Right Now Downtown

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?

Living and working in the central city and downtown is the right thing to do for so many reasons.  It is good for the environment because people drive less and reduce their carbon footprint.  It maintains a healthy tax base for Columbus, which shoulders most of the responsibility for social services in central Ohio.  Central city residents help keep jobs where they are accessible by transit and to households without cars, which number 10% in Franklin County.

Walking and biking to work is also good for your health, according to a study reported in a recent issue of the Columbus Dispatch.  Men in particular showed measurable improvement in body-mass index number, blood pressure, and other vital signs.  The study involved 2,364 workers in Chicago, Minneapolis, Birmingham and Oakland.

The sedentary, auto-dependent lifestyle of Columbus certainly seems to fuel health problems.  I have noticed far fewer obese people in Toronto and New York, where most people bicycle or walk to work or transit stops, than Columbus.  Add personal health to the list of good reasons for living and working in the city.

Downtown Cleveland looks great.  My son and I stayed there on Saturday night during our annual trip to see the Indians play the Reds.  We stayed at the Residence Inn, which is located in the historic Colonial Arcade.  The Colonial is across Euclid Avenue from the grand Cleveland Arcade, which houses the Hyatt Regency.

Euclid Avenue has been rebuilt as a shared busway and public street and has sleek, accordion buses that run frequently enough they can be used without consulting a schedule.  Property owners along Euclid continue to renovate buildings for housing and retail, and virtually every building between Public Square and East Ninth Street is now renovated or under construction.

My favorite building is an upscale restaurant and bowling alley at Euclid and Fourth.  A comparable location for a bowling alley in Columbus would be North High and Gay Streets.  The bowling alley’s restaurant spills onto East Fourth, which is a sea of tables and chairs serving 11 restaurants.  Flowers and lighting make the street incredibly inviting.

Cleveland is definitely a city worth visiting.

I got a taste of suburban commuting last week when I took two of my kids to camp near State Route 315 and Bethel Road.  The 7:30 am trip from the Short North to camp was easy because the trip was a “reverse commute” against incoming traffic.  My return toward downtown at 8:00 am, however, was hellacious.

Traffic kept stopping on 315 for no apparent reason.  When traffic moved, people tailgated me, cut in front of me for no apparent reason, honked and traded hand gestures.  I cursed so loudly for most of the trip that my dog cowered in the back seat.

The Short North looked really good to me as I ditched my car and began walking to work.  The experience made me wonder why people choose to subject themselves to expressway commuting.  Columbus, Grandview, Bexley, Upper Arlington and other communities have many safe, beautiful and affordable neighborhoods with great transit, bicycle and car access to downtown.  Why would someone choose to subject themselves to such a horrible experience?

On May 7, Alive published a terrific section entitled, “What Columbus Needs.”  A response to the question, “What’s the one thing that should be done to improve the city’s future?” caught my attention.  It read, “Parking in the Short North - lack of it sometimes causes me to go elsewhere.”

I have news for this commentator.  The Short North will never solve its parking problem.

That’s not to say the neighborhood won’t add some parking spaces.  The Ibiza project includes public parking.  On-street parking policies will probably change to increase availability.  A few hundred additional parking spaces, however, will quickly fill, and the Alive commentator will continue a frustrating search for parking in a neighborhood that generally refuses to accommodate cars.  That’s OK.

People visit the Short North precisely because of its density.  An attempt to accommodate demand for parking would diminish this essential quality.  The built environment in the Short North is designed for walking, transit, bicycles and taxicabs.  Perhaps it is time to begin using them.