I know I'll probably get flamed for this, but based on my having lived here most of my life but traveling enough to know what else is possible= what Columbus really needs IMHO is a pretty serious cultural/attitudinal adjustment.
We can talk about development, neighborhoods, infrastructure, green space, et al, until the cows come home but first and foremost the culture needs to change.
This means, foremost--- if we really want to think of ourselves as a "big city", then stop acting like such a parochial, pathetic college-sports town.
I like football but I never would hope or think that it should be the nucleus of a city's culture.
Please reflect for a moment on all the energy that is wasted here tracking every movement of a bunch of 18-21 year jocks, treating them like these fascinating celebrities when they don't have anything interesting to say. If the focus was just on gameday and the actual games themselves, there's no problem---- but people here from local news down to conversations around the water cooler WAY overinvest in the whole universe of these players and coaches. Let's call Buckeye football what it is here: a CULT.
Did anyone see the 10TV commercials for Buckeye coverage in which Mayor Mikey Coleman was seen effusing "'Because we've got a JOB to do." Really SAAAAD shit....as if Buckeye football is this whole united, citywide effort. Every day is a high school pep rally here in Columbus.
Anyway--- attitude/cultural change---
- It means to embrace the arts not as a hip lifestyle accoutrement and a pretext to be seen, but because you know- intrinsically, that the shit is important.
- It means to stop shrinking into our little respective scenes where we feel comfortable but positively unchallenged, and inevitably get into shit-talking about others because we're obviously not stimulated enough by the little self-imposed corners we make.
- It means to have more of a sense of discovery, and to treat culture and the arts more with an attitude of "what's going on?--- let me find out" rather than always waiting for people to deliver something right to your doorstep. I speak as a promoter and an audience member here having seen how the city responds to new events or events that don't happen on the familiar grounds of High Street= "If it ain't at the place I already go to, I ain't budging" should be the mantra of TOO MANY folks here. Young people here are especially culpable in this regard too....people complain about being bored/uninterested by the city and say they want to experience new and different things but then they don't support these events when they do happen....I've heard this tune being played out in a whole range of programming too--- not just live music, which I am most familiar with.
On this note- besides people being locked into insular scenes, I think there's the issue of people just "tuning out." I don't doubt there are plenty of people who are sincerely interested in having new experiences here and who in theory at least, want to support the arts, but because there is such an in-grained perception that "there ain't shit going on", I think a lot of these same people don't actively look to see what may be going on.
Oh, and if you think I'm just a hater and a naysayer, please spare me the "if you don't like it here, leave" bullshit. I have definitely paid some dues in trying to make the city a little more interesting with some of the programming that I do, and so I think I've earned the right to express my honest point of view. I don't think the city is without hope culturally either, but it clearly has some growing up to do. Bottom line really is that I shouldn't be able to go to Ann Arbor as I did last weekend and feel that a city less than 1/2 the size of Columbus has a lot more going for it culturally.
This city has a lot more money and resources than an Ann Arbor, and there ARE a lot of creative people here, but because of a general lack of imagination and vision about its own possibilities, and a really timid, fickle level of support for the arts, it is far from being a dynamic place.
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