What are the differences between Lexington and Washington, D.C.? Lexington has a population of roughly 300,000, and Washington has a population double that. Washington’s neighboring Fairfax County, Va., has the nation’s highest median household income of $105,416. The median household income In Lexington is less than half that — $47,469.
But there’s another important difference I discovered in my own experience here: When it came time for Lexington to raise money to stop LGBT youth suicide, volunteers in Lexington threw an event that raised $10,699, which turned out to be more money raised to support this cause than a sister event in wealthier Washington, D.C. (and Lexington volunteers also produced a slick video).
If you want to know why events like It Gets Better Lexington can happen and award-winning films can be produced here, I’ll let you in on the first secret of Lexington:
1.) There are very capable and talented people here. If you are in on that secret, you know that you can achieve things in Lexington that rival what some of the world’s premier cities can do. This is a secret because it’s true, but not many people recognize it. If you don’t know this secret, you might just sit on your hands.
The other three secrets highlight why I believe Lexington is such an engaging place to live, and I’ll share them with you below:
2.) I absolutely love this city because Lexington has a cosmopolitan personality with grit. That grit comes from the constant challenges to Lexington’s more socially progressive values. Kentucky is home to the Creation Museum and a soon-to-be-built theme park for Noah’s Ark. When our neighboring cities are home to institutions that propagate Biblical inerrancy and homophobia, we don’t take electing the state’s first openly gay mayor for granted. Lexington is also home to Ernesto Scorsone, who served as the state’s only openly gay state representative and senator. Lexingtonians aren’t socially progressive because they’ve lived in an information and cultural bubble. Lexingtonians hold those values dearly because they have had to thoroughly defend them in the marketplace of ideas. Our current state senator, Kathy Stein, is a perfect symbol of this spirit. She’s known for her backbone and for standing up for her values in an atmosphere where the Jewish representative was asked point-blank in the state house if she believed Jesus Christ was her lord and savior.
3.) Lexington has a walkable downtown with an absolutely stunning periphery of green spaces, and this yin and yang, I believe, is the best of both worlds. When I walk outside my apartment to the grocery store, I pass the art exhibit in the Lexington Central Public Library, see the Downtown Arts Center, and overhear live music from Natasha’s Bistro & Bar. Seeing the art and architecture downtown reminds me of the potential of humanity to realize our imaginations in physical space. When I venture through the farms of Lexington on the Legacy Trail, I’m reminded that there is a beautiful, natural world outside of industrial civilization. And that is a breath of a fresh air.
4.) The final secret is the most exciting one of all. Lexington is special because there are so many secrets left to discover. One could argue that in larger cities most of the secrets — the dreams — have been actualized. In Lexington, however, you have a canvas with plenty of space left to be painted in. It’s both large and small enough for visionaries to use the community as a sandbox to create original culture, businesses and organizations without having to channel that energy into an established institution. You can create something genuinely original here, especially if you are a dreamer with the diligence to see your idea through.
These are just the four secrets of Lexington that I know about. What are yours?
Reprinted with permission of ProgressLex.org.