My problem with the Highlands & Bardstown Road

Thank you, Steve. (I'm not embarassed, but it was the closest I could find to "blushing.")

When you know a "perfect" place to live....let me know so I can move there.

Hmmm... well put.

I agree that nothing can really be done about the problems that Bardstown Road does have. The area is too old for much new construction. If a light rail system is ever built for Louisville it will be very hard to make it Highland accessible (which is unfortunate since the hippies will be the most likely to use it frequently). The area is among the most inaccessable for the handicapped I've ever seen, and nothing can be done about this without destroying the beautiful and historically protected Victorian and Queen Anne style buildings. This, and the complete lack of parking, is probably why the businesses cater primarily to twenty somethings. I don't think a person in their forties would be willing to walk a mile to go to Cafe 360 (not that any sober person should go there anyway in my opinion).

But the youth of the area are what give it the bohemian style that makes the Highlands so wonderful. I don't think that any other group of people would be quite as supportive of the ethnic food choices that Btown road offers, especially with the low prices and extremely casual atmosphere that these restaurants have.

I agree that nothing can really be done about the problems that Bardstown Road does have. The area is too old for much new construction. If a light rail system is ever built for Louisville it will be very hard to make it Highland accessible (which is unfortunate since the hippies will be the most likely to use it frequently). The area is among the most inaccessable for the handicapped I've ever seen, and nothing can be done about this without destroying the beautiful and historically protected Victorian and Queen Anne style buildings. This, and the complete lack of parking, is probably why the businesses cater primarily to twenty somethings. I don't think a person in their forties would be willing to walk a mile to go to Cafe 360 (not that any sober person should go there anyway in my opinion).

But the youth of the area are what give it the bohemian style that makes the Highlands so wonderful. I don't think that any other group of people would be quite as supportive of the ethnic food choices that Btown road offers, especially with the low prices and extremely casual atmosphere that these restaurants have.

Walk a mile to go to Cafe 360? Having lived next door (above my Coffeeshop, Ray's Monkey House), I've NEVER had to park more than a block away. NEVER. And I've come and gone at virtually every hour of every day over the past three years. Go around the block to Fernwood (Take Stevens or Duker), and turn back towards bardstown rd on Bonnycastle. Abundant FREE parking 95% of the time. You're talking less than a half block walk.

I guess half a block is too much for some people. But they seem ok when it comes to mega mall parking lots (where the walk is much farther). Very odd.....

p.s. We have a wheelchair ramp on the side of the building now! Yay. Yeah, many of the buildings have a step or two at the front doors making them inaccessible. It was a royal pain to get our 1300 pound roaster through the front door.

Cheers!

[quote="Nimbus Couzin]Yay. Yeah, many of the buildings have a step or two at the front doors making them inaccessible. It was a royal pain to get our 1300 pound roaster through the front door.[/quote]

I can only imagine!

[Robin Garr]

Walk a mile to go to Cafe 360? Having lived next door (above my Coffeeshop, Ray's Monkey House), I've NEVER had to park more than a block away. NEVER. And I've come and gone at virtually every hour of every day over the past three years. Go around the block to Fernwood (Take Stevens or Duker), and turn back towards bardstown rd on Bonnycastle. Abundant FREE parking 95% of the time. You're talking less than a half block walk.

You know, you just put into words something I wondered about while reading this thread.

Living in Crescent Hill, I make the four-minute hike over to Bardstown Road many times a week. Dining out, lunching out, haircut at The Place to Go, wine at Old Town or Wine Merchant, grocery alternative at Valu, movies at Baxter ... like you, Nimbus, at WORST I've never had to park more than a block from my destination, and that's rare. Now, I don't get out at midnight as much as I used to do when I was young and frivolous , but this doesn't really sound like a mega-issue to me.

Ditto my own 'hood, Frankfort Avenue, where it can get mighty busy at night but parking always seems to turn up somewhere.

If we want to start comparing parking woes, I'd gladly take these neighborhoods over, say, Chicago's Wrigley Field nabe or San Francisco's Marina District.

I'm with Nimbus and Robin on this. I've never had a problem parking on Bardstown Rd. Parked next to The Outlook Inn last night (around midnight). Just got back from picking up a carry-out order from Za's. We parked right in front. I'm in Old Town every other day. There's usually a spot in the parking lot. If not, I park across the street in the Chiropractor's lot. We visit ValuMarket about once a day. I don't think I've ever parked more than 7 or 8 spots away. The post office on Highland is probably the most difficult place to park. And it's really not much of a problem. The Walgreen's lot is right across the street.

When I lived over on Hepburn down the street from Lynn's Paradise parking could get bad depending on time and day of the week. Friday and Saturday nights could be difficult, since there were people hitting the bars on Barret, and walking down to Baxter Ave/Bardstown Road. Sunday mornings when people would jam into Lynn's could be kind of crazy too, but never as bad. I think the most I've ever had to walk was a block, except for streetcleaning days, when I would sometimes have to hunt down parking three or four blocks away.

The only time I've EVER had an issue on Bardstown Rd. was last Saturday. It was gorgeous out, and it took me damn near an hour to get 10 miles, because traffic was so bad. Not to mention the fact that I almost got plowed into 3 or 4 times by folks yapping on their cell phones whilst driving. Otherwise, I have no problems with it, and love the charm. You see people from all walks of life, and there's everything from tattoo parlors to antique stores. LOVE it.

When I lived in Charleston I would walk 35 minutes to work every day because parking around my place of business was impossible unless you wanted to pay $15 per day in the garage.

Yeah, I think parking aroung here is pretty easy.

Portland's urban neighborhoods have streetscapes as part of the urban design. Everywhere we looked, there was an interesting urban park with a water element or an artistic element that drew people together. Phil G.

Just to make a point here about Louisville's public parks, scenic public areas, and architecture -
Phil last time i checked Louisville is one of the few cities lucky enough to have several parks designed by Olmstead.
The "Highland" areas between Bardstown Rd, Cave Hill Cementary, and Cherokee Park possess a unique character dominated by the architecture of the homes and the "green spaces" provided by the park and cemetary (plus there are great statues and water features).
Louisville's public parks are remarkable and vast in number and size, and i like Louisville's neighborhoods (whether they are retail oriented or not)

I would suggest that everyone should visit Cherokee and Iroquois Parks (or your favorite L'ville parks), and take a little time to cherish what we have here in the Ville.

for the record - Cherokee is my favorite public park and i love the old Portland/Shipping Port area of Louisville (think Northwestern Parkway)

i hope Phil takes the time to seek out Louisville's other treasures besides the retail corridors on Bardstown and Frankfort

- maybe you'll even take a trip to the Sunnyside Phil,

shawn

That's a good point about the parks, Shawn. That's the first thing that attracted me to Louisville. I was listening to Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know? on NPR a few years back and he did his show from your fine city. Mayor Jerry did a fine job of promoting the area, and made mention of the miles of parks.

While Maine (where we live now) has lots of open spaces, they are nowhere nearly as accessible. In fact much of the scenic Maine coast is privately owned. I've lived in parts of the U.S. and with a few exceptions green spaces are an afterthought in and around cities, if they exist at all.

Even though this might be considered a bit of a tangent, I ran across this when I was just starting to learn a little bit about the Olmstead parks:

http://www.olmsteadparks.org/our_parks
Then click on "Learn about Louisville's Olmstead parks".

That little tour can easily take an hour to get through, because it has a lot of really interesting information. Good to pass some time on the weekend. And I can honestly say that I appreciate Cherokee and Iroquois, in particular, much much more since I learned about the genius of the planning and architecture that went into building those parks.

We're sort of hijacking this thread, but on the Cherokee park note, I like it, but I don't like it. It seems very car oriented. Roadways rather than paths or trails. I can't find a trail map anywhere. Anyone know of one? They don't seem to exist. The only foot trails/paths seem to be dirt ones that get overgrown and/or muddy.

It just seems odd that the only way to get around it is by big roadways. Does anyone else find this strange? Isn't this a BAD design rather than a good one? I mean I've spent a lot of time there, run multiple races (the roads are pretty good for races with hundreds of runners), played guitar out on dog hill, played basketball a bunch of times, flown a kite with my kiddo, and definitely played up at hogan's fountain a bunch of times with him, but I seriously wonder why there aren't foot path type trails.......

By the way, Chicago is awesome with most of the lakefront being parks. So you have twenty miles, north to south, of parks where you can sit, hike, bike, or just gaze at the lake. Very very cool.

Cheers
-Nimbus, still reminiscing about my days in Chicago, California, and Oregon, where you couldn't see the other side of the water....