The Dispatch wrote Poll: Some don’t link ‘burbs, city
Sunday, December 9, 2007
BY DARREL ROWLAND, ALAN JOHNSON AND MARK NIQUETTE
Experts say Ohio’s big cities will never get turned around until people who live in the surrounding suburbs and exurbs realize their areas’ fates are linked to the health of the core city.
Without that understanding, the “why-should-I-care” attitude will not only thwart the cities’ comebacks, but will contribute to a spread of urban problems into the very areas people fled to escape them.
But only about a third of the people who live in the areas surrounding Columbus buy into this concept, judging from a poll by Saperstein Associates. That portion agrees a “strong link” exists between the health of the city and the health of the rest of central Ohio. Another 36 percent see “somewhat of a link.”
“Suburban folks don’t see the link between downtown Columbus and the quality of life in the ‘burbs,” he said. “If the suburbs viewed the link as stronger they would be more committed to revitalizing Downtown than they are now.”
Still, 90 percent of Columbus-area residents have come Downtown in the past year. The most common reasons: to dine or to attend a cultural activity.
The perception of Columbus’ crime rate and public school system was cited most often as the main reason more people don’t live in the city.
Related Stories:
– Why suburbanites should care about Columbus
– Ohio’s big cities trying to reinvent themselves