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The Dispatch wrote
Holdouts resist suburban growth
Some longtime residents like change; some resigned to it
Friday, November 23, 2007
BY MARTIN ROZENMAN
Of all Columbus’ suburbs, these six (Canal Winchester, Dublin, Hilliard, New Albany, Pickerington and Powell) have experienced some of the region’s most-dramatic recent growth. Once small rural villages, they have become sprawling bedroom communities: Anysuburb, U.S.A.
Their locations near I-270 along with the presence of Ohio State and other universities, Battelle, Honda and insurance companies make them hot markets.
Identities rooted in combines and corn have been uprooted by subdivisions and strip centers.
Related Stories:
- Columbus suburbs growing outside of I-270
- Ten Things Wrong With Sprawl
Ironic. The people who wanted to move away from city problems are being upset by the people who also wanted to move away from city problems.
I was surprised Grove City wasn’t on the list. The population there was 27,075 in 2000, which was a 38.2% jump in growth just since 1990. That area is really exploding too.
Actually, at least one of the people quoted in the article is a farmer – so they weren’t moving away from city problems so much as already living out in the country because that’s where the farmland is.
It’s obviously not new news, but the issue of sprawl/suburbs overtaking the farmland and turning small rural communities into massive new-build suburbs is the problem the holdouts here are facing.
It looks like when they say “growth” it really means “sprawl”. If it were new urbanist style growth more people would probably be in favor of that instead of permanently destroying farmland for suburban sprawl. Too bad those basic points weren’t mentioned. And what are they sprawling there for? Gated and upper-class developments so that the inner-city teens of Powell don’t mug them?
Umm. If they were in to “Urbanist” style anything wouldn’t they have stayed in the city? Walker, I am sure you can attest that a large part of this is about schools/starting families. I love the conveniences of living in the city but as soon as we have a kid we’ll be joining those numbers too.
I think we should stop focusing on Suburb v. Urban and figure out how to help central Ohio communities better complement each other both Suburb and Urban. That goes for bringing Dublin to the Short North as much as it does bringing Clintonville to the Arena District.
Before you all leave the city when you have kids, take a little time to investigate the city schools. I have a kid in Columbus Public and she’s doing great! She hasn’t had any problems, runs with a great bunch of kids, and gets good grades. She went to Ridgeview MS and attends Columbus Alternative HS now. The city schools vary in quality so research is a must. Yes, some city schools are scary, but some are new or beautifully restored. I live in Clintonville and the city schools here are pretty good. Here’s an interesting link:
http://www.clintonvilleareacommission.org/files/projects/A91B25FD-28A3-4A9D-BC56-E612509F8133/newsi/2006%20report%20card%20111706.pdf
Is a high school education so much better on an 80 acre campus (which is the State’s standard for new schools)? Talk about sprawl!
Not really. “New Urbanism” is the community planning concept that attempts to building walkable, mixed-use communities. They are focused on integrating various levels of housing density with things like town squares, civic buildings, shops, etc…
Think of picking up the Brewery District, the Short North, or even Grandview and moving it out to the Powell. Actually, the Creekside development in Gahanna, or the Bexley Gateway are probably the closest things we’ve got to “New Urbanist” style communities, and I would not consider them “urban”.
Sure, that’s the typical thing to do, but there are a few good options for raising a child in an urban environment here, as Pablo already mentioned.
I think there are a lot of frequently overlooked benefits in raising a child in an area rich with culture and history.
And there are also a lot of frequently overlooked downsides to raising a child in the most sheltered of environments.
I don’t think it’s going to be easy for us to raise our child(ren) and remain downtown, but I’m up for the challenge. I’ve never been much for taking the easy way out.
As I’ve said before, I went to CPS, including a local elementary (Avalon), an alternative elementary (Duxberry Park), an alternative middle (Franklin), and a local high school (Northland).
I had friends who went to CAHS and I can definitely agree that it’s a great school. I know a lot of folks who got there, had a lot of awesome opportunities, and had a great education.
HOWEVER, if you don’t make the CAHS lottery (which I didn’t), you’re going to end up at one of the non-alternative high schools, and it’s a much, MUCH different picture. Sure, I graduated from CPS, and I think I got a pretty good education. But seeing the opportunities presented to students at CAHS, or those presented to students at Worthington and Dublin High Schools, and the different environment in those places, compared to, say, Brookhaven or Independence, or South or East… needless to say schools are by far the #1 reason we live in the burbs. I want my kids to have those same opportunities without gambling their future in an alternative school lottery.
^^I totally respect your position on your choice of schools. I was only suggesting that parents consider CPS rather than dismissing it totally. My kid did go to Whetstone for a year before getting into CAHS. It was OK, but CAHS is so much better and I do feel fortunate that my daughter won the lottery.
Well put. I think a lot of people are willing to dismiss it because of what they read in the newspapers and hear on the fear-mongering local tv news. It’s careless to dismiss the school system as a whole just because a lot of them are bad. There’s a couple diamonds in the rough. :D
Every public statistic bears this out, too. CAHS is truly unique in the CPS system, and unfortunately, it’s just not big enough and doesn’t get the resources it should (particularly based on demand). They ought to be looking for ways to increase CAHS’ capacity to something like triple its current size. Last I heard it was operating on a shoestring budget out of an old middle school building, and still cleaning everyone else’s clocks.
Even if you took advantage of every highest-level course in every subject at Brookhaven or Independence, you’d have real trouble competing with the opportunities enjoyed by middle-upper-echelon students in Dublin or New Albany schools.
I know one thing’s for sure… I’m glad I went to High School in Marysville.
That AP Calculus I took sure is coming in handy these days. :lol:
I would think that Marysville would have a good civics program.
After all, most of the Civics in America are made there. :P