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Now that the restoration of Gay Street into a two-way street is almost finished, I think it’s time to figure out where the next conversion should be. I know the city has plans to restore quite a few of the downtown one-way thoroughfares back into pedestrian-friendly, landscaped boulevards that will invite people to do more than just drive downtown, but which one should be next on the agenda?
My vote is for Main Street.
If you’re unfamiliar, Main Street serves as a four-to-five-lane expressway headed east from the riverfront to Grant Avenue where it shifts into a two-way street. Of all the streets downtown, why would I pick this one?
- The Main Street Bridge (Dispatch Article with Rendering | Live Update Cameras) is currently under construction and is expected to be opened in 2009. What better way to accompany our new one-of-a-kind landmark bridge than with a newly revamped Main Street? And the 2009 completion date means that we still have plenty to get Main Street updated.
- There are thriving local businesses located on Main Street that could use the extra attention. Several of the entrepreneurs there have banded together to create The Red Brick District on Main. A little bit of streetscaping could do a lot to help them out. Even though the City Center has sunk, Main Street still manages to thrive with clothing boutiques, jewelry stores, a 160-year-old hardware store, art galleries, restaurants, and the new addition of multiple condo developments.
- Proximity to a NEW City Center. Main Street runs along the southern end of the City Center Parking Garage. Whatever winds up being done with the City Center is going to need to be something important and sustainable to thrive downtown. And all of the streets and sidewalks around it could stand a bit of an upgrade.
- Proximity to the new courthouse building. Main Street runs along the northern end of the new courthouse building that will be completed in 2010. New street level features will be included in the development of this building, and Main Street deserves the two-way makeover treatment to go along with it.
- To connect neighborhoods. Main Street runs from Franklinton, through the RiverSouth area, over to Franklin University, the southern end of the Discovery District, the Market Exchange District, and adjacent to TownFranklin. For such an important connector street to only serve as an east-bound route does little to glue those neighborhoods together.
So there you have it. Main Street has my vote. What street could be a better choice than that?
Related Stories:
- Gay Street Project aims to be Complete in November
I’d repeat my Sen. Ted Stevens reference here, but I’ve already gone to that well … :wink: :P :lol:
My vote is for 3rd and 4th Sts. It would help to revitalize the neighborhood (specifically Weiland Park), slow down traffic, and create bike Boulevards.
Earlier this week I had a brief chat with an OSU CR&P professor. She was critical of the Gay St project. She suggested that such a project should take place in area that is need (social need I suppose) of revitalization. She argued that Gay St would have become more prosperous despite the conversion.
As a resident on Gay St I am excited about the change. I am mostly excited that it is about finished! (I have had enough of waking up to jackhammers in the morning)
Earlier this week I had a brief chat with an OSU CR&P professor. She was critical of the Gay St project. She suggested that such a project should take place in area that is need (social need I suppose) of revitalization. She argued that Gay St would have become more prosperous despite the conversion.
As a resident on Gay St I am excited about the change. I am mostly excited that it is about finished! (I have had enough of waking up to jackhammers in the morning)
Weinland Park needs more than a two-way street, which would improve things. When OSU was starting classes there were a couple of students cleaning up trash that the un-kempt residents were too lazy to pick up in their front yard. When you’re facing a culture where they just don’t care, how do you make them care? I say kick out those people with gentrification and keep a number of those who are of lower-income that do care about the area.
Bike boulevards sound much better than bike lanes.
I’d have to disagree with the professor, I mean Gay is really the only intact urban strip we have in all of downtown. The sooner that is up and going at it’s full potential the better for surrounding streets. Broad could definitely use it especially on the east side in KL and OTE.
It’s our recollection they turned Main into a 1-way to accommodate City Center mall’s preference (specifically the garage) as we believe it was a 1-way by the time the mall opened.
We’d be all for our street being turned back into a 2-way! Personally I think it’s great they’ve done that to Gay already. That would really help our area immensely be more pedestrian friendly and it makes a lot of sense as only a short section of Main is one way anyway.
The only concern we have (and it’s a big one for us) is that Main maintains on street parking on both sides of the street unlike Gay. There are businesses on both sides of the street that rely on having meters out in front of their stores. If that means there will be no median as gay street is getting than so be it. The traffic flow/speed is more important than the cosmetics (although they are very helpful too). Shouldn’t be too much of a problem as Main had parking on both sides last time it was a two way.
Unfortunately I have hard visualizing 3rd and 4th as two ways in downtown anytime soon. The Conversion costs for those two streets could be enormous when you factor in the necessary changes to the ramps onto/ off of 670 and 70 . Up in the Weinland park it could be possible (with Summit and 4th) I suppose but not in the core, not right now anyway.
4th and 3rd/Summit made two-way would be just ONE way to improve the neighborhood.
AND MVRDV as a tube project.
I’m hung up on the name- should it be called Gay St. now that it goes both ways?
*snort*
I saw a truck hung up on the median the other day. The truck broke it… I don’t think the city planners considered that semi’s might have to turn down the street.
I guess Front Street is next according to the last paragraph of this article.
The Tip Top is having a Gay St. goes Bi party tomorrow. I think for happy hour.
Sidenote: I overhead the fire marshal telling someone that Gay Street is not big enough to accommodate firetrucks. Umm, nice planning people!!!!
Huh? Are firetrucks wider than a single lane of traffic?
Huh? Are firetrucks wider than a single lane of traffic?
I think it has to do with the median strip and the proximity of the parking to that… not good.
Makes me think of when that one tried to turn onto high off of Weber and rolled into that bar ;/ those guys go through enough without just random craziness… hope they figure out someway of maintaining service…
This is almost impossible to belive (although not entirely impossible). There has to be a city code somewhere that requires all lanes to be of a minimum width.
I was worried about crossing with two way traffic but it was not an issue! There was a police officer out in front of our building all day—I guess making sure people did not get confused?
Is there really a celebration at Tip Top today?
Why would it be an issue? There are plenty of other streets that are two-way.
Yes. The info is here: http://www.columbusunderground.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10493
Because we have grown accustomed to J-walking really or crossing at the alley and only looking one way—lazy I guess.
2 years and still waiting for that 2-way Main St, among others. Councilman Craig said road projects get prioritized based on demand, so here’s his email.
cmcraig@columbus.gov
Columbusite Says: 2 years and still waiting for that 2-way Main St, among others. Councilman Craig said road projects get prioritized based on demand, so here’s his email.
I think “demand” might mean “development demand” more than it does “public demand”. While I’d love nothing more than to see every Downtown street turned 2-way overnight, I think there needs to be some ongoing private development to justify the expense. The city is responsible for roadwork throughout the 212 square mile city, so it’s not like road projects in every other neighborhood can be put on the backburner just because you think that Downtown needs 100% of the resurfacing money for a few years in a row.
That being said, we have seen stretches of Front, Civic Center, and Town converted from one-way to two-way in the past two years, so it’s not like there’s been zero progress on this front, as you seem to be otherwise indicating.