Suburbs revitalize their downtown areas

The Dispatch wrote Suburbs revitalize their old downtowns, or build new ones, as community focal points
Friday, January 25, 2008
BY MARTIN ROZENMAN
Gahanna did it. Hilliard is about to do it. Now, Grove City plans to do it.
Creating town centers to renovate slumping downtowns is hot among central Ohio suburbs. Some have them (think Westerville and Worthington), and some don’t (think Upper Arlington and Whitehall).
It’s a community’s centerpiece, a gathering place that includes workplaces, shopping, dining and entertainment, said Hazel Morrow-Jones, associate dean in Ohio State University’s College of Engineering and an expert in city planning.
“Some of the movement is baby-boomer nostalgia,” she said. Part of it is driven by “younger people who think there was something in a downtown they missed.”