expect any of that these days and live anywhere except for DIRECTLY on Euclid, you are badly mistaken.

[CraigCreek]

"Suburban" is just what most young families want, not the sadly run-down Victorian cottages and box-on-the-back rental remuddles with tiny front yards and limited parking located in the Chatauqua Park, Columbia Heights, and Woodland areas. Nor do the once elegant, now chopped-up big Victorians which line heavily traveled Maxwell Avenue work well for families in their present sad and shabby state. Too bad - they were family homes once and were considered an extremely good area of Lexington. There are a few pockets of housing which might work well for families with school-age children near UK - but very few, and even fewer for younger families with small children. I agree that this is a shame, and wish there were more nicely maintained, safe, affordable, and peaceful neighborhoods closer to UK. But realistically, such places are very much in the minority at present.

UK needs to build more dorms and apartments for its students, rather than spending hundreds of thousands on Todd's new office palace suite. UK has really negated its responsibility to its students by failing in this regard, and their actions - or rather, lack of action - has also harmed Lexington's neighborhoods, by encouraging the sort of private enterprise described above.

The Hollywood neighborhood does have some nice bungalows which are in good condition and are owned by their occupants rather than by rental companies, and it is close to both UK and good public and parochial schools. Like Southland, it's a good neighborhood both for young families and serious UK students.

But housing money goes a lot farther in Southland than in Hollywood, due to Hollywood's proximity to Chevy Chase.

I rode city buses repeatedly during the World Equestrian Games last fall, and found them comfortable, clean, inexpensive, and pleasant, with very courteous drivers. Bus stops are marked everywhere I look, and more and more are being retrofitted with benches for waiting riders. If you think a stop is in need of marking, or if a route needs more buses or an area needs more service, why not give LexTran a call?

You may be right about the "nice old ladies" calling the police on you - I'd do it, too, if my neighborhood's peace and quiet were being disturbed by rowdy late-night "student" parties and all the messy morning-after detritis associated with them. You wrote that if the police are called once or twice, the students "quit having them (parties) in that neighborhood". Do you mean that the parties simply move to someone else's neighborhood?? How nice for those other residents!

If we were having this discussion ten years from now, I expect you'd find yourself with an entirely different, more realistic POV.

[censusdata]

Originally Posted by CraigCreek

UK needs to build more dorms and apartments for its students, rather than spending hundreds of thousands on Todd's new office palace suite. UK has really negated its responsibility to its students by failing in this regard

Bingo! I'll be laughing when U of L has a higher percent of students living on campus than UK in a couple years.

[UKUKUK]

Originally Posted by CraigCreek

"Suburban" is just what most young families want, not the sadly run-down Victorian cottages and box-on-the-back rental remuddles with tiny front yards and limited parking located in the Chatauqua Park, Columbia Heights, and Woodland areas. Nor do the once elegant, now chopped-up big Victorians which line heavily traveled Maxwell Avenue work well for families in their present sad and shabby state. Too bad - they were family homes once and were considered an extremely good area of Lexington. There are a few pockets of housing which might work well for families with school-age children near UK - but very few, and even fewer for younger families with small children. I agree that this is a shame, and wish there were more nicely maintained, safe, affordable, and peaceful neighborhoods closer to UK. But realistically, such places are very much in the minority at present.

You obviously don't spend much time near downtown and UK. Just because they don't have small children and aren't established in the middle class (which won't happen to 90% of all people in our generation, likely) doesn't mean they're dangerous.

UK needs to build more dorms and apartments for its students, rather than spending hundreds of thousands on Todd's new office palace suite. UK has really negated its responsibility to its students by failing in this regard, and their actions - or rather, lack of action - has also harmed Lexington's neighborhoods, by encouraging the sort of private enterprise described above.

I'll disagree that it's harming Lexington. Students' presence has really improved some of the ailing areas of town particularly in downtown and north of center.

The Hollywood neighborhood does have some nice bungalows which are in good condition and are owned by their occupants rather than by rental companies, and it is close to both UK and good public and parochial schools. Like Southland, it's a good neighborhood both for young families and serious UK students.

Hollywood? Donde? I've never heard of anyone call a neighborhood that.

But housing money goes a lot farther in Southland than in Hollywood, due to Hollywood's proximity to Chevy Chase.

Chevy Chase is a great place to grow up around though. I wouldn't say that about many places in Lexington. Lots of character and substance in that neighborhood. You can ride a bike or walk places easily. Awesome part of town!

I rode city buses repeatedly during the World Equestrian Games last fall, and found them comfortable, clean, inexpensive, and pleasant, with very courteous drivers. Bus stops are marked everywhere I look, and more and more are being retrofitted with benches for waiting riders. If you think a stop is in need of marking, or if a route needs more buses or an area needs more service, why not give LexTran a call?

I went even further... I offered to intern for them. They don't care. The reason the WEGs had "comfortable, clean, inexpensive, and pleasant, with very courteous drivered" buses is because it was the WEGs. It was Lexington's pitiful attempt to look like a "world" city.

You may be right about the "nice old ladies" calling the police on you - I'd do it, too, if my neighborhood's peace and quiet were being disturbed by rowdy late-night "student" parties and all the messy morning-after detritis associated with them. You wrote that if the police are called once or twice, the students "quit having them (parties) in that neighborhood". Do you mean that the parties simply move to someone else's neighborhood?? How nice for those other residents!

I'd hardly call the parties we had "rowdy". You seem to have a very anti-student mentality despite having very little knowledge of what goes on on campus. If there is any trash, we usually picked it up in the morning or late at night. Especially if the cops came, we would say "hey, we'll leave as soon as we're done cleaning up". While most students aren't THAT proactive about it, the rowdiness of parties at UK that you speak of is nearly nonexistant. If you want to avoid rowdiness, avoid the Red Mile complexes and Newtown Crossing. Parties on Maxwell and the neighborhoods immediately bordering campus rarely even make it outside of the front doors due to a heavy police presence.

Most UK students are more than courteous if you treat them as your fellow man, not some subhuman filth that causes nothing but trouble. If it weren't for UK, Lexington would be another redneck ****stain in the center of Kentucky. This town's brain power is the driving force of its growth and prosperity and the students have not only been increasing in quality, but respect for the community as well thanks to LFUCGPD and UKPD's efforts to promote respect for ones' neighbors and the law especially in the neighborhoods in question.

If you'd like, I'd be more than happy to give you a tour of the neighborhoods you're blasting, pick up any litter I see on the way, and show you how "rowdy" those 10-15 kids in a living room drinking Spaten (to my surprise, there's a big appreciation amongst UK students now for better beers!) can be... and by that, how respectful and how good of kids they really are. They're the heart and soul of this community whether you realize it or not.

If we were having this discussion ten years from now, I expect you'd find yourself with an entirely different, more realistic POV.

No. I wouldn't. I'm going to raise my children in an area not sheltered from the world around them and help them make good choices rather than hide them concerning the ills of society, only to find out for themselves when they reach the college age (if you can even call the kind of "party" you find on Maxwell an "ill").

Don't hide your kids from alcohol, teach them responsibility and respect. Same goes for all the other things you're afraid of. Rather than hide them from it, show them how ugly littering can be and raise them to not do it. Change in a society, even a neighborhood, starts with you and the generation you raise.

[CraigCreek]

Good grief.

For the record, I am a UK grad and grew up about a mile from campus. I worked in both Southland and downtown, for years and years. I've lived in Southland. I know all the neighborhoods under discussion quite well, having lived mostly in Lexington since age five. I've seen the majority of the neighborhood close to UK change character significantly during my lifetime, and I've seen the campus scene and atmosphere change as well. I was there during the late 1960s, and while UK was a hotbed of apathy compared to other places - Berkeley, Columbia, etc - during those days, we had our share of '60s affect. I was blessed to be there when Wendell Berry, Guy Davenport and Hill Shine were part of the faculty. Splinter Hall, the Great Wall, Ralph the academically-minded St. Bernard, the SDS, the Greek scene, VISTA, AVs, the "Kernel"...along with ubiquitous basketball and to a lesser degree, football. It was a happenin' place...

Good heavens, I've even attended a UK area party or two or three in my time. And yes, I even get onto the campus fairly often at present, though obviously not as frequently as during my student days. The University of Kentucky is clearly an asset to Lexington. That doesn't mean that it is exempt from criticism by one of its own - myself - or from anyone else, for that matter. It's good - I want it to be better.

Hollywood is the area on the west side of High Street/Tates Creek Road, just beyond the Chevy Chase shopping center and extending up to the Mount Vernon subdivision across from Cassidy and Morton Schools. It consists of c.1920s bungalows, has large trees, small front yards, moderate backyards, and shares Chevy Chase's convenient location. It adjoins Columbia Heights on the western side. Its name is historic in Lexington and has nothing to do with California.

You are defensive about many things, it seems. I'm glad you and your friends enjoy such sedate parties. No one could possibly object to fifteen or so well-mannered, considerate young people enjoying one another's company as they sit in the living room (that sounds quite Victorian, actually - do you have chaperones and call the young ladies "Miss....", perhaps?? No? My mistake, clearly...)

No one has termed the partying UK students who socialize more rigorously than you claim you and your friends do "subhuman filth" anywhere in this discussion, nor has this been implied. Instead, it's clear that other local posters simply object to noisy late-night partying and litter left behind on their own property and in public streets and rights of way. And it's your own post which introduced the term "ills of society", not mine.

It simply seems far more likely to me that most young families with young children would find far more contentment living in a neighborhood with playmates for their children, other residents of similar age and background as potential friends as well as neighbors (not to the exclusion of those of different background, not at all - you misread me badly when you imply this about my previous posts), convenient and good schools within easy walking distance, yards large enough to accommodate outside play, well-maintained if modest housing stock, city parks nearby...to such a family, these are more valuable than is having a large university and its students who are primarily renters as neighbors. Congeniality is often found in commonality rather than difference.

Yes, there are certainly some small pockets of well-maintained, character-filled, privately owned housing near UK - Transylvania Park comes to mind, and it's delightful. There are families with school-age children happily living there, and that's find. It's a shame that many of the similar, if more modest, streets which branch off of Euclid between Rose and High Street have declined in quality as their houses passed from private owner-residents into the hands of landlords and rental companies.

As a current UK student, of what I suppose is typical student age, you would have no way of remembering what these neighborhoods were like before this change. Believe me, they were better - better maintained, better landscaped (Euclid was tree-lined before it was four-laned and the front yards of its houses decimated), more peaceful, and generally more livable for families. It would be wonderful if some of these lost qualities could be brought back, but realistically, that's unlikely.

If I were a young parent with small children today, the UK area would not be my first choice in which to live, for the sake of my children. That does NOT mean that I would never set foot on campus, or take my children to any of the many wonderful events and opportunities which are available there, just as I would take my children to similar events downtown and throughout Lexington and the Bluegrass - and beyond, when possible. It does mean that while I certainly don't believe in overly sheltering children from the realities of life, I'd want a stable neighborhood with little turn-over, one which is child-friendly, a safe and attractive place to raise my children, a place which includes other like-minded people's children who could be my children's friends, even as I would befriend their parents.

I'd look for a house in good condition, be it old or new or in-between, with enough space for comfort rather than luxury. Trees and a safe yard would be musts. The less traffic on the street, the better. Good schools nearby would be a must, with close parks, shopping, churches and a library also very desirable features. And yes, safety would be paramount.

When I write of "like-minded people", minds and hearts are what count, not ethnic or racial background or age or place of origin. It's more important to share a sense of where we're going than where we've been.

It's the old town-and-gown conflict. Most of the qualities I'd seek, were I the OP, can be found more readily away from those neighborhoods closest to UK. Fine and desirable as they may be for UK students (most of whom are wonderful young people, just as you very vigorously state), they simply do not work very well for families with young children at present. Which has nothing to do with protecting one's children from the "real world", etc., and has everything to do with giving one's children the best start in life possible.