The Confluence Cast: Cleve Ricksecker

With the threat of protests and the coronavirus raging, what’s going to happen to Downtown Columbus? On the occasion of his recent retirement, we spoke with the former executive director of the two Downtown special improvement districts, Cleve Ricksecker, about the state of Downtown, why he retired, and why Columbus needs a screamer. Shownotes for […]
Cleve Ricksecker to Retire as Head of Downtown Groups

The Downtown organizations behind initiatives like the Pearl Street Market and the C-Pass program announced yesterday that the founding executive director of both groups will be retiring at the end of May. Cleve Ricksecker has served as head of the Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District (SID) since 2000, when it was established – with funding […]
Downtown Bus Ridership Has Doubled Over Past Year

Thanks to a unique program that offers free bus passes to most Downtown workers, transit ridership for the Downtown area has more than doubled year-over-year since the program went into effect. The C-pass program is a collaborative effort between the Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District (SID), Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) and the Central Ohio […]
Enrollment Now Open for Free Downtown Bus Pass Program

Eligible employers can start signing up for the Downtown C-Pass program on May 1, and employees can start using their free, unlimited bus passes starting June 1. Any business, organization, or government entity that is located within the boundary of the program — with a few exceptions — is eligible to participate. It’s a district […]
Study Asks: How Will Driverless Cars Change Downtown Columbus?

The 2016 Smart City Challenge win put Columbus at the forefront of a national conversation about autonomous vehicles, and plenty of people have since weighed in with opinions about what the technology will mean for the future of cities. A group of City and Regional Planning students at OSU recently studied the issue for a studio […]
Downtown Commission Hears Ideas for Discovery District, Plans for Lev’s Pawnshop Building

A new “Placemaking Plan” for the Discovery District was presented to the Downtown Commission on Tuesday. Cleve Ricksecker, Executive Director of the Discovery District Special Improvement District, updated the commission on some of the highlights of the plan, including a Discovery Trail meant to connect destinations like the Main Library, the Columbus Museum of Art, […]
Free Bus Passes for Downtown Workers Coming in 2018

The board of the Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District gave its stamp of approval yesterday to a plan to provide free bus passes for as many as 40,000 Downtown workers. The program has been in the planning stages for over two years, including a small pilot program that ran from June of 2015 to December […]