Right Now Downtown

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.

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.

BUCKEYE BUS

What is THE most agonizing thing about going to a Buckeye game?

The suspense?
Watching a quarterback sack?
Or maybe it’s the drive to the stadium.  The longest mile can be wrought with road-ragers and texting drivers.  Add the massive road construction and…

Ladies and Gentlemen, what we have here is a failure to transportate… but not if you park downtown for the game!

We are pleased to partner with The Ohio State University to offer prime parking for Buckeye games.  What makes it prime?  It’s stress-free game-day parking at the City Center Garage on Rich Street.  Ten bucks buys a spot in the lot and two tickets to ride.

Ride what?  It’s a lovely shuttle with air conditioning, restrooms and a permit to unload at University Hall (steps away from the stadium).  After the game, take the shuttle back downtown to enjoy Buckeye Specials at our neighborhood restaurants.

And for you savvy souls who already live downtown?  A shuttle ticket is only $5, round-trip.

For more information, including route maps and a listing of Buckeye Special eateries, check out downtowncolumbus.com.

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 

CITY CENTER TRILOGY: PAST, FUTURE AND PERFECT TENSE

Has the passionate debate about the City Center come as a surprise?  It’s not a state monument; it’s not City Hall.  It’s not even a local hangout these days.

Surely no private property on the face of the planet has attracted as much attention.

It’s been an honor.

The pieces of the City Center fell into place almost exactly twenty years ago.  In the era of shop-til-ya-drop, nothing beat its joys of shopping in a sterile temperature-controlled environment.

People change, lifestyles change and (believe it or not) bricks and mortar can change too.  Before its demolition, City Center continued in its honorable journey, not as a mall, but as a temporary training ground for local heroes; city firefighters have trained to save lives inside.  The Fire Department’s Don Barlow explained the exercises,

“Of the training that was performed, approximately 500 firefighters attended from 34 engine companies, 32 medic vehicles, 15 ladder companies and five rescue vehicles…  Several steel and wood doors were forced and countless interior walls were breached to provide the valuable practice of life-saving entry and exit methods.”

There’s still more in store for the structure.  Demolition and salvage is the original recycling art.  The glass, the metal work – the mall’s parts will all be recycled and put to good use.  Even the concrete walls can be used as aggregate to build roads.

There is a unique dignity to a purposeful existence.  Thank you, City Center, for your past and future service.

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

Ohio could learn some land-use lessons from Vermont, where I recently returned from vacation.  Ohio’s laissez-faire policies lead to so much waste and sprawl.  For example, development along Rt. 256 cannibalized Brice Road and Hamilton Road.  Polaris Fashion Mall cannibalized Northland and City Center Malls.

Vermont has state-mandated land-use controls that encourage reuse of existing buildings, prevent over-development, and serve the public good.  The results are breathtaking.

Rutland, Vermont, population 17,292, has a thriving independent retail scene in its downtown, which is anchored by an in-line WalMart.  I kid you not.  WalMart is actually part of the downtown fabric.  Vermont had the audacity to establish statewide development rules for big box stores that help downtown areas.

Montpelier, population 7,495, has a downtown with five bookstores, 13 clothing stores, two hardware stores, five music stores, two cinemas, and scores of other well-stocked retail stores.  Tourism certainly helps support these downtown stores.  But without state land-use controls, Vermont would probably look like Tennessee.