The Bluegrass and Beyond

Have you ever wondered where the money goes when Kentuckians choose to pay a little extra for one of those pretty Share the Road license plates?

Some of it goes to pay for the reminder signs you see on roads.  And $9,300 of it will soon be used to pay for bicycle safety education that will benefit about 16,000 Fayette County Public Schools students from kindergarten through fifth grade.

The money came from the Kentucky Bicycle and Bikeway Commission’s Paula Nye Memorial Educational Grant program, which is funded by the $10 fee added to each Share the Road plate.

The grant will be used to teach kids that bicycles aren’t toys, but serious vehicles that must be ridden safely. That includes obeying traffic rules and wearing a helmet.

Elementary school physical education teachers will be trained by instructors certified by the League of American Bicyclists, then they will include bike safety in their curriculum.

“This is a topic near and dear to my heart,” Superintendent Stu Silberman said in a news release. “If we can keep one kid from having a serious accident through this grant, then our efforts will be worth it. But I’m confident we’re going to help a whole lot more than that.”

Silberman was an avid cyclist until three years ago when he was seriously injured in a freak accident. He hasn’t ridden on the road since then, although he keeps in shape by riding a bicycle trainer in his basement so he can resume cycling outdoors after he retires.

The superintendent said he sometimes speaks to students about bike safety, and shows them his helmet, which was cracked in three places when he lost his balance and fell off his bike while riding on country roads one weekend.  He thinks his accident would have been much worse if he hadn’t been wearing a helmet.

If you want to help support future bicycle safety education efforts, click here for more information about the Share the Road plates.

I’m worried about the financial state of journalism.

Digital technology has given news papers more readers than ever. Ironically, though, that technology means newspapers no longer are the dominant force in advertising, from where the money to support journalism has always come.

To make matters worse, most newspapers are owned by big corporations that went into debt to get bigger. They thought profits from advertising would make the debt affordable. They were wrong.

As a result, newspapers and newsrooms are dwindling in size. Radio and television newsrooms have been hit hard, too; they just don’t talk about it. But I worry most about newspapers, and not just because I work for one.

Newspapers have always done most of journalism’s heavy lifting, from investigations to public affairs reporting.

The Herald-Leader has gotten a lot of attention lately for exposing wasteful spending in some of Kentucky’s quasi- government agencies. But that kind of work is nothing new: Newspapers of all sizes have a long record of giving Kentucky’s powerful people and institutions some much-needed oversight.

Newspapers also play a big role in community-building. They do everything from covering neighborhood zoning disputes to printing wedding announcements.

You could call newspapers one of Kentucky’s “signature” industries. There’s at least one in each of Kentucky’s 120 counties, and almost all of them are struggling.

But I have an idea: What if newspapers could persuade the General Assembly to give them another way to replace the advertising revenue they used to have?

What if newspapers were allowed to put slot machines in some of that empty space where reporters and editors used to work? Big newspapers might even have room for full-blown casinos.

People who went to their local newspapers to gamble wouldn’t go out of state so much, so more of their money would stay in Kentucky.

Truthfully, though, much of that money would have stayed in Kentucky anyway. It just would have been spent on other things. So other than helping newspapers and the people associated with them, gambling revenue wouldn’t do a lot for Kentucky’s economy.

There would be other complications, too. For example, critics of slot machines and casinos say they attract crime and create other social costs.

There’s big money in addictive businesses like gambling, especially when they’re part of a government-sponsored monopoly.

Others would surely complain that it’s not fair for such a monopoly to benefit only one industry, like newspapers. At the least, TV and radio also would want a piece of the action. And it wouldn’t be long before politicians decided that government needed a bigger share of the take. After all, they created the monopoly, and they could just as easily take it away.

Even if newspapers could hang onto most of their new gambling revenue, I’m not sure it would be good for journalism in the long run.

Some media companies would use their cash infusion to invest in journalism — for a while. But corporate executives have a duty to maximize return for investors. If media companies could make big profits with slot machines and casinos, why would they want to subsidize journalism?

Even “signature” industries aren’t exempt from the laws of economics, no matter how special they think they are.

My guess is that journalism must find a way to adapt by attracting more loyal customers, doing a better job of marketing and selling its products, creating new business models and proving its value. It no longer can be totally dependent on something else, even advertising.

So maybe my newsroom gambling idea isn’t so good after all.

Besides, it’s not an original idea.

Another “signature” industry has tried this strategy in other states for years, with little evidence that slot machines and casinos are anything but a short-term fix for deeper economic issues.

Of course, that industry would have us think it’s a horse of a different color.

I wouldn’t bet on it.

This is Global Entrepreneurship Week, and it couldn’t come at a better time.

We’re just beginning to climb out of the biggest economic slump since the Great Depression. Bad economic times beg for good ideas, and the only way those ideas can make a difference is when entrepreneurs turn them into reality.

Global Entrepreneurship Week is sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation to encourage young people around the world to explore their potential to be innovators, self-starters and entrepreneurs. Last year, 3 million people participated in 25,000 events in 77 countries affiliated with the effort.

Among this year’s events is one in Lexington: Startup Weekend, a 54-hour workshop designed to help would-be entrepreneurs figure out how to turn their ideas into businesses.

Awesome Inc., a business incubator on East Main Street started two years ago by four 20-something entrepreneurs, is hosting the workshop, which runs from Friday evening through Sunday evening.

Brian Raney, one of Awesome Inc.’s partners, expects as many as 75 participants. If you want to be one of them, you can sign up at lexington.startupweekend.org. The cost is $40, which covers all meals during the weekend.

Awesome Inc. Lexington held its first Startup Weekend a year ago, when it was organized by the Kentucky Startup Blog, the Young Entrepreneurs of Lexington and the University of Kentucky’s Entrepreneur Club. It included would-be entrepreneurs who ranged from high school and college students to people in their 50s and 60s, Raney said. Most of the ventures developed during the workshop were Internet-related because that works best in such a short session.

Startup Weekend, a concept developed promoted by a non-profit group in Seattle, has done events in more than 50 cities and 12 countries over the past two years. More than 250 businesses have come out of those workshops, the group claims.

Here’s how Startup Weekend will work:

On Friday night, participants with ideas they think could become businesses make pitches to the group. Teams self-select around the ideas that draw the most interest. The teams then spend the next two days fleshing out the ideas, developing business and technical plans and building a basic Web site.

At the end of the workshop Sunday night, each team makes a presentation about its proposed business and participants discuss and critique them.

The weekend will include presentations by Ken Sagan, an attorney with the law firm Stites and Harbison, and John Williamson of Uvestor. The company, an online marketplace for buyers and sellers of investment real estate, grew out of last year’s Startup Weekend.

Sponsors for Startup Weekend include Stites & Harbison and Commerce Lexington.

Raney said many entrepreneurs find the workshop a good way to develop their ideas, because there’s a sense of focus and community.

“Being around people who are interested in the same things you are interested in allows you to stay motivated,” he said. “It’s the same reason some people go to a gym to work out rather than doing it alone in their basement.”

It’s similar to the concept behind Awesome Inc., which rents workspace to 15 fledgling entrepreneurs who are looking for community and an inexpensive place to work that’s a more professional address than a home office.

Raney, 27, is a Campbell County native with economics and computer science degrees from the University of Kentucky who said he has started two businesses in addition to Awesome Inc.

He said Lexington has a bright future as a place for entrepreneurs. Reasons include UK, a relatively low cost of living, an attractive environment and a good quality of life.

“I think it has great potential,” he said of Lexington. “That’s why I’m still here instead of being in Austin, Boulder or San Francisco.”

And after this weekend, he hopes to have more company.

At the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center’s conference last month, people talked about how much more economic progress this state could make if cities and their surrounding counties worked together.

Jim Host thinks they’re right — but that they’re thinking too small. That’s no surprise; few Kentuckians think as big as Host.

The Ashland native turned college sports marketing into a business empire and headed the Commerce Cabinet and state parks system. Host, 71, was the first chairman of the Alltech FEI 2010 World Equestrian Games before stepping down to focus on building a new sports arena in downtown Louisville.

Host is a longtime Lexington resident who spends much of his time in Louisville. He said his experience has convinced him Kentucky will never achieve its full potential until its two biggest cities get beyond their rivalries and develop a close economic partnership with each other and the counties between them.

“Kentucky’s (economic) capital is between Lexington and Louisville,” Host said. “The limited resources of this state can’t afford for there not to be cooperation.”

America’s economy is experiencing fundamental change, with such longtime engines as California and Florida losing their luster. Host thinks that could be an opportunity for Kentucky.

Kentucky’s central location makes it ideal for companies such as Amazon.com, which has huge warehouses in Lexington and Campbellsville, and United Parcel Service, whose air freight hub is in Louisville.

Other industries — including Toyota, at Georgetown — have grown up between the two largest cities. Harley Davidson is considering Shelby County as the site for a 1,000-employee plant.

Many people whose jobs give them the flexibility to live anywhere have come to or stayed in Kentucky because it has a mix of city amenities, picturesque small towns and rural areas with natural beauty and recreation opportunities.

“How many people do you know who could afford to live anywhere, but they choose to live here?” Host asked.

States such as North Carolina, California and Minnesota have spurred economic development by forging close ties among their cities and universities.

Kentucky is catching on.

Commerce Lexington and Greater Louisville Inc. will make their first joint city visit in May, to Pittsburgh. Officials have said they see the trip as a step toward closer economic cooperation.

The 2010 World Equestrian Games are a great opportunity for Lexington to work with Louisville to showcase the larger region’s assets and potential. “Many top CEOs will come to the Games, and we won’t even know they’re here,” Host said.

Universities have huge potential to spur economic development, and Kentucky can no longer afford for the universities of Kentucky and Louisville to not be joined at the hip, Host said.

“There’s a lot more going on than people realize,” University of Kentucky President Lee T. Todd Jr. said when asked about that. A UK spokesman said there are 54 joint research projects, worth $24.4 million, between UK and U of L faculty.

But Host thinks there could be much more coordination and sharing of resources. He noted the two universities’ boards of trustees have never met together — at least not in anyone’s memory.

Part of the challenge, Host said, will be for Lexington and Louisville to convince the rest of the state that what’s good for them is good for everyone. That’s because infrastructure investment and economic development in the cities benefits the entire state through commuter jobs, spinoff industries and shared tax revenues.

“This is not to be in competition with the rest of the state, but to provide revenue for the rest of the state,” Host said.

Fayette and Jefferson counties together accounted for 22.5 percent of state real and tangible personal property tax receipts during fiscal 2009, according to the Revenue Cabinet, which doesn’t track sales tax collections by county.

The cultural and psychological distance between Lexington and Louisville has always been much greater than the 75 miles that separate them. A lot of that comes down to Wildcat blue and Cardinal red.

“It’s part of what we grew up with here — we don’t mess with U of L because they’re our arch-enemy,” said Host, a huge sports fan who once played baseball for UK and admits to bleeding blue. “That can be the case in athletics, but it can’t be the case any longer in academics.”

The bottom line is that Lexington and Louisville must become partners instead of rivals, and the rest of Kentucky must realize that as the economies of those cities go, so goes the rest of the state.

“Sometimes a bad economy causes things to be thought through better,” Host said. “Kentucky is a state with limited resources; we have to focus on how we can make one plus one equal four.”

There was a remarkable public forum at the University of Kentucky on Thursday. The moderator began by saying it reminded him of the old song Which Side Are You On?

Florence Reece, a miner’s wife, wrote that song about the economic controversies surrounding coal in Harlan County in the 1930s. Thursday’s forum, sponsored by UK’s College of Engineering, focused on the global controversies surrounding coal today.

What made the forum remarkable was that it might have been the first time that so many coal executives, environmentalists and community activists sat together in the same room and discussed those controversies openly and, for the most part, honestly.

Some speakers on both sides fell into the old traps — misrepresentations, oversimplifications and emotional appeals. But most stuck to facts. Things are different when you’re addressing your biggest critics, rather than preaching to your choir.

Historian Ron Bryant noted that coal’s effects on human health and the environment have been controversial since mining began in Kentucky in the 1820s. “But the need for coal stopped all arguments,” he said.

Coal powered the industrial revolution, and it fuels our modern lifestyle. But the global debate over climate change is making people realize that the future will be much different than the past.

Most of the world’s scientists and policy makers agree that climate change is real and that burning coal poses a threat to civilization. Meanwhile, there’s increased public opposition to surface and mountaintop-removal mining in Appalachia and the environmental damage it causes.

“We can no longer in this state maintain the status quo,” said Joe Blackburn, a regulator for more than three decades who heads the Lexington field office of the U.S. Office of Surface Mining.

“Dealing with change is never easy,” he said. “But change is a normal part of life.”

Some coal executives seemed surprised when economists outlined their industry’s declining influence in Kentucky.

Coal employment has fallen sharply since its peak in 1980 as mining has become more mechanized. Coal accounts for only 1 percent of statewide employment — and only 3.5 percent when spin-off jobs are included.

Mining creates some good-paying jobs, but it also crowds out other economic opportunities in coal-producing counties, some of which are among the nation’s poorest.

Coal production accounts for only 1.45 percent of gross state product — and it’s falling. Kentucky coal production peaked in 1988, and the market has shifted to cheaper coal from Western states.

Coal has kept Kentucky’s electricity rates among the cheapest in the nation. But those rates are rising and will continue to rise in a carbon-conscious world that will require coal to bear more of its true cost.

And here’s the rub: Coal now provides about half the nation’s electricity — and 92 percent in Kentucky. Renewable energy sources aren’t commercially advanced enough to replace coal, and they won’t be for years, if not decades.

Renewable energy and perhaps nuclear power must be developed soon, because we’re running out of coal. Kentucky might have only 20 years of coal left — or maybe 100 years, with improved mining technology and the right market conditions. But everyone agrees that coal is a finite resource whose end is in sight.

The forum wasn’t all doom and gloom; there was encouraging news. UK researchers talked about what they’re doing to develop renewable energy and lessen the environmental damage of mining and burning coal, and to reforest and reclaim mined land.

The unmistakable takeaway from this daylong “fair and balanced” discussion of coal’s future was that the solutions aren’t simple and the trade-offs won’t be painless, either for the coal industry or for the energy-consuming public.

But Kentucky is at a crossroads.

The coal industry can continue to deny climate change, fight regulation and use scare tactics to delay the inevitable. Or it can work with scientists and its critics to find more responsible ways to mine and use the coal we have left.

Kentucky’s political and business leaders can try to preserve the status quo, as they did for years with tobacco. Or they can focus on energy conservation. They can support research. And they can develop the energy technologies and industries that must eventually replace coal.

If last week’s public forum showed one thing, it’s that there’s only one logical path, no matter which side you’re on.

It’s astounding when you think about it: Lexington Mall has been dead or dying since before this year’s high school graduates were born.

It’s even more astounding when you realize that the 30-acre site could be one of the hottest pieces of real estate in Lexington if it were redeveloped by someone able to think outside the big box.

Built in the 1970s, when malls were all the rage and suburban sprawl was in full bloom, Lexington Mall began declining in the early 1990s. Tenants moved out, complaining that Maryland-based Saul Centers wasn’t maintaining the place.

The last lonely tenant moved out in 2005, when Dillard’s closed its store. Since then, Lexington Mall’s doors have been boarded up and fenced off and its vast blacktop parking lot has cracked and crumbled.

City officials have been wringing their hands over Lexington Mall for years. Developers have tried unsuccessfully to buy it. Every few years, Saul breaks its silence and says the mall will be redeveloped. Then nothing happens.

Lexington Mall is out of sight and out of mind for its absentee landlord. But it has been much on the minds of local developers and landscape architects. Here’s why: The mall sits on a huge piece of prime land inside New Circle Road, situated between the city’s Idle Hour Park and the reservoir.

“It’s one of the few sites in Lexington with a water view,” said Brian Lee, a University of Kentucky landscape architecture professor whose students have studied the site for academic exercises in urban redevelopment.

The property fronts both New Circle and Richmond roads, and it is just 3 miles from downtown by way of the city’s most beautiful, upscale thoroughfare. There are schools, a fire station and shopping nearby.

Developers I talked with agreed that the site shouldn’t be another mall or Hamburg-style big-box retail center.

With a zoning change, they said, the site would be ideal for a “new urban” mixed-use village of one- to five-story buildings with shops, offices, condos and apartments, all situated on traditional streets and buffered by green space. Businesses on the mall’s edge — Home Depot, Applebee’s and Perkins restaurant, and Central Bank — could easily be worked into a new design plan.

“It seems like the idea of a cluster of smaller retail shops around a common green and serving as a village center with perhaps loft residential or office might have some merit,” said Morgan McIlwain, a landscape architect with M2D Design Group. The group’s recent work includes the site plan for the new Bluegrass Community and Technical College campus on the Eastern State Hospital site.

“It goes nicely with this notion of infill,” McIlwain added. “We could get higher density and not sprawl so much.”

Tom Low, a principal in the Charlotte, N.C., firm DPZ Architects and Town Planners — the firm most famous for designing a similar development in Seaside, Fla. — sent me an interesting diagram of examples for converting a site similar to Lexington Mall into a village-style development.

One developer cited the example also of Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio. I’ve also seen such projects in Charlotte, N.C., and Williamsburg, Va. When the economy and lending environment improves, something like that could make sense.

First, though, executives at Saul Centers need to find a map and remember where Lexington is. Then they need to find a calendar and realize it’s 2009, not 1990.

Then, maybe, they will partner with or sell Lexington Mall to a developer with the vision to turn one of this city’s most prominent examples of urban decay into a vibrant piece of the urban landscape.

Examples of how an old mall can be redeveloped into a mixed-use project with multiple buildings, streets and green space. Image: DPZ

When people in Lexington talk about great high school marching bands, the names Lafayette and Paul Laurence Dunbar always come up.

But as with many things in Kentucky, there is a lot of greatness beyond the big cities, out in the small towns and rural counties that so often define this state’s character.

The state’s other biggest band rivalry is Bourbon and Adair counties. It continued Saturday when Bourbon took first place and Adair second in Class 3A at the state championships.

For the big city rivalries, Lafayette finished first in Class 5A with Paul Laurence Dunbar coming in fourth. Madison Central was second.

Adair County has a long tradition built by Tim Allen, who became director there in 1981 and won more state championships than anyone else before stepping down this year.

But the competition has been tighter since one of Allen’s former students, Eric Hale, became director at Bourbon County five years ago.

Last year, Bourbon edged Adair by a fraction of a point to win the state championship. A few weeks later, Bourbon went to Indianapolis and won its division in the prestigious Bands of America Championship.

Hale credits parent and community support for the 79-member Bourbon County band’s recent success, as well as a good feeder program from the middle school where his wife, Nadine, is the band director. She also helps Hale and assistant director Kevin Akers at the high school.

But Hale, like other band directors, says success isn’t about always winning.

“I want them to learn that hard work doesn’t always mean you’ll win every time,” he said. “But if you don’t go out there and give it all you’ve got, you’re going to regret it.”

Hale enjoys the rivalry with Adair, where he still always seems to have a cousin or two in the band — someone who will gloat when they beat him, or be sore if he beats them.

The rivalry also keeps band members focused, said Bourbon County’s field commander, Rachel Quinn.

“All season we know they’re our biggest rival,” Quinn said. “Our goal isn’t necessarily to beat them, but to go out there and do the best that we can. And if we get first place along the way, that’s great.”

Adair County had a special challenge this year with Allen stepping down and being succeeded by Tom Case, who had achieved success with the John Hardin and Elizabethtown high school bands.

“I’ve always respected Adair County’s tradition, but living it is another thing,” Case said. “Adair County is a band nation. There’s no other way to describe it. The community support is overwhelming.”

Adair will represent Kentucky this year at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. It will be an expensive trip, but the money is already in the bank: the fund-raising goal was met this summer.

“We have such a legacy, such a tradition,” said Beth VanArsdale, who has had two daughters in the Adair County Band. “They’re like a big family, and when they get on the field, it all comes out.”

State marching band championships

CLASS A

1. Williamstown
2. Murray
3. Beechwood
4. Hazard

CLASS 2A

1. Washington County
2. Elizabethtown
3. Trigg County
4. Green County

CLASS 3A

1. Bourbon County
2. Adair County
3. Russell County
4. Boyle County

CLASS 4A

1. Madisonville – North Hopkins
2. Grant County
3. South Oldham
4. Mercer County

CLASS 5A

1. Lafayette
2. Madison Central
3. North Hardin
4. Paul Laurence Dunbar

The preliminaries of the Kentucky High School Marching Band Championships have concluded, and finalists will gather tonight at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium in Louisville for judges to decide the best bands in the state.

Preliminaries in the five divisions, based on school size, were held earlier today around Louisville.

Here are more photos from the Class 5-A preliminaries, featuring bands from Kentucky’s largest high schools. Bands pictured include Lexington’s Paul Laurence Dunbar and Lafayette, Muhlenberg County, Madison Central and  Central Hardin.

Click on thumbnails to see full photos:

The Kentucky High School Marching Band championships are under way today with perfect weather at Papa John Stadium in Louisville. Here are some photos from morning competition of Tates Creek, Henry Clay, Marshall County and George Rogers Clark High Schools.

Click on each thumbnail to see entire photo:

Kentucky doesn’t just produce writers; it celebrates them.

The biggest annual celebration is Saturday, when about 200 writers — 150 of whom are Kentuckians — will gather at the Frankfort Convention Center for the 28th annual Kentucky Book Fair.

Authors will sit behind long rows of tables so thousands of readers can stop by, meet them, buy their books and get their autographs.

This year’s lineup includes pop ular Kentucky writers Silas House, Erik Reece, Bobbie Ann Mason, Ed McClanahan, Thomas Parrish, Richard Taylor and David Dick.

Also there will be retired Courier-Journal columnist Byron Crawford, who has put together a 30-year collection of his work in Kentucky Footnotes, and journalist Leslie Guttman of Lexington, who writes about a year in the life of a race horse hospital in Equine ER.

Coach Rich Brooks and co-author Tom Leach will sign their book, Rich Tradition: How Rich Brooks Revived the Football Fortunes of the Kentucky Wildcats.

And retired Keeneland chairman Ted Bassett will autograph his memoir.

National authors at the fair will include George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, who has written a book about Abraham Lincoln.

“I’m always so proud to live in a state that supports literature the way Kentucky does, and the Kentucky Book Fair is real proof of that,” said House, who will sign his new novel, Eli the Good.

“Everywhere I go, all over the country, people assume that Kentuckians are illiterate,” House said. “And I always take that as an opportunity to correct them and tell them about our long literary history and how great the support for writers is in our state.”

When you think about that tradition and support, it makes perfect sense. Writing is about telling stories, and there are few things Kentuckians love more than a good story — and storyteller.

Jesse Stuart and me at his home, summer 1963. Photo by Marion Eblen

I’m the son of a school librarian and a bookstore manager. Writers, especially Kentucky writers, enjoyed celebrity status in our home. My first memorable encounter with that celebrity came the summer I turned 5, when my mother’s parents came up from far Western Kentucky for a visit.

My grandparents were Jesse Stuart fans and wanted to see the Greenup County he wrote about. While my father was at work one day, my mother took us to Greenup, thinking we could drive past Stuart’s home. What she didn’t know was that the narrow gravel road ended at his home.

It didn’t look as if anyone was home, so before she turned the car around, my grandparents urged her to look in the window beside the front door. When she did, Stuart looked back. Then he opened the door and invited us in to visit.

I had just learned to do somersaults, and, much to my mother’s horror, Stuart encouraged me to practice on the braided rug in his living room. I was barefoot, so when he took us to see the cabin where he wrote, he carried me out there, giving my mother a Kodak moment.

Writers such as Stuart and James Still found rich material in the people and places of Eastern Kentucky, just as Mason has explored the land and psyche of her native Jackson Purchase region, in far Western Kentucky.

I asked Mason last week about the importance of Kentucky writers, past and future. As you might expect, her response was well worth reading:

“Kentuckians have been confused about our identity, who we are and how others see us, what we have here and what there is in the larger world. Sometimes we feel smugly superior, sometimes inferior. Kentucky writers have always walked a tightrope between Kentucky and the Outside.

“Now even though the boundary lines are easing, and Kentucky is part of the wider mainstream, our writers can continue to lead the way on the most critical issues of our time, because we can write firsthand with passion and with historical perspective about what is happening to the land and its people. Our land of contrasts is an example and a warning to the rest of the world.”

Maybe creating a vibrant downtown isn’t so much about grand plans as small spaces.

One small space with potential is the block of North Mill Street between West Main and Short streets. It retains most of its old buildings, which now house places to eat, drink and work. Developer Nick Ebbitt is converting the upstairs of several buildings into loft condos.

The block is in the middle of downtown’s emerging action: Galleries, restaurants and bars have sprouted along Short and in Victorian Square; Dudley’s is moving there; Cheapside is alive with the farmers market and other events that will only increase in popularity when a market house is built.

But plans for Mill Street are controversial because developers want to close the street to traffic and eliminate a handful of parking spaces.

I don’t see a big problem with that, but several people, whose opinions on these matters I respect, do. They think it’s important to keep that block as a regular street, at least during the day. Pedestrian malls have been successful in some cities, including Charlottesville, Va., but they have failed in others.

The key seems to be striking a balance between cars and people to create flexible, inviting spaces where people want to spend time and businesses can succeed.

A grass-roots plan by property owners along Esplanade between East Main and Short streets has the potential to do just that. It seems like a good, reasonably priced idea that could be adapted for Mill Street and other places in Lexington, too.

The plan is the work of Gene Williams and Art Shechet, two of the partners in Natasha’s restaurant. Natasha’s developed a loyal following with its high-quality ethnic food, and the business has expanded by adding a music stage with nightly performances by local bands, emerging artists and occasional big-name acts.

Esplanade, which is fortunate to have wide sidewalks, will host a street fair during next fall’s Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. And that got the partners to thinking about the possibilities of a more flexibly designed Esplanade that could take advantage of an adjacent, little-used park on the Chase Bank tower property.

They figure the project could be done for less than $500,000 without closing Esplanade — and adding daytime parking spaces to the west side of the street, where there are none now. They also would plant shade trees that would be lighted at night.

In the evenings, resurfaced parking spaces in front of Natasha’s and the Lexington Club could be converted into outdoor dining areas. With some remodeling to open up the Chase park, there could be room for a temporary stage and booths during community events and festivals.

The result would be a small, flexible public square similar to those that help make European cities fun places to spend time.

Architect Farzin Sadr, who owns Natasha’s building and has his offices upstairs, drew up some initial plans. Natasha’s partners have enlisted support from other nearby property owners, including Chase tower and Central Christian Church.

Williams and Shechet unveiled their plan at an Aug. 18 breakfast for Mayor Jim Newberry and Urban County Council members. They soon will ask that the project be added to the city’s downtown streetscape work — ideally before the Equestrian Games.

“We’re latecomers to the table, but we think this plan makes sense and would be a lot of bang for the buck,” Williams said.

“We also think it would move the center of gravity back a bit to the east end,” he said. “We want an anchor here that is social and speaks to an older crowd and more family groups.”

Natasha’s partners think this could be an easy, highly visible downtown success story that would have relatively little cost or controversy. I suspect they’re right.

In case you missed them, the Herald-Leader carried two excellent op-ed columns Sunday and Monday from two of Lexington’s most knowledgeable and passionate advocates for smart growth and preservation of what’s special in the Bluegrass.

Here’s the Sunday piece by Knox van Nagell, executive director of The Fayette Alliance.

Here’s the Monday piece by Hayward Wilkirson, who was a founding board member of Preserve Lexington, which last year opposed destruction of a historic block that’s now a downtown meadow.

I wrote Sunday about last week’s Shakertown Roundtable, which featured former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and included more than 50 of Kentucky’s most influential leaders in business, government, academia and philanthropy.

Given the complexity of the topic — economic crisis and recovery — and the caliber of the panel and participants, there was a lot to discuss and think about.

Here are a few additional notes from last Thursday afternoon’s conference in one of Kentucky’s most scenic settings, Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill:

■ One executive I found insightful was Paul Varga, president and CEO of the Louisville-based liquor giant Brown-Forman Corp. In stressful times like these, he joked, “You’ll all understand why I’m happy to be in the business I’m in.”

Varga said he understood some executives’ worries about a backlash of too much taxation and regulation after a period many people think had too little. Liquor has always been an easy mark for higher taxes, he said, adding that “our industry once had the ultimate government intervention: Prohibition.”

He noted that much of the economic crisis was caused by what people did with other people’s money and an abandonment of traditionally sound business practices. Varga said future prosperity will require companies to not just achieve revenue growth, but create value.

Brown Forman — and the entire bourbon industry — has remained relatively healthy by not taking on too much debt and by searching out new markets overseas and developing spinoffs such as the Bourbon Trail initiative around distillery tourism.

■ In response to a question, Volcker said ideology and economics don’t mix well. That’s because unpredictable human behavior can have a big effect on the economy.

“It’s not a rational activity,” he said of economics, adding that this crisis showed that free markets with little regulation can lead to greed, manipulation and disaster.

■ Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson, who is running for lieutenant governor on Gov. Steve Beshear’s re-election ticket, reminded executives who criticized government spending on the social safety net that many average Americans are hurting.

“We have real families and real children who are going through some real difficulties,” Abramson said. The nation needs to take care of them, he said, not only because it’s the right thing to do but because they are the workers who will be needed to build the future.

■ Centre College President John Roush said most aging baby boomers won’t be able to enjoy the leisurely retirement they expected because our old economy and lifestyle expectations weren’t sustainable.

“We’re not going to get to go fishing every day,” said Roush, 59, who said he likes to fish.

But Roush said he is encouraged that today’s college students have different expectations. “They have a sense of possibility and optimism,” he said.

■ University of Kentucky President Lee Todd said America needs to renew its focus on research and development, advanced manufacturing and high-quality education. Kentucky students need more math and science — and more confidence in their abilities.

With the right education and training, Kentucky students can compete with anyone, said Todd, himself the product of a small town in Hopkins County. As an example, he mentioned UK students’ strong showing last week in the international solar house design competition in Washington, D.C.

Kentucky students need to start their own businesses, not just expect to work for someone else. And the state needs to emphasize entrepreneurship and business development, not just attracting employers from elsewhere.

“Kentucky people who start companies will stay in Kentucky,” Todd said. “We’ve got to create our own jobs.”

Kentucky Educational Television videotaped the Shakertown Roundtable and will show an edited version on Nov. 23 at 8 p.m. and at other times.

Paul Volcker, who was chairman of the Federal Reserve under presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and is a top adviser to President Barack Obama, has earned a reputation as one of the rarest of creatures: a straight-talking economist.

Volcker was true to form Thursday, when he came to Kentucky to speak at the Shakertown Roundtable, a gathering of about 60 of the state’s most influential leaders in business, government, education and philanthropy.

The 82-year-old economist was blunt in his assessment of what caused this economic crisis and what’s needed to fix it. And he brought things back into focus when some executives tried to point fingers, shift blame and complain about recovery strategies.

“We spent, as a nation, more than we were producing,” Volcker said. Mix that with a real-estate bubble, reckless financial manipulation and too little government oversight, and it was a recipe for disaster.

“We were leveraging the economy … and then it all unraveled,” he said, adding that the recovery will be a “considerable slog” that could take years.

Volcker has advised Obama to restore legal restrictions, enacted after the Great Depression but repealed in the 1990s, that separated investment and commercial banking and prevented banks from becoming “too big to fail.”

The Obama administration has balked at Volcker’s suggestions amid industry opposition. But Volcker warned that without such reforms the nation could face a repeat of its current crisis in a few years.

After Volcker’s remarks, the 11 other panelists gave their views on the economy and the proper relationship between business and government. They included Gov. Steve Beshear, Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson, the presidents of the universities of Kentucky and Louisville and several business leaders.

David Grissom, president of Mayfair Capital in Louisville, said he was depressed at the quality of national leadership. He complained about the huge amounts of money government is using to try to rescue the economy.

Julie Janson, president of Duke Energy in Kentucky and Ohio, lamented new government regulations on energy and utilities.

Churchill Downs Chief Executive Robert Evans warned this was a bad time to raise taxes and increase government regulation of business.

U of L President Jim Ramsey cited sobering statistics about Kentucky’s economic “blood bath,” such as the decline in manufacturing jobs in the past decade from 310,000 to 200,000 and the fact that Kentucky spends $9,000 a year on each public school student, $6,000 on each college student — and $19,000 on each prison inmate.

As each panelist took his or her turn, things turned gloomier. Then the last panelist, the governor, spoke.

Beshear said he thinks Kentucky is in better shape economically than many states and, with smart strategy and investment, the state could position itself to take advantage of future economic opportunities, such as advanced manufacturing.

“Until I heard from the governor, I was in a state of desperation,” Volcker deadpanned, adding that he agrees with Beshear’s optimism.

But, Volcker said, Kentucky and the nation must see the economic crisis as a “wake-up call” and make some fundamental changes.

Volcker also agreed with comments by UK President Lee Todd, who emphasized the need for more rigorous math and science education and more technology research that can be commercialized to create jobs.

Todd criticized the recent emphasis on the service economy: “We can’t create wealth by serving hamburgers to each other.”

In the best line of the day, Volcker said Americans need to shift away from “financial engineering” and focus once again on civil, mechanical and electrical engineering.

We need to regain our leadership in technology development and manufacturing, he said, rather than churning out so many business school graduates who are focused on making big, quick and easy profits by manipulating money.

If there’s one thing this year’s Shakertown Roundtable made clear, it is this: Economic recovery will require us to figure out how to prosper in a new and different global economy, rather than simply trying to get back what we have lost.

Centre College President John Roush, commenting from the audience, perhaps said it best: “I think we are going back to a place of well-being. But it’s a different place.”

Readers of Conde Nast Traveler magazine recently voted the 21C Museum Hotel in Louisville as the nation’s best hotel.

It was in the news last week and discussed on NBC’s Today Show this week.

“It sounds like the idea behind this is brilliant,” said Today Show host Matt Lauer, who seemed barely able to hide his surprise that Kentucky could be on the cutting edge of anything.

The 90-room luxury hotel that houses a public, all-hours contemporary art museum really is brilliant, and the Today Show and Conde Nast Traveler are just the most recent examples of the positive buzz it has created for Louisville.

The 21C was the brainchild of Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, who worked with Lexington-based Gray Construction to create the museum/hotel by renovating and connecting four century-old buildings.

The complex is not far from developer Bill Weyland’s Glassworks art and office complex and Louisville Slugger factory and museum. They are all on Louisville’s West Main Street, in renovated old buildings that less imaginative developers would have demolished.

These attractions have sparked a vibrant entertainment district popular with locals and visitors alike. Last year, the American Planning Association named West Main Street as one of the nation’s 10 best streets.

Gray Construction’s chairman, Lexington Vice Mayor Jim Gray, worked closely with Brown and Wilson to create 21C - and it wasn’t easy. Some of the buildings needed new foundations and steel reinforcement. “There was one day when we almost lost one of them,” he said.

But Brown and Wilson never considered tearing down the old buildings, Gray said. And it wasn’t just because the $180-a-square-foot cost of renovation was cheaper than new construction.

“They knew that the character of the old buildings was what would inspire and create the energy for the project,” Gray said. “Within the frame of the old buildings they were going to create something new and contemporary and inspiring.”

Last year, during Lexington’s debate over the now-stalled CentrePointe project, Gray often mentioned 21C as an alternative approach to the generic skyscraper developer Dudley Webb planned. Webb could create something special by saving some of the 14 old buildings he wanted to tear down and weaving them into a quality piece of contemporary architecture.

Webb wasn’t interested. The old buildings weren’t worth saving, he said, even though renovation would have been cheaper than new construction.

So, here we are more than a year later. The block has been cleared of 180 years of Lexington history. CentrePointe is stalled and probably dead. Louisville has 21C and a lot of national buzz. Lexington has a pasture in the middle of town and a missed opportunity.

But it’s not Lexington’s only opportunity.

A few blocks away, developer Barry McNees is scraping together money to create the Lexington Distillery District. His vision is to renovate two abandoned bourbon distilleries and other industrial buildings in one of the city’s long-neglected neighborhoods. They would become the nucleus for a mixed-use neighborhood reflecting Lexington’s heritage and authentic culture.

The Distillery District is struggling amid the credit crunch. Still, the 150-year-old Old Tarr Distillery warehouse has become Buster’s, a popular nightclub. Galleries and artists’ studios are sprouting nearby.

“You clean that place up and it’s a destination,” Gray said of the Distillery District. “There’s nothing like it in Lexington, and that’s what appeals to people.”

So here’s the question for May Jim Newberry’s administration and Lexington’s business leadership: Where should this city place its bet? Will a prosperous future look more like what’s happening on Louisville’s West Main Street, or what’s been happening for 30 years on Lexington’s West Main Street?

Tuesday is the National Day on Writing. Do you have a sentence or two to contribute?

If so, the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning wants to hear from you. To celebrate this day, the center is putting together what it calls the “longest short story ever written.”

The center is seeking contributions from average folks and from established local authors, including Ed McClanahan and Bobbie Ann Mason. First lady Jane Beshear plans to finish the story during an event at 5:30 p.m. at the Carnegie Center in Gratz Park.

The idea is to put together a snapshot of Lexington and what’s going on in people’s lives this day, said Neil Chethik, the Carnegie Center’s writer-in-residence.

People can add their contributions by stopping by the Carnegie Center from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or at the following places and times: Starbucks in Chevy Chase, 7-9 a.m.; Starbucks downtown, Third Street Stuff or the Eagle Creek Library, 9-11 a.m.; Joseph Beth Booksellers or Barnes & Noble, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; The Morris Book Shop, Waldenbooks or Northside Library, 1-3 p.m.; or the Village Branch and Central libraries or Common Grounds Coffee, 3-5 p.m.

Ed McClanahan

McClanahan has started the story with these two sentences: “I found her sitting on a bench in Woodland Park. She looked up when my shadow fell on the letter she was writing.”

McClanahan, whose books include The Natural Man, said he doesn’t know what will come from this community story.

“It will generate some interest among people (in writing), I’m sure,” said McClanahan.

He said writing is a useful exercise for anyone. “It is an opportunity to examine one’s life and experiences and thinking processes. It’s a way of looking at yourself and what’s going on in the world.”

This community story will be written on butcher paper, the pieces of which will be taped together into a big scroll. Excerpts will be published online, including on www.galleryofwriting.org, the Web site of the National Council of Teachers of English, which sponsors the National Day on Writing.

It sounds like a fun project. I’m just glad I don’t have to edit it.

“I’m glad I don’t have to, either,” McClanahan said.

I’ve always found it ironic that Kentucky was considered more innovative and successful in the early 1800s, when it was on the edge of the American frontier, than during the past century, when it was at the geographic center of a booming nation.

Maybe success isn’t so much about where you are physically as where you are mentally.

The Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center’s annual conference in Louisville on Thursday looked at the usual problems that vex this state: health, education and economic development.

But much of the discussion focused on new ways of thinking about and tackling those problems.

Doug Henton, a Versailles-born author and consultant who heads a California company called Collaborative Economics, said Kentucky’s economic future could be much different than its past.

Natural resources, such as rivers and mineral wealth, will be less important in the future. What will be much more important is how human resources are developed.

Globalization of the economy is changing the importance of place and the strategies that states must use to create economic success.

Economic development strategies that focus on tax breaks, cheap labor and low-cost energy will no longer work. That’s because industries that depend on those things have either moved work offshore or eventually will.

What will be important is “quality of life” — creating a place where the best and brightest people want to live and the most innovative companies want to set up shop.

That makes a clean environment important, as well as smart land use and growth strategies, good urban planning and good transportation systems.

The most successful businesses now tend to be small- and medium-size companies that embrace change and are good at networking. Because collaboration is important, companies tend to cluster in areas where ideas can feed off one another.

Local and state governments are often either too little or too big to effectively address issues that will be important in the future, such as growth strategies and transportation, Henton said.

Breaking down old political barriers and promoting regional collaboration will become essential.

Northern Kentucky has had some success with regional cooperation, as has the Louisville area since metro consolidation. Central Kentucky? Not so much.

From his work around the country, Henton said, he has observed that the most successful regional initiatives are bottom-up and collaborative. They are ones in which leaders from government, business, universities, non-profits and citizen groups work together across traditional political boundaries.

“Focus on people and relationships, and not organizations and structures,” Henton said. “It’s about group creativity and regional stewardship, and the regions around the country where this happens seem to have more vibrant economies.”

The basic foundation for any region’s success in the future will be a well-educated population that is able to seize economic opportunities.

“We need well-rounded people who are creative as well as having the basic skills,” he said.

Kentuckians must become more comfortable with change, and more innovative in how they deal with it. One good example is in the way Kentuckians approach energy and the environment.

Peter Meyer, an environmental expert and University of Louisville professor, said climate change is real, and further worldwide restrictions on the burning of coal are inevitable, whether we like it or not.

But while Kentucky faces many challenges, it also has some opportunities.

Kentucky state government is doing good work in improving energy efficiency, especially with the construction of new public schools. The state’s first “net zero” energy use school building will open in Bowling Green next fall.

But state government could be doing more to promote those projects as examples, he said.

Rather than pledging $300 million in state funds for a coal-liquefaction demonstration project, Kentucky officials should put that money toward conservation efforts.

Home electricity consumption is 24 percent above the national average, which means we have a lot of opportunities to do better.

But it will involve a mental shift from Kentucky’s devotion to coal — and to doing things the way they’ve always been done.

“We need to become risk-takers in this environment,” Meyer said.

The old building doesn’t look like much, standing across East Third Street from a demolition site and the King Cobras motorcycle club. A small sign in a window behind a steel-bar security door says: LOT Parrish Rash.

Since early this year, it has been the Land of Tomorrow, an occasional gallery, and the workshop of Parrish Rash & van Dissel, a small company with big ambitions.

PR&vD hopes to encourage artists and industrial designers around the world to innovate by creating new and more profitable ways for them to produce and market their work.

At the company’s workshop last week, there were three projects under way: A high-design chaise being made of Styrofoam and urethane for a Vienna art museum; a stage set for The xx, a British rock band; and another UK professor’s project that involves creating a LED lighting system for a large model of a planned community in China that will be exhibited in Germany.

Upcoming work includes a piece for a show at the Pompidou Centre in Paris and two pieces for a show at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Later this month, LOT will bring collectors from across the country together with an international group of designers represented by the NOUS Gallery of London, England. The event will include a mixed-media show called Boys and Their Toys, which will be on display from Oct. 30 to Nov. 8. The opening reception Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. is open to the public.

Why would these collectors and designers travel thousands of miles for an event in Lexington?

“High-end collectors are looking for new places to discover work,” said LOT founder Drura Parrish. The event will include a dinner, an afternoon at Keeneland and plenty of bourbon. “You sell the destination, not the art.”

It also didn’t hurt that one of the British gallery’s principals, designer Melissa Woolford, is originally from Evansville, Ind., across the Ohio River from Parrish’s hometown of Henderson.

Good connections and a “why not?” attitude have enabled Parrish and his business partner, Rives Rash, to build an international reputation over the past six years by working with contemporary artists and architects to produce their designs. Their work has appeared at such venues as New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Vienna’s MAK Center and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Parrish and Rash are faculty members at the University of Kentucky’s College of Design. They’re also workshop wizards who never outgrew playing with sticks and glue.

“The reputation got out there that if you wanted to do something crazy, there’s these guys from Virginia and Kentucky who will help you do something crazy,” said Parrish, who, like Rash, earned a graduate degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture.

During the past 15 years, technology has revolutionized architecture and design. Parrish, 33, and Rash, 30, have created a niche by exploring the possibilities of new design geometries and materials.

The company’s newest partner, Bart van Dissel, 55, a former Harvard Business School professor and McKinsey & Co. consultant, sees an opportunity for PR&vD to change the economics of design by connecting designers, manufacturers and customers.

That means working with designers to build prototypes and figure out manufacturing processes and costs. PR&vD would do some manufacturing itself and outsource some work to other Kentucky manufacturers.

In addition to fine art, PR&vD is interested in making furniture and household items — really, any object that might be improved by innovative design.

“There needs to be a democratization of design,” Parrish said. “People used to not give a damn about design because they couldn’t afford it.” That is changing as high-design items show up on the shelves of such retailers as IKEA and Target.

Designers haven’t been well-served by traditional retail models, where mass production and big sales volume are necessary and retailers get as much as 60 percent of the price. It gives designers little incentive to innovate or take risks.

For that reason, PR&vD also is interested in exploring new retail models, from online sales to distribution through museum stores.

“The key point is to shift the way the designers do business,” Parrish said. “Our paradigm is simple: Put designers first, and they become the brand.”

PR&vD has begun making several products for sale on www.etsy.com, an arts and crafts site. They include flatware, lamps, chairs and decorative items made from a mix of urethane and tree limbs salvaged from last winter’s ice storm.

There are limits to what can be made in PR&vD’s rented workshop, which also must accommodate the building owner’s bass boat. It is moved around the room as space is needed.

“It adds soul to the workshop,” Parrish said of the bass boat.

“And it reminds us that we don’t go fishing enough,” van Dissel added.

Parrish thinks Kentucky is an ideal place for the kind of creative, specialized manufacturing that PR&vD has in mind. The state has a wealth of aluminum and plastics fabricators who located here for the auto industry but could use more work.

“Kentucky, more than any place I know, is tied to making and doing,” he said. “If we don’t do it as a profession, we often do it as a hobby. It’s just what we do.”

After all, look what PR&vD has done so far with limited equipment in an old building on East Third Street. In the land of tomorrow, what’s important are ideas — and people with the knowledge and connections to make them work.

Remind me never to schedule an overseas vacation again during the annual Idea Festival in Louisville. There are just too many interesting things going on there to miss.

Idea Festival founder Kris Kimel sent me this photo today, which was taken during the festival late last month. It shows a sidewalk painting by Julian Beever, a Belgian-based chalk artist. He did this work on a Louisville sidewalk during the festival. Amazing.

Our plan was to ride Kentucky from top to bottom, but Mother Nature had other plans.

Storms on Friday forced organizers of the Governor’s Autumn Bicycle Ride Across Kentucky to cancel the first day’s journey — 60 miles from the Ohio River at Carrollton to Frankfort.

A few brave souls did it anyway. “We came to ride, so we rode,” said John O’Cull, a Vanceburg dentist. He and three buddies arrived in Frankfort soaking wet.

The other 65 of us started Saturday morning from the Grand Theatre in downtown Frankfort. The annual ride began in 2004 to raise money for the Grand’s restoration. This year, it became part of Gov. Steve Beshear’s “adventure tourism” initiative.

We spent Saturday night at a church camp near Campbellsville, where a truck had ferried our luggage. We left from there Sunday morning and finished the ride by dipping our wheels in Dale Hollow Lake on the Tennessee line.

Saturday’s ride was 90 miles or so; Sunday’s was 70 or so. I say “or so” because some of us missed a couple of the orange Gs that had been spray-painted on the road to mark turns, so we unintentionally enjoyed a few extra miles of Kentucky scenery.

We avoided big highways whenever possible. Many roads we traveled barely rated mention on a map.

The rain stopped early Saturday, but most of the weekend was cloudy, cold and breezy.

I never know how to dress when biking this time of year. I was burning up in a light fleece jacket as we climbed a big hill Sunday on Little Cake Road in Adair County, but I felt good a couple of miles later as we passed Bearwallow Cemetery. Then I was cold as we flew down a hill on Bull Run Lane.

Only two hills got me off my bike: One was Saturday, too soon after a delicious lunch of fried chicken, corn and apples that I wanted to keep. The other was a steep, milelong climb Sunday. I made it three-fourths of the way up, but I had to stop long enough to get my heart out of my throat so I could resume pedaling.

I enjoy the camaraderie of riding with old friends and making new ones. I also like the challenge of going from place to place under my own power. Bicycle touring is like hiking, only the scenery changes faster. By the end of a long ride, my legs are burning and my butt is getting numb, but I feel as if I’ve accomplished something.

Kentucky always seems more beautiful when viewed from a bicycle. There’s nothing between you and the passing landscape. The only noise is your own heavy breathing as you go uphill and the smooth spin of your freewheel as you go down.

After Sunday brunch at Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia, we saw a chapel designed by architect E. Fay Jones, an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright. It’s a piece of world-class modern architecture that you don’t expect to find in small-town Kentucky.

Most of the ride’s sights were more subtle, and 15 miles an hour was slow enough to study them.

Tire swings hung from front-yard trees, and wood stoves were getting back to work. There was a hint of smoke in the air, and long stacks of split logs waiting to be devoured.

Golden tobacco hung from barn rafters. Amish buggies sat parked in sheds. Pumpkins were arranged in yards, and Halloween ghosts made of white trash bags dangled from trees and porches.

Morning mist blanketed still-green pastures and fading fields of cornstalks. Red sumac and yellow walnut trees stood waiting for the rest of the forest to catch up.

Old farmers and children called out and waved. Dairy cows stood and stared. Dogs watched, too, or gave chase, depending on their age, temperament and how many cyclists they had already gone after.

Riding back roads makes you realize how much of this state is made up of small farms, modest rural homes and crossroads communities barely big enough to support a store or church.

As you roll quietly from one little town to the next, there’s so much to see. Then your burning legs remind you that there’s a hill coming up and, beyond it, another colorful piece in the patchwork that is Kentucky.