Smiley Pete's Best of Lex: Community & Media

For the inaugural Smiley Pete's Best of Lex issue (April 2024), we compiled more than 260,000 votes from our readers in 8 different category groups, to highlight the best local businesses, organizations, artists and more. Click here for links to all categories!

Our local celebrities, non-profits and media outlets contribute to Lexington’s unique culture in a variety of ways. In this section of Smiley Pete's inaugural Best of Lex issue, we celebrate the media outlets, hosts, nonprofits and neighborhoods that make our community what it is, as voted by our readers! 

Best Blogger/Influencer

1. Bradley Marlow

2. Melody Colette

3. Kentucky Taste Buds (Tam & Leigh)

Honorable Mentions:

• Leela Atchison – LexEats

• Glitter and Gingham

Best Elected Official

1. Linda Gorton

2. Dan Wu

3. Hannah Legris

Best Lexingtonian

1. Devine Carama

2. Steve Zahn

3. Ouita Michel

4. Jim Gray

Best Podcast

1. The Lexington Podcast

2. What The Shuck

3. Lex Talk. More Action – Community Action Council

Best Radio Host

1. (tie) Matt Jones, Kentucky Sports Radio

1. (tie) Mandy Williamson, 106.3 HITS

3. Jack Pattie, WVLK AM

Honorable mentions:

• Dead Air Dennis, 92.1 WBVX

• Shuntella Whitfield, Thick & Fabulous

• DeBraun Thomas, 91.3 WUKY

Best TV Host

1. Leigh and Tam, Kentucky Taste Buds

2. Amber Philpot, WKYT

3. Lee and Hayley, “The Lee and Hayley Show”

Honorable mentions:

• Bill Bryant

• Nancy Cox

• Kim Dixon

Best TV Station

1. WKYT

2. WLEX

3. KET

Best Meteorologist

1. Chris Bailey

2. Jim Caldwell

3. Bill Meck

4. Tom Ackerman

Best Neighborhood

1. Chevy Chase

2. Southland

3. Kenwick

4. Lansdowne

Honorable mentions:

• Beaumont

• Meadowthorpe

• Stonewall

Best Radio Station

1. 98.1 The Bull WBUL

2. 106.3 HITS

3. 88.1 WRFL

4. 91.3 WUKY

Best Sportscaster

1. Matt Jones

2. Tom Leach

3. Dave Baker

Honorable mentions

• Keith Farmer

• Brian Milam

• Jeff Piecoro

• Dick Gabriel

Best Friend to the Environment

1. Angela Poe

2. Constance Brown

3. Shane Tedder

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Ode to Reforest the Bluegrass 

By Angela Poe, Program Manager for Public Information and Engagement, Environmental Services (Voted as a “Best Friend to the Environment”)

Lexington comes alive in the spring. Restaurant patios open. Keeneland races occur. People walk in their neighborhoods and play in local parks. While it’s all lovely, my favorite local spring happening is Reforest the Bluegrass. Started 25 years ago by city employee Dave Gabbard, the tradition of planting thousands of trees near a local creek each spring continues to thrive. 

Reforest is the actualization of the idiom “many hands make light work.” People of all ages and from all walks of life spend an hour or two helping our local environment, volunteering to make our city better. Families have made it an annual event, with some young parents who participated as children themselves now bringing their own kids to the event. I’ve been there in all types of weather — sunshine, rain, snow, sleet. People still come by the hundreds! There is a certain magic in looking out at an empty grass field and seeing it full of neighbors and trees a few hours later. 

Editor’s note: Reforest the Bluegrass takes place Saturday, April 13 from 9 a.m.-1 p.m at Coldstream Park, the site of the first event.

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Best Nonprofit

1. Lexington Humane Society

2. God's Pantry Food Bank

3. Greenhouse17

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Ode to The Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning

By Crystal Wilkinson, Voted as a “Best Writer”

I have long considered The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning the beating, pulsing heart of Lexington’s literary community. The bright red doors signal a welcoming place. It’s the place where many Kentucky writers gave a first reading from their work, attended a first poetry or fiction class, or joined their first writing group. It was at the Carnegie Center, long before I worked there, before I became published that I was introduced to the work of Paule Marshal, Adrienne Rich, bell hooks, Dorothy Allison, and on and on. Many of these nationally known writers came through the Kentucky Women Writers Conference via the Carnegie Center. But it was being in those circles of people who made words into books that encouraged me to begin to create my own. 

I blossomed as a writer during my lunch hours hunched over a journal, pen in hand, writing the first words that came to mind in a generative workshop in the Carnegie Center basement. I nurtured my work there in an office on the second floor as the first drafts of my first book were written and edited. I was working at the Carnegie Center more than 20 years ago when I received a glance at my first book cover. I was there in the early ’90s when Barbara Bush gave a speech during the grand opening of the Carnegie Center. I’ve watched it rise and wobble and rise again during administrative changes and financial challenges. Yet, the heart of its mission remains: a commitment to literacy and literary endeavors. 

Since those early years, I’ve watched many other writers blossom and grow behind those beautiful red doors. I’ve watched both children and adults learn to read. I’ve taught classes where a high school student and a woman in her 80s writing her first book were both present. The Carnegie Center has helped thousands of people of all ages, races, income levels, and educational backgrounds with their goals for writing, reading and learning new things. It’s one of the most unique full-service literary centers in the country. I love the Carnegie Center. 

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