Lexington, something has to change about how we deal with our downtown | Opinion
I work in downtown Lexington every day and I love this city. We are a loving and caring city, but recently I am deeply alarmed by what downtown Lexington is becoming. Our sidewalks are crowded with people who are visibly intoxicated with drugs or alcohol, in the grip of severe mental illness, or sometimes both. Your heart can ache for those afflicted, but aggressive panhandling has become routine. Open use of hard drugs happens in plain sight. And now, we’ve seen what unfortunately feels like an inevitable result — a vicious attack on a woman, right here in our own city.
Lexington’s leadership cannot continue to reiterate platitudes or simply add additional security. The band-aid does not fix the problem. This is not compassion—it is neglect, both of the public and of the very people suffering on our streets. We can reduce visible homelessness, improve safety, and offer real help without surrendering our public spaces. Here’s how:
Expand crisis response and mental health intervention teams so that trained professionals—not just police—are on the streets every day, intercepting those in crisis before tragedy strikes. Spend the money and fix the problem.
Enforce public safety and vagrancy laws consistently, ending the cycle of tolerance for aggressive, illegal, and unsafe behavior. Send the message that drug use is not welcome in downtown Lexington.
Add more low-barrier shelters and navigation centers, so people aren’t left with the false choice between a sidewalk or a jail cell.
Mandate treatment for chronic public offenders whose untreated mental illness or addiction keeps them trapped in a revolving door between the ER, jail, and the streets.
Target drug enforcement and expand immediate recovery programs so that when someone asks for help—or is arrested for drug crimes — they can be admitted to detox and rehab without delay and taken off the streets.
Lexington is a compassionate city. But compassion without boundaries is not kindness — it’s chaos. We owe it to the people who live, work, and visit here to restore public order. And we owe it to those struggling on our streets to give them the help they need, not the sidewalk space to destroy themselves in public view. We have two beautiful parks that are about to open in downtown Lexington. If we want citizens to use those parks, we need to make sure they are safe.
City leaders: the time for hesitation has passed. Something has to change, and it has to change now. Let’s fix this problem proactively.
Nate Simon is the founder of Simon Law, PLLC, a law firm created to support the construction and business industry with pragmatic advice and counsel.