Midgard/Woodbine is a tricky little sub-neighborhood: there’s virtually nothing about it on the internet and only a few signs to give one an idea of the boundaries. It’s cute, small, and they have the signs to prove that this place is not made up.
July 6, 2009
The East Main Street Camera Program (EMSCP) was setup to deter crime on East Main in the Near East side. From the website:
“The East Main Street Camera Program, located on the Near East Side of Columbus, Ohio, now consists of six high-resolution, Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras, connected by a Firetide wireless network. Video images are beamed real-time to a Digital Video Recorder, and simultaneously uploaded to the Internet.
When the Main Street Camera Program officially launches later this summer, any computer user in the world will be able to gain view-only access to real-time, streaming video images of Main Street through our website.
The primary goal of the Main Street Security Camera Program is to deter nuisance and criminal activity. Secondary goals are identification of suspects and prosecution.”
Here’s one of the videos:
July 1, 2009
Berwick is primarily residential and home to a wealthy black and a significant Jewish population. The northern half is a curvey, warped urban grid like Upper Arlington while the south side is more sprawly with only a few streets that provide easy access in or out. A leather bear bar, a popular college bar for Capital University students, and the mayor call Berwick home.
June 27, 2009
$17-19 Million for Just One Intersection in Clintonville?
Posted by columbusite under Transportation[4] Comments
$17-$19 million for a possible roundabout…and what economic investment are we expecting? Well, none, because if it’s for cars it’s no-questions-asked. Whereas (just under) $8 million paid for extensive traffic calming on Gay St from Wall St to Grant Ave (includes curb extensions, bumpouts, additional pedestrian crossings and priciest of all: medians). That’s approximately the same length as N Broadway down to Tulane in Clintonville, except Gay St also needed revamped traffic lights for two-way conversion and saw development in the form of large-scale condo development with Neighborhood Launch and Carlyle’s Watch. If a roundabout is installed here, not only will yet another urban commercial structure be unnecessarily knocked down, but it will not improve High St here to attract development and more visitors. If it does calm traffic it will only be around the intersection; people will just speed up once through. That’s because this is not a “fix” as the article describes it; this will not address the root of the problem which is speeding traffic on this stretch of High. If the city is willing to spend up to $19 million on one inetersection then someone needs to be fired so they can save themselves half the cost of this theoretical roundabout. The estimated $385,000 to widen N Broadway to turn left onto High isn’t a good idea for the same reasons, minus the high price tag. What the city needs to do is make High between N Broadway and Tulane Rd a great destination and make it possible to attract development and more businesses a la High St in the Short North or Gay St Downtown.
June 24, 2009
The smallest, most isolated neighborhood in the city, Stambaugh-Elwood has some interesting industrial structures off of Parsons and otherwise consists of tiny homes punctuated by grass lots and wooden lots. It’s hard to tell on the latter if there were more homes that once stood there. The remote location and lack of a main street area have left another corner which has not seen improvements and sits more empty than it did before. There are some small well-kept homes and the neighborhood has a surprising rural feel.
June 18, 2009
Livingston & Parsons Intersection Revamp
Posted by columbusite under Neighborhoods, The Bad, Transportation, Urban Cycling[14] Comments
This is a $25 million dollar project that just so happens to be right next to Childrens Hospital, indirectly listed as one of the “area stakeholders” in the city plan. Supposed benefits:
“improve roadways along Parsons and Livingston
Avenue, creating a Parsons/Livingston Avenue Gateway, which will support economic development and neighborhood revitalization as well as create a friendly environment for area stakeholders.”
The current plan poised to go forward will neither attract economic development nor assist neighborhood revitalization. Turning the intersection and stretches of Parsons and Livingston into real complete streets, however, would do much more to attract economic development. Instead, the city is choosing a route for which there is ample evidence demonstrating the opposite will occur. While wider sidewalks, better lighting, pavement replacement, and medians, depending on the design, are a few positives the city wants to widen the street to include a left-turn lane, include bike lanes, and is silent on adding more places for people to walk across the street.
Here is the picture from the file above of the intersection.
Just a brief glance and it is clear that widening this is the last thing that should be done, unless the economic development they want is in the form of more parking lots. Right now, this intersection is Anyburb, USA with no distinguishing features and is readily disposable for new shiny anyburbs.
There’s no need to include a left-turn lane. If people want to insist on living far from where they need or want to go or just choose to drive everywhere regardless, let them reap the rewards of their choice. People subject themselves to insane amounts of traffic nationwide. These streets as they are now would be a god-send in a city like LA. This city has no money and now when they do get millions they just throw it away to shave a few seconds off of motorists’ commutes.
It’s obvious that no one involved with this plan does any urban cycling. As one of the prominent urban cyclists who ride up and down High on a daily basis I know what I’m talking about when I say the last thing this city needs to subject cyclists to is a bike lane. Bicyclesafe.com shows how biking where a bike lane would be is much less safe for cyclists. Giving novice cyclists a false sense of security and opening them up to more dangers is reckless on the city’s part. Aside from the dangers listed above, you’ll have cars parking on the bike lane, people driving on the bike lane, and when snow plows come around these bike lanes are going to be buried and unusable. Simply turn the entire right hand lanes in to bus/bike lanes with sharrows and signs. Right now, this is what the city of Columbus wants to do to us:
I propose that the city require all traffic engineers to ride entire lengths of bike lanes they have already installed before adding more. I guarantee after riding down the Morse Rd bike lane not a single one would propose any more bike lanes.
As for pedestrian access, nothing in this plan addresses the fact that there aren’t enough places to cross the street and cars all too often speed over the limit. From Grant to Parsons one has to walk about 1,800 ft to the next intersection to cross. The equivalent would be having nowhere to cross the street between the Cap and Hubbard in the Short North, which actually has two traffic lights in between that provide real pedestrian-friendliness and ensures traffic isn’t speeding which is good for pedestrians, cyclists, and even drivers. Wide sidewalks and more lighting will not fix such fundamental flaws or provide an attractive environment for good urban development. See High St. in the Short North for what kind of street treatment is necessary for development.
For neighborhood revitalization; taking steps to prevent the hospital from tearing down entire streets of solid housing will support that. Quite a few are pictured in the Livingston Park neighborhood page. At this pace there will be little neighborhood left. Childrens Hospital has a bounty of surface lots where they can expand vs. tearing down entire streets of homes to the east, which is their current plan. Of course they could build more garages, but it must not be as fun as being the neighborhood bully.
Childrens Hospital could invest in the neighbrohood by giving incentives to employees to live in the neighborhood. That’s how you revitalize a neighborhood, not by razing it to the ground.
In the end, the measures taken will only provide superficial changes. Cars will be accommodated, but pedestrians and cyclists will still get the shaft while the area stagnates from further lack of economic investment. This criticism is being passed on to the city to point out major, basic flaws which should never have made it to the final stage of this plan.
