Lexington is my favorite place in all the world, so I understand fully why people want to stay after they come here. College students consistently look for a job that will let them stay; it is a favorite retirement location for Kentuckians; and Yankee families that have one member on the faculty of UK or Transy often decide to migrate here. I think of one of my favorite families that migrated here, wonderful people whose presence enriches the community. After they had been here 10 years or so, the mother, by this time a good friend of mine, said, “The traffic is getting so bad, I think we should build a fence around Lexington and not let anyone else in.” Everyone knows I impulsively say whatever I’m thinking, and what I was thinking at that moment came out: “That’s what we thought before you all came!” We’re still friends, they have enriched the community, and yes – the traffic is awful.
I know that no-growth means dying, and no one wants Lexington to shrink, but have we maybe outgrown our britches? Other towns have Thursday night football without nearly closing the university – how do they do it? I don’t drive any longer, and I try avoid places that require special arrangements due to competing offerings of entertainment. My family takes me sightseeing sometimes, and I am astonished by all the new neighborhoods that have sprung up – ingrowth that has preserved the beauty and character of the Bluegrass. Frequently my comment is, “I see where all these people live, but where do they work?”
Growth is its own generator of change. We have shops by the scores and new restaurants by the dozen – I wonder if anybody eats at home anymore. Which comes first – the people’s demand or the facilities that require that demand to survive?
I remember a time when we had only one provider of Oriental food, although Italian food was plentiful. The local cuisine was steaks and fried chicken, variety provided by spoonbread and lamb fries and home grown tomatoes. No one who lived here before IBM came would have imagined the city Lexington has become.
My personal theory is that nothing is for nothing – there is a price to be paid for any decision. We could have stayed a little town where everybody knew your name and the traffic was bearable but other options were limited. We chose growth, with its many options and lousy traffic and hardly anybody knows or cares what your name is.
Having made that choice, what do we do now? Build a fence around Lexington? Seek more businesses? Tell the university enough is enough – freshman classes of 6,000 are too big? Push the city-county limits? Or resign ourselves to living with too many people, too many options, terrible traffic?
Realize that change is inevitable but eventually Lexington will no longer be “the garden spot of America” that it is now?
Remember, there is a price for every choice. What will your choice be?