“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” ~ Confucius
Last Friday, as we walked to the The Helix Garage near the Kentucky Theater, I admired how far Lexington has come with its downtown. Like many other downtowns, Lexington is experiencing a long-term renaissance. It was a lively place when I was young and we’d come here from the mountains for things we couldn’t get at home. As a teenage I drove to nearly every rock concert offered at Rupp Arena; a sadly rare event these days (I’m not sure why they stopped the large national acts). In the early 1980’s, when I was getting my feet wet in local music scene, it was pretty lively with plenty of bars offering live bands, but the businesses had dried up and moved to the suburban malls. It was an American phenomenon and Lexington was not immune. But Friday I noticed how much color there is downtown; how much art, how much food and drink and people. There were people everywhere, and not all of them were playing Pokémon Go (but there were plenty of those to be sure). There were people milling about Triangle Park, dining at sidewalk patios, families with small children just admiring all there was to admire along the way. I’ve noticed a marked difference in the arts and in the way downtown looks during the Mayor Jim Gray era. Kudos to him for bringing the place back to life. If we could get a few more bars downtown big enough to offer local live music I’d feel like I stepped back in time thirty years with a lot more color.
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