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We just released the first edition of CRP (Community Research Partners) Data Bytes. Once every two months, we will take a snapshot of a topic pertinent to what is going on in our region and state. Data Byte topics will cover a wide range of social, economic, and community issues. For this inaugural edition of Data Bytes we ask:
- Are young professionals and empty nesters really moving into downtown Columbus?
- How wealthy and educated are downtowners?
- Where do people live within downtown?
- Has there been a downtown housing bubble?
- How are foreclosures affecting downtown?
- Does downtown have the amenities to support a resident population?
Click here to learn more about the demographic, housing market, and other characteristics of downtown Columbus.
And once you’re done reading, vote on the topic of the next Data Byte by clicking here.
This is a really cool idea Jung! Any chance that CRP might set something like this up in an RSS format so that I can just subscribe to receive it? That would be excellent!
I have to say, that was an interesting read.
Love that the report touched on downtown amenities.
Downtown amenities. Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?
Downtown amenities. Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?
You’d be surprised.
I would love to live downtown, just don’t think there is anything there on my student budget.
Downtown amenities. Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?
You’d be surprised.
I would love to live downtown, just don’t think there is anything there on my student budget.
No, you would be surprised.
I lived in the ’215 for the past 2 1/2 years.
Tried googling some of the apartments listed, but no websites. You can refer back to my earlier post about cheap apartments. The best bet right now is at Town and Parsons. If I could stay under $350 it would be great.
Don’t forget about the farmers markets downtown. Not quite a grocery store but pretty close for the basics-milk, cheese, meat and veggies-for the better part of the year.
ETA
(I worked in downtown Columbus for the better part of 3 years, until this past September. Depending on how strictly you define amenities and how high one’s expectations are; downtown offers quite a bit. My parents in the ‘burbs have to go 5-6 miles for groceries and many of the amenities we take for granted with a short walk down the block or a mile up the road. Downtown can only get better.)
I meant about the amenities, not the rent.
Where the hell do your parents live in the suburbs that they are 6 miles from the nearest grocery store? My relatives live in the country and they don’t even travel that far.
We can also try and redefine what the definition of the word “is” is, but neither one will be relevant to the lack of real amenities downtown.
This I completely agree with! :D
Where the hell do your parents live in the suburbs that they are 6 miles from the nearest grocery store? My relatives live in the country and they don’t even travel that far.
We can also try and redefine what the definition of the word “is” is, but neither one will be relevant to the lack of real amenities downtown.
This I completely agree with! :D
They live by Pickerington Central, close to 33. 6 miles to Gender and about the same to 256. A Meijer just opened, it’s like 2-3. There are quite a few places like this.
That explains it.
They still live significantly closer to a Meijer than I did when I was downtown.
That explains it.
They still live significantly closer to a Meijer than I did when I was downtown.
They wonder why I don’t want to move back with them for a year or two to save money.
Thanks to the report, I have a few places to check out. I’ll have to hop on the bike on one of my days off to get some info.
That explains it.
They still live significantly closer to a Meijer than I did when I was downtown.
They wonder why I don’t want to move back with them for a year or two to save money.
Thanks to the report, I have a few places to check out. I’ll have to hop on the bike on one of my days off to get some info.
Yeah, that’s the boonies, man. I don’t blame ya.
Good luck on finding a place down there. There are definitely some (reasonably) affordable places. I was surprised to see that almost 3/4 of the people living downtown don’t even have their bachelor’s degree.
Paul, just FYI, they stopped at 670 so even though you’re in 43215 you wouldn’t have been counted. Once I saw that I understood, considering that I bet there’s a good chunk of people living downtown still in college. The fact that more than 50% of the population has at least some college is a good stat.
It sounds like you’re using misusing “amenities” as a synonym for “grocery store”. Of course it’s one of the most commonly mentioned missing items, but I have to agree with Lo2W that there’s more to “amenities” than just that. It doesn’t seem like the survey addresses cultural amenities like the theaters, museum, library, or seasonal events that take place downtown. The survey seems to only address commercial amenities and park space. I’d love to see a grocery store downtown too, and imagine we’ll see one open for business within the next 5 years, but it’s not the one and only thing that is needed to improve the quality of life for downtown residents.
I thought it was a bit peculiar that the study stopped at Nationwide going north, but extends over into the KLD, OTE, and a bit of the southside. Is there any reason for that, Jung?
I also found it interesting that nearly 75% of the downtown housing units are rentals. It seems a common complaint about the new condo developments is that few new projects are rental units. I’ve never seen this data before, but it sounds like there’s already plenty of options as far as that goes.
Overall a very interesting study that give a lot of good raw data about the changes we’ve seen in the past decade downtown.
As for the next study, I like all of the suggestions… going to have a tough time picking one of them. ;)
I thought it was a bit peculiar that the study stopped at Nationwide going north, but extends over into the KLD, OTE, and a bit of the southside. Is there any reason for that, Jung?
The study says on page 1
“For ESRI demographic and housing data, we use six
Census block groups, the smallest level of geography
for which the data is available. These block groups
capture a small portion of King‐Lincoln and Olde Town
East while excluding residential development west of
Neil Avenue, such as the North Bank Park condos.”
I’m guessing this was done by CRP for expediency and accuracy.You’ll have to ask the census why they grouped the blocks the way they did from the looks of it.
Pretty cool study, more or less reconfirmed what I long suspected and have been noticing about downtown housing. Always nice to see hard data. Thanks for sharing Jungaroo :D
It sounds like you’re using misusing “amenities” as a synonym for “grocery store”.
It sounds like you’re putting words in my mouth and creating a straw man to further your own pro-urban agenda at the cost of critical assessment.
Would be nice to have a Target, a Wendy’s, a Verizon store, a gas station, an all-night restaurant, a Best Buy, a book store, reliable/convenient mass transit, bike lanes, clothing retailers, yes a grocery store, more than a handful of restaurants open for dinner, central urban parks, a convenience store (how can a city not have a single convenience store downtown?), anything other than cafes, bars, and doctor’s offices.
I can’t count the number of times I had to travel to, at best Grandview, and at worst the suburbs (ugh!) just to get a simple item like a cell phone charger, lamp, jacket, MP3 player, DVD, travel book, or sometimes even food.
Downtown Columbus is not sustainable as it is currently, and it lacks many of even the most basic amenities that even such metropolis-like cities as Heath, Circleville, and Sunbury have.
I think when most people are talking about wanting to rent a unit downtown they’re not considering a large part of what this map shows. Look at the distribution of Blue vs. Red housing units and it wil make sense to you why it is still a common complaint.
We used to have some as late the 1990′s to my recollection, but the ones I remember closed up due to lack of customers. So I guess that’s how.
I believe there still is one on North High near Gay called the
“American Food and Drink Center”. I’ve never been in there myself.
[url]http://www.yelp.com/biz/american-food-and-drink-center-columbus[/url]
If you count the gas stations and CVS I guess we still have some more. I guess it just depends on what you call a convenience store I guess.
Good idea, Andrew. We’ll work on it.
We thought about the cultural amenities and other things. In the end, we focused on the most basic of amenities from a resident perspective. There are so many ways this little project could’ve gone (we were initially thinking 2 pages, then 4, now 7) and we had to draw the line somewhere. If someone gave us resources to do more, then we can really go all out, a la Philly: http://www.centercityphila.org/docs/SOCC-2008-LR.pdf
ZHC hit the nail on the head. We wanted to use a boundary that was as close as possible to the Census block groups. Nationwide was a nice big street to use. The block groups to the north would have added significant portions of the Short North and Victorian Village. On the east and south side, our own boundary stops at the highway, but the block groups extend over slightly.
Did you even try looking Paul?
I know the Bexley Kroger is less than 3-4 miles from downtown, there are 2 grocery stores between German Village and the Brewery District. Giant Eagle on Neil and another Kroger in Weinland Park. Not to mention the farmers market at Pearl Alley and the other in Nationwide and the North Market.
Phone Charger? I believe there is now a Verizon in the SN, a T-Mobile, AT&T and Revol in the SN/WP/Campus areas.
Isn’t there a gas station nestled just behind the court house and another on the other side of the Greyhound? Not to mention the one right across from the Giant Eagle in Victorian Village.
I’ll grant some of the service hour issues, but you have places like Tip Top and Warehouse Cafe which are trying to stay open past typical CBD hours.
I think when you leave aside the basics (like groceries), you’re going to have to go a little out of your way regardless of location for speciality items like MP3 players and DVD’s.
Transit? I’ll grant that a bit too. Some of the lines are still a bit sketchy with service. That said, COTA has done a great job at making sure the lines that see the highest ridership are consistent.
I guess we are pretty far behind Heath, though. What with our three museums, 4-5 universities, Nationwide World Headquarters. Yup, first thing tomorrow I’m packing up for the sustainable living of Heath, OH.
I guess I didn’t realize that you considered your snarky jokes to be any sort of “critical assessment”. I’ve always though you were just playing Devil’s Advocate rather than trying to be someone bringing any amount fair and balanced viewpoints to the table.
I’ve written hundreds, if not thousands of posts detailing my opinions on what downtown is missing, where services and businesses could be improved, and what I think the city could be doing a better job of. Of course I am a cheerleader for the positives and would like nothing more than to see our entire region grow, but attempting to distill my stances down into something Columbusitesque is simply inaccurate.
But, I digress. Shame on me for playing your game.
We used to have some as late the 1990′s to my recollection, but the ones I remember closed up due to lack of customers. So I guess that’s how.
I believe there still is one on North High near Gay called the
“American Food and Drink Center”. I’ve never been in there myself.
[url]http://www.yelp.com/biz/american-food-and-drink-center-columbus[/url]
If you count the gas stations and CVS I guess we still have some more. I guess it just depends on what you call a convenience store I guess.
I suppose Jung can fill us in on that criteria, but that was something else that caught my eye. It almost seems as if some of that data was gathered from WalkScore? Not that a CVS with limited hours has the same functionality as a UDF open late, but it’s got to count for more than “zero”.
Makes sense. And I do think there is more weight behind daily/weekly amenities (Grocery Stores, Conveniences Stores, Parks, Bars, Restaurants) than most of the cultural amenities I previously mentioned that are more likely to draw residents in monthly/quarterly/yearly or even less.