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Could the Hilltop be hip? Yes, and that’s the image it needs to project to spur an economic turnaround, says Cleve Ricksecker, a veteran of urban revitalization efforts in Columbus.
Ricksecker will share his thoughts on the Hilltop’s potential in a talk Wednesday, May 6 at 7 p.m. at the J. Ashburn Jr. Youth Center, 85 Clarendon Ave. The free event is presented by the Hilltop Business Association and the Westgate Neighbors Association.
“If you’re 30 or 35 and a creative person, you want to move to a place that’s hip or will be hip soon,” said Ricksecker, executive director of downtown’s Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District. “The Hilltop needs to signal there’s a new wave.”
That’s what the Short North did 30 years ago when it started Gallery Hop, an event that today draws thousands of people each month. Back then, Ricksecker had just moved to a run-down Victorian Village.
The Hilltop will redevelop faster than Victorian Village and the Short North, says Ricksecker, who led the Short North Business Association for several years. “When the Short North was developing, people didn’t ‘get’ urban living,” he said. “Today, people understand urban living.”
Young adults are looking for a neighborhood, Ricksecker said. They don’t want to live in Powell and they can’t afford Victorian Village or Clintonville. That makes the Hilltop a strong market for first-time homebuyers.
“No one yet thinks of the Hilltop or Westgate as being at all hip, yet it’s the hottest neighborhood in Columbus right now,” he said. “What happens in Westgate will spread and stimulate the neighborhoods east of Hague. Commuting patterns will help this process.”
Cleve’s advice to the Hilltop and Westgate: Use the Internet to signal a new image. Also, appeal to artists to create live-work space and entrepreneurs to create a coffee shop or “a good, funky gathering place.”
“Pay attention to your best demographic – young people in their 20s and 30s,” he said. “That will be your best source for revitalization. It’s inevitable that things will change for the better. What the Hilltop can do is speed up the process.”
Interesting. Almost seems like there are not enough creatives to fill the mushrooming amount of districts in the city that aspire to renew via urban revitalization.
And there’s the rub.
I bought in the Hilltop 6 years ago, because as a single person, it still seems that most of these districts that are trying to renew were still out of my price range. I couldn’t afford anything in Merion Village, Old Towne East, Woodland Park etc. unless I wanted to add a roommate or two.
So, do we need more YPs or fewer neighborhoods? ;)
I think it’ll be hard for Hilltop to shake the image they have now. Even after posting on the internets.
@apocaknits – Maybe if they marketed Hilltop as such to people coming in from out of town, it could work better. I hadn’t even heard or ventured to that part of town until 3 or 4 years after I had moved here – I’d had no opinion of the neighborhood at all. What negative things I’d heard came from Boomer-aged people who also complained about the crime downtown and in German Village, so I took that with a grain of salt. No opinion is better than a bad opinion.
At my age I don’t fit the assigned demographic. I’ve lived on the Hilltop for six years though and have seen a lot of businesses disappear, especially the grocery stores when Big Bear went under. Would I support a coffee shop? Hell yes.
I think the problem might be that the Hilltop really doesn’t have an image at all right now. Hopefully, diverse people moving into the area will change that. There doesn’t seem to be that much more crime here than any other part of town. Maybe police reports will show otherwise, but my experience living here has been good. Without a doubt, we need more businesses to open up shop.
I think the Hilltop is on the rebound. The Ashburn Center is a great facility-If you go, you will be impressed. The new Health Center is on the way, and the new Fire Station is an anchor. You have plenty of jobs in the area with the State and other players there. The main problem is the safety issue from Lechner to Westgate. I think our police have a plan. The housing stock is plentiful, if you want to rehab. And hopefully for the Hilltop, they will get a piece of the Neighborhood Stabilization dollars. We’ll see, but I think this meeting will be good for the community. Agreed that more businesses are needed. My grandparents have lived on the Hilltop for over 60 years, and now they have to shop at Harrisburg Pike. SHAMEFUL.
We are HAVING businesses open up shop. Look for some big changes in the next year. I know I just said basically the same comments on the hilltop story a couple posts ago… We are a really active community. Just generalizing the hilltop as bad is like generalizing south Columbus as bad and leaving out German Village and Merion Village. Westgate and Wilshire Heights are beautiful neighborhoods with strong communities. They are great places to raise a family, buy a first house, retire. As our neighborhoods grow we expect there to be spill over into the adjacent not as friendly neighborhoods. Investments in those other neighborhoods could turn out to be really profitable if the right people make them.
Tigertree, I couldn’t agree more and I’m looking forward to the talk on Wednesday. I suppose I would be considered as living in one of the adjacent neighborhoods. I’m north of Mound, south of Sullivant, and east of Hague. The closest business to me is the former UDF which is now simply called “V”. (It’s yet to be determined if its run by a carnivorous race of reptilians known as The Visitors.)
So, I’m looking forward to see what new businesses will be opening.
Can you give any hints?
As a Hilltop res. I don’t think making the neighborhood into a creative, YP, and YF area would be a bad thing, I think it would help. But first before it can give off that image, it needs to give its residents some basic services.
Services like a local small coffee shop, a tanning bed place, hair cutting services, that arnt on the far end of west board by Target of even as far as georgeville rd. Small little food places, and antiques shops. as for the lager grocery store, I feel that where the Kroger, Target, and Save-a-lot are is just fine, I’d like more small businesses then larger retail chains on the Hilltop end of West Board.
After the local services have come in, then the neighborhood will not have that far to go to show the great houses, people and area that the Hilltop is. The rest will fall into place.
If you’re up for it, there are a lot of ways you can help that happen Jchem!
I see home ownership and the affordability of owning a home as the cornerstone of a lot of attract and retain efforts targeted at creatives in this city. I’m not dismissing the importance of affordable housing, but I’m merely pointing out that there appears to be a disproportionate heavy focus on home ownership as a strategy to lure creatives.
Obviously it depends on the person, but personally as a creative, home ownership is not much of a priority to me. Especially when developers start getting up in the mix and are suddenly a creatives best friend. lolz. I’d add that most creatives I know don’t seem to care much about home ownership.
If the city wants young creatives to populate a district it would do well to think outside the home ownership box.
I can’t imagine a lack of tanning beds has ever held back a neighborhood from gentrifying.
@jonmyers I think homeownership is a more attractive benefit to the city rather than to creatives, but I think it should still be pushed. It’s a rare renter who invests in the physicality of a neighborhood (and increase taxable property values) the way homeowners do. Plus, the city does all this marketing work to get creatives here – homeownership keeps them here longer.
I am not talking about the lack of just tanning beds, I am talking about basic consumer services that the hilltop lacks!!!! You just can’t bring in creative business without having the basics in place.
Not to say creatives aren’t buying homes, but in cities that have been successful that I’ve lived in or visited, home ownership is more of an afterthought.
Most creatives (especially self-employed types) I know couldn’t even get financing these days if they did want to buy.
I understand – tanning beds was a weird addition, though. Smart people don’t use tanning beds.
Life would be good on the Hilltop if we had at least one Cup O’Joe, 1/2 Priced Books, Drexel Theater, Video Central and some decent restaurants and art galleries.
Thats not too much to ask, is it?
My aunt own a chain of tanning bed companies back in my hometown. That’s why I added it, she brought one in and then like 3 or 4 other different business opened up in the area. I’m just saying it only takes one of something to help with the area as well.