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    Opinion: The Short North’s Loss is the Rest of the City’s Gain

    When we broke the sad news of the closure of Rigsby’s Kitchen two weekends ago, we knew that the public response would include a mixture of shock, despair, and anger. Fans of the iconic Short North restaurant were rightfully upset to hear that the business had closed its doors for good.

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    Some even went as far as to claim that the news was a signal of the downfall of the Short North as a viable place for small or independent businesses to thrive. That type of reaction has been a common one — witnessed any time a significant business opens, closes or relocates within the neighborhood — so it certainly was not unexpected. Here are a few of the reactionary comments that followed the news of Rigsby’s closure:

    “Too many quality local businesses are being forced out due to exorbitant costs and they are being replaced by the blandest of national chains.”

    “The Short North landscape isn’t the same. It’s no longer an arts and community district. It’s become extremely difficult to run a business especially with corporate coming in and it’s not easing up.”

    “The Short North I grew up with died when the developers moved in. Not special anymore. Just one big business deal.”

    “Sad. Too many businesses are leaving Short North and that’s not a good thing.”

    While everyone is entitled to their own personal opinion, the idea that the sky is falling in the Short North due to the closure of Rigsby’s seems a bit short sighted when considering the bigger picture. There’s been no announcement as to what will replace the old restaurant space, so it’s too early to claim as an example of a corporate chain displacing an independent shop. While that scenario is a possibility, it’s certainly not a given. Similar comments were prematurely made when Betty’s closed last year, but its replacement ended up being another new local establishment.

    Further, the idea that local businesses cannot thrive in the Short North is a bit misleading when many others are performing well, and the neighborhood has seen an influx of new local businesses this year, including cubshrub, Samson Men’s Emporium, Pursuit, Store5a, Red Giraffe Designs, Forno Kitchen+Bar and others. The heart of the district also gained a new art exhibition space this year with the recent opening of Hammond Harkins Galleries, while others like Robert Mason, Wine on High and Middle West Spirits are all working toward openings, re-openings and multi-million dollar upgrades.

    That’s not to say that the district isn’t also getting some new chains. The Short North is gaining a Seattle-based brewery, a Cincinnati-based beer hall, a Brooklyn-based pizza shop and a Denver-based yoga studio in 2016. For better or worse, when national and regional businesses are investing in your community, that’s generally a sign of a healthy retail economy.

    Something worth keeping in mind is that the Short North’s footprint has evolved and expanded greatly over the past thirty years. Empty lots and surface parking spaces have been transformed by new development into new retail and restaurant opportunities, offering tens of thousands of square footage to the streetscape. And today the Short North stretches entirely from Downtown Columbus to the Ohio State University — with over a full mile of High Street that falls under the umbrella of the neighborhood — instead of the two-block expanse that was originally known for Gallery Hop when Rigsby’s first opened way back in 1986.

    I think it’s fair to say that the arrival of Rigsby’s — a high-end fine dining restaurant from a talented chef — in the Short North in 1986 can likely be attributed as being one of the factors that has drawn more attention to the neighborhood as a whole. It certainly got more people interested in living in the area and spending more time there, drawing more businesses to the area. Which drew more people. Which drew even more businesses. And so on and so forth. The result is a snowball effect that brought us to where we are today.

    Some may see that ongoing evolution as a good thing. Some may see it as a bad thing. I see it as inevitable change that no amount of social media hand-wringing will change, and that the good old days always come with their downsides even if we fail to mention them. Aside from the well-known crime and safety issues that plagued the Short North in the early 1980s, allow me to posit that it was equally problematic that Columbus only had one hip destination neighborhood worthy of anyone’s attention at that point in time.

    Cities of any reputable size generally have more than one neighborhood designated for visitors. Before the Short North came along, the only place to find a unique destination-worthy cultural experience in Columbus pre-1980s was the campus area around the Ohio State University. Downtown was more of a functional business district than it was hip, and suburbs like Dublin were a fraction of the size they are today (only 3,800 people called Dublin home in 1980 compared to the 44,000 who live there now). Even the population of the City of Columbus has changed dramatically during that same timespan, growing by nearly fifty percent from 564,000 people in 1980 to over 835,000 people in 2015. Columbus is no longer the same city that it was twenty-five years ago, so there’s little reason to expect the Short North to be immune to the changes that come with that kind of growth.

    If local businesses are in fact being priced out of the Short North (or not able to afford it to begin with), then the benefit of that effect has certainly been felt from Clintonville to Fifth by Northwest to Olde Town East to Franklinton to Morse Road to Upper Arlington to Italian Village to many other communities and suburbs in between. Gone are the days when your one and only option for interesting cuisine and the latest arts installation were found in The Short North. Today, you can find these kinds of experiences in many neighborhoods in addition to the Short North, to the benefit of residents and visitors alike.

    At the end of the day, the Short North will continue to be one of the most important places in the State of Ohio for arts, dining, fashion and entertainment, and home to a wide assortment of independent local businesses. But we shouldn’t spend too much time fretting about jumping sharks and falling skies over any individual change when in the big picture, our city as a whole is growing and diversifying in terms of the collective cultural experience that we call home.

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    Walker Evans
    Walker Evanshttps://columbusunderground.com
    Walker Evans is the co-founder of Columbus Underground, along with his wife and business partner Anne Evans. Walker has turned local media into a full time career over the past decade and serves on multiple boards and committees throughout the community.
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