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The Dispatch wrote
Shops ready for 2-way traffic
Monday, November 5, 2007
By Tim Doulin
There will be a grand “reopening” of Gay Street on Wednesday. No fanfare is planned, and the street never was officially closed, but tell that to merchants who have struggled to attract customers during the six months it’s taken to convert Gay from a one-way street.
There will be landscaped medians, trees, plants, bike racks, decorative planters, brick crosswalks and new streetlights and traffic signals. Some of that work won’t be completed until next year.
That should help slow traffic. One-way traffic tends to zip through town, efficiently getting in and out of the central city, but buzzing past shops and restaurants vying for attention. Gay Street merchants, particularly those in the stretch between 3rd and High streets, are just happy to see fewer orange barrels and construction equipment out their front windows.
“All the businesses on this street are very eager to get this cleared up and have a good, functional street again,” said Geoffrey Binkley, owner of Sign-A-Rama.
The Gay Street conversion to two-way is only one of several the city has planned. The conversion of Front Street from Broad to the I-70/71 corridor is scheduled to begin next year, starting with the stretch between Broad and Rich streets.
Related Stories:
- Two-Way Gay Street Almost Finished… Who’s Next?
I’m very interested in the improvements to come for Gay Street and excited about the new, creative ways they’ll be presenting things like bike racks and street lights.
Speaking of Gay street, does anyone know what’s happening on the lot at Third and Gay? (Across from Carlyle’s Watch.) Last week they blocked off half of it and started tearing up the cement, and now the whole thing is blocked off from parked cars. They seem to only be cutting trenches, rather than digging up the whole lot like they did with the townhouse development on 4th and Gay, but it seems like a lot of work if they are just going to pave it over again.
Do let me know.
http://www.columbusunderground.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10522
There’s this whole discussion going around the downtown circles around downtown amenities…and to that end, additional commercial would be great. but there are already 4 coffee shops within a 3 block radius there.
I’m just wondering what other kinds of additional commercial spaces do people feel is needed?
I think Gay Street could benefit from a few unique clothing/apparel boutiques.
Perhaps a venue for live music or performances?
I agree some shops would be nice, but how about our existing quick service restaurants staying open more than lunch hours on the weekends. It seems like every time I take a walk around the neighborhood I find something new that isn’t ever open during hours I could access it.
I think it has a chance to be a draw for restaurantgoers. You’ve got a nice mix with Latitude, Mitchells, Tip Top, Due Amici, El Arepazao, and Brioso. Another one or two restaraunts (Diamond Exchange building?) and you’ve got a destination district. Maybe combine Walker’s live music idea with some good food and drinks.
The Hotel should bring another 100-ish visitors to the neighbohrood instantly. They need to eat.
Yeah, the hotel is 126 rooms, which means at least that many people on any full night (which i could see happening pretty often given the central location) in addition to the employees of the hotel being in the area.
I think our downtown neighborhoods need to stop being so afraid of one another. Hopefully Elizabeth Lessner is breaking some of those barriers having businesses is two of them, but I hear this isolationist mindset come up too often where we’re scared that if the arena district is doing well then the short north must be doing worse. I guess people are afraid that if a district takes off then ours will slip into the past. I have to assume other districts have the same ideas though. Instead, we should be focusing on the growth of downtown in general, and try and work to shift the mindset of our residents to realizing a one mile walk should not keep you from doing anything. Our city is super walkable, and with more filling in, there is even more reason to. If we can get people walking then we can start to figure out how to tie the districts together.
If only there were something to connect them all together… like a Streetcar!
8)
Or, hard to not swear here. LEGS. It’s a mile between. It takes like 10 minutes, and if you don’t like weather you can do almost all of it indoors via the convention center.
Hahaha! You speak the truth Josh. :lol:
thats what i proposed in the design competition they held… although we only had 3 days to design it start to finish. oh well.
Sure, the mile from Gay to Buttles up High isn’t a bad walk.
But from German Village to the South Campus Gateway is a six-and-a-half mile round trip. No one wants to walk that unless they’ve got time to kill and it’s a nice day out.
You can’t measure the effectiveness of a transit line because of the distance between points F and G. If you want to have something that connects the downtown neighborhoods, you’ve got to look at it from A to Z.
Sure, the mile from Gay to Buttles up High isn’t a bad walk.
But from German Village to the South Campus Gateway is a six-and-a-half mile round trip. No one wants to walk that unless they’ve got time to kill and it’s a nice day out.
You can’t measure the effectiveness of a transit line because of the distance between points F and G. If you want to have something that connects the downtown neighborhoods, you’ve got to look at it from A to Z.
Thanks for correcting Tigertree and his isolationist attitude against German Village. 8)
I don’t think the unofficial changes to the streetcar line should help with this much though. The rift between the southern downtown neighborhoods will only grow once the north neighborhoods get hooked together with the streetcar line.
I am speaking more specifically about downtown proper, short north and arena district and, as I still don’t want my business to shut down, I am still anti-street car. Honestly, Walker, it would be like me proposing to shut the internet down for 6-8 months but saying it would be more prosperous for everyone else at the end of it. That may be so, but you still have to restructure your entire life aro und it.
my god…the things I could accomplish…although the lack of porn would be an issue…
I totally understand your perspective, and it’s one I had never thought much about until we had this conversation recently. I don’t think anyone wants to see any businesses shut down during any sort of infrastructure construction.
But some form of rail transit is going to become more and more of a necessity as Columbus continues to grow. And as it stands, the downtown neighborhoods still exist in pockets. If you have a better idea of how to help tie them together, I’m all ears.
I think we’re in for a tough battle if our only solution is “just walk”. :?
Our resistance to walking as a city is the only plausible argument for a rail system being “necessary” right now. You can drive or bike between all of the downtown neighborhoods and park with ease. Again the only argument against being able to park with ease anywhere in Columbus (except maybe game day around campus) is resistance to walking. Being able to walk a mileish is way more important to the urbanization of a city than a rail system. Our traffic congestion is nowhere near that which requires people getting rid of their cars yet.
And yet, you and I disagreeing or disapproving of that resistance doesn’t make it any less of an unfortunate reality. Lemme tell ya, the first 2 months of my “no driving” campaign, everyone I knew…and these are people living in German Village…thought I was insane. I had phone calls asking if I was OK thinking something happened to my car, if I needed rides places, like I was some sort of shut in or lunatic.
People in this city (and really country) love their cars…and hate to walk…as a majority.
Our traffic congestion is nowhere near that which requires people getting rid of their cars yet.
Fact: Columbus is getting bigger.
Fact: Parking will only get more difficult.
Do you suggest that we wait until we have a crisis on our hands to do anything about alternative transportation, or should we be planning for the future?
I don’t think very many people are in any position here to ditch their cars completely, and I don’t think phase one of a rail transit project will make a huge dent in that. Regardless, we need to start preparing for a lifestyle shift. It’s poor planning to not have a plan for small problems that are slowly growing into larger ones.