Right Now Downtown

Hoo Doo Soul Band at Downtown Live

A vibrant crowd rocked out with Hoo Doo Soul Band at tonight’s Downtown Live kick off at the plaza near State and Third (in front of Hyatt and 65 E State Street).  The weather was picture perfect and the music was even better.

Mayor Coleman with Set Em Free Kickball team members at Downtown Live

The Mayor even stopped by to congratulate some kickballers from the Set ‘Em Free team on their loss.  They only let the opposing team score six runs (the previous game it was 11!).

Kickball and Downtown Live continue every Thursday through the summer…come down for the fun!

PLAY BALL

Perhaps you’ve heard that they’ve got baseball in the Arena District now – at Huntington Park?  That’s old news, but the new ballpark brings more to the area than just the boys of summer…

1.  Bridal Parties
The structure actually boasts indoor banquet and meeting facilities that book year round for everything from business breakfast meetings to cocktail receptions.

2.  Kidstuff
Baseball brings out the kid in all of us, but the new park is especially child-friendly.  In fact, children under 12 can go free on Wednesdays through the Knot Hole Kids Club.  According to the organization’s Paula Knudsen, “The program has been around for years.  Last year, it was referred to as “Kids Night Out.”  Before that, it was just the “Kids Club.”

She adds that there’s also a MVP club for kids.  Although there’s a small membership fee, it hosts big events like pitching clinics and stadium tours.

3.  TweetUps
The old ballgame has arrived with some very new-fangled trends.  Still in its infancy, the new park has already hosted a TweetUp.  Fan George Black helped coordinate the event, and said, “The idea was to combine a TweetUp with an introduction to the Clippers and Huntington Park.  We kept the cost low by using sponsors and we sold out or 100 slots in less than a week.”

Another TweetUp is in the works; for more details click here.

I would love to go dancing in The Bottoms.  For that matter, I would enjoy telling people that I lived in The Bottoms.

What is The Bottoms?  It is the former name for Franklinton.  It is the name used for well over a century for the area between downtown and the Hilltop.  At about the time folks in the near north side began embracing the name “Short North,” people in The Bottoms decided that their name carried too many negative connotations and began calling their neighborhood Franklinton.

“Short North,” a term used by police and taxicab companies to describe the area between downtown and The Ohio State University, had terrible connotations in the early 1980s.  “Short North” meant prostitution, drug dealing and abandoned buildings.  It was, however, authentic, and it ultimately became cachet.

“Franklinton” is not a bad name for a neighborhood.  But it cannot compete with “The Bottoms” for authenticity.  “The Bottoms” is exotic, mysterious and appealing.

Where would you rather go dancing?

vendor of the week: Sweet Thing Gourmet

Sweet Thing Gourmet is one of those indie businesses that make you smile and feel all excited again about working for yourself.

Owner Kyla Touris talks to us this week with her inspiring tale of moving to Columbus and starting a new life.

Here is what she had to say:
Okay, so I’m a jammer.  I learned from my mother the basics, and I dabbled in it a bit after college, mainly making presents for friends and such.  I was living in Montana at the time, and I would drag my husband with me to pick wild huckleberries.  It took hours to pick enough for one batch of jam, but it was amazing!  We made some as gifts and were told we should go into business.

When we moved to ohio with our infant son, we both planned to work and put out child in daycare.  I had mixed emotions about it.  Then we found our we were pregnant with twins, so that plan was derailed!  We scrimped for a few years on one salary and meanwhile, my mother-in-law had given me a subscription to Victoria Magazine, where I pored over stories about female entrepreneurs.  I was inspired by some of the stories and thought “Hmmm… there could be somthing there.”

I started researching outlets in our area and found the Worthington Farmers Market.  I wrote a business plan, shelled out money for some fancy jars and designed a logo and label with my husband.  We launched out product that year with four flavors of jams and some biscotti.  At first it was very seasonal, but gradually we began picking up holiday shows, home parties and gift boxes.  By 2005, we were going strong and our list of flavors grew quickly.  Now we are up to about 35.

The good and the bad of being your own cottage industry:
I’m my own boss, and I get to make all the decisions.  I keep the hours I want, which at times are very long.  Around the holidays, the business becomes my life, and it can be hard to shut it off.  While I started this to be home with my kids, it can be difficult to keep a balance between the two.  The creative part is fun, but the business part is a lot harder.  So much I am learning!  As the business grows, new expenses crop up and there is the challenge of maintaining the quality.  And still do it all out of our home.  My husband works with me now, and there are challenges there.  But then we turn on the music and get into the Zen of creating, and start to work through it all.

What do I love about Columbus?
I’m still learning about it.  We’ve been here almost 10 years, but so much of that has been devoted to our kids.  I love the downtown area a lot, though, with the urban feel to it.  I’m excited about the plans for the City Center site!  That’s what I love about the Pearl Market, too – it combines my country side with my urban edge.  And not to brown-nose or anything, but I love the people who run the Market.  Adam, Kacey, Tiffany and the rest of the crew are incredibly helpful and positive.  Really, it feels like a party!  Oh, and another thing about Columbus is CD101 and WCBE.  They keep me going much of the day!

Top five blogs/shops on the web?
I feel so unhip, there seems to be so little time to spend on the computer.  I did just discover Daily Candy, and I love columbusfoodie.com.  Oh, I’m so uncool!  I’ll work on it!

Who would I love to meet at the Market?
Eric Clapton!  Maybe he could come “jam” with me!

Thanks so much Kyla!  Make sure you go visit her fabulous stand at the Market and go check out her Web site too!  Tell her the Market Maven sent you!

ROOM RAIDERS/DOWNTOWN EDITION

It’s time to make a little Hoopla over the Hop.  The annual City Hop is experiencing a tenth year “itch.”  After a perfect decade of tours, the organizers were itching for some changes.  So this weekend’s City Hop promises to be divine… but distinctly different.

1.  It turns out that people actually live downtown.
In years past, the tour featured model homes.  This year’ models are real homes where people eat and sleep and dream.  Visitors get to stroll through personalized, inhabited spaces.

(And for the record, Ms. Manners says that it’s still a no-no to peak into the medicine cabinets).

2.  People actually eat downtown too.
This year’s June 12 preview party features a progressive dinner that passes through even more downtown living quarters.  Dawon Hawkins is one of the hosts and will open his home for the pre-show.  While he’s too modest to say his stop is the best, Hawkins does admit to decorating with amazing stuff.  “In my condo, you’ll find a painting of an alien with a broken heart and a red balloon, a 100-year-old farmhouse workbench I found at Grandview Mercantile, and walls painted in hues of sage, flax and moss.  For me, it works.”

3.  Real homes, real food – you’ll find real people here too.
When he’s not playing host, Hawkins is the Association President at Sixty Spring condominiums.  He says he loves living downtown and sharing his passion for the neighborhood… and he also shops for groceries, just like everybody else.

Ask him about it this weekend at City Hop.

Several years ago, a friend of mine told me that she wanted to move to Portland, Oregon, where she could sell her car and change her lifestyle.  She sought a walkable life, where she could immerse herself in the arts, eat healthy foods, and experience vibrant public spaces.

When I pointed out that she could easily do all of those things in Columbus, she dismissed my suggestion as impossible.  Yet, she lived in the Short North and worked downtown.  Her daily routine took her past the North Market, Columbus Museum of Art, downtown theatres, the Arena Grand cinema, and Short North galleries.

She lived within two blocks of High Street, where buses run every few minutes and taxi cabs routinely cruise for fares.  She could bicycle to work in less than ten minutes.

Her neighborhood in Columbus was full of sidewalk cafes, a great park, a lively music scene, and hundreds of independent retail stores.

Why do many people feel they must leave Columbus to experience something they could choose to do here?

I wanted to introduce you to The Bergefurd Family Farm this week. I asked them to talk to us a bit about their farm and their booth at Pearl Market:

We are a small family owned and operated farm in Wilmington, Ohio.  Marcia, Brad, daughter Ashley, and sons Brandon, Bryant and Brady and grandson Ethan all pitch in to seed, plant, tend, hoe, pull weeds, harvest, and care for our 40 acres of produce crops in the fields and greenhouses.
We believe that raising our children on the farm helps them to learn a good work ethic. Farming provides them the opportunity to work next to their parents; brothers and sister. We know it is helping them build good personal skills by working with customers at the Farmers Markets. Hopefully after all the work there is a little money left at the end of the season to go to the children’s college funds.
In the fall season we offer school and group tours to educate others the importance of farms, farmers and raising livestock and crops in everyone’s everyday lives.

What inspires you?

It is in our blood and we enjoy every minute of it, probably because we are fourth generation family farmers! If we counted the number of hours we all put in we would make much more $ per hour working at the local fast food shop flipping burgers- but then would our children learn a good work ethic or be able to make change in their heads or have the opportunity to WORK HARD side by side with their parents and siblings?  Would they learn the value of money and that one needs to work for what they desire?
We attend markets May - October and operate a stand at our home year-round. We begin harvesting and getting produce ready daily, including the night before the market. We harvest from 6 pm till midnight. Then again around 4 am we harvest sweet corn for the day. We want the freshest available for our customers! After we stock the home market stand and get trucks packed, we head to our markets in Cincinnati or Columbus.

What are the three top things you wish you would
have known before you started this journey?
1) How much money we would be still investing in our produce farm 25 years later, time and monetary investment is never ending.
2) How Mother Natures weather events can ruin $1000’s of dollars worth of crop in a matter of minutes.
3) How many hours each day our family would have to invest to attend Farmers Markets and to grow produce.

What is your favorite thing about Pearl Market?
The Managers (Adam and Kacey are GREAT!) the people, customers, and the great atmosphere!

Visit us on the web at www.Bergefurdsfarmmarket.com

“There’s no need to sustain the farm if there’s no family to be sustained upon it.” Charles O’Dell (June 2001)

Thanks so much to the Bergefurd farm family! We cannot wait to taste the wonderful produce you offer!

Stop by and tell them hello and tell then the Market maven sent ya!

WHERE’S MY

You may have heard the television spot featuring the voice of our country’s President asking, “Where’s MY moon, my levy… my dream?”  He’s referring to community opportunities to serve and make an impact.

This weekend, your moon is right here in the Discovery District when the Columbus Arts Festival arrives on June 5, 6 and 7.  Believe it or not, it’s the volunteers that make this event especially successful for the city and its guests.  You don’t need to be artistic to help out, but you do need a big smile.

According to the Greater Columbus Arts Council’s Emily Swartzlander, helping hands can still get on board through early this week at the organization’s Web site.  She says, “We have all kinds of activities for volunteers to help with – they can ‘booth sit’ for artists, help our hands-on art activities folks, work the information center, sell souvenirs and more.”

Want an even more influential role in the festival?  Every January, the festival launches a search for new committee members to help with event planning.  It’s a bigger time commitment, but it’s a great group and lots of fun.

And what good would volunteering be, without some accolades?  Swartzlander is quick to give kudos to the volunteers, “Our volunteers are the true power behind the Columbus Arts Festival, making sure everything runs flawlessly throughout the weekend.  This is a huge event, and we couldn’t make it happen without them.

More info at www.gcac.org/fest/.

There is an overlooked item in the May 7 Alive section, “What Columbus Needs,” yet it makes all the things in “What Columbus Needs” possible.

What Columbus needs are people to make things happen.  The city needs entrepreneurs to create new businesses, advocate for mass transit, and open stores downtown.  It needs people to challenge conventional wisdom, make personal lifestyle changes, and take risks.

There is no city in the country which offers more opportunity to make a difference than Columbus, and opportunity is the most exciting quality a city can offer.  I wager that Walker Evans has as much fun living in Columbus and running ColumbusUnderground.com as he would anyplace in the world.  Does Christina Getachew prefer working for the fashion industry in New York or creating retails concepts and nurturing designers at her store, Substance, in Columbus?  Ask her.  She has done both.

Following your bliss in Columbus can be much more satisfying than leaving for elusive “greener pastures.”  And people here really appreciate it.

This week we meet Asha Cain of Nellie’s Samosas. I asked her to tell us a bit about her delicious offerings. I cannot wait to hang out at her tent. The food sounds wonderful and so does her story:

I make an Indian delicacy called the Samosa. It is a savory handmade pastry that is laced with aromatic spices and filled with meat and/or vegetables.  It is then fried until golden and crispy. It’s a popular treat in India and Africa. My family is originally from East Africa and this recipe is my grandmother. It was always a dream of hers to have a little shop to sell her samosas. When she became ill, she taught me how to make them and encouraged me to live out her dream. Grandma’s Samosas were a success; we were so pleased to find that everyone enjoyed them as much as we do. I have since added other delicious items to the menu including grandpa’s special curry recipes. I have another stand at the Market this year that my sister will operate. We’ll offer Indian fashions, jewelry, handbags, music and more. We truly love our heritage and culture and are excited to bring the things we love to the market. 

What do you love about Pearl Market?

I love the Market because it allows me the opportunity to do what I love which is feed people. I love the look on someone’s face once they’ve tasted one of my creations. People are so willing to try new things at the Market, and they are very encouraging and appreciative of your hard work. I just love it there!

Thanks so much Asha! Make sure you go visit her fabulous stand at the market and check out her lovely Indian fashions and jewelry new this year!