Right Now Downtown

If you are bored of Columbus, don’t move to Portland, Oregon.  Move to the Columbus High Five.  This stretch of the High Street corridor includes German Village, downtown, the Arena District, Short North and University District.

The sheer volume of great, urban experiences in this part of Columbus compares favorably to any other place in the U.S.  It has everything Boston has except urban rail, department stores and outrageously high housing costs.

Good public transit and city sidewalks will take you to 20 movie screens, a public market, Barnes & Noble and more than 200 high quality, independent retail stores.  It is home to an NHL arena, a AAA baseball park, historic theatres and one of the county’s most prestigious universities.

There are scores of nightclubs, beautiful city parks, charming neighborhoods, several world-class museums, great live music and 40 art galleries.  You can stay in one of 4,000 hotel rooms, quickly hail a taxicab and dine at 150 full-service restaurants.

The Columbus High Five is a magnet for highly educated people from throughout the world.  It is young, creative and entrepreneurial.  Best of all, it is in our backyard.

The Columbus Dispatch recently ran an article, “Dublin emphasizing a sustainable future“, that made me chuckle.  It described the suburb’s new efforts to be “green”, including a new “sustainability administrator” who will try to make it more walkable, protect robins, and explain why the city has “no mow” areas in its parks!

If people want to live in Dublin, that’s their business, although I should not have to subsidize the lifestyle.  But to call Dublin sustainable is an oxymoron.

According to the city’s web site, the average home value for Dublin is “347,633, which buys a big house, and homes account for the biggest carbon footprint a person makes in the U.S.  The city is also one of the most automobile-dependent places on Earth, and personal vehicles make the second biggest carbon footprint.  All other forms of environmental degradation pale in comparison.

Here’s how to make Dublin more sustainable:

1.  Eliminate its zoning code and allow mixed uses and much higher densities;

2.  Redevelop the city along transit corridors;

3.  Worry about the robins later.

Recent snow storms showed that employees who commute by bus can be more reliable than employees who drive.  Last Tuesday, I had to advise my own staff about whether to come to work on Wednesday in a level 2 snow emergency.  Because driving is discouraged during a level 2 emergency, I notified employees who drive to work that they could stay home on Wednesday.  Employees who take transit had no such excuse.  I required them to come to the office.

The experience got me thinking more about the logic of company policies toward parking and transit.  Employee parking benefits are common, but transit benefits are not.  Some companies pay $85 to $160 per month for an employee to park at commercial garages or lots.  Others build and maintain their own parking facilities and offer “free” parking to employees.

Both options are expensive and create an artificial demand for parking, unless companies also offer transit benefits.  Parking benefits can drive up the cost of doing business downtown because bus passes are generally less expensive than parking.  Given a choice, many employees will choose to take transit if free passes are offered as an alternative to free parking.

The Ohio Legislature may soon consider some smart-growth (as opposed to stupid-growth) policies, thanks to recommendations by a group called the Ohio Cities Task Force.  Currently, tax abatements and infrastructure spending in Ohio encourage sprawl.  For example, the State uses public money to build new water and sewer systems in spite of the fact that Ohio cities contain a growing amount of developable land that is fully served by water and sewer systems.  Most tax abatements go where they are least needed.

The task force noted that public policy and spending should encourage redevelopment of existing urban areas.  It recommends that economically distressed areas get larger tax abatements than affluent, “green field” areas (ironic, since tax abatements were created to benefit distressed areas).

It also recommends that the State spend more than 1% of its transportation budget on public transit.  Most encouraging is a recommendation that public resources generally not be used to extend utility lines to “green fields.”  In other words, someone who wishes to duplicate infrastructure at low densities in exurban areas would need to pay for it privately.

These recommendations should make any fiscal conservative happy.

My grandfather, Cleve Wilson Ricksecker, was a conservative Republican and mathematics professor who minced no words when discussing his views.  But he was an old fashioned conservative who believed that wealth and education created a duty to help people less fortunate than he.  Cleve lived in the city of Youngstown until his death in 1966, paid his city taxes, and shared his life with families of blue collar workers and the unemployed.

Times seem to have changed.  Business First published on January 29 a disturbing map showing the wealthiest zip codes in central Ohio.  Seventeen of the 20 wealthiest zip codes are outside I-270 and 10 are outside of Franklin County.  None appear to be located in the City of Columbus.

Economic segregation takes a terrible toll on a community.  Middle and upper-middle class children cannot appreciate their fortune.  Poor kids have few successful role models.  Concentrated poverty can make neighborhoods and schools dysfunctional.  Lack of familiarity breeds stereotypes among everyone.

One of the big losses from economic isolation may be compassionate conservatism.

Cleveland never ceases to impress me.  Last week, I traveled to the North Coast to participate in a City Club program.  I spent the night at the Wyndham Hotel on Playhouse Square, where the musical Chicago was playing.  That same night, the Cavaliers hosted the L.A. Lakers at the “Q.”

Because city planners are smart enough to limit on-site parking for major downtown venues, the 20,000 plus people attending events walked from remote parking and filled the streets, restaurants, and taverns for many blocks in every direction of their destination.  The pedestrian activity made the street feel vibrant and safe.

My friend, Mark Lammon of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, took me for a ride to Little Italy on the new Health Line that runs for seven miles along Euclid Avenue.  This bus feels like a train, runs frequently, and makes limited stops at rail-like stations.  It drew full loads of people, including young professionals, well into the evening.  In addition to this service, the City also has three light rail lines.

Downtown Cleveland seems to be doing well.  I have long wondered about the difference between Cleveland and Detroit.  Could it be Cleveland’s commitment to transit?

I have a pet peeve about the use of statistics, and an article in the Saturday (January 16) Columbus Dispatch made me peevish.  The Dispatch ran an article entitled, “Worst corridors to bike, walk.”  An insert listed the most “dangerous streets” in order of danger, led by North High Street from Dodridge Street near OSU to Goodale Street in the Short North.  MORPC provided the data.

I will not dispute that High Street has the high volume of crashes because it undoubtedly carries the highest volume of bicycle and pedestrian traffic in central Ohio.  But to say that High Street is the most dangerous corridor in Central Ohio is absurd.  Is biking or walking along High Street more dangerous than Polaris Parkway?  According to this article, it is, by virtue of the fact that nobody walks or bicycles on Polaris Parkway.

In my experience, High Street is a relatively safe arterial street because bikers and pedestrians are so prevalent that motorists tend to watch for them.  The MORPC report is a service to the extent that it leads to improving the design of High Street.  But to call High Street the region’s most dangerous corridor makes no sense at all.

This week Cleve welcomes guest blogger, Steve Sevell.  He shares his thoughts on public transit, along with some cool pics.

And a disclaimer (please read this in your head at a very fast pace like those TV commercial speed-talkers): the views and opinions expressed by guest bloggers may or may not reflect the views and opinions of DowntownColumbus.com and its affiliated parties.

STREETCARS OFF ON THE WRONG TRACK

I believe there are problems for electric streetcars in Columbus, especially in the Short North and OSU, where the first streetcars would run, such as:

• taking up critical lanes of traffic;
• cutting down on the very limited parking;
• rails catching bicycle tires and women’s heels;
• the overhead electric wires they run on are exceptionally ugly;
• the 2.8 mile stretch of track, costing $103 million, is outrageous; and
• they can only run on expensive tracks, limiting routes and destinations.

So streetcars aren’t nearly as cool as they might seem at first.

If we considered the next generation of futuristic electric buses, we could achieve all of the good with none of the bad.  Delft University of Technology (Netherlands) has designed a “Superbus”, which looks like something Batman would use to commute to work.  Being on wheels, it requires no new, expensive infrastructure.

Matter of fact, turns out Las Vegas has taken steps to improve their mass transit.  Take a look at their new buses!  Congratulations LVTA!

How about Columbus riding into the 21st century with some new sets of wheels?  So instead of being like other cities, we could do something different.  Something better.

Selling the car and moving into the city may be one of the most effective ways to minimize your risk of a violent death or injury.  In a January 4 article entitled “America’s chief  menace: driving”, The Columbus Dispatch reported that Americans are far more likely to be seriously injured or killed in a car accident than harmed by a criminal.

This article reminded me of another article I read several years ago about a study in Seattle.  The study looked at two kinds of violent death: death by car and death by homicide.  The study compared the rate of violent death in the most affluent suburb of Seattle with the rate of violent death in the most crime-ridden city neighborhood.  The chances of experiencing a violent death were greater in the affluent suburb.

Columbus has many urban neighborhoods with some of the region’s lowest crime rates that do not require use of a car.  I know where I want my kids to be.

Do you have observations about city life in Columbus you want to share?  Are there things you think are positive, funny or infuriating?  Consider a contribution to “In Search of a City.”

Submit your proposed guest blog to jcricksecker@sidservices.com.  Blogs should be 150 to 180 words.

Although we are not afraid of a little controversy, we reserve the right to reject blogs that are hateful or “over the top.”  If we need to edit a submission, we will email the edited blog to you for your review.

Join the conversation.  We would love to hear from you.