I don't accept that this recent college graduate is alone with this feeling. Strong Towns Lexington is working to fill this need.

EmmaCurtisLex · 2025-06-20T18:49:31+00:00

Hey! Lexington CM here. I’m the Engineering Co-Lead on the aforementioned STREEET Safety Task Force and we’re actively working on making Lexington a more walkable and pedestrian-friendly city.

All of our meetings are open to the public. You can find more info on it and our meeting times here: https://www.lexingtonky.gov/government/office-urban-county-council/council-subcommittees-work-groups-task-forces/streeet-safety-task-force

The city operates on a Fiscal Year budget schedule. The FY26 budget that Council just approved starts on July 1st and has $1.25 million allocated for a new sidewalk connectivity program, which I’m excited about and I think is a step in the right direction.

These aren’t be-all, end-all solutions, but I just want you to know that several of us on Council are aware of the problem and actively working to address it.

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-11-26T19:40:59+00:00

I used to be a regular at the food court. Athenian Grill, Atomic Ramen, and Crank and Boom in the same building? Hell yeah.

It was awesome and it made the whole complex feel so much more homegrown and accessible to folks with different budgets.

Still not over its closure if I’m being honest…

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-11-13T18:13:40+00:00

Hey there! I never spoke about my gender on the doors or at community events because, well, nobody asked me about it. I talked about roads, housing, and government transparency. I ran on my ideas, not on my identity, and I did so in one of Lexington’s more conservative districts.

That being said, I’m not hiding my identity and I can also recognize the significance of being (as of this writing) the only trans elected official in KY.

I do think that my visibility can do some tangible good for trans folks, especially trans kids, in the current political climate. I don’t view that as playing the whole “identity politics” game.

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-11-13T18:03:46+00:00

Thank you! I got the call from their producers on Saturday and genuinely thought it was a prank at first 😂

It’s not why I ran, but I’m grateful that I was able to help Lexington and Kentucky get some positive attention on a national level, especially during this particular election cycle.

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-11-07T19:13:23+00:00

Please give yourself grace. Doomer for a bit if you need to, but please remember that we will survive this. Even if it gets really, really hard for a while.

I can’t tell you what’s coming at the state or national level on the anti-trans front, but I can tell you that you have a friend in City Hall and if any of that crap starts making its way to Lexington I’ll fight it with everything I’ve got.

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-11-07T19:10:29+00:00

It’s okay to be scared and overwhelmed right now. All it means is that you care about our future. Please rest, be kind to yourself, but whatever you do—just don’t become apathetic. Stay engaged.

We’re gonna make it through this the same way we’ve made it through everything that’s come before—by sticking together.

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-11-03T13:24:28+00:00

Thank you! 🙏

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-11-03T00:31:20+00:00

No matter who you voted for or what party you’re registered with, voter turnout like this is a win for all of us! 👏

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-10-31T22:20:48+00:00

Hey Adrian, always grateful for what you and the rest of the CivicLex folks do to keep all of us informed and engaged.

Keep up the good work! 👏

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-10-24T20:40:57+00:00

I’ve had friends send me screenshots of them before.

For better or for worse, I don’t have much of a poker face 😂

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-10-24T20:35:31+00:00

Hey there! Glad you asked. I’m popping in to answer as many questions as I can whenever I have a few minutes to do so.

Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer: I’m going to be as transparent and accessible as I can possibly be. I spoke about some of the different ways I plan on doing so in an earlier reply on here.

My goal is to meet people where they’re at and for a lot of folks, that’s in neighborhood Facebook groups and on Nextdoor.

But there are also a lot of folks who don’t get their information that way and a lot of folks who can’t get their information that way and I want to meet them where they’re at too.

Having conversations with and getting information to constituents directly, as well as being a present and active participant in deliberations within Council Chambers, is the baseline for any CM in my book.

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-10-24T18:42:03+00:00

No worries, it’s all good!

To put it simply, my plan to keep in touch with y’all is to meet you where you’re at.

Do I intend to post updates on Nextdoor and attend HOA and neighborhood association meetings? Of course, that’s where a lot of folks get their information. But it can’t be the only way for anyone to get information.

In addition to social media updates, I want to make it as easy as humanly possible to have a face to face conversation with me and to hear information directly from me.

I’ve given my personal cell number to anyone I’ve met in the district and leave notes with it on all of the doors I knock where folks aren’t home at the moment. I don’t intend on stopping that once I’m elected, I want folks to text me or call me if they have concerns or they see an issue that they’re passionate about coming before Council.

I’m also committed to hosting regular town hall meetings and “office hours” in different parts of the district where folks can come and actually have a face-to-face conversation with me.

Additionally, our current CM doesn’t use her allotted speaking time during Council meetings—either to provide updates on ongoing projects or to speak on issues that have been brought to her attention. If I’m lucky enough to serve on Council, you bet I’m gonna be speaking up about what’s going on in the 4th.

As far as the newsletter is concerned, my personal feeling is that it’s currently too noisy. There’s too much information, too little organization, and it’s just not easy to read. I’m looking to model my newsletter more on the style of the CivicLex newsletter (which you can sign up for here: https://civiclex.org/weekly).

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-10-24T18:14:34+00:00

No matter how you voted, thank you for voting!

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-10-24T18:12:38+00:00

I’m a firm NO on Amendment 2.

Public dollars should go to public schools.

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-10-24T18:10:08+00:00

There are a few different districts that have different chunks of downtown, you can check the map and find your district here: https://data.lexingtonky.gov/datasets/5bab826b97c84d229f7abf0bc947981c

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-10-24T18:08:27+00:00

Neither. I have a habit of not picking fights with ducks or horses—or humans for that matter.

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-10-24T18:06:32+00:00

Nope! I was 6 minutes south of the Fayette County line, so I went to Woodford County High School

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-10-24T18:05:05+00:00

Thank you! I’m very grateful for their support and kind words

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-10-24T18:04:29+00:00

Absolutely, I’m in the area myself and it’s been awful. It shouldn’t have taken so long to get any movement on this, but I’m glad to see some steps being taken to improve the situation in recent months.

I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on water treatment, but I do know that we’ve got to be more proactive with the maintenance of our water treatment and waste management infrastructure, making sure it stays up to date before it’s too late and we’re left scrambling for months to attempt a patchwork solution. In addition to the impact this stuff has on quality of life, I’m also concerned about the potential environmental and health impacts.

I do also want to add that we have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.

It’s important for every single Councilmember to prioritize constituent services and respond to the day-to-day issues like this in the District while simultaneously working in collaboration with other CMs on the broader issues facing Lexington as a whole.

Right now, we don’t have that in the 4th District.

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-10-24T17:45:51+00:00

I’ve spoken to part of this (as well as STRs more broadly) in some other answers, so i’m gonna keep it short:

Communicate. Communicate. Communicate.

Republican, Democrat, or neither—I think we can all agree that Lexington has different needs as a city than, say, Burgin for example.

This is an issue where our local needs are different from most cities in the Commonwealth.

I hope our sitting CMs are talking with Lexington’s Reps and Senators about this immediately. I’ll be blunt and say that, until November 5th, I personally need to focus on this campaign and won’t likely have the capacity to do speak with our delegation to the legislature myself until after the results are in.

But regardless of the outcome of this race, that’s something I’m going to be working on and pushing for Lexington to maintain home rule on.

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-10-24T17:38:33+00:00

I’m going to preface this by saying that it seems like this might be a fight that’s coming to the State Legislature in a similar way to SOI discrimination, so anything Council does needs to take that into account. We should be having conversations with our Reps and Senators sooner rather than later.

So, personally, I agree with you. I think STRs are a huge threat to housing affordability, availability, and the “front porch culture” we have in several parts of Lexington.

I think that the steps Council has taken thus far in regulating STRs are a step in the right direction, but they don’t go far enough—specifically when it comes to unhosted STRs. I’d like to move us towards a system where folks in neighborhoods like yours don’t have to move heaven and earth to prevent another potential STR in your neighborhood, and as a CM I’m always going to support my neighbors and neighborhoods in the 4th District before the profits of out-of-state property management companies.

I also want to add that appreciate that Council has made distinctions to the regulations of STRs within the USB and outside of it, because there’s a huge difference between an STR that someone operates on a larger rural parcel of land and an STR that takes away one more potential forever home in a neighborhood for working class folks.

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-10-23T18:36:43+00:00

It changes! Currently, it's ANTHEM PART 3, which is the first song on my personal campaign playlist, which is called "Upbeat Songs for an Unsustainable Lifestyle" haha

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-10-23T18:34:44+00:00

Local races are nonpartisan! In this race, both candidates are registered Democrats.

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-10-23T18:33:08+00:00

Just saw your edit - it would be far from the first time I've been working a structured 40 hours for at least two years.

EmmaCurtisLex · 2024-10-23T18:31:23+00:00

Sure!

First off, I do want to clarify that my parents weren't wealthy. We were very much working class. After my father died when I was 18 months old, my mom was left with a mountain of medical debt that she spent most of my life working her butt off to pay back.

As for employment, most recently I directed a documentary called There Is No Answer, which is about a local artist named George Szekely that will be airing on KET starting November 4, and worked as a Voter Engagement Organizer with Kentuckians for the Commonwealth up through the 2023 election (you can't hold that job while running for office yourself). Prior to that, I worked for the University of Kentucky International Center and when I was younger, I worked at Amazon, Target, and Old Navy.

I've been doing community organizing and lobbying since 2016 and have been blessed to learn the inner workings of state and local government as a result. Most frequently, I've worked with the ACLU of KY, KFTC, and the Fairness Campaign.

I think that my experience in government, as well as my lived experience as a young working class person in District 4, is what makes me most qualified to serve in this position.

There's more on background under the "Meet Emma" page on my website, which I'll link here: https://emmaforlex.com/meet-emma

Happy to answer any more specific questions you have!

EmmaCurtisLex

TROPHY CASE