Commentary

The superintendent stood at the podium this week and did that thing administrators do when they want gravity without fingerprints. “These are tough decisions,” Demetrus Liggins said, as families pleaded for their schools, programs, and communities. Mergers. Closures. Right-sizing. The whole greatest-hits album of institutional sorrow. And yet — funny thing — none of…

Some weeks, Lexington feels less like a city and more like an invitation-only club — velvet rope, bouncer, and all. This week’s guest list: the people who can actually afford to stay in public office. Hannah LeGris left the stage recently. Not for lack of love for the job, but because the numbers simply…

Tonight at 5 p.m., in a too-small council chamber inside a too-old former hotel, Lexington’s leaders will decide whether to move City Hall into a gleaming bank building on Vine Street. If they vote yes, we’ll get a renovated “Government Center” at 200 West Vine — and a whole new generation will finally get…

If you listened closely at last week’s press conference—the one where Vice Mayor Dan Wu announced $12.6 million in medical debt had vanished from Fayette County—there was a faint sound underneath all that civic cheer. A tiny ka-ching. Because by the time the Herald-Leader’s Adrian Paul Bryant peeled back the wrapping paper, Lexington’s feel-good…

It takes real talent to look at the summer FCPS just had — the audit, the budget fiascos, the public fury, the payroll-tax side hustle in a trench coat — and decide the next big move should be silencing elected officials. But here we are. Again. The latest stroke of genius arrives in the…

If you listened only to the speeches, you’d think Lexington was about to boldly tackle its housing crisis. Six hours of testimony. Dozens of speakers. Councilmembers invoking “affordable housing,” “historic character,” and “the fabric of our community” like they were auditioning for a planning textbook. And then, with an 8–7 vote, they quietly killed…

On Tuesday night, a Lexington resident summed up the vibe in the Council chambers with a shrug: “Feels like they picked out the drapes before asking if we even wanted the house.” Hard to argue with her. Because in the span of just two weeks, Lexington’s government has sprinted toward a deal that would…

It was a long night at the Fayette County Board of Education. The kind of meeting where the clock ticks past 10 p.m., the coffee cools, and the words “fiscal responsibility” start sounding like a prayer someone forgot the meaning of. By the end of it, the board had voted against letting district employees…

It was a bright October morning downtown, the kind that makes even concrete look proud of itself. A small crowd gathered near the courthouse as city officials—beaming, confident, armed with adjectives—snipped the ribbon on Lexington’s newest public artwork: “A Common Thread,” better known by its emerging Internet street names. The $900,000 sculpture—an arrangement of…

So it finally happened: a concert at Lexington’s shiny new Gatton Park got canceled — not because of rain or politics, but because not enough people cared to buy a ticket. Kansas, Jefferson Starship, and Molly Hatchet — a lineup that reads like the playlist at a 1983 Camaro meetup — were supposed to…