"Arriving back in Lexington after 15 years, I have quickly picked up on the undercurrent of excitement and anticipation that seems to pervade my hometown. New government leadership has engendered enthusiasm and trust. Downtown investment is booming, as are new neighborhoods. UK has set its sights on cracking the Top 20. The area's unique heritage of Bluegrass, bourbon and horses is catalyzing new cultural expression. Amidst all of this, the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games stand just over the horizon.
But yet, something seems missing. What connects all of these things, and what creates the framework for positive change? From my perspective, a part of the answer is an aggressive program of planning and urban design tied to the major event we are soon to host. Cities across the globe, from Barcelona to Salt Lake City and now London, have catalyzed the civic spirit and the world attention that comes with hosting an international event to make legacy improvements to their communities. In this context, an aggressive planning strategy for Lexington would recognize the next four years for what it could be — a springboard toward creating the type of city we aspire to become.
Unfortunately, communities tend to coalesce and "plan" only when they are faced with a crisis. Be it environmental sanctions in Chattanooga or economic depression in Cleveland, it often takes a perceived threat to instigate a common agenda for creating (and implementing) a collective vision. Lexington mirrors this sociology in that much of the significant planning achievements of the last few decades have been related to the threat of destruction of our surrounding horse country. However, the city's relatively stable economy, its beautiful natural setting and its high quality of life tend to produce a civic inertia to more thoughtful dialogue and dramatic change. In many ways, the WEG present the chance to break this pattern. It represents a potential crisis for our Southern sensibilities — an immovable deadline and the possible embarrassment of not hosting a successful major event that showcases our "home."
As we look for a plan of action, we are not starting from scratch. Fortunately, there have been several recent notable efforts, including the Downtown Master Plan, and the city is brimming with good ideas about what could be contemplated, from new streetscapes, parks and plazas downtown, to revitalized neighborhoods in East End and Southend Park, to a network of "Healthways" that connect the area's neighborhoods, institutions and businesses.
However, these planning efforts and projects do not have to be conscribed by New Circle Road. The need for urban design reaches all parts of our city, from designing new neighborhoods and shopping districts, to investing in transportation networks, to creating first-class parks and open spaces. While we need to target limited resources to catalytic projects, our preparations for the 2010 Games can also lay the foundation in comprehensive planning for the unique "hub and spoke" system that defines our city.
So what is the prescription? Two straightforward steps. The first is a structured but meaningful debate on our community vision and, more importantly, what we can do specifically in the next four years to move towards that vision. The second step is the creation of an institutional structure that harnesses the good will and talents of many existing individuals and organizations and fills the unappreciated gap in carrying out public/private projects in a timely manner.
Atlanta, as the host of a major world event last decade, faced similar challenges. I was fortunate to be involved in the city of Atlanta's pre-Olympic preparations in the early 1990s, and I saw firsthand how the groundwork for a revitalized central city was laid. A program of improvements designed to spur private investment in the city and that leveraged the attention, resources and deadlines of the Centennial Olympic Games for that purpose is only now, more than ten years later, fully being realized. In Atlanta, the recognition of the once-in-a-lifetime moment embodied by the Olympics led to many efforts, but included the creation of the Corporation for Olympic Development in Atlanta (CODA). This organization was charged with planning, designing, fundraising and building the "Olympic Development Program" of parks, streetscapes, neighborhood revitalization and public art that were completed in only three years. Can Lexington seize the similar opportunity it has been presented?
With the 2010 Games now less than four years away, the urgency of these ideas is much more pressing than most realize. Community building, even on an accelerated timetable, takes time and concentrated effort and, looking back, we will undoubtedly view 2007 as the critical year that things had to fall into place.
The clock is ticking.
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