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High St. 1988

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Started 1 year ago by titleistcm
Latest reply from ricospaz

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mrpoppinzs
Arena District
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I don't see mall type chain retailers coming back to downtown. I think if we get retail it will be more local boutique type stores similar to what is found in the Short North and I think those will be found in clusters similar to what has evolved on Gay St.

I think or at least hope we will see a few more Lennox type developments (hopefully less stripmallish though) built closer to downtown in areas such as the Grandview Yard and maybe that very large Timken site.

I really would like something more like an old fashioned Woolworth's within walking distance, but sadly I will probably have to make do with those ubiquitous CVS and Walgreens. I imagine even more of those will be popping up.

Posted 1 year ago #
scorpcmh

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City Center was a bad design for an urban setting. Basically a suburban mall with no windows plopped in the middle of downtown. There was a variety of retail scattered throughout downtown prior to the mall, and it killed all of it off. There was nothing making CC different than suburban malls which are more convenient to those that like to drive near home. I miss the convenience but not the building.

Posted 1 year ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown / Gay Street
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cheap said:
believe it or not,the majority of Columbus residents do not live downtown

Shopping Downtown and Living Downtown are two completely different things.

Posted 1 year ago #
cbus11

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While it would be nice to see retail come back to downtown, I really do not think it will be more than a small niche market of specialty shops.

Posted 1 year ago #
Porky
C-Bus' East Side
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lizless said:
I still love the old south campus more than the new one. It was an entirely different energy back then. Sure, it was seedy but it had an organic college town feel like Ann Arbor still is today, lots of independent shops/record stores and bars. It was rough edged but felt very youthful, creative and fun to me.

I agree, I'm glad I got to attend before the change, it's nice to have that memory.

Posted 1 year ago #
cheap
Westgate
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Walker said:
Shopping Downtown and Living Downtown are two completely different things.

that's why city center is now a park.

heck,city council would knock down the Arena as well if a developer stepped up

10 year tax abated 600 sq ft condos for $149k in a 10 story high rise.

you want density?no problem.

Posted 1 year ago #
lizless
Columbus/Hocking Hills
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Walker said:
City Center didn't close until March 2009. Shopping during lunch hour was a practice that went well beyond 1992 for a lot of people. ;)

The downtown shopping crowd at City Center in 1992 versus 2009 were two very different crowds. In 1992, it was full of popular tenants and it was the place to be. By 2009, most of the tenants had fled and it was just depressing in there.

Posted 1 year ago #
GCrites80s
5xNW
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People who lived in Pickaway County really dug City Center since getting to the other high-end malls was such an odyssey.

Posted 1 year ago #
joev
Merion Village
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lizless said:
The downtown shopping crowd at City Center in 1992 versus 2009 were two very different crowds. In 1992, it was full of popular tenants and it was the place to be. By 2009, most of the tenants had fled and it was just depressing in there.

My favorite store in City Center in 2009 was the failed charter school.

Posted 1 year ago #
lizless
Columbus/Hocking Hills
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joev said:
My favorite store in City Center in 2009 was the failed charter school.

That school looked so depressing...imagine going to school every day in a mall.

Posted 1 year ago #
mrpoppinzs
Arena District
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lizless said:
That school looked so depressing...imagine going to school every day in a mall.

I heard at one point Mayor Coleman considered turning it into a jail.

Posted 1 year ago #
Mister Shifter
Lewis Center
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City Center, loitering capital of Columbus.

Posted 1 year ago #
jbcmh81

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titleistcm said:
Yes there was no stopping them from coming, and our city has grown because of these newer malls. I think that some day in the future, there will be a much larger downtown population, and it would have been nice to see a reborn City Center that was mixed resi/retail, but that is a whole other story :) Although Easton and Polaris are great assets to our city, I am still partial to City Center.

City Center was a decent suburban-style mall, but it absolutely did not belong in Downtown. The street presence alone was terrible.

Posted 1 year ago #
bayrea
Dublin, Oh
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Having an overwhealming sense of thread dejavu..... somebody chime in about streetcars and we will have completed the loop.

Posted 1 year ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown / Gay Street
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lizless said:
The downtown shopping crowd at City Center in 1992 versus 2009 were two very different crowds. In 1992, it was full of popular tenants and it was the place to be. By 2009, most of the tenants had fled and it was just depressing in there.

Oh sure.... different points on the timeline... but I remember going to Express from time to time right up until it closed. And I know a certain someone who used to enjoy Cinnabon lunch breaks right up until the end of the mall. ;)

Posted 1 year ago #
-Nick-

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I was only in the City Center once before it was axed. It was more or less vacant at that time aside from a few businesses. A real shame it went down. I'd love to see another one put downtown, but at the same time I would hate to flood the market with malls and then have it have a negative cumulative effect on all the malls. I don't think it necessarily would to the point of significance, but it's a risk in finding out. I think more urbanization and population density downtown would be needed first(which they are doing).

Posted 1 year ago #
Pickerington_Kyle

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I agree. It was a big white box in the center of town that had no windows, and skywalks. Yuck.

Posted 1 year ago #
ricospaz

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I thought that City Center was fairly magical as a young adult. young bloods getting gunned down on the escalator did nothing for that place either. Suburban parents like mine didn't want their kids getting mixed up with that. Now it's at Easton. Yay!

Posted 1 year ago #
cbus11

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City Center was a rather nice place to go at lunch to look around and then choose from the variety at the food court. To my recollection the downward spiral started around 2002 or 3.

Posted 1 year ago #
sirlancelot

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When I moved to Columbus, Summer 1988, it was hot as hell. I lived at the old youth hostel (demolished some years ago) on East 12th, for a while. There was a homeless girl that slept on a poncho behind the building and next to an alley. I've often wondered what happened to her (I hope she got rescued). High Street is cleaner, and perhaps safer today, but not as fun. I miss Mustards! My impression is that people were all much less serious back then, even we youngsters. I'm glad I am not a young college student today because the future appears to suck.

Posted 1 year ago #