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Started 3 years ago by jeff_r
Latest reply from WCRS-LPFM

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jeff_r

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Slowly, that mostly derelict strip of retail at Summit and Hudson is starting to come to life. In the last couple of years we've seen the Rhumba Cafe, Wild Goose Creative, and now Capitol City Scooters start to take root (ReTag It seems to be in a perpetual state of promise, though they've yet to actually open).

So I'm curious...

Is there any kind of business association coming together to support these fragile efforts?

Is the University Area Commission taking note and offering assistance?

Will the northwest corner of that intersection always be a shabby used car lot or might the city someday eminent domain it into something useful (like public parking maybe?)

Obviously it's my neighborhood, so I sort of care, and I'm wondering if anything strategic is being done to improve that area or if this is just a lot of individual and unconnected efforts.

(P.S. if any of you "we can make it happen" urbanistas are looking for a project, the old Hudson Theatre is begging for some love!!!)

Posted 3 years ago #
AmyD
Columbus, Ohio
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off topic, but when i had Joe Books next to 8-ball tattoo and up the street from Common Grounds, we called it NoHu. good times.

Posted 3 years ago #
JerrodWagner
Clintonville
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Agreed. I would like to know whats going on with everything in that area.

I lived there for about a year, and loved being able to walk to rumba cafe, its one my favorite bars in columbus and definitely my favorite place to catch live local music.

I kind of liked when the sketchy used car lot was closed, it was typically being used by skateboarders, seemed more reasonable than the car lot in there now.

I noticed the store fronts on Hudson and Indianola that have been closed for the last year have recently been put up for rent.

Lots of improvement happening, hopefully it continues

Posted 3 years ago #
jeff_r

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I hope so too. Hudson Avenue is one of the main gateways to the University Area from I-71. It'd be nice if it had a little more curb appeal.

Posted 3 years ago #
AmyD
Columbus, Ohio
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and the buildings seem quite nice. i do wish someone would do something with that old theater, it looks like it has potential beyond it's use as a toilet.

Posted 3 years ago #
jeff_r

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AmyD wrote >>
and the buildings seem quite nice. i do wish someone would do something with that old theater, it looks like it has potential beyond it's use as a toilet.

It's really sad, but that whole Hudson/Summit/Indianola corridor could be so much more than it is.

I'm not familiar enough with the workings of the City or the University Area Commission to know what can or can't be done, but it'd be nice if someone had a plan.

Posted 3 years ago #
jeff_r

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Of related interest: Does anyone know what's going on with Lucky's Market? That's the building on the southeast corner of Maynard and Summit.

Posted 3 years ago #
LapseCatholic
Campus
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Wait is the theater/church thing where the 81 and 4 stops at before the 4 turns onto Summit? That thing is scary and it's right where people have to stand at to catch the bus. I don't think it's been open in the 10ish years that I have lived around here.

Posted 3 years ago #
CDS sherman
East Franklinton
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LapseCatholic wrote >>
Wait is the theater/church thing where the 81 and 4 stops at before the 4 turns onto Summit? That thing is scary and it's right where people have to stand at to catch the bus. I don't think it's been open in the 10ish years that I have lived around here.

that theater/church hasn't changed in my lifetime.

Posted 3 years ago #
jeff_r

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LapseCatholic wrote >>
Wait is the theater/church thing where the 81 and 4 stops at before the 4 turns onto Summit? That thing is scary and it's right where people have to stand at to catch the bus. I don't think it's been open in the 10ish years that I have lived around here.

That's exactly the spot! And you're right, it's been shuttered for a long time.

My wife did a little history detective work on it a while back. Like many old neighborhood theatres it's run the cycle from movie house to porn house to low-rent storefront church to vacant. All it needs now is renewal!

What's interesting about the area of retail in question (especially in light of all the light-rail talk) is that it all sprouted up in the first place because of the old street car lines. A line used to run along Summit/Hudson/Indianola and then to Arcadia. There was a stop in the area, and retail shops were built nearby to serve people getting on and off the trains. The lack of proper parking in the area makes it obvious that it was never designed with the idea that people would be arriving in cars.

For that matter, close your eyes and travel down Summit. It's a safe bet that anyhwhere you see a cluster of commercial property, there was probably an old streetcar stop too.

Posted 3 years ago #
Columbusite
Minneapolis
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Gotta love downtown SoHud ("so-who"? "so-huh"? So-Hud.)

http://columbus-ite.com/columbus-neighborhood-guide/old-north-columbus/sohud/

I should update and get more daytime shots.

Posted 3 years ago #
jeff_r

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I prefer so-who. It's like SoHo...only who...

Those are nice pics too. If you go back out make sure you get a shot of the theatre. It can be the the "before" shot to someone's grand revitalization project!

...and for a little history, this blurb from the Columbus Metropolitan Library's Columbus News index:

GEORGE B DELLENBACH, 63, OF 1428 E BLAKE ST, OWNER OF NEW HUDSON THEATER, 369 E HUDSON ST, WAS CHARGED WITH EXHIBITING OBSCENE FILMS AFTER A RAID BY COLUMBUS VICE SQUAD (Columbus Dispatch, Tuesday, September 14, 1971 p. 9A)

Posted 3 years ago #
LapseCatholic
Campus
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I used to live on Hudson right across from the school and that was back in 1998/99 and sadly I have to say that mostly everything around the corner has not seemed to change. Yes, as you pointed out the strip on Summit has obviously upgraded but for the most part, that whole corner area looks as dated and ghetto as ever. It's been so long now that I have just given up on if anything will change with it. This caught my eye because I think every time I take the 4 up to Graceland and we go by that church I think "when is someone going to clean this up." I was SHOCKED the day that the car lot disappeared. I almost didn't know what to do.

It does make sense now when I think about the grouping of buildings around there. Especially just riding the 4 down Summit how it's homes and then you come up on a small strip again when you get around Bourbon Street.

Columbusite, awesome blog there, I guess technically I live on east campus, good to know.

Posted 3 years ago #
jeff_r

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Discarded furniture is starting to show up in and around the portico of the theatre. It's like a little living room for the homeless.

Posted 3 years ago #
WCRS-LPFM
Clintonville 102.1/98.3 FM
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It's not a business association, but there is a growing interest and archiving of music and musicians from SoHud encapsulated in WCRS' program The SoHud Sound produced by SoHud resident Jesse Michael Barr. Check it out http://wcrsfm.org/node/148

Posted 3 years ago #