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 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.

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?

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.

At a recent Columbus Metropolitan Club evening forum on the future of Columbus, I asked panelist Michael Wilkos to describe Columbus in the year 2020.  He gave a startling answer that, upon reflection, made perfect sense.

Wilkos stated that the older, pre-1955 areas of Columbus that constitute the Columbus City School District would become considerably more affluent because of inward migration by young professionals in search of urban order, transportation options, and proximity to jobs and services.

By contrast, Michael painted a bleak picture of many Columbus neighborhoods built after 1955.  Many of these neighborhoods lack much semblance of planning, charm or walkability.  It is these neighborhoods, according to Wilkos, where increasing concentrations of poverty will be found.  Even now, you can see clear evidence of their decline by driving along commercial corridors such as Hamilton Road or Brice Road.

Absent a “game changer” such as high gasoline prices or a fundamental shift in how the region invests in public infrastructure, wealth will be increasingly concentrated in the center city and outlying counties with vast swaths of poverty in between.  This 2020 picture is not a pretty one.

Columbus Dispatch to readers: “Get out of the car.”  In a November 14 editorial that sounded like an intervention with an alcoholic, the Dispatch commented on a report by the National Complete Streets Coalition that advocated a required use of federal transportation funds to accommodate pedestrians, bicycles, and users of public transit.

The Dispatch did not support federal requirements for such accommodations.  It did, however, launch into a 15-column-inch editorial about the problems created by automobile dependency.

“People are forced to climb into their cars to take care of their fundamental needs, including commutes to work, school and grocery.  They once visited on front porches and walked to the nearby downtown or neighborhood shop.  Now they drive to a big-box retailer located in a strip mall, where even the parking lots are pedestrian hazards.”

The editorial links auto-dependency on a breakdown in neighborhood cohesion, recreation and healthy activities.  It also notes the connection between the obesity epidemic and sedentary lifestyles of the motoring public.

The editorial begs a question.  When will we stop subsidizing this lifestyle?

Hey taxpayers!  Let’s reward Dublin for bad planning.  The Columbus Dispatch reported on Sunday that the city applied for $9.6 million in federal and state funds as a down payment on a $145 million interchange at Rt. 33 and I-270.

Why?  To fix congestion problems created by Dublin when it allowed 1,000 businesses with 34,000 employees to locate, helter-skelter, on the Rt. 33 corridor west of I-270.  This scatter approach to development is inaccessible by foot and bicycle, unserviceable by transit, and makes carpooling virtually impossible.  It requires a personal vehicle to go to the bathroom.

Here is the ongoing lesson for communities from the State of Ohio:  If you encourage the most unsustainable, auto-dependent, climate-changing sprawl and create your own congestion problems, you, too, can get rewarded with hundreds of millions of dollars!

So let’s enable Dublin to continue spewing Taco Bells and WalMarts all the way to Marysville!  But we had better begin saving out money because any improvement to this interchange will only bring us more congestion.

COTA recently introduced a bus line called the “Night Owl.”  It’s a late-night party bus that runs every 30 minutes on Fridays and Saturdays from the Arena District to northern Clintonville.  The last run from Clintonville to downtown leaves Clintonville at 2:13 am, and buses depart from downtown and the Short North until 2:40 am.

The service is a great addition to the Columbus scene.  It allows folks who want to drink and dance the night away to leave their cars at home when they flock to watering holes on Park Street, the Short North and University District.

The service is also a huge benefit for the hundreds of bar and restaurant employees who work until the wee hours of the morning.  Parking anywhere between 11th Avenue and Nationwide Boulevard is expensive.  Imagine walking several blocks to a remote location at 2:30 am to retrieve a car or paying for daily taxicab service.

The Night Owl replaces the #20, which COTA discontinued several years ago during a budget crisis.  If the Night Owl draws a similar crowd, it will feel like Toronto’s street cars late at night.  Experiencing the Night Owl will be almost as much fun as the destination.

In yet another rebuke to Columbus’ unwillingness to invest in light rail, The Columbus Dispatch reported on Sunday that Phoenix’s first rail line is an “unexpected success”, with a headline that reads, “Weekend riders turn downtown into destination.” Projected to carry 26,000 people per day immediately after beginning operations, the line is averaging 33,000 people per day.

Phoenix is not alone.  All 13 cities that have built light rail lines since the mid-1980s have experienced higher-than-projected ridership.  They include Charlotte, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, Dallas, Denver and Sacramento.  These are all automobile-oriented cities that sprawl in four directions.  Each one has settled the age old argument in Columbus that light rail will not work here.

Sadly, the people of Columbus are not even permitted to vote on the issue.  Only once has the business community allowed light rail on the ballot, in 1999.  In that election, COTA was required to split its request for a half-cent sales tax into two quarter-cent ballot issues, one for permanent funding and one for ten year funding.  COTA was not allowed to use the phrase “light rail” on the ten year funding issue.  Confused voters approved permanent funding, unaware that they defeated light rail.

Would the last young professional to leave central Ohio please turn off the lights?