Columbusite

A problem for many Columbus neighborhoods is that there is so much potential and too few people willing to step up and invest in our commercial corridors and Long St in King Lincoln is no exception. However, Long St is in the beginning stages of a rebirth. With the refurbishing of the Lincoln Theatre, Hamilton Park Condos, new commercial space along with a new coffee shop there is a budding momentum.

Unfortunately, Long St is another in the long (no pun intended) list of recent major screw-ups in our urban landscape which will unnecessarily set this street back for years and demonstrates that the city still doesn’t get it regarding good urban planning, whether we are talking about local residents or city leaders. Where others may have followed in the footsteps of the new coffee shop by rehabbing a couple of buildings across the street, the city took away any chance of a totally revitalized intersection for a long time to come by allowing the demolition of those buildings. Now, we will have to wait for a developer to build something there and you can bet they aren’t clamoring to fill in those spots anytime soon as the high number of pre-existing grass lots which have remained barren for years will attest. Not only that, but who is going to want to invest in another building there only to have nearby buildings reduced to rubble, preventing other businesses from adding urban energy to the area which would collectively benefit all who are concentrated there. After all, a high number of destinations in a small, walkable place is attractive whereas grass lots dotted with buildings are not. Take a look for yourself at Long St with Google streetview and check out how unwalkable the street has become or better yet, go there in person for a stroll. Note that the building on the north-east side on Long and 17th is now a dirt lot.

How does more of this

help this?

Due to the city government not willing to take a serious stand for preserving buildings we can expect other commercial streets in lower-income neighborhoods to continue to bear the brunt of the city’s refusal to make a commitment for the betterment of these neighborhoods. Sadly, residents in these neighborhoods generally don’t understand the direct impact that urban planning has on their lives and how the city government’s acquiesence of these actions seriously hurts these neighborhoods further. On a national level, we have the National Register of Historic Places, which has no teeth in preserving buildings as we learned the hard way with the demolition of the Firestone mansion. Whether it’s a thriving commercial street in a good neighborhood like Grandview (marred on the Columbus side by two ugly buildings with large parking lots facing the street) or Long St as described above, the city never fails to prevent streets like these from reaching their full potential. By maintaining a 35MPH speed limit, allowing the destruction of exisiting buildings and parking lots to be located up against the street, this really calls into question whether the city actualy wants this neighborhood to improve when they will not enforce basic urban planning guidelines for successful mixed-use streets. Even with a revitalized theatre and some condos, a street that accomodates cars at the expense of people can logically expect to see plenty of cars and few people until the city gets serious about making this street a place people want to be.

Downtown used to have numerous hotels contributing to the buzzing activity on our streets; the Neil House Hotel (replaced by the Huntington tower; 9:00-5:00 activity only), Deshler Hotel (replaced by a generic office building; 9:00-5:00 activity only), and the Chittenden Hotel (replaced by Nationwide tower #?, also 9:00-5:00 only), all lined High St Downtown at one time. More buildings had to be torn down for employee parking. Further east the former Seneca Hotel was saved from becoming a parking lot (now just “The Seneca“) and will soon add nearly 100 residents Downtown. An article on Planetizen promotes hotels as a key to revatilization and seeing how they once worked in our Downtown it looks like the proposal for a boutique hotel at Gay & High is a good idea. Four stories sounds like it’s not very high for being in the heart of the city, but it’s important to take the function of the building into account  vs size, as our tallest result in empty sidewalks after five. Whether or not this particular plan comes to fruition we will see, but these would certainly help fill in High St to better connect Gay to High (where’s an arch so that visitors can’t miss it?) and also improve the urban fabric of High St itself.

These are better than Cleveland’s. They don’t just list historical and cultural sites, but restaurants, bars, retail and something I found unusual, apartments and condos. While it shows where the Arena District is, these do not point you to nearby neighborhoods, which is certainly a downside if you happen to be a visitor who is unfamiliar with the city. You most likely won’t stumble into German Village or that cool little section of Parsons across the highway on your own. But, then what do I know? I don’t have a degree in whatever it is. You can click the picture for a larger version.

This is who’s responsible for our roads. If you want to see any changes direct your suggestions to them. I have a laundry list of improvements, but for the most part more streets should look like our 1st unofficial bicycle boulevard Downtown on Gay, they need to stop insisting that the 25MPH speed limit on Neil, 3rd Ave, and King are “temporary”, and more city streets need to be slowed down to 25MPH, especially ones where the limit is artificially high, i.e. it feels like it should be 25MPH.

Lower speed limits aren’t just for preventing the needless deaths and injuries of cyclists and pedestrians, but for up and coming streets to make any real progress to become another worthy destination which will breathe more life (and $$$) into our city, they are a necessity. One of the key factors for a street with commercial stretches on it to become revitalized is that it must feel safe. Every single vibrant commercial corridor in this city is 25MPH, with the exception of 3rd St in German Village which is 30MPH, and that includes High St in the Short North & OSU, Gay St Downtown, E Main in Bexley (this one is especially telling as it’s the only vibrant section of Main while the rest is 35MPH), and Grandview Ave in Grandview.

Here’s my inquiry to 311@columbus.gov which is the city’s Transportation Division;

Dear Transportation Division,

Just some suggestions for what needs to be done which I posted on my blog. I live Downtown and I don’t have a car because I don’t need one, I bike everywhere. I’m just curious about what the transportation division is going to do in the immediate future. Decades have passed while pedestrians and cyclists have seen very little, if anything at all to make roads safer for us on inner-city roads, like Front and High streets between Downtown and the Short North.

—–Original Message—–
From: 311
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 5:33 PM
To: Lewis, William A.
Subject: FW: Safer roads

Mr. Lewis

Please respond to Mr. M. or forward this to the appropriate personnel. Thank you.

Keith -

I have reviewed your concerns with staff and will be providing you a detailed response, along with your issues on Front Street, by mid-July. As you can imagine, we are receiving a number of inquires regarding bike travel now that the Bicentennial Bikeways Plan has been adopted by City Council. We want to take the time and provide thoughtful and accurate responses to each one.

Please contact me with any questions.

William A. Lewis, P.E.
City Traffic Engineer/Planning Services Manager
Transportation Division
Department of Public Service
109 N. Front Street, 3rd Floor
Columbus, OH 43215-9024

Voice (614) 645-6086
Fax (614) 645-7921
walewis@columbus.gov

www.cityofcolumbus.org

Just goes to show that even sending an e-mail makes a difference. He could just end up sending me something more specific about the bikeways plan and how it will make the city better for bikes, which it won’t because it focuses on bike-lanes and if you regularly “take the lane” like me and have tried biking as though a bike lane were there, when you do cars will try all sorts of dangerous crap (for you, not the cars) as I’ve had cars squeeze by (even on wide roads where I would bear further right), speed to turn in front of me, etc, which is why I rarely stay out of the middle of the lane on just about any road.

But back to what I was saying and that is the fact that even if your comments/suggestions are blown off it at least lets the city know what people want. More people raising objections to the current layout and suggesting what they want to see means that they are more likely to make changes that will make local urbanites like myself happy. According to the response, they’ve been receiving quite a few e-mails, so that’s good to hear.

View Larger Map

*Yes, I already had this up as a page, but I added a new interactive Google Maps feature (finally, WordPress made it work!) to show what is in the neighborhood and I supplied an easy-to-use car-less COTA route. This will be done for other neighborhoods as well in the future.*

Despite confusion over the proper name of the neighborhood, King-Lincoln or it’s full name King-Lincoln Bronzeville, was a prosperous black neighborhood back in the day whose theatre hosted the best jazz acts in country when coming to Columbus. Not so prosperous today, but along with the restoration of the Lincoln Theatre and gentrification of homes in the neighborhood, one of the best for quality architecture, this neighborhood bordering downtown is oozing with potential. These photos are all near Long St, which is till being subjected to urban renewal/demolitions to this day. Even though the area offers little aside from great architecture (be sure to check out Hamilton Park off of Broad), there are a few reasons to warrant a visit.

Biking around town, it’s hard to say what the city’s stance on complete streets is. On Saturday, all I wanted to do after buying a delicious sticky bun from Pattycake Bakery (I couldn’t tell it was vegan based on taste, and they are only sold on Saturdays) was try out the coffee which I had heard a lot about at Yeah, Me Too on Indianola. It was very good, unlike the ride to get there. Leaving the bakery, my options to get there were Weber or Tibet.

I probably should have picked Tibet. Weber simply is not bike-friendly, despite the fact that it is a residential street. That is due to the 35 MPH speed limit, which I’m sure people ignored as they passed me. While everyone gave me plenty of room, it is unsettling to be headed up a rather steep hill, that just continually ascends. Widening the gap between the speed of cars, which don’t have to take physical exertion into consideration, and that of bikes when there is already a wide margin thanks to a ridiculously high speed limit on a neighborhood street makes one feel unsafe on the road, even while biking by the book. Residential streets should be held to a universal standard of a maximum 25MH speed limit along with the necessary infrastructure to ensure that limit is not exceeded, as signs alone are never enough.

However, a couple of nearby, parallel streets that are located south of Weber are 25MPH and covered with several speed humps, which are great for bikes since you can maintain a good speed while going over these.

There are more further down the street.

Some consistency would be nice, since this demonstrates that making streets ped/bike friendly can and has been done.

And then here is the newly paved Broad St Downtown;

not a single improvement to make it safer for pedestrians or cyclists: no reduction of lanes, no median, no speed hump, no crosswalk, not even a single sharrow in one of the right hand lanes. We have to wait and vote on road improvements that are ped/bike friendly (ie, those included in the bikeways plan). Yet it just gets done and money is no issue as long as it ensures that cars can speed through at the expense of the safety of those not in cars. While city council is pushing complete streets (well, at least O’Shaughnessy is), what does it mean when the transportation division won’t even make the smallest, inexpensive improvement on this street?

For example, the current light pattern on our mini-highways like Broad give motorists green light after green light which results in them speeding well over the speed limit and is dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists on the road. Increasing the number of stop-and-go light patterns would not require any new infrastructure whatsoever and would succeed in making traffic safer for cyclists on the road and people crossing the street. Wide, high-speed multi-lane roads like these sever the connections within their respective neighborhoods including those that can’t afford to continue to be torn apart; they have no place in an urban environment. If you want to speed we are inundated with a bounty of highways to choose from. We don’t need several miniature highways to further butcher and alienate our neighborhoods. I always feel for those residents of Olde Towne East who can’t even safely cross Broad because they are forced to choose between running across seven lanes of high-speed traffic or walking to the closest crosswalk which is at a light several blocks away on either side. Who is going to walk that every time just to cross the damn street?

So to summarize, I have serious doubts about the ability of those pushing for change vs those who are just fine with the status quo. Not in the sense that we won’t prevail, as I’m sure we’ll will win out (better ideas are better ideas), but in the ability to get it done in a timely matter and preferably while I still have the physical capacity to take advantage of these improvements.

So I finally visited Cleveland with my brother and a couple of good friends. Only one of my friends has been to Cleveland a couple of times, so for most of us it was a new experience. After freeing ourselves the burden of our meddling car in a garage near the Palace Theatre, where my brother and I watched the Kids in the Hall later that evening (they were fantastic), we went off on a tour of the city. First, we stopped right off at Moko’s (on the left) and got some drinks before heading off for lunch.

My brother being smitten by Cleveland.

Internet lingo on a trashcan Downtown? Well, I like it.

We all agree, Downtown Cleveland is big and has good architecture all over with a great big-city feel that you just don’t get here. Plentiful parking lots might have something to do with that. Cleveland’s Downtown is legit and they have rail transportation, solidifying its status as the big city of Ohio.

Apparently, there’s going to be major touch-ups to the interior.

Going to Ohio City by rail was easy, but getting the all-day passes weren’t. Cleveland felt like messing with our heads in each neighborhood and this was the first instance. I put in a 20 for a day pass and it did give a pass, but then spat out 16 Sacajuweas, so I just put them in for more tickets, but what the hell!? They just come right back out! Oh I see, it accepts quarters, not the coins they give you. OK, so just go to the change machine and put in the 48 quarters for the other 3, right? Wrong! It only accepted about one out of every three. WTF!!! Argh, it’s the Cleveland Crucifixion! So after what seemed like 10 minutes we just bought them at the counter. Lesson? Never use those awful machines.

Ohio City, from our brief visit, seemed trendy with a dash of Hippy/New Age stores. We were starving at this point, but I wanted to peek my head in the Westside Market,

and we walked through the corridor outside the main building. My friends said that they felt like they were in a 3rd world country, not ‘Murica, with the masses of people crammed in there. They were in no mood for browsing, they wanted a god-damned restaurant, so we walked towards this extremely inviting street.

Great Lakes was looking pretty packed, so we headed into the Flying Fig (I thought at first it was the Flying Pig).

The decor looked like lunch might be pricey. It was happy hour, so we got some beer and food, only $5 for a blue cheese burger with fries. I got cute and tried the pulled pork nachos, which while tasty wasn’t as large a portion as the burger everyone else went with. It looked like rain was threatening to come down, but luckily the previous forecast of clouds with rain showers didn’t pan out at all that day. More Ohio City:

Spacious parking

So it was back to the market to pick up dessert

and we found quite bit we liked, but the portions for a couple of items were extremely deceptive, in fact, when that napoleon was in the case one would have thought there were three on top of each other. It was of monstrous proportions. That alone would’ve been enough for all of us.

We tried our damnedest to eat all these desserts and not waste any money/food, but they proved to be too much for us and we were utterly defeated and we all ended up feeling disgusting.

Just checking to make sure my stomach is still intact.

At least the view couldn’t be beat.

Desperately needing to walk that off, we headed to Shaker Square to walk around and grab a drink.

Stopped in at Yours Truly, which has a truly awful interior (I’m not sure what they’re going for, the interior of your grandparents’ home?) we got some limeades which kept us hydrated and ordered a few items knowing that the server probably would be a bit miffed if we just got drinks. It was cool watching the trains go by the window.

Cleveland gets an enthusiastic thumbs up (no, really, he likes).

And as you can see I’m loving Cleveland.

After getting even fatter, but less thirsty we walked down a couple of residential streets impressed by the density and quality of the buildings.

Further down are streets lined with cute single-family homes.

I’m embarrassed for poor Patty.

Thirsty again, we headed to Dewey’s to relax for a bit. My iced coffee and espresso drink was tasty, but my companions were not pleased with their wild-berry drinks. Laundry detergent was used to describe the flavor of the smoothie. After tasting it, I was glad I went with what I did while they just drank it down because it was something cold. It was time to head to the show and since my friends weren’t going we split ways for a bit and they headed out to the Flats in the meantime. More Downtown!

Ooh, bowling Downtown.

After the show (forgot to zoom in the heat of the moment),

my brother and I headed to the Flats to meet up with our friends, while he bitched about how they should’ve headed back to meet us and leave. We went over anyway and got off at the Flats East Banks. There was a map, but it was useless, unless you wanted to go to a museum. No bars & restaurants listed at all, seriously? Very user-unfriendly stops, my brother said he’d be pissed if we got mugged. I called my friends three times to find out exactly where they were and they actually got off at the Settler’s Landing stop just before the one we did. After walking down a lonely street with the only street life being a group of security guys hanging out in front of a nightclub and a lone woman walking down the street, my brother was getting antsy thinking we were getting lost. Once we got to the Settler’s Landing stop, we walked under the large, lonely bridge hoping for a sign of civilization and then the glowing, green letters reading “The Flat Iron” couldn’t have appeared at a better moment. Relieved and hungry again, we hung out and watched TV there. They make their own root beer, so that was a must. (Note the lazy photoshopping)

It was then time to catch a train back to Tower City, but we were waiting for ten minutes or so. We were all alone, so it didn’t take long for some shenanigans to take place.

We stopped waiting, since Phil kept insisting that we just walk it, it can’t be that far. 5 minutes later, we were approaching Tower City. We were outraged at ourselves over how short of a walk it was. Why were we waiting for a train again? After being asked for the 10th time if we had some change, we made it to the parking garage. So long for now Cleveland!

So what can we learn from Cleveland? Get rail already! I didn’t have to drive around looking at a map, search for parking, and then have to pay for it. I left the car in a garage across from the theatre for $10 the whole day. You hop on the train and it just takes you to destinations. If we want more visitors/tourists to see what we have to offer, I can’t think of a better way than rail. Instead of seeking out what the city has it brings the city to you. That’s the best way I can think of explaining it. Cleveland’s rail line is separated, unlike our still proposed *sigh* streetcar. Keep in mind that Cleveland’s urban core is a good deal larger, whereas ours is smaller and so streetcars make sense. As for light-rail in Columbus, I have the perfect routes for that; see the blue lines inside of 270 in this map.

It’s no coincidence that the only intact stretch of Downtown is also the most lively and has the most potential for filling out very nicely, since there are buildings already there and so do not require any timid developers to start from scratch. Stretching from High to 3rd, a number of businesses on and nearby Gay lend vitality to the area. There is a stretch of four empty retail spots waiting to be occupied and sadly they’re all right next to each other except for Pearl alley which goes right down the middle. Since arches have been making a come-back, why not have an arch for Gay St facing High? Visitors are sure to miss out on what this street has to offer. Signage pointing people down to Pearl and Lynn Alley would also be good.

Starting west right off of High St is the Modern Finance Company building which is sitting empty for lease.

Right next to it is the H&R space pictured here which offers the best window space by far and a small grocery store could make excellent use of it. Or a hookah bar would be a nice alternative. You can also see Pearl Alley which separates this stretch of empty space.

Then you have the empty Skambo space (which I liked quite a bit and planned to go there often since I had moved Downtown, but they closed)

Lastly you have the fourth space. Notice how these last two already have small patio spaces being under-utilized. Actually, they’re not being used at all.

When you think about (well, as an urban geek, I do anyway), there’s so much that these could add to make Gay a really great street. As a Downtown resident, I find I often patronize the businesses already here and if you live nearby you really should support what we have, not solely for the sake of supporting the little guy, but because they offer quality products (mostly in the form of food & drink). If the 25 cents for every 12 minutes of parking turns you off, you can always park your bike for free and I’m always willing to help people incorporate biking into their routine, just let me know and I can at least point you to the easiest streets to get here.

As I speak, however, an empty retail space a few buildings down looks like it will be adding vibrancy to the area once it gets renovated. A coffeeshop alternative would be nice. I wonder what it will be…

Further east down Gay, hundreds of residents will be added within walking distance. There is a plan to at least include a cafe, but with three coffeeshops nearby and a new one poised to be added and complete the Coffee Corner District (Brioso, Cornerstone, Starbucks, & Caribou) I hope the space will be used for something different. The entire stretch of Gay from 4th to 5th is being filled in.

The picture above is quite a bit older, as the building on the right is at the same stage as the building on the left here.

And at the east end of Gay where this pile of rubble was will be CCAD student housing adding a couple hundred students to the Downtown population, which will help curb the wasted oil from students commuting from the burbs and also bring a young, artsy vibe which will hopefully exude outside of campus.

Keep an eye on Gay, as it’s slowly but surely becoming the most desirable urban street in all of Downtown by far. In the mean time check out these local businesses on and around Gay:

• Café Brioso - 14 E Gay
• El Arepazo - 47 N Pearl
• Ringside Cafe - 19 N Pearl
• The Deli in the Alley - 72 East Lynn
• Jack’s Diner - 52 E Lynn
• John Henry’s Barber Salon 57 E Gay St
• Due Amici - 67 E Gay
• Tip Top Kitchen & Cocktails - 73 E Gay
• Mitchell’s Steakhouse - 45 N 3rd
• Latitude 41 - 50 N 3rd
• Cornerstone Coffee - 100 E Gay

Outside of the historic, pedestrian-friendly OSU, consisting mainly of the Oval and the surrounding buildings,

OSU has indulged in the disastrous “urban renewal” movement, which basically consisted of tearing down swathes of buildings that were a bit old and/or not occupied and instead of new development popping up sat vacant and more often than not turned into parking lots, except for lower-income neighborhoods where many still stand as empty grass lots. Here are some examples near Neil Ave in the southern portion of OSU where homes were torn down for parking.

Here’s what it all looked like before.

This is right next to the house on the left. History, architecture, rehabbing solid housing, who needs that? We need parking!

Then there’s Lord Hall, which should be rehabbed but they’re just letting it go past the point of repair so that they can tear it down (see the bottom). Guess what will replace it.

10th Ave off of Neil. Here, there is no trace of what used to be here and sums up OSU’s position on car-culture.

Not only that, but OSU has gone out of its way to placate and encourage the “cars first” mentality that is commonplace in this city, even in our most vibrant, walkable neighborhoods. Fisher Commons, built for MBA students at the Fisher College of Business, is a perfect example of OSU contributing to an environment that values hunks of metal more than people. Thank you OSU, for promoting smart growth and making the campus safe for those who choose not to be dependent on cars. How do people get jobs for planning the university’s development when the basics of Urban Planning 101 are thrown out the window in favor of mindless urban-sprawl? In this instance, I don’t blame this girl for riding on the sidewalk, as neither Kenny nor Lane is all that safe for cyclists being 50 MPH with wide lanes.

Funny thing is, there’s a park right across the street, but good luck trying to get there by foot or bike. Notice the only light where one could cross has nothing even implying that someone should walk across. No striped crosswalk or walking/no walking signal, hell there’s not even a sidewalk. Run across without getting smeared on the pavement if you can.

Lastly, I distinctly remember a few years ago at night there was a mangled bike and emergency vehicles at the intersection of Lane and Tuttle Park. There were a few ghost bikes placed around the city and this happened to be one of the locations.

It’s so good to see that OSU responded to this tragedy by utilizing their influence over the city to make Lane Ave a safer road for everyone and prevent further unnecessary deaths from occurring by also promoting alternate modes of transportation.

Or not.

GO BUCKS!!!

Edit: I’ll be gathering signatures from 11:00 to 1:00-ish in front of Lord Hall weather permitting and FYI it’s mentioned in the Lantern article, but I didn’t  post about the fact that Brown Hall is also facing demolition, except it’ll be for green space instead of a parking lot.

If you haven’t heard bout it, the Ride of Silence is an annual bike ride to honor those killed, injured, and harassed by drivers. It was sponsored by Consider Biking, a great organization, which is why I’m a member. I took a few pics (right-click for large versions).