There are a lot of people who are passionate about the City of Columbus. These are the people who sing its praises to strangers, and devote themselves toward causes and careers that help to improve the quality of life in the city. When we ask our readers who the biggest “Columbus Champions” were of 2014, the name that rose to the top of the list was Jim Sweeney, the Executive Director of the Franklinton Development Association.
Sweeney joined the FDA back in 2002, long before the transformation of this long-neglected neighborhood began to take shape. And while 2014 saw the completion of several small new developments in Franklinton (opening of Land Grant Brewing, the Idea Foundry, the Ethical Arts Collective, etc) the stage has been set for many large scale developments to begin to fall into place in upcoming years (NRI building on Broad Street, renovated warehouses on Rich Street, etc). These types of changes are too large to give any one individual person credit, but Jim Sweeney is owed more than his fair share of praise for leading initiatives and connecting business leaders and government leaders together to help make these positive changes in Columbus.
For more information, visit www.franklinton.org.
The Top 10 Columbus Champions of 2014:
- Jim Sweeney
- Nina West
- JM Rayburn
- Mike Brown
- Elizabeth Lessner
- Jeni Britton Bauer
- Chet Ridenour
- Michael Bongiorno
- James Ragland
- Jess Mathews
Flashback: Best Columbus Champion of 2013: Elizabeth Lessner
Note: Our “Best of 2014″ lists are published as the result of our annual reader survey/poll.