The Bike Trail - Part 3 - Party ON
So after our previous jaunt, now you've arrived, dear biking reader, at the third junction of our bike-trail-to-be, and this is where the party is starting.
Sure, before, there could have been some party stops. There's strip clubs back there, maybe someone's put in a bar, but now that we're wedged securely between Hal and Mal's and Martins, we are, as they say, in a bit of a party pickle.
Nobody says that.
Still - two places to party is not enough. Sure, you could branch out from here and head downtown, to 119 Underground, or find some new spot between the concrete canyons. Sure, I get that.
But there's some great architecture you don't want to pass up, here already.
You could skip or bike up the hill to the Old Capitol, take in the history, visit the department of archives and history, and soak in the history, or keep on biking and go to Civil Rights Museum (I am informed they will not have a bar in there) to, uh... get some history.
At this point, we near the existing Rails to Trails program. The one that's supposed to link LeFleur's bluff to the Farmer's Market. Here, the architecture - like those buildings lining the rails on Commerce Street - are distinctly railroad-themed. You see how they face a feature that is not there. The doors and windows and vestigial eaves. They used to face the bustling rail lines, now they face nothing.
The future?
A bike trail.
Now, we ride across the hustle and bustle of High Street - hopefully you didn't die in a horrific accident there - and into a nice neighborhood. Belhaven Heights is a great place unless you're a home foundation, in which case it's a goddamn nightmare.
Belhaven Heights had a spate of homes come up for sale in 2008, because a bunch of banks destroyed the economy. Unfortunately, these were mostly purchased for rentals. I have nothing against rental properties (see section 2 where I hope against hope for more of it) but by disincentivizing the construction of new apartment buildings, the city has given a great reason for real estate moguls to snap up housing and funnel the wealth up and away from the people, who could build some wealth with something like a home, rather than just sending their money away once a month.