While the annual celebration is a magnificent event in Downtown Columbus, it can be a little rough on residents and employees. Suddenly, our comforting streets and walkways are swarmed by masses of humanity and festivities. It’s tens of hundreds of thousands of firework-revelers, everywhere.
So, instead of staying for the fantastic show, we tend to make an early break for the exits. The annual day-long traffic jam is worth avoiding at any cost, right?
Not really. The folks at Red White and BOOM have added tons of events to keep you celebrating all day long. The Midway opens at 11 am; you’ll find children’s activities at Battelle Park; live entertainment begins at 1 pm on the Genoa Park and Long Street BOOM stages; Taste of BOOM presented by the Arena District begins at 3 pm; Clippers BOOM opens at 6 pm with live music and a new spot to watch the fireworks; and the Independence Day Parade with Air National Guard flyover begins at 6 pm.
If you want to avoid the post-BOOM traffic, you could also consider staying at one of our downtown hotels. The post-show commute then becomes a quick stroll to a safe air conditioned room. While most of the Boom-only reservations have been spoken for, the travel Web sites still show some Friday availability for those who are willing to reserve a Saturday night too. Translation: there might be some late-breaking vacancies toward the end of the week.
You can save yourself the effort of calling around by checking Web sites like Hotels.com - its listings include downtown joints like The Lofts, The Hyatts and The Westin.
Still inclined to flee? At least you can take some All-American barbecue with you this year. Stop at Cook Shack BBQ on Long Street. The fare has earned reviewer raves for its ribs, chicken, pulled pork, brisket and a host of sides.
Like many businesses downtown, it’s locally owned and operated by an independent proprietor. That makes it a great way to celebrate Independence Day.
Downtown Cleveland looks great. My son and I stayed there on Saturday night during our annual trip to see the Indians play the Reds. We stayed at the Residence Inn, which is located in the historic Colonial Arcade. The Colonial is across Euclid Avenue from the grand Cleveland Arcade, which houses the Hyatt Regency.
Euclid Avenue has been rebuilt as a shared busway and public street and has sleek, accordion buses that run frequently enough they can be used without consulting a schedule. Property owners along Euclid continue to renovate buildings for housing and retail, and virtually every building between Public Square and East Ninth Street is now renovated or under construction.
My favorite building is an upscale restaurant and bowling alley at Euclid and Fourth. A comparable location for a bowling alley in Columbus would be North High and Gay Streets. The bowling alley’s restaurant spills onto East Fourth, which is a sea of tables and chairs serving 11 restaurants. Flowers and lighting make the street incredibly inviting.
The fun doesn’t stop at the Downtown Live Columbus Concert Series and this week’s featured band Red Wanting Blue is sure to give you a good time. Known for their contagious energy and captivating stage presence, RWB has an ever-growing fan base on top of national recognition. Chicago Street Scene writes, “Red Wanting Blue brings nothing but energy and flat out great shows to the stage. Their live performances are all the proof you’ll need to become a member of their ever-growing fan base.”
Don’t miss this free show from the group Hard Rock Haven dubs “the best underground independent rock band in the United States of America.”
Show is this Thursday from 5 – 9 p.m. at the corner of Third & State Streets. Happy Hour starts at 4:30 and food and drink specials are provided all evening by Darby’s Cafe and San Francisco Oven. Admission is open and free to the public.
Conspiracy put on a great, energetic show Thursday night as part of the Downtown Columbus Live concert series in front of an even more energetic crowd. Located at the corner of Third and State Streets, crowds came from all over Columbus to be part of the biggest block party in the city.
The spectators couldn’t help but smile while enjoying the free entertainment on this beautiful evening.
Concerts continue every Thursday throughout the summer, next week featuring local band Red Wanting Blue. Don’t miss out, be sure to come downtown for drinks, food and fun!
Come to unwind this Thursday at the Downtown Live Summer Concert Series. This week Conspiracy will provide live entertainment on the corner of Third and State Streets from 5 – 9 p.m.
Come for drinks after work as Happy Hour begins at 4:30 p.m. and food and drink specials are offered all evening from Darby’s Cafe and San Francisco Oven.
It’s a great night out as you head into the end of your week and the beginning of your weekend!
Recycling comes naturally to some people. They keep a little basket for their rinsed-out Diet Coke cans… and two more baskets on their desks for the cardboard and plastic wrappers from Twinkies, respectively. The recyclers will even rescue dead batteries and ink cartridges from colleagues’ trashcans.
Then there are those of us who accumulate piles of important papers – massive piles. Eventually, the papers become less important, and we’ll think about recycling them.
But the trashcan is only three steps away.
Good news has arrived. Soon the recycling receptacles will be just as close as the circular files…
Thirty-five property owners have banded together to institute a real recycling program downtown. It’s not just one building; it’s an entire neighborhood working together. A downtown audit’s projections say that together we can decrease waste production by almost half.
Folks who are successful at recycling will tell you that they enjoy the sorting process. It’s a simple, satisfying task. Putting something like plastic in the plastic bin is just as easy as putting it in the trash.
I got a taste of suburban commuting last week when I took two of my kids to camp near State Route 315 and Bethel Road. The 7:30 am trip from the Short North to camp was easy because the trip was a “reverse commute” against incoming traffic. My return toward downtown at 8:00 am, however, was hellacious.
Traffic kept stopping on 315 for no apparent reason. When traffic moved, people tailgated me, cut in front of me for no apparent reason, honked and traded hand gestures. I cursed so loudly for most of the trip that my dog cowered in the back seat.
The Short North looked really good to me as I ditched my car and began walking to work. The experience made me wonder why people choose to subject themselves to expressway commuting. Columbus, Grandview, Bexley, Upper Arlington and other communities have many safe, beautiful and affordable neighborhoods with great transit, bicycle and car access to downtown. Why would someone choose to subject themselves to such a horrible experience?
Learn a bit about Pearl Market’s Brittle Makers- Jimmie and Linda:
In the early 70’s a friend of ours gave us some brittle. We decided that this would be a good treat for our family at Christmas. Well, we did and it was a mess, but the family liked it so much they were asking for our brittle the next year.
Our family and many friends had been encouraging us to sell our brittle. So in 1999 answering the call, we started going to craft shows in the Columbus area and Jimmie’s Old Fashioned Brittle was born.
During one of our early shows we had competition and became a bit panicked as her display was great and we were new. As the people walked from her booth, and past our booth after trying one of her samples they were picking the brittle out of their teeth. Upon seeing these fine people in distress we stated that Jimmie’s Brittle did not stick to the teeth. And after trying ours, they realized we were right! Having a good product first, then working on your display/marketing was a lesson we learned that day.
And thus our slogan was born:
“Good Brittle won’t STHICK to your teeth”.
We are entering our 11th year and we have made a lot of friends along the way. These friends have made our brittle well known. This business has been a lot of work but we have had a very fun time.
We are presently offering eleven types of brittle including a sugar free brittle. My mother Opal bagged 4,500 bags of brittle last year (over a ton) and she is only 93 years young!
Who would you like to meet at the market this year?
Well we would like to meet all those “Brittle Lovers” out there. We know they have been searching for us and now we have been found at the Pearl. I would like to meet every lady working in the downtown offices so I could reveal to them the secret of eating our brittle and taking a bag home to share with their loving husbands. Linda just came over to confirm my spelling and said, I would like to meet some of those wonderful good looking men in those office buildings too.
I am so excited to meet these folks! Brittle is a guilty pleasure! Please go visit Jimmie and Linda and tell them the Market maven sent you!
THE BOOM ZOOM
Euclid Avenue has been rebuilt as a shared busway and public street and has sleek, accordion buses that run frequently enough they can be used without consulting a schedule. Property owners along Euclid continue to renovate buildings for housing and retail, and virtually every building between Public Square and East Ninth Street is now renovated or under construction.
I got a taste of suburban commuting last week when I took two of my kids to camp near State Route 315 and Bethel Road. The 7:30 am trip from the Short North to camp was easy because the trip was a “reverse commute” against incoming traffic. My return toward downtown at 8:00 am, however, was hellacious.