Tonight’s Mayoral Forum “Digital Democracy” begins at 6.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=284783602938
Seating is limited.
Follow http://twitter.com/AceWeekly for updates.
by: Ace
Campus Housing
Homeowners and Council Members continue to square off
[excerpt of email submitted by homeowner Kate Savage to Council Member Cheryl Feigel.]
Sunday, February 21, 2010 1:01 PM
To: Cheryl B Feigel
Cc: Jim Newberry - Mayor; Diane Lawless; Jim Gray; Kevin Stinnett; Julian Beard; Peggy Henson; KC Crosbie; Charles Ellinger II; George Myers; Linda Gorton; Tom Blues; Andrea James; Jay McChord; Doug Martin
Subject: Neighbourhood Rezoning
Council Member Feigel:
I was out of town for last Tuesday’s Planning Committee meeting. However, since getting back I have taken time to watch the GTV3 archived broadcast.
I was utterly astonished by your suggestion that the neighbourhoods adjacent to the university be turned into a newly created zone for “students,” similar in theory to zones designated for “commerce” or “industry”.
Was this idea not discussed at length during the Housing Task Force meetings? This Task Force was made up of all interested parties, and you served on it. The consensus was that this was a bad idea. But now, out of the blue, as if you’d trumped the ace, you present this idea as neoteric.
I have lived in my house on Columbia Avenue since 1990. I bought it as a single parent in my late thirties. The properties here were affordable. My reasons for the choice of this neighbourhood reflect those of other residents. I was close to my work, my son could walk or ride his bike to school, then later to college, the community was diverse, decent, and all the amenities of life were close by. For twenty years I have sat on this egg, it is the only investment I have. I have pinched at times to make the mortgage, I have scrimped and saved to make repairs, improve the landscaping, replace worn out furnishings. My son grew up here. Our pets are buried in the back yard. It’s the only house I’ve owned. It is my home.
Do you think I should roll over whilst you propose condemning my neighbourhood by rezoning it to R3? Sit here and watch a transient population of students wash in and wash out year after year? See my investment shrivel up with the decline of the area as house after house is transformed to accommodate 8-10 individuals? Allow you to rubber stamp the scofflaw behaviour of avaricious landlords by giving them the nod to continue converting small cottages and bungalows into massive rental units? Be part of a firewall for your District 5?
The affordability of the houses here has been shamelessly exploited, the needs of a ready made population requiring accommodation exploited, the ambiguities of the zoning ordinances and the failure of repeated governments to enforce them exploited. Landlords have been laughing as they take their money to the bank in wheelbarrows. And you have the audacity to suggest that all this be sanctioned with a zone change?
I know I’ve said it before, and I really don’t care what the Legal Department’s opinion is but, as a landlord and property owner in this neighbourhood, you should have recused yourself from all discussion on this topic a long time ago. How other than self-serving can your suggestions be perceived?
I imagine that UK has been glad to have permanent residents interspersed throughout the ambient neighbourhoods, acting as a buffer, providing stability, maintaining standards, keeping a check on behavioural issues in loco parentis. Take away the residents and in no time the normalizing balance and what’s left of the neighbourhood integrity will vanish. Every day will be Game Day! I can’t imagine this picture is one UK would wish to entertain.
Absentee landlords who have amassed large portfolios of property in this neighbourhood are now crying “foul.” They have the jitters. They fear their game is up. There was talk of licenses and inspections. Their unscrupulous practices have been exposed. They’ve been tumbled to. They talk peevishly about having invested in the community. Ha! Their interpretation of this is different to mine. They have dumped a lot of money in these neighbourhoods building large scale additions to maximize their profits. They have not altruistically invested in improving and enhancing the neighbourhood, merely plundering it. They are worried about their investments. I don’t blame them. I’ve been worried about mine too!
The Council needs to show its teeth. As Doug Martin said “this problem is the ghost of councils past”. But we do not need your senseless nostrum. It’s time to admonish the bad guys, not reward them. What sort of precedent are you setting? ...
Kate Savage
Excerpt of Response email from Council Member Cheryl Feigel
Ms. Savage—Thank you for sharing your views with me. Unfortunately, I believe you read more into my comments that what I said. I wasn’t talking about your neighborhood or any other neighborhood in particular as a student zone. My comment was to say that this is a community problem that has gone too long unaddressed. We have allowed student populations to settle at will, rather than designating a place for them to go. My suggestion is to very fundamentally grasp the real problem and address it so that everyone’s neighborhood is protected. In fact, it was an article from the American Planning Association given to us by the Law Department that suggested the idea of creating a zone—so that everyone knew what to expect.
On a couple occasions, I have talked with the Mayor about working with UK and the Governor to approach this issue from an economic development issue. Housing is needed and there are large old warehouse areas that need to be redeveloped. If we created an incentive for developers to build additional developments like Center Court or the Lex, we could control where the majority of students actually reside. In fact, I’m working hard for a new development at Lexington Mall, which ideally would provide shuttles to UK. As you know, UK does not plan to house more than 25% of students on campus, for whatever their reasons are, even though they are striving to double enrollment. However, UK is being pulled into this debate, and rightly so. They should be a part of the ultimate plan for addressing student housing needs. Obviously, this would not happen overnight but would begin to address this problem strategically so that it isn’t tossed from one council to another.
You have worked hard to make a lovely home for your children and you shouldn’t have to deal with the bad behavior of some of the UK students in the neighborhood. However I must disagree with the current proposal to simply send them to another neighborhood. That isn’t a solution, from my standpoint, merely shifting the problem.
I would like to work with a group of people who want to create a real solution for all of Lexington - one that protects all neighborhoods. If you would like to talk more about the long term issue of student housing, I would be very happy to talk with you.
Again, thanks for your email. Cheryl
Cheryl B. Feigel, 5th District Councilmember
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
by: Ace
left to right: Katie Jo Cox (Announcer); Zach Dearing (James); Leah Dick (Jane); Allie Darden (Diane) photo courtesy of Thomas Eisenhauer Photography
See Jane Quit
BCTC’s production on stage at Downtown Arts Center
by Kim Thomas
See Jane.
Jane is a chain-smoking, single, thirty-year-old waitress, living with her aging-Southern-belle grandmother, Bessie. But her life’s not so bad – she has a calm, sweet big brother named James; her brother’s wife, Diane, is her best friend; and there’s finally a new romantic prospect in Jane’s life: social activist Charles. The picture is pretty rosy until the day Jane decides to quit smoking. Her family is thrilled to hear the news… unfortunately, each of them has an upsetting secret they need to share with her, but now none of them want to stress her out and give her the excuse to light up. When the secrets start mounting, the audience gets to see Jane’s friends and family trip their way through a classic farce, all in the name of helping Jane quit smoking.
When playwright Beth Kander is in Lexington for the Southeast Theater Conference, it will be her first opportunity to see her engaging comedy come to life as See Jane QUIT makes its mark at the Downtown Arts Center, under the meticulous and ridiculous direction of Tim X. Davis, Theatre & Film Coordinator at Bluegrass Community & Technical College.
Davis and his cast and crew were so entertaining at a recent Mardi Gras rehearsal, it was impossible to leave after just one act, even though the Cats game against Mississippi State was about to begin. It came as no surprise that this work by Kander won the 2009 Mississippi Theatre Association Playwriting Competition.
See Jane QUIT is about the intersecting lives of would-be non-smoker Jane (played by feisty Leah Dick) and her family and friends. Jared Sloan keeps the pacing quick as stage manager; Jane’s brother James (Zach Dearing) and his wife Diane (Allie Darden) keep the sparks flying as their relationship is tested by Jane’s grandmother, Bessie (Kathy Crabtree Swango), with whom they all live.
The proceedings are knit together by an engaging narrator (Katie Jo Cox), who speaks directly to the audience as the plot develops. Philip Sharkey, as Jane’s boyfriend Charles is also a kick to watch, his comedic timing is spot on and he garners a lot of well deserved chuckles.
Info, Southeast Theater Conference visit: http://www.setc.org/conventions/index.php
—————
Director Tim X. Davis is BCTC’s Coordinator of Theatre & Film and does not shy away from new works, as he’s shown in recent years with the debut of his own Dancing With Dani, a play he wrote and directed in 2008; he also performed the role of Mason in Actors Guild of Lexington’s successful production and world premiere of Silas House’s Long Time Travelling last spring under the direction of Rick St. Peter.
Self-described “husband, father and prisoner of rock-n-roll” Davis likes to tell the story of how he met the author of See Jane QUIT while having dinner one night. “Beth is the significant other of one of my best friends from down in Mississippi. They visited us Thanksgiving weekend, and Beth (who I found very charming) mentioned that she was a playwright and had some full length material. Almost offhandedly, I asked her to send me something, and when I read what she sent, I was blown away at how strong her writing is (and of course the fact that the play won this year’s Mississippi Theatre Association’s playwrighting competition didn’t hurt)! I am MORE than happy to be giving this piece its premiere.” (Kander will be at the performance Friday, March 5th. There will be a reception at 7pm, the performance at 8, and a Q and A with Beth and the cast and crew immediately following.)
Kander will be in town for the Southeastern Theatre Conference, which will be held this year in Lexington. Davis emphasizes the importance of the the SETC: “Having it in our fair city is an amazing opportunity, and one that should not be missed. The conference has hundreds of workshops on every imaginable area of the theatre (tech, acting, directing, movement, etc.), and a number of High School and Community theatre performances from all over the region.”
“The pre-professional screening auditions are also an important part. I have been the state coordinator of these auditions for the better part of the last decade, and this year we had 148 college students from the state of Kentucky go through the screening auditions (held this past November in Morehead), and of those, 60 were selected to audition for over 100 professional theatre companies who will be attending the festival. I’m pleased to say that three of our BCTC students were among those selected to audition, so we’re very excited about that. There will also be hundreds of high schoolers auditioning for a large number of undergraduate programs, and Undergrad students who will have the opportunity to audition for graduate theatre programs. They also have a job contact service for technical folks, directors, PSMs and more.”
SETC’s administrators and board of directors make the decision as to where to hold the conference every year, but as Davis explains, “many of our KTA board members showed them what we had to offer when they visited Lexington last year (Jeremy Kisling at LCT was particularly instrumental in this). The conference hasn’t been in Lexington since 1978, so this is a pretty big deal.
———————————————-
Davis’ upcoming developments at BCTC will be especially good news for those interested in obtaining a fine arts degree. “We are working on putting together a theatre degree (an Associates of Fine Arts) which we hope we’ll be able to offer as early as next fall. We also hope to expand our production number to three per school year. We’ll continue to partner with Talon and LexArts and we also anticipate working with the Keeneland Concours de Elegance folks again for their show in July. We also hope to have some student-directed material, which will be performed later in this semester.”
Davis also pointed out the college’s participation in the American College Theatre Festival. “It’s a national organization sponsored by the Kennedy Center, and our region is the largest in the nation (10 states). We enter our shows every year, with the possibility that we may be selected for inclusion at the regional festival (held every year in February- this year down in Murfreesboro, TN at Middle Tennessee State). Though our show was not selected, we were the ONLY community college theatre program that was recommended and in the running, and I’m awfully proud of that. We also had four students compete in the ACTF Irene Ryan Acting competition at the festival, and they acquitted themselves nicely and had a great time at the Festival, seeing shows and going to workshops.”
———-
Leah Dick is honored to play the lead for the first time in a world premiere, and to be “paving the way for hopefully many Janes to come.” She doesn’t view it as a difficulty but rather, thinks it’s easier to perform a new work. “This isn’t A Streetcar Named Desire - no one’s going to compare my Blanche to Vivien Leigh’s. There are infinite possibilities which means that I can do what actors do best—explore!
Allie Darden says, “This is not the first play I’ve been involved in that is a world premiere—I did another world premiere at Actors Guild of Lex in 2005; it’s called Checking In written by Brian Hampton. Last winter, he asked me to come to NYC and perform it in a staged reading at the Blackbird Theatre, and it was a hit! That performance led to it being accepted into the Midtown Manhattan International Theatre Festival in July, and I was asked to come back to NYC for a month to perform it. I was luckily able to take the time off work and go, and it was a hit. The playwright, Brian, is still working on ways to get it even more exposure. The new playwright’s job is truly never done.”
Kathy Crabtree Swango (an associate professor at BCTC) plays crotchety but lovable Bessie, took her first acting class in Spring 2007 with Davis, “whom I adore. He’s a wonderful teacher and director. He has such an eye and ear for what will work on stage. This is the first new work I’ve done, and it’s been such fun. We’ve somewhat created it as we’ve gone—no preconceptions or audience expectations, but it also has been a challenge because there’s nothing to compare it to.” Swango plays Bessie, the grandmother, “who is a somewhat intolerant woman. She loves her grandchildren, but she can be pretty unpleasant and demanding. She also doesn’t want to be a burden to her grandchildren, so that’s an endearing quality. It’s been fun to create her ‘from scratch,’ giving her voice and form.” Swango adds that she’s looking forward to meeting the author when she’s in town for the SETC next week.
Zach Dearing (at work on his first novel in his spare time) plays James, Jane’s older brother. Dearing says, is a veteran of five of Davis’s BCTC productions, and says, “Tim is a miracle worker. We don’t have a theatre, we don’t have a rehearsal room, we don’t have a WHOLE LOT of other things that other programs do have, and yet we consistently fill houses, and in my opinion, we often put on better shows than you’ll find at neighboring schools. I defend that statement with the list of actors (myself included) that have gone on to the next level of college theatre and traveled to compete in national competitions like the Irene Ryan competition. We have great talent but very limited resources and yet somehow, Tim has managed not only to keep his brainchild alive but to expand it over the course of two years.”
Dearing adds he feels that “unfortunately, BCTC productions are the best kept secret in the local theatre community.”
See Jane QUIT
Showtimes are: Feb 25th, 26th, and 27th at 8 pm
Mar 4th, 5th, and 6th at 8pm
Tickets, LexArts at (859) 225-0370
by: Ace
While teasers to tonight’s local newscasts mostly related to Bears (“bill that would allow homeowners to shoot bears appears dead” and somewhat conversely, on another station “New Law Allows Loaded Guns In National Parks”), Mayor Newberry also went on the record about Lexington’s first mayoral debate, scheduled for Wednesday, February 24 (http://www.aceweekly.com/index.php/blog/view-post/digital_democracy/ ), suggesting that one of the blogger panelists is “biased” (http://www.kentucky.com/2010/02/22/1151899/newberry-says-mayor-forum-panelist.html).
And now, a word about Democracy:
by: Ace
Diesel is a playful, housetrained Lab mix who is just a year old. He is happy go lucky, enjoys people and other dogs. He knows sit and is eager to learn more. (Photo by Richard Labunski) Adopt at woodfordhumane.org.
by Kim Thomas
You love your dog; you love your cat. But if you haven’t yet had them spayed or neutered, pick up the phone and make an appointment today. February 23 is Spay Day USA, and overpopulation is the single most important challenge facing Animal Lovers. It’s easy to dismiss or postpone the importance of spaying or neutering our own dogs and cats. We recycle. We give to the local Humane Societies. But in fact, if all pet owners were to have their pet altered today, there would be no need for animal shelters within just a few years. We cannot adopt our way out of the overpopulation problem which results in the euthanasia of healthy pets, which is something nobody wants to think about. National Spay Day (the last Tuesday of February) was begun by the Doris Day Animal Foundation, and is observed by humane societies all over the country, including Lexington Humane and Woodford Humane.
DeeDee Lloyd, Spay/Neuter Chair of the Woodford Humane Society, can cite a long list of statistics, but it’s her stories that are the most compelling. Her dog Jackson is one success. She says,
“Several years ago I got a call from a lady in Cardinal Hill Hospital whose boyfriend lived down on Lake Cumberland, but had been in jail for 6 weeks. He had 19 dogs in the town of Jabez. Could I please help? In the meantime I got a call from their local animal control officer saying that the dogs were very dangerous and aggressive and they were going in to shoot them. A friend and I hooked up the horse trailer, borrowed lots of dog crates and headed down the highway. When we arrived, we were met by lots of growling and barking dogs running loose. Some were tied to trees, some were in the house and some were in pens outside and all were very large. On the side of the house, in red drooling paint, it said ‘enter and die.’ The hardest thing was making the decision to get out of the truck. To make a long story short, we managed to remove all the dogs from that horrible place, which was a drug house. Where in the world could we take them? The shelter was full but we couldn’t find it in our hearts to leave a single one. We got on the phone and called lots of friends begging for help. When we arrived at Woodford Humane Society, in a rocking horse trailer filled with thousands of pounds of barking dogs, there lined along the driveway was car after car of caring people willing to take a dog home and foster them. Jackson was the most traumatized of all. He started in our horse barn, where nothing moved but his fearful eyes. Right now, as we speak, he is lounging in front of the fireplace on his extra large dog bed!”
Sandy Davis is Public Relations Director with the Woodford Humane Society, which places an estimated 90 percent of all the animals who are surrendered to their facility to loving homes. Davis considers having pets altered of the utmost importance. “Spay Day helps raise awareness about the importance of spay and neuter. The Woodford Humane Society’s mission is SAVE (Spay/neuter, Adopt, Volunteer, Educate) and all our efforts support this mission every day. Homeless puppies, kittens, dogs and cats continue to arrive daily to our community’s already overcrowded shelters, humane societies and rescue groups. All pet owners can help the homeless pet overpopulation crisis by altering their animals now. Help us continue to work for a day where there are no more homeless pets. The animals need your help. Spay/neuter saves lives.”
On the inside back page of every Ace, you will find a Pet Pick, highlighting a dog or cat available for Adoption. Adoption coordinators will help you find the right match for your household. If you have your heart set on a particular breed, purebred rescue is almost always an option as well.
By the Numbers
* The average number of litters a fertile cat produces is one to two a year; average number of kittens is 4-6 per litter.
* The average number of litters a fertile dog produces is one a year; average number of puppies is 4-6.
* Owned cats and dogs generally live longer, healthier lives than strays.
* Most strays are lost pets who were not kept properly indoors or provided with identification.
* Only ten percent of the animals received by shelters have been spayed or neutered. About 75 percent of owned pets are neutered.
* The cost of spaying or neutering a pet is less than the cost of raising puppies or kittens for a year.
* Five out of ten dogs in shelters and seven out of ten cats in shelters are destroyed simply because there is no one to adopt them
* One female cat and her offspring can produce 420,000 cats in 7 years
* An estimated 27,473 dogs and cats are euthanized in animal shelters each DAY in the United States.
* That’s 10 MILLION animals per year.
* 25% of that number are PUREBRED - and millions more are abandoned, only to suffer from disease, starvation or injury before dying.
* Be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Spay/Neuter.
by: Ace
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