Neighborhood facelift offers a real chance at economic development

With the help of Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, residents of one area of town will be able to start making a better life for themselves.

In a Thursday Kernel article, a section of Lexington known as Davis Bottom, an area containing a small neighborhood of houses located near UK’s campus, was highlighted as a part of town looked down upon.

“People said, ‘Where are you from?’ and as soon as you said you were from here, people looked down on you like you were a piece of dirt,” said 36-year Bottom resident Kenneth Demus in the Kernel article.

Now, after 140 years, the Bottom, located on De Roode Street, will be getting a makeover that’s not only going to put residents of the Bottom into new houses offering them a chance at a better life, but a makeover that is going to help the city of Lexington and UK as well.

With an extension of Newtown Pike beginning as a four-lane boulevard on Main Street and stretching to UK, the early morning and five o’clock traffic that many of us are hit with on a day-to-day basis will be cut down dramatically.

While this is a serious economic development for Lexington, this expansion means a lot to the people of Davis Bottom. They may be losing a part of where they’ve lived and grown up, but they are taking a step in a direction toward a better life — a life that the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government is helping make possible.

“This is my home, this is where I was raised at,” Demus said. “You know, when they tear it down, it will look different, but the memories will still be here.”

When they tear it down, Lexington will look different. But with a constantly-expanding city, some things will have to move while others disappear forever.

Although Davis Bottom will receive a major facelift, the place many have called home will never be forgotten. The residents and those helping with the project, which has been on the table for the past 10 years, seem hopeful that this change will not only benefit the city and UK, but it will give those living in Davis Bottom a chance at a better life — a life that they want.