Post by Da Boss on Jun 30, 2020 22:07:33 GMT -5
Years ago, some joint smoking, waste of space, LSD tripping, hippie managed to pass an ordinance that didn't last more than two years in Lexington called the "Green Space Initiative." The result was an economic disaster for the city for the entire two years that it was in place, and put such a heavy burden on the residents of the town that the hippy hasn't seen fit to show his face again. What was the plan, you ask? Simple. Nobody would be allowed to destroy any of the city's greenspaces without creating a new one. The last vestige of this failed plan has finally given up its ghost. What little green still exists in Triangle Park is quickly dying from being placed within inches of automotive exhaust fumes all day and night.
To say that Triangle Park is a park is a misnomer. Sure, it has a man made waterfall that pumps water down its concrete face twenty-four hours a day, secen days a week. Sure, it has a giant geyser of a fountain that children play in all summer long. It even has a few trees in carefully manicured circles where the concrete was poured around their trunks and some picnic tables for people to enjoy their lunches. But let's be clear, all of that is crammed onto less than an acre of land right where main street splits to become one way in either direction. Toddlers playing catch can throw a baseball from one side to the other and then get hit by the angry rush hour motorists trying to get home as they innocently chase their ball into the street. This isn't a park so much as it is a space that nobody's figured out if they want to rip it out and put a building there.
But still, there's something magical about the area in the winter. When the mayor of the city comes down to light up the town Christmas Tree, or the decorations of concrete blocks painted to look like presents are craned into place, or even with the ice skating rink that's rapidly put together and then torn down as the weather warms in the spring. For at least a few months out of the year, it is the one place in Lexington that screams holiday spirit.
The other advantage of Triangle Park is, as they say in the real estate industry, location, location, location. Sure, it is surrounded by busy thorough fairs on all sides, where motorists are forced to sit at red lights with open roads in front of them while a coked up engineer is avoiding actually making the timing cycles resemble anything like a traffic pattern. But just across one of those streets is Rupp Arena, home of the World Famous Kentucky Wildcats! And across the other is one of the fanciest bars in town; the Big Blue Martini, where the city's social elite gather before and after the games. You could even show up there to buy a ticket to see the Wildcats, if you're willing to take out a second mortgage on your home to sit in the nose bleeds for a single game.
And then there's the harsh reality of what the park becomes. Late at night, as the bars all close and people are getting into their Ubers to head back out to their homes, the park is a cool place in the summer and a warm one in the winter for Lexington's homeless populations. They come there, as if hoping to bask in the warmth of the money that's left, before going to sleep on a bench for the night. Maybe, just maybe, if they've been really good that year, and they've prayed especially hard, Santa will bring them what they really want... Something to end this life and try again before another trophy wife sneers at them from over the top of her fifteen dollar cosmopolitan for daring to be poor and this close to the elite.
To say that Triangle Park is a park is a misnomer. Sure, it has a man made waterfall that pumps water down its concrete face twenty-four hours a day, secen days a week. Sure, it has a giant geyser of a fountain that children play in all summer long. It even has a few trees in carefully manicured circles where the concrete was poured around their trunks and some picnic tables for people to enjoy their lunches. But let's be clear, all of that is crammed onto less than an acre of land right where main street splits to become one way in either direction. Toddlers playing catch can throw a baseball from one side to the other and then get hit by the angry rush hour motorists trying to get home as they innocently chase their ball into the street. This isn't a park so much as it is a space that nobody's figured out if they want to rip it out and put a building there.
But still, there's something magical about the area in the winter. When the mayor of the city comes down to light up the town Christmas Tree, or the decorations of concrete blocks painted to look like presents are craned into place, or even with the ice skating rink that's rapidly put together and then torn down as the weather warms in the spring. For at least a few months out of the year, it is the one place in Lexington that screams holiday spirit.
The other advantage of Triangle Park is, as they say in the real estate industry, location, location, location. Sure, it is surrounded by busy thorough fairs on all sides, where motorists are forced to sit at red lights with open roads in front of them while a coked up engineer is avoiding actually making the timing cycles resemble anything like a traffic pattern. But just across one of those streets is Rupp Arena, home of the World Famous Kentucky Wildcats! And across the other is one of the fanciest bars in town; the Big Blue Martini, where the city's social elite gather before and after the games. You could even show up there to buy a ticket to see the Wildcats, if you're willing to take out a second mortgage on your home to sit in the nose bleeds for a single game.
And then there's the harsh reality of what the park becomes. Late at night, as the bars all close and people are getting into their Ubers to head back out to their homes, the park is a cool place in the summer and a warm one in the winter for Lexington's homeless populations. They come there, as if hoping to bask in the warmth of the money that's left, before going to sleep on a bench for the night. Maybe, just maybe, if they've been really good that year, and they've prayed especially hard, Santa will bring them what they really want... Something to end this life and try again before another trophy wife sneers at them from over the top of her fifteen dollar cosmopolitan for daring to be poor and this close to the elite.