Driving Around Downtown Lexington, KY and University of Kentucky in 4k Video

Filmed on Thursday, May 4, 2023, I drive around downtown Lexington, Kentucky and the University of Kentucky campus to see what's going on.

Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County. By population, it is the second-largest city in Kentucky and 59th-largest city in the United States. The city is also known as "Horse Capital of the World".

As of the 2020 census the population was 322,570, anchoring a metropolitan area of 516,811 people.

Lexington was named in June 1775, in what was then considered Fincastle County, Virginia, 17 years before Kentucky became a state.

A party of frontiersmen, led by William McConnell, camped on the Middle Fork of Elkhorn Creek at the site of the present-day McConnell Springs. Upon hearing of the colonists' victory in the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, they named the site Lexington. It was the first of many American places to be named after the Massachusetts town.

On January 25, 1780, 45 original settlers signed the Lexington Compact, known also as the "Articles of Agreement, made by the inhabitants of the town of Lexington, in the County of Kentucky." The settlement at Lexington at this time was also known as Fort Lexington, as it was surrounded by fortifications to protect from the British and from Indians.

In December, 1781, a huge caravan of around 600 pioneers from Spotsylvania County, Virginia—dubbed "The Traveling Church"—arrived in the Lexington area. Led by the preacher Lewis Craig and Captain William Ellis, the Traveling Church established numerous churches, including the South Elkhorn Christian Church in Lexington.

The growing town was devastated by a cholera epidemic in 1833, which had spread throughout the waterways of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys: 500 of 7,000 Lexington residents died within two months.

By 1850, Lexington had the highest concentration of enslaved people in the entire state. The city also had a significant population of free blacks, who were often of mixed race. By 1850, First African Baptist Church, led by London Ferrill, a free black from Virginia, had a congregation of 1,820 persons. At that time, First African Baptist Church had the largest congregation of any church, black or white, in the state of Kentucky.

Between 1917 and 1920, Lexington was the site of multiple race based riots.

Lexington has one of the nation's most stable economies. Lexington describes itself as having "a fortified economy, strong in manufacturing, technology, and entrepreneurial support, benefiting from a diverse, balanced business base". The Lexington Metro Area had an unemployment rate of 3.7% in August 2015, lower than many cities of similar size.

The city is home to several large corporations. Sizable employment is generated by four Fortune 500 companies: Xerox, Lexmark International, Lockheed-Martin, and IBM. UPS, Trane, and Amazon.com, Inc. have large operations in the city, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky is located in adjoining Georgetown. A Jif peanut butter plant located here produces more peanut butter than any other factory in the world.

The city's largest employer, the University of Kentucky, employed 16,743 as of 2020.

The city is home to two horse-racing tracks, Keeneland and The Red Mile harness track.

Keeneland, sporting live races in April and October, is steeped in tradition; little has changed since the track's opening in 1936. This track also has the world's largest Thoroughbred auction house; 19 Kentucky Derby winners, 21 Preakness Stakes winners, and 18 Belmont Stakes winners were purchased at Keeneland sales.

As of the 2020 census, there were 322,570 people within the city.

The racial makeup of the city was 70.7% non-Hispanic White, 15.6% Black or African American, 0.3% Native American, 4.1% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, and 2.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 7.4% of the population.

The per capita income for the city was $34,442. About 8.7% of families and 14.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.6% of those under the age of 18 and 9.4% of those ages 65 and older. #driving #travel #drivingtour