Right Now Downtown

MUSICAL WARES

You can find some really quirky things online, but for unusual musical finds you need go no further than downtown’s Stanton’s Sheet Music.

It all started innocently enough.  Piano is a big deal in these parts.  For years, Dan Rowan tore it up at the Hyatt.  More recently, James Club 88 added fuel to the fire by opening a nightclub.  Now an 80’s dueling piano throwback, The Big Bang Bar is making its debut in the Arena District.

The whole music-craze inspired a modest urge: to play piano like Jerry Lee Lewis.  Stanton’s does, in fact, sell the Jerry Lee Lewis Piano Folio.  Better yet, it also has a Jerry Lee Lewis accompaniment cassette, allowing a talentless performer to pretend to play.

Then, behold, the world of odd sheet music unfolded.  There’s the Wabash Cannonball arrangement for marching bands; Every Breath You Take… for the ORGAN.

And, for an audition at downtown’s newest rocker club, The Garage Bar?  Stanton’s has 25 Great Guitar Solos – instruction for playing everything from Crazy Train to Sweet Child of Mine.

There are even some interesting CDs and plenty of books on “faking it” (for those of us whose gifts lie more in music appreciation).  All this comes from a downtown destination for nearly fifty years.  You don’t even have to leave your office to shop at Stanton’s at 300 S. Fourth Street: checkout www.stantons.com.

No single decision has a bigger impact on how a city grows than one involving transportation.  A decision to build an expressway or highway interchange enables sprawl to occur and often results in urban divestment.  By contrast, regional rail encourages dense development and walkable communities and usually benefits downtown areas.  Transportation-driven development patterns are powerful and, once unleashed, difficult or impossible to influence.

A state-wide coalition, aptly named Transportation Matters, has been created to monitor transportation planning in Ohio and advocate for balanced transportation investments that include urban transit, intercity rail and bikeways.  The president of the coalition board, Bill Habig, is the former head of the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission.

Paying attention to transportation decisions is critical for anyone who cares about the health of the central city, which is why Transportation Matters is so important.  Its Web site, which is under construction, is www.transportation-matters.org.

RECIPE FOR TROUBLE

While the whimsical spelling of Häagen Dazs looks pretty convincingly Scandinavian (at least, to Ohio eyes), Rolls¨- downtown’s newest eatery, spells nothing but trouble.

What kind of person puts an umlaut over an “s”? The sort of person who gets a fancy degree from the Culinary Institute of America and opens up a barbecue shack. That’d be Walter McNabb; there’s nothing like him. McNabb does things his own way.

While most trained chefs hide away in the kitchen (positioning fricasseed parsley on parsnip coins), you might find McNabb behind the counter taking orders and preparing customer smoothies at his new joint. Call him out for abandoning his fancy education, and he’ll hit right back: “You’re not going to find white truffle oil on flatbread anyplace else downtown.”

Truffle oil? That does sound like a real chef. Still, the result is as addictive as any old school favorite. McNabb explains, “ You can teach some things, but you can’t teach love of food.”

The love shows. It’s in the smoothies, sandwiches and flatbreads. And there’s a whole lot more love coming when he open up his downtown outlet of Cook Shack BarBQ later this month.

McNabb and Rolls can be found at 6 E. Long Street, weekdays from 7am til 3pm.

How committed is this community to downtown?  Its response to light rail will answer that question.   In sprawling, auto-oriented cities across the United States—Dallas, Denver, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, Charlotte, and Sacramento, to name a few—light rail has focused development on downtown.  It has spurred new retail development, increased office occupancy rates and rents, linked regions to their center cities, and slowed sprawl.

Recent news stories have ballyhooed $200 million of available Federal money for light rail in central Ohio.  Federal money, however, has never been the problem for central Ohio.  As recently as the mid 2000s, Columbus could have tapped $375 million of Federal and State funding to build a north corridor rail line.  The challenge is securing a local match.

With one, confusing exception in 1999, the leadership in this community has never allowed a sales tax to be placed on the ballot for light rail.  Yet, the residents of Franklin County have indicated support in survey after survey since 1994.  How long will this community be forced to wait to get things moving?

BITS N’ PIECES

What’s the grossest thing you ever found in the car?  Decaying strawberry milkshake?  Fermented gym bag… soiled diaper?

It can’t compete with what Dan Ramsey finds in cars.  Seriously, don’t even try to compete with the owner of Kean-A-Kar.  The downtown detailing business has been family owned for two generations, and… well, go ahead and ask Dan.  “What’s the grossest thing you ever found in a car?”

“Body parts.”

No, seriously?

“I’m very serious.  Body parts.”

The next natural question would be:  what the…?  As it turns out, the car detailing business is a more varied field than one might expect.  Dealing with tobacco odor or spilt milk are regular duties, but occasionally the job gets really interesting.  The family business also takes care of cars that were the scenes of crime or suicide.  It’s a delicate task, because it’s in the aftermath of someone’s tragedy.  But somebody’s gotta do it.

Interestingly, the grisly jobs start with a procedure that’s used to clean up more mundane problems too.  The same ozone machine that neutralizes tobacco and pet odors also neutralizes the bloodier, gory residues.  After that, the cleaners use masks and gloves – a little more than they’d need to clean up your car after a weekend trip.

In any case, if you’ve never had your car detailed, it’s a great treat.  It’s like having a new car (at a fraction of the cost).  Guaranteed, your car won’t be the worst they’ve seen at Kean-A-Kar, 404 E. Main Street.  Make an appointment at 614.221.3145.

The new year could be a good one for the area north of Capitol Square.  Dunkin Donuts opens at Broad and High.  Interest in the Pearl Market continues to grow, and 2009 should bring it many more vendors and shoppers.  A hotel development at 16 and 20 East Broad Street looks promising.  The area’s employment and residential populations continue to grow.

With 500 new, market-rate housing units between Broad Street and Nationwide Boulevard, the area has gained enough households to support some neighborhood retail stores.  Add 41,000 employees and 1135 hotel rooms within a five-minute walk of Broad and High, and the walk-in trade area has nearly $100 million of spending power.

Likely candidates for retail success include a green grocer, new and used book store, florist, bakery, GNC-style vitamin and nutrition store, pet supply store, dry cleaner, pharmacy, gift shop, Radio Shack-style electronics store, and office supply store.  The challenge is finding vendors who will fill the void.  If corporate chains will not open stores, are there independent folks who will?

SEUSS ON THE LOOSE

The wicked old poet woulda had a great time with the traffic developments downtown.  Y’know: Gay, Gay, goes both ways…  If you can remember back to Hop On Pop, Seuss pretty much got the Town Street conversion covered with a character named Mr. Brown.

Front Street?  Not so much.  That’s a bona fide tragedy; cuz the plans for the thoroughfare are pure poetry.  Like Town and Gay, Front is switching from one-way to a two-way passage.  The stretch that runs between Broad and Rich streets began the process in July of 2008; and the changes will continue this summer – all the way to Mound Street.

It’s hard to imagine how all this construction and lane reduction could possibly result in a more vital downtown.  Thank heavens us grown-ups don’t actually have to imagine anything.  We can look at other cities, and see that these layouts work (St. Louis and Chattanooga come to mind).  We don’t even have to look that far: look at the amazing hubbub that’s sprouted up on the aforementioned Gay Street since its conversion.

We can see downtown’s future in action; there’s no imagination required.  So then, what’s the role for creative spirits?

To find a freakin’ rhyme for Front.  Grunt?  Blunt?

Columbus is a smart, young city, which is good news for downtown.  People in their 20s and 30s are very entrepreneurial, and they gravitate toward downtown and the central city in high numbers.  They will surely leave their mark in the next several years.

Nowhere is the strength of this demographic more evident than in the Columbus blogging world.  Whatever the city lacks in good physical space, it makes up in good cyber space.  Witness columbusunderground.com.

Now we have a new blog by Leigh Householder called “downtown snob, a blog about life well inside the Columbus city limits.”  Here is a woman who truly understands a city.  She feels smug about walking on downtown sidewalks and thinks the Wonderbread Factory in the Short North is sensuous.  She aspires to simple pleasures in the public realm and understands that shared space is the essence of a city experience.

In her most recent blog, she challenges downtowners to score how well they know “Columbus’ ultimate downtown cool kid” Walker Evans.  I thought about claiming to be Walker’s lover, but settled on taking the test and scoring a miserable 3.