Right Now Downtown

THE REAL DIVINE MS. M

Meet Melissa Fast.  She’s officially on board at Capital Crossroads SID as Marketing Director.

Officially, she started last Monday.  Unofficially, she’s been supporting the downtown community for years.

As a local patron of the businesses, restaurants and arts scene, the new director has long celebrated the city’s core as its crowning glory.  She says, “I want to help promote the fact that it is a destination – whether it’s for a cup of coffee in the afternoon or a night of entertainment.”

She continues, “I really want to do my part to make sure that people embrace the fact that downtown is a cool place to be.  I think it’s important for the experience to be easy for people so they want to keep coming back.”  It’s everyone’s neighborhood.

Her favorite downtown finds have stories behind them – like the treasures from Pearl Market.  In fact, the Pearl Market itself is a great place to find a story.  The shops were just highlighted in The Columbus Dispatch… and the market caught the national spotlight when the Associated Press picked up the story for distribution.

Downtown Columbus is indeed a place with a great story.

They vied for your votes via video.  The competition was fierce.  And the final margins were razor thin.

Congratulations to the 2010 Show Your Love Contest Winner (drum roll please…)

Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog Palace!!!

Thanks to all of you who voted for your flav-o-favs!  With hundreds of votes cast, J. Gumbo’s fell short of the winner’s spot by a mere three votes, with Jack’s Diner, last year’s Show Your Love winner, and Burgers Dogs and Fries in hot pursuit.

Now the love showing worked both ways.  By voting for their favorite lunch spot, food fans were entered to win free lunches from our featured downtown restaurants: Barrio, Burgers Dogs and Fries, Caffe Daniela, Dirty Frank’s, J. Gumbo’s, and Plantain Cafe.  Congratulations to our winners who now know that there is such thing as a free lunch:

Erika Haske
Trish Mester
Alyson Miles
Angela Butler
Kristine Kring
Jen Town
Christina Ringley
Mary Groves
Jeremy
Chris Powers
Joshua Young
Rhonda Ries
Sandy Auckerman
Chris Carpenter
Mark Siple
Kris Davis
Charlie Letson

ARE YOU FUNCTIONALLY FIT?

Yeah-yeah, you can do level seven on the arm machine, and your toes are seriously mighty on the calf thingy.

But are you functionally fit?  Can you move your body with power and intention through a healthy range?  Downtown Columbus is now home to Fit Club (15 W. Cherry Street), a facility and a community of people that are dedicated to real fitness.

The studio offers group interval training, yoga and mixed martial arts (and private appointments too).  Owner Mitch Potterf describes the set up.  “We’ve got barbells, kettle-bells, sand bags, heavy bags… things similar to what you might actually have to pick up in the real world.”  That’s what functional fitness is all about – developing the strength and skills for a healthy, effective body.

Potterf holds several professional certifications, including one as a CrossFit Trainer… and if he sounds serious, it’s because he IS serious.  He admits that the classes require hard work from the participants.

Any yet, Fit Club works with people from all starting points.  “Our classes are scalable for everyone.  We meet you at your level.”

How functional is functional fitness?  Members of Fit Club got to test out their skills in one of the biggest downtown snowball fights this season; you can read all about it, as well as the schedule for Fit Club classes at ohiofitclub.blogspot.com.

PUT SOME SOUTH IN YOUR MOUTH

Lots of us can do an Aussie accent; or perhaps whip out a leetle somezing zat’s French sounding.

But can you do Cajun?  That one’s tough.

Today is Fat Tuesday.  In this country, that celebration is headquartered deep in the heart of Cajun Country, New Orleans (oopf, N’awlins).  It’s high time to put a little south in your mouth, and downtown’s Pearl Market is just lucky enough to have its very own in-house expert.  Patrons can find real New Orleans Pralines made by a real New Orleans Native: Chandra Noble.

Actually, Noble was born in Ohio – but she spent the first thirty years of her life down in The Big Easy.  While her voice is usually velvety smooth, she can whip out that distinctive dialect from her roots in a heartbeat.

There is a RIGHT was to talk about her New Orleans Pralines.  While we say pray-lines, back south they say prah-lines… or worse.  Noble says, “Sometimes it’s like the L and the R are switched.”  Then she pronounces it in a silky southern style that sounds like a cross between prah-reeeeen and plah-reeeeen.

“Or,” she continues, “We just call it pecan candy.”  Only she does it with an accent again.  Suddenly pecan has three syllables: peh-cah-wnnn.

Regardless of your accent, you can celebrate in Fat Tuesday-style every Friday with New Orleans Pralines in the Pearl Market.  No worries about pronouncing the sweet confections: we all sound the same with a mouth-full.

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.

LOVE ‘EM UP

(to cast your vote immediately, click here.  if you want to learn more about the campaign, read on…)

Time flies: it’s been a full year since DowntownColumbus.com’s Show Your Love project launched.  Back in 2009, six local eateries joined in a good natured contest to become Downtown’s Official Sweetheart.

The competition was brutal.  The love was intense.  Ultimately, Jack’s Diner emerged as number one.

But it can be number one for only one year.  Jack’s reign has ended.  Although we still love the joint, it’s time to find 2010’s Official Sweetheart.

Just like last year, we’ve sweetened the deal for the voting public.  Cast a ballot for your favorite eatery and you’re automatically registered for a set of gift certificates from all the competitors: Barrio Tapas Lounge; Burgers Dogs and Fries; Caffe Daniela; Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog Palace; J. Gumbo’s; and Plantain Cafe.  Vote early and vote often.

(Sigh)… and it seemed like just yesterday when Jack’s claimed its award.

EDITOR’S NOTE: It was yesterday.  SOMEBODY kept hoarding Jack’s award plaque in our office.  Oops.

If you want to re-watch anyone’s video, to really take in the message, just click on the link: Barrio Tapas Lounge; Burgers Dogs and Fries; Caffe Daniela; Dirty Franks Hot Dog Palace; J. Gumbo’s; and Plantain Cafe

Show Us Some Love 2010 from Downtown Columbus on Vimeo.

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.

For many tenants, workers and visitors, the Capital Crossroads Clean and Safe Ambassadors are the face of downtown.  While the ambassador program is operated out of the Capital Crossroads SID offices on Fourth Street, it is managed by an outside business specializing in SIDs and clean and safe services.  Since the beginning of January, a new, locally-based company has taken over the contract: Ohio Support Services.

Since the SID’s inception, the clean and safe program was overseen by a national company called Block By Block.  Though Block By Block had done a commendable job, in 2009, the CCSID and Discovery SID boards determined that a request for proposal should be made.  This was done to ensure that the SIDs were indeed getting the best service possible for the best price.

Nine proposals were received, and four companies were chosen to interview, two local and two national.  Ohio Support Services, a local company with experience providing clean and safe services for a number of downtown buildings, eventually won the contract.

“After studying the proposals and going through the interview process, the boards decided that, all things being equal, they would like to go local,” explained Lisa Defendiefer, Downtown Safety Coordinator.  “Block By Block did a good job, especially when we were getting the program off the ground, but the property owners definitely saw the value in supporting a local company.”

Because OSS’s offices are local, it has freed the Capital Crossroads Operations Manager and Operations Supervisor to be out on the street more, working directly with the ambassadors and the public.  In addition, OSS provided security in buildings throughout the downtown; these relationships have served to improve the network of security offered by CCSID.

The boards were also impressed with OSS’s president, Scott Tucker, who is committed to downtown and cares about the community.  He has a history of giving back, and has been actively involved in ASIS, an organization that helps train security officers to be top of the line employees.

The good news for downtown tenants, residents and workers is that you won’t really notice the difference.  While the change improves function within the CCSID offices, the services provided for both cleanliness and safety on the streets will remain the same.  In addition, both OSS and Block By Block worked together to smooth the transition, so CCSID was able to retain more than 95% of the ambassador personnel.  One change is the new CCSID Operations Manager, Ben Barker, who was previously with OSS as a security manager at the Grange Building. 

“OSS received hundreds of applicants for the position and eventually narrowed the field to two highly qualified candidates.  Cleve Ricksecker and I sat in on the final interviews and were definitely struck by Ben’s depth of security knowledge, enthusiasm, confidence, and love of new challenges,” added Defendiefer.  “A change like this could have been tough on the ambassadors, but they have handled it well.  OSS has just done a great job with the details of the transition; it’s been pretty seamless.”

RODENTO-ROTARIAN

Are the results in from Groundhog Day?  Have the varmints decided whether spring is in the air?  Locally, it’s Buckeye Chuck who does the dirty work.

But before Buckeye Chuck – and before Punxsutawney Phil or PETA’s robot rodent replica… there was the Columbus Rotary Club Groundhog Day Committee.

True Story.

Let’s be frank, as far as being accurate predictive devices for spring, groundhogs leave much to be desired.  In fact, according to former Groundhog Day Committee member Bill Milligan, groundhogs have it all catawampus.  A groundhog’s retreat into a hole traditionally indicates lots more winter.  He puzzles, “It comes out in the light and gets scared by its shadow?  The light would seem to indicate… spring – or that spring is near.”

Decades ago, the Committee had its own system.  They met for breakfast at Bob Evans on February 2, and took a vote.  Whether spring was on its way was simply determined by majority rule.  That’s got to be every bit as accurate as Buckeye Chuck’s system.

While there’s still plenty of room for fun, today’s Columbus Rotary Club is best known for its great charitable contributions to this city.  It helps local schools, parks, impoverished communities, as well as international projects.  Like the motto says, it’s all about “service above the self.”

Downtown is home to two Rotary Clubs: Capitol Square Rotary (meets in the Athletic Club of Columbus) and Columbus Rotary Club (5 E. Long Street).

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.