Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/138735
Y cross ROADS EQUATION Breckenridge Lane and Taylorsville Road Pride and Prejudice's bicentennial Keira Knightley from the movie version ou don't see too many pedestrians testing the crosswalk signs at the intersection of Breckenridge Lane and Taylorsville Road. It's a wonder that it even has crosswalks, given the fact that you're risking your life trying to use them amid always-pushing traffc that dares you to stick your toe out from the curb. One Jefferson County traffc engineer called the X-forming crossroads the worst intersection in all of Kentucky, according to the Louisville Encyclopedia. The genesis of the auto insanity there concerns hyper-developer Roy F. McMahan, who purchased a huge farm in the late 1940s and talked the city-county planning commission into rezoning a large portion of the land for commercial use, including the original strip malls Hikes Point Plaza and McMahan Plaza, close-by to the new city beltway, the Watterson, and its Breckenridge Lane interchange. The de-greening of Taylorsville and Breck had begun — in earnest. Louisvillians dressing in costume Today, the asphalt-and-steel acreage around the massive intersection (seven lanes of Taylorsville traffc, six of Breck) accommodates 14 fast-food restaurants (along with a Starbucks and Baskin-Robbins); a halfdozen banks; several auto-related businesses, including a Valvoline Instant Oil Change and a Magic Sparkle Car Wash; a Kmart, Big Lots and Dollar General; and enough parking spaces to serve the Yum! Center on Justin Timberlake night. But it's the sheer lack of walkability that intrigues me. As I made my way on foot around the Taylorsville-Hikes-Breckenridge triangle, with its skinny sidewalk (where there was sidewalk) interrupted 16 times by wide commercial driveways — one a four-laner — I couldn't help but feel that if I didn't constantly look back as I crossed those driveways, I might be riding a hood any second. — Jack Welch an attempt to make it into Guinness World Records for the most people in Regencyera attire in one setting the sixth-annual Jane Austen Festival, July 20 and 21 at Locust Grove.* * Current record: 409 people, set at a 2009 Jane Austen festival in Bath, England. www.homeisrocksprings.com 7.13 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 25