Southwest is here to stay, CEO says
Friday, May 9, 2008
BY MARLA MATZER ROSE
Southwest Airlines expects to be a "steady, growing, stable force" at Port Columbus during a troubled time for U.S. air travel, the airline's chief executive said yesterday.
However, Southwest doesn't expect to pick up the slack left at the airport with the abrupt closing of Skybus Airlines last month. Southwest overall is pulling back on growth as the industry rides out the current economic downturn and skyrocketing oil prices, so it's unlikely to add much service here soon.
Gay residents say they're happy but not carefree
Friday, May 9, 2008
BY RITA PRICE
They are mostly healthy, in committed relationships and happy with central Ohio's social scene. But people responding to a first-ever survey of area gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents also report high levels of depression, face threats because of their sexual orientation and often suffer discrimination in the workplace.
The findings show that Columbus, although known as a gay-friendly city, still has some work to do, survey organizers said.
Organizers said they opted for the anonymous, online survey to attract the most participants. It isn't possible to extract demographic snapshots of the entire gay and lesbian community from U.S. Census data because it does not ask about sexual orientation.
For your consideration
By Chris DeVille
May 8, 2008
Consider Biking, an aptly named organization that promotes cycling and walking as viable forms of transportation, is challenging the people of Columbus to try life on two wheels for a week.
The launch of a plan to make biking more safe and accessible, a series of ceremonies and presentations and a biking-inspired art show are among the events scheduled for Columbus' first Bike to Work Week.
But the heart of the weeklong event is the daily commute. Various local businesses are competing to see who can log the most bike trips, and all Columbus residents are encouraged to try riding to work.
If you're a regular bus rider in Franklin County, you might've noticed small improvements instituted on Monday by the Central Ohio Transit Authority.
One of three yearly service upgrades, COTA's May changes included a number of small-scale modifications to scheduling, frequency and service hours resulting from an ongoing analysis of the county's transportation needs, spokesman Dan Liggett said.
"We look at ridership on the different routes and listen to customer concerns and comments," he said, noting that total rides in April increased more than 14 percent over the same month last year. "We also take a look at the changing market conditions out there."
The sultry scents of smoldering woods and meats seductively embrace you the moment your feet touch the parking lot pavement at City Barbeque. And then you see the smiles on all of the lucky people eating that sumptuous 'cue.
This happened to me recently, and the experience massaged out these two thoughts. 1) Isn't it ironic that a place with such a true, down-home country road aesthetic would call itself City? And 2) the slowness of the authentic cooking method City implements is inversely proportional to the speed with which it generates fresh food ideas. As regards No. 2, I want to tell you how much I love a couple of City's newest picnic-perfect treats: smoked ham and pulled chicken in a "Bama" white sauce.
The green pitched roof of the India-Oak Grill hides quietly behind a UDF, a tall fence and a smattering of haphazardly parked cars. It's the kind of place only locals frequent, but newcomers are pleasantly surprised to end up.
The Grill had been a longtime favorite of Clintonville resident Matt Gill, so he and his two brothers jumped at the chance to buy the bar nearly four years ago. "Everyone knows each other [here]. It's friendly and welcoming," he said.
Crafting has moved way beyond the sewing circle. In fact, you might even call it cool.
That makes Amy Dalrymple happy. She learned to sew at the age of eight and opened her own clothing and accessories shop, AmyD, a month ago inside Java Central in Westerville, coinciding exactly with the recycling and buying-local trends.
"It's weird, isn't it?" Dalrymple said, adding that things have changed since she started sewing in the '90s. "I always loved embroidery, and I do embroidery all the time, but I had to hide it because it wasn't cool."
Symphony will shut down for summer with future in doubt
Thursday, May 8, 2008
BY JEFFREY SHEBAN
After 57 years of music making, including a triumphant concert in New York's Carnegie Hall, the Columbus Symphony says it will shut down June 1.
Out of money and having failed to reach a new labor agreement with the musicians, the orchestra's board of trustees said today that it is canceling the summer Picnic With the Pops and Popcorn Pops series and most likely its 2008-09 season, scheduled to begin in October.
Columbus would become one of the nation's largest cities without a full-time professional orchestra.
Ranked as the No. 8 most active blogging community in the nation, an estimated 10 percent of Columbus inhabitants regularly pounded the keyboard in 2007, offering up online commentary themselves or consuming somebody else’s, according to Nielson Media Research.
Walker Evans, the longest-running and best-read Columbus blogger, described his vocation in similarly grandiose terms. “I don’t feel like I’m the only one who is feeling the effects of a city-wide awareness,” he said.
Six and half years earlier, long before online diaries were trendy, Evans began ColumbusUnderground.com as a mere side project. Nowadays, the community message board hauls in about 200,000 visitors a month. His personal companion blog, an offshoot of CU called the Walker Evans Effect, draws in a couple hundred visitors a day. Web traffic is high enough that, unlike other local bloggers, Evans is able to run Columbus Underground as a for-profit business.
Short North venture foiled by fickle food, sky-high wines
Thursday, May 8, 2008
BY BY JON CHRISTENSEN
The Short North space that contains Bluefish, Seafood on the Cap (formerly occupied by Liu Pon-Xi) has undergone minimal remodeling for its latest incarnation under owner Paul Liu.
The menu combines Asian and Western foods, sometimes as fusion cuisine on the same plate. Much of the pricing is a la carte in the fashion of expensive steakhouses.
Thus, rice is extra ($3.50). At that price, the brown rice should taste like a reasonably recent vintage. Apparently cooked too far ahead, however, it is dry and tired.
Bluefish induces headaches with the volume of its bass-heavy music -- designed not for listening but for stirring up "excitement" in restaurants. Take your leisure suit -- or aspirin.
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