Right Now Downtown

FLIP THE SWITCH

No fluffy white stuff falling yet, but we’re about to add some sparkle and excitement to flip the switch for holiday fun.

Ohio’s First Lady, Karen Kasich, will be on hand Wednesday, November 30 at the People’s House during the official Ohio Statehouse Tree Lighting and Holiday Festival. In keeping with the giving spirit, they invite visitors to bring a non-perishable food item for Mid-Ohio Foodbank. 

LET THE FUN BEGIN!

We’ve watched the oversized Tonka trucks and bulldozers and sod layers transform the site where the City Center Mall once stood, but the carousel horses can be contained no longer.  The fun races ahead Thursday, May 26 during the grand opening of Columbus Commons, the gorgeous nine-acre park in the heart of downtown.

KICK IT UP AT THE COMMONS

Last weekend delivered a huge dose of what’s headed our way…  Woo hoo, warm sunshine CAN actually be found in Central Ohio, and it got us thinking about summer.  Social calendars fill quickly, and we need you to know that we have Thursday night covered – in a big way.

Plan to Kick It Up at the Commons with the Downtown Kickball League.  There’s nothin’ common about it.  For the kickball enthusiasts of the summers past, you may be accustomed to kicking homeruns on the lawn of the People’s House, but this year the downtown kickball league will take off their legislative sneakers to stretch out in the spacious green of Columbus Commons.

The Commons is smokin’ hot, and it’s where all the cool kids (and wannabes) will be hanging on Thursday nights after work.  Co-Ed Kickball will kick off the party; Wonderland will ante up the fun with Trophy Thursdays, and the summer concerts will keep the party rolling.

Just like last year, two eight-week sessions of kickball will run back to back – June 2 through July 28 and August 4 through September 29.  For those who have never pulled together a team, we are rolling out one more incentive – we lowered the team fee to 275.00, down from 350.00.

Whether you come for the competition or camaraderie or concerts or the cocktails, just head on down to Columbus Commons on Thursdays after work – it’ll be a great way to kick off the weekend just a wee bit early.  Oh yea, don’t forget to spread the word.

Click here to register for Kick It Up at Columbus Commons – Downtown Kickball League.

HARD HATS SOON OPTIONAL

You’ve seen and heard all the heavy equipment making busy where City Center used to be, but take a peek at the progress of Columbus Commons.   Check out this preview of what to expect, and in no time you’ll be able to walk through to see for yourself.

DOWNTOWN SPEAKS

You know how suggestion boxes work?  Fill out the form, put it in the box… and it goes away forever.

We’re not that way.  At the end of last year, we asked for reader thoughts and suggestions, you followed through and offered all kinds of comments.

Now we’ll follow through too.  Here’s the plan:

1.  You want more places to have lunch, including fast food chains.
Although our focus has been on independent operations (here’s our online directory of almost one hundred eateries), we welcome all sorts of purveyors.  Heck, if there’s room for Dunkin Donuts, we’ve got room for a McWendy’s King.  But please be patient.  The chains will be slow to return to downtown.  In the meantime, check out the quick bite places in the directory…  we promise good eats are ahead!

2.  You want more retail stores downtown.
We do too.  Since the survey, Capital Crossroads SID has announced that it will create a retail recruitment program for downtown with Kacey Campbell taking the lead on revving up downtown retail.  You can be proactive in this process too: shop at downtown’s Pearl Market, nurture those businesses and they’ll grow into a full-scale retail community.  And support the downtown retails we have.  You can find a list of retailers here.

3.  You want to know about marches and rallies happening downtown.
Duly noted.

4.  Some readers wanted City Center open again as a mall; some wanted it to remain standing and repurposed.
City Center ran its course as a mall.  It faced fierce competition from Tuttle, Easton and Polaris malls.  Its closed-off-fortress design was no longer cool.  So bye-bye mall; hello sweet opportunities!

As for redesign, the mall was build to be a mall.  Did you know it doesn’t even have a heating system, because the lights and people generated enough heat?  The best evidence indicates that the single most cost effective way of dealing with the structure was to disassemble it entirely.  To do otherwise would be a statistically improbably gamble.

5.  Readers want the magic of their childhood.
Can we pull a rabbit out of the hat and make our downtown dreams come true?  If you care, and we know you do, then we can!

ALL ABOUT YOU

You may recall receiving an email survey through Right Now Downtown a few months ago.  While numerical scores are interesting, many of you took the time to write in your own comments and ideas about downtown.

Want to know what you think?  We can tell you now…

1.  Not one single comment was abusive or ugly.  That’s an anomaly on anonymous surveys.  It says something about you as a group.  We’re very proud to live and work among such unusually constructive souls.

2.  You want more places to have lunch.

3.  You want more places like McDonald’s and Wendy’s.

4.  You want more retail stores downtown.

5.  You want to know about marches and rallies happening downtown.

6.  You want City Center open again as a mall.

7.  You want City Center to remain standing and used for something else.

8.  You want the magic of your childhood.

We’ve been brainstorming on how to best follow up on these ideas.  While we finalize, we’re sending the intern out to chain himself to the wrecking ball at City Center.

Meanwhile, perhaps you have some follow-up solutions of your own?  Stay tuned for next week…

APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION

Do an Internet search on “Columbus Zoo and Aquarium”: 40,300 results.

Search on “Columbus Topiary Park”: 1,210 results.

Now try these words, “City Center Demolition”…

61,100 results.

Yep, we like to watch demolition.  Who knew that the dismantling of City Center would become a major tourist attraction for downtown Columbus?  People flock into the core of the city just to gawk at the giant hole; the big rumbling construction equipment brings out the destructive kid in all of us.

They’ve got the view from the outside, but we’ve got an all-access-pass: a video view of the demolition from the inside and out (and an aerial perspective too).  It’s all courtesy of Amy Taylor, she’s Chief Officer of Operations for the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation/Capitol South – and she’s got all the details on the destruction…

Inside 43215: Behind the scenes at the demolition of City Center from Downtown Columbus on Vimeo.

CITY CENTER TRILOGY, PART THREE: PERFECT PEOPLE POWER

The park and the people rule.  That’s the very point of the Columbus Commons - it’s a place for common people to share common grounds.  The landscape provides a much-needed reality break found only in the great outdoors.

Sure, office life is productive, and virtual reality is fun.  But it’s our interactions with the natural world that feed the human soul.

That which will surround the park has a built-in, market-driven flexibility.  Plans for the perimeter include 400,000 square feet for offices, 70,000 square feet for retail, and 400 new residential spots.  Ultimately, those decisions will be shaped by human use patterns: the park and the people rule.

Some things are certain.  The Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (better known as CAPA) will be scheduling dynamic outdoor events for the Columbus Commons’ amphitheater.  Both concerts and events are in the works for spring 2011.

We know what we’ll bring to the park.  What will you bring?

http://www.downtowncolumbus.com/progress/columbus-commons

CITY CENTER TRILOGY, PART TWO: FUTURE COMMONS GROUNDS

The “Phoenix from the Ashes” story is a little too familiar, but it’s eminently appropriate for Columbus Commons… from out of the rubble of a faded local hotspot arises a new star with the same spirit of a community gathering place.

The plans have been drawn, circulated and discussed.  It’s a six-acre park in the very heart of our city.  While it’s not unusual for a thriving city to host a park at its core, it is unusual to have a park sitting on top of a place-to-park.

Yes, the underground 950-space parking garage will remain in full operation during and after construction beneath the greenery.  Retaining convenient downtown parking is a priority – and it’s actually simplified the rest of the Columbus Commons design process.

What goes with a park that sits on underground parking?  The turf can’t support multi-level high-rise structure.  So, the grand lawn must then be designed for people and human activities.  An amphitheater is in the works and an event staging area too.

Welcoming walkways, trees, benches, chairs and tables will greet guests and the Commons grounds will eventually be lined with retail, office space and housing that supports those activities to create a true downtown neighborhood.

And in the spring of 2011, there’s the Phoenix from the ashes again.  Out of the wreckage of a deserted mall, a gathering place at the city’s center.

http://www.downtowncolumbus.com/progress/columbus-commons 

Press coverage about Columbus Commons from February 4, 2009.