RSS
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
The beginning of summer is always exciting, but this year we have the added joy of seeing many of our Downtown investments bear fruit.
Columbus Commons is now open to the public and is now home to many musical, cultural and family activities. The Scioto Mile as well as an improved Bicentennial Park will open July 7, attracting new visitors and activities to our Downtown riverfront.
These new additions to our Downtown will complement what has already become a vibrant neighborhood with new residential opportunities, shopping and dining options.
This is important because Downtown is the economic engine of the city and the entire region, home to about 20 percent of the Columbus jobs, generating $100 million yearly in income taxes.
None of this would have been possible without the support and enthusiasm from our residents, including the writers and readers of Columbus Underground who are passionate about our city and its core.
However, as Downtown’s momentum continues, we must continue our attention to other Columbus neighborhoods. Columbus’ strength has always flowed from all our residential areas, and we must continue to invest in them.
That’s why we’re transforming Weinland Park, replacing the abandoned Columbus Coated Plant with 500 new houses, the first 31 of which will be constructed this summer.
That’s why we’re transforming the neighborhood around University Hospital East, partnering with the Ohio State University and the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority to spend millions over the next decade to improve the quality of life for those residents.
That’s why we’re transforming the South Side, building a new health center where the original Schottenstein Department Store once stood and investing in 40 new housing opportunities on Innis Avenue, which is now littered with vacant and abandoned houses.
And it’s why we’re transforming American Addition, partnering with Columbus Housing Partnership to build 150 new homes and build new streets, alleys, waterlines, curbs, gutters, sidewalks and streetlights—all to a green, sustainable standard.
One of our most exciting neighborhood revitalization efforts is taking place just across the river from our Downtown, in our first neighborhood, Franklinton.
Improved access to Franklinton because of the new Main Street Bridge and the new Rich Street Bridge opens this area to new investment, new opportunities and new possibilities.
And we will explore these possibilities through a new partnership with the Franklinton Development Association, the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority and the Urban Smart Growth Company that will develop the foundation of an affordable live-work community tailored to the creative sector.
In doing so, we will market, incentivize and build an affordable neighborhood tailored for live-work housing, for artists, designers, performers, media, architects, engineers, techies, marketers and those in the advertising industry.
Just last month, we gathered for the demolition of the blighted, decayed, B&T Metals factory to make way for a plan that will market the area for creative business, retail and entertainment uses.
The Brookings Institute says that Columbus is one of the few cities in the country where recent college graduates have chosen to live as young professionals rather than move somewhere else. That’s good news since 115,000 college students in 26 colleges and universities live in Central Ohio.
This new creative live-work district will serve that market, creating a healthy, sustainable community connected to Downtown housing.
We hope Columbus Underground and its vast readership will support and even get involved in these and other neighborhood projects as we enjoy this summer and the rest of 2011.
The emphasis on redevelopment is much appreciated. Abandoning neighborhoods for decay in favor of suburbs farther and farther away just creates a mess and more traffic. We’re loving living downtown where we can walk and cycle to restaurants, parks, etc.
The city has taken steps in the right direction in terms of cycling and community gardening, based on what I know.
Cycling on the roads in Columbus is significantly better than it was 9 or 10 years ago as far as I can tell. At least that’s my perception.
Great pep talk Mayor Coleman! The City has done well to develop and foster the momentum towards rebuilding the central city (downtown and its surrounding neighborhoods alike)–an energy that has been steadily building now for over a decade.
Thanks also for the much anticipated city-wide curb side recycling.
A very exciting time for Downtown and surrounding neighborhoods! Downtown is now dramatically better than 10 years ago IMO, and I am personally seeing more and more folks exploring Downtown on evenings and weekends. Keep the momentum going!
Mayor Coleman,
one community gardener has told me the city has not followed thru with its pledge to give more than $60,000 to various community gardens in Columbus.
Instead–according to this person–the city has mostly given soil from Scotts in lieu of much of the money you announced at the Earth Day event.
Several community gardeners have also told me that other Ohio cities such as Cincinnati and Cleveland invest much more money into community gardening than Columbus.
Could you please comment on these two points ?
TomOver, yikes. I am new to Columbus but I’m way too afraid to bike on these “bike lanes” (painting bicycles on car lanes does not a bike lane make!) so I’d hate to see what it was like 9 or 10 years ago! I would LOVE to see real bike lanes in Columbus. I don’t have a car and I would actually be able to bike & make my life a lot easier!
But otherwise, lots of exciting things happening! I look forward to seeing this city’s growth (not outward!) in the next decade.
I rode my bike through the Scioto Mile today. It is definitely an improvement and ecstatically pleasing over what it was, however, I am confused as to where the new shopping and dining venues are going to be located. I saw the new Bicentennial Park restaurant, but I did not see any other options or even vacant real estate to be developed into shops/restaurants/etc along the mile. Am I missing something? I am not trying to be a naysayer as I love Columbus and all the improvements (huge fan of Columbus Commons), but I am confused on to how this is going to attract people in the evenings and on weekends.
It seems as though the when they project was envisioned, City Center Mall still existed and Columbus Commons wasn’t even an idea for the area. However, the creation of the Commons seems to have stolen the thunder and purpose of the “mile” as development is being geared to the area on High St near Commons opposed to the “mile”.
While much of The Mile is bordered by the river and government buildings, there are opportunities for development adjacent to Bicentennial Park itself. Columbia Gas is vacating their building in 2014 which provides an opportunity for a new tenant to give the ground floor a more retail-centric makeover. There’s also the office building facing Civic Center between Rich and Cherry that has retail spaces (one used to be a bar and then a coffee shop, but not sure if it’s still in business or not). And the Dispatch reported today that Casto is re-evaluating their building at the NE corner of Main and Front (just a block from The Mile) for renovation into lofts, which could include ground-floor retail. Not to mention at least a dozen parking lots that could be developed.
Further, I don’t think Scioto Mile and Columbus Commons necessarily have to compete with each other. I do think it’s a lot of new green space for a relatively small residential population, but they both can certainly leverage new private development if the right pieces fall into place. The Wall Street proposal is located in between both of these new parks, so I imagine potential retailers are looking at how they could benefit from both.
@Ameya: Wow, your reservations about cycling the streets of C-bus surprise me. What part of town do u live in ? I ask because I cycle thru out parts of Upper Arlington, Grandview, the Short North, The East Side, Franklinton, Bexley, Clintonville, the Campus area…etc w/o getting the sense I’m risking my life (famous last words perhaps) Am I recklessly oblivious ?
I live downtown, and unfortunately without dedicated bike lanes, all of us bikers are putting our lives on the line to be more environmental.
@TomOver I’m sure you’re not reckless.. but are you a parent? And it sounds like you’re a pretty avid biker. I am, and I am not, respectively.
I live at the Northernmost part of OSU campus. Which, btw, makes me totally crazy with annoyance that OSU, which is crawling with bikes, doesn’t have bike lanes either. Bikers are either dodging cars, or dodging people, and it just annoys everyone! It’s also why I don’t bike to class even though I hate the CABS buses (why is another story).
The fact that fewer women bike as a means of transportation has been written about quite a bit lately. I tend to agree that the main reasons are that the majority of women are less risk adverse (I sure as heck am not going to pretend like I’m a car and drive in a car lane! I almost have an anxiety attack just thinking about it), and that women more often have their kids in tow. I have a toddler. If, say, olentangy river road/lane/High St had bike lanes, I would be taking him to Columbus Commons & Scioto Mile at *least* once a week instead of sitting here, stranded on campus and dying of boredom. That is just absolutely not an option to take a baby into traffic. Maybe it’d be okay for pro bikers, but I’m certainly not one of them. I’m just someone who doesn’t have a car and doesn’t like driving and who doesn’t want to double my transport time with a bus, but would still like to go places!
@ alove : how long have u been cycling ? Our contrast in views about this is interesting. All due respect, IMO bike lanes can help, no doubt abt it. But, for me, it doesn’t seem doesn’t to drive a car or truck as my main means of transport, just becuase there aren’t more bike lanes. But that’s judgment you make for yourself of course.—-@Ameya: I’m not a parent. What u say about transporting your toddler makes sense. Likewise, I use a furnace when it’s cold as opposed to freezing. Transportation is just one of many aspects of how we relate to the natural environment. If you feel you must drive, perhaps figuring out ways to put driving to the best possible use would make sense—-As for cycling in the lane for cars and trucks, I’ve found it’s safer to ride in the middle of the lane. Take the entire lane if your not comfortable sharing it. The signs on High say “Share the Road” not “share the lane.”
Ameya,
If you are a student at OSU you may benefit from the work Yay Bikes! will start doing over the remainder of the summer and into the fall quarter.
And not directed at you but in general:
I still fail to see the appeal of bike lanes. Come ride downhill on Broad with 40 MPH traffic 3 inches off your handlebar and then take the lane on High w/ traffic 3 feet off your handlebar. I saw a car make a right turn into the bike lane off a side road last week, rather than wait for an available opening in traffic. The car then proceeded to drive in the bike lane a good 200-300 feet before being able to merge over. Would you feel safer in the bike lane in that situation?
We should embrace the geography and infrastructure in place to promote cycling. With a quick glance at a map, you can find a pretty good, low traffic route through most of Central Columbus.
I’m not a pro-cyclist and I used to feel the same way about riding in traffic. I still do, at times. But I have had a much better experience riding safely, predictably and legally in the proper lane, taking it as necessary and controlling my environment than I ever did on the sidewalk.
@TomOver You must drive to get anywhere here within any reasonable amount of time, but I am poor and I certainly can’t afford a car. On top of that, like many other people, I have other conditions which mean I should drive as little as possible even if I did have a vehicle. Everything is too sprawly to walk, the buses are very slow and inconvenient, we just really need to be actively encouraging/allowing more people to ride without drivers or pedestrians or the bikers themselves being mightily inconvenienced or in danger. It’s not impossible, if we didn’t have an addiction to new highway interchanges and widening roads so they can become more congested and make the place uglier, we would have the money to make this city a truly multimodal transportation area.
@lifeontwowheels Hm interesting. Seems like a lot of money for ODOT to pretend like they give a crap about non-cars so that they don’t have to actually do anything. =\ 150k for “Promoting awareness”? Awareness is useful, and I support making life easier for those who are already biking, but I’m not impressed by anything except getting more people biking safely. I sure wouldn’t b any more likely to get on the road with my kid strapped on only after “education”. We see something similar with car traffic. People know how to drive, but if a street or intersection is poorly designed, there will continue to be a lot of accidents until they go in there and physically change the roads and slow down traffic or do certain things to make drivers pay more attention in certain areas. What I want is the physical change that makes cycling as transportation safe for everyone.
Where is the bike lane on High?
Cars will always ride in bike lanes if there aren’t any cops giving them tickets for it. I just read an article the other day about how the places with the fewest bike accidents are also the places with the most bike riders. If drivers aren’t really used to seeing anyone smaller than a car on their roads, there will be more accidents. When cars are more careful and are used to dealing with bike lanes and bikers and all, accident rates plummet. Interestingly, these places with the highest biking levels (and also the better bike infrastructure) ALSO have fewer car and pedestrian accidents too. Everyone benefits from good transport policy.
I’ll also throw out that I read recently that putting in bike lanes creates more jobs than road work which is only putting in car lanes. So, good for the economy, too! :)
Sorry I can’t find a more detailed article. We’ll have more info available over the coming months but the intent is most definitely to get more people riding safely.
There is no lane on High, that was my point. Learning to ride in traffic in a 12 foot wide lane, being predictable, in the field of vision for a driver is going to be far safer than riding in a 3-4 foot wide lane at the edge of the road. And since most projects (come look at the lanes on W. Broad) are short in nature and built over time, you will have to merge into traffic at some point to continue your trip.
But then I have never been an advocate of bikes on the main roads. Columbus has plenty of available side roads that are low traffic and perfectly safe for just about every cyclists. Develop and identify those routes, calm those streets where applicably then deal with the main roads.
Like I said my experience is going from riding as a kid and in college, hugging the edge or riding on sidewalks on busy roads to eventually taking the classes and learning how to ride with traffic. It takes some time but it works. I have never once felt my life is in danger when I’ve ridden like a vehicle. It’s when I have hopped on the sidewalk or other crazy things that the ride gets interesting.
“Learning to ride in traffic in a 12 foot wide lane, being predictable, in the field of vision for a driver is going to be far safer than riding in a 3-4 foot wide lane at the edge of the road. ”
Not for most people. It is proven consistently that it is more dangerous to bike in the street without bike lanes. From http://www2.cambridgema.gov/cdd/et/bike/bike_safety.html
1996, over 2000 League of American Bicyclist members were surveyed about the crashes (accidents) they were involved in over the course of the previous year. From the information, a relative danger index was calculated which shows that streets with bike lanes were the safest places to ride, having a significantly lower crash rate then either major or minor streets without any bicycle facilities; moreover, they are safer than trails and sidewalks as well.6
The addition of bicycle lanes in Davis, California reduced crashes by 31 percent.7
Bicycle lanes on a major avenue in Eugene, Oregon resulted in an increase in bicycle use and a substantial reduction in the bicycle crash rate. The crash rate per 100,000 bike miles fell by almost half and the motor vehicle crash rate also fell significantly.8
When the city of Corvallis, OR installed 13 miles of bicycle lanes in one year, the number of bicycle crashes fell from 40 in the year prior to the installation to just 16 in the year afterwards, and of the 5 crashes that occurred on streets with bike lanes, all involved bicyclists riding at night with no lights.9
In Chicago, Illinois, crash severity was reduced in one study of marking bike lanes in a narrow cross section where 5 foot bike lanes were marked next to 7 foot parking lanes.10
In Denmark, bicycle lanes reduced the number of bicycle crashes by 35 percent.11Some of the bike lanes reached risk reductions of 70 to 80 percent.12
About the only thing I can say in response is load your bike on COTA and come out here to W. Broad and try the lane out. Experience is a great teacher.
Studies can show anything but based on my experience, riding in Columbus, I will never trust my life to a bike lane vs. riding in a 12 foot travel lane where I can rely on my experience and knowledge.
@Ameya: do what works best for you. Again, cycling is only one way to have transport based on a better ecology. As for COTA being slow, I make use of that time to read, write, relax get more in touch w/ the general public …etc. And –again–transportation is one of many aspects in terms our relationship w/ the natural environment, each other, and other living beings. If you don’t cycle much, you can help out in other ways.