Right Now Downtown

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.

Y-B-YP

It’s impossible to avoid the YPs these days.  Senior citizens, adolescents: they can’t compete.  The YPs (that’s Young Professionals) are organized, coordinated, and they have plans for us, yes they do.

Sounds scary?  You bet it does.  But never fear, they like downtown and they like old people too.  In fact, lots of us are YPs, and don’t even know it.

The Columbus Chamber of Commerce defines YPs loosely as a “self-selected” group who feel like young professionals.  Based on its research, the Chamber says that they typical member is between the ages of 21 and 45.

Robbie Banks’ job at the Columbus Chamber of Commerce is to manage the young professionals group, and she’s got great aspirations for downtown’s YPs:

“I would like to see YPs exercise their Midwestern values by inviting their new-to-Columbus colleagues to lunch or coffee at one of their favorite local spots.  Shop and dine at the local businesses downtown, including the Pearl Market.  Take advantage of the activities such as the downtown kickball, bowling and corn hole leagues and the Downtown Live summer concert series.  Support the arts.  Visit the parks.  Bike, walk or ride COTA to and from work, or at a minimum, do not hop in your car to get places that you can easily bike, walk or ride COTA.”

Whew!… and that’s just part of Banks’ list.  She also encourages YPs to sign up to receive her newsletter, which highlights events happening around town that appeal to the YP crowd.

Not a YP?  Old Pro’s are on her radar too.  Banks prefers the term “seasoned professionals.”  She sees them as mentors for YPs – and lists Mayor Coleman and Cleve Ricksecker as some of her favorite “seasoned professionals.”

Seasoned Cleve?  We knew he was saucy; turns out he’s spicy too.

Got a better pun?  Your turn, post it here…

Nothing beats sitting in a baseball park on a warm day, particularly when the backdrop is the downtown skyline and the team is part of the Cleveland Indians.  Downtown gained another huge amenity on April 18, when Huntington Park opened.

Huntington Park’s downtown location has many advantages.  It is accessible by public transit, with nine local COTA bus lines within three blocks.  The new ball park has more than a dozen restaurants within walking distance that can capture business from the park.

Those neighboring restaurants have a good chance to capture baseball traffic because the limited parking at Huntington Park requires that most people walk several blocks past eating and watering holes.  Its proximity to Nationwide Arena further bolsters dining and retail development in the area, because baseball is counter-cyclical to hockey.

Huntington Park is a smart addition to a well designed neighborhood.  I cannot imagine how it could have been better designed or sited.

I just returned from a trip to Toronto.  Toronto offers a great public realm.  Public transit, parks, free-standing stores on public sidewalks, and other public amenities make this city civilized and livable.  Toronto prides itself on being the most ethnically mixed city in the world, yet I saw no racial tension.  Sharing communal space seems to improve its social health.

The trip made me think of a Columbus experience I had several years ago when I took my kids to the Ohio State Fair on COTA.  COTA’s #8 line had a reputation for being its “baddest” bus.  As I boarded with my three kids, one of whom was in a stroller, the two older kids ran to the back of the bus.  I followed.

On the back bench were five black teenage boys.  They wore baggy pants and slouched on their seats.  I immediately braced myself for profanity and trouble.

After the bus traveled a couple of blocks, I noticed my toddler making funny faces.  I followed her eyes to the back bench.  There, the boys were playing peek-a-boo.  I felt ashamed.  I’ll never forget that ride on COTA.