Day 18: Short North - Columbus, OH

Eric Fredericks • Thursday July 19, 2007

Columbus is my second favorite city in the Midwest, behind the obvious pick of Chicago. Columbus has an incredible energy, and my prediction is that within 10 years, people will be talking about Columbus all over the country. The Short North has a lot to do with the success of Columbus, and that’s where I shot this photo.

The Short North is my favorite arts district in the country. It is right on the edge of Downtown Columbus and the Arena District. Sure, it does not have the big name museums like other large cities, but the indie scene here is quite fun. Several shops are transformed into art galleries and join the many existing galleries for the hugely popular Gallery Hop on the first Saturday of the month (Sacramento has the formidable Second Saturday, but Columbus’s is much better).

The nightlife is great as well. There are several fantastic restaurants, bars, and clubs. This is definitely the must see spot of Columbus, along with the German Village. There are many photos of both places in the Columbus Photo Gallery.

One more great thing about the Short North are the large murals you’ll see walking along High Street. I’ve included a photo of one of my favorites as an “honorable mention.” It’s an interesting twist on Grant Wood’s American Gothic. You can view this photo after the jump. >>Continue Reading This Article>>

 

Category: Great Places •• Region: Columbus OH •• comments [1]

Day 8: Lane Avenue - Upper Arlington, OH

Eric Fredericks • Monday July 9, 2007

The next stop on our photo tour is located a few hours north of our last stop in Cincinnati. Upper Arlington is a fairly walkable suburb of Columbus. I just happened to catch this father biking down the sidewalk with his two sons. The restaurant pictured is La Chatelaine, a quaint French bakery and bistro located on Lane Avenue.

While I’m not an advocate for biking on the sidewalk because of bicyclist safety factors, Lane Avenue is not a bike friendly street—especially for children. Many of the residential streets in Upper Arlington are good for biking.

When I used to (part-time) live in Columbus, I stayed just a short distance from here. Across the street from where this photo was taken is the Shops on Lane Avenue. These shops underwent a massive renovation in 2005 and is now definitely more walker-friendly. There are a few restaurants with pleasant outdoor seating areas that I frequented. The owner of the shops (at least in 2005) also owned the Town and Country Shopping Center in Kettering, Ohio near Dayton. The thing I really liked about both of these suburban-esqe developments is that they provide (what I call) cut-throughs to the surrounding residential neighborhoods. Those little sidewalk connections allow neighborhood residents to avoid walking the mile or so to get around the fence that typically surrounds this type of development—and thus avoid having to hop in the car.

Upper Arlington also has a lovely historic district. There are a few schools within short walking distance to the shops there. (See the city guidelines for this district).

If you only have a short time in Columbus, I recommend several places to visit before Upper Arlington, such as nearby Grandview Heights and other Columbus neighborhoods (see prior Columbus articles for some recommendations). If you visit some of the other places, then Upper Arlington is worth a visit. It has some massive older homes that even urbanites find impressive.

This article is a part of the Exploring the Walkability of America in 30 Days photo series.

 

Category: Bicycling •• Region: Columbus OH •• comments

A Disappointing New Neighborhood for Downtown Columbus

Eric Fredericks • Wednesday June 20, 2007

I was excited to read the headline at Columbus RetroMetro stating New Downtown Neighborhood Launch Scheduled for Monday – until I clicked over to the development’s website, The Downtown Neighborhood Launch. Don’t get me wrong, I love to see infill housing in downtowns – especially where surface parking lots currently exist (and Downtown Columbus has more than enough!). But, I also love to see mixed uses on every block and building heights of usually three or more stories. That’s why this development disappoints me.

First, let me give you some background. I know Columbus pretty well. I lived in Dayton, Ohio for 2.5 years and spent roughly 3 days per week in Columbus for the last year and a half of that time. I love Columbus. It’s the most walkable city in Ohio and has such an amazing energy. There are many great neighborhoods like the German Village, Short North, Victorian Village, Arena District, Grandview, and several others. The Downtown and Arena District are booming with new high-rise, mixed use housing developments. The Short North Arts District is my favorite in the US. That’s why this development perplexes me at first glance.

The development website says that many cities have urban townhomes and this will be the first in Downtown Columbus. The website is correct that many of those cities listed do have them, but at least two of the cities they list, New York and Chicago, do not have them in the core of the CBD. They are located in fringe neighborhoods, just like they currently are in Columbus. There are reasons for this – one being the scale of developments. There are very few one to two story developments in the core of these cities because they look and feel out of place and it’s simply more economical to build vertical. This photo example from the Arena District also raises the question of why there are several story buildings going up there, but this new development in the CBD will not be.

One or two story buildings, especially housing, seem out of place to me amongst skyscrapers. Take a walk around San Diego’s CBD and you see many examples of different scales and densities. Some of the developments work, and some do not. The ones that do seem to work for me have more than two stories and generally have retail on the bottom floor.

The real disappointment for me is that the development appears to only have residential uses. Yes, it appears as though the residences will be right across from office buildings. But, where are the shops, restaurants, bars, and other lively uses? This area of the CBD definitely needs more activity. This development seems better suited for the Brewery District or the Short North, but not in Columbus’s core. To my knowledge, Columbus scrapped its zoning code for the downtown. Perhaps prohibiting non mixed uses and establishing minimum height requirements is something that needs to be explored. I am not familiar with the entitlement process for the CBD, so it’s hard for me to speculate.

I should mention that there is a nice animated walking tour of the development, that’s how I know what it is roughly going to look like. To be fair, the development does have a nice design. The building heights at street intersections also appear to be three stories, which is definitely positive.

I do realize that there are all kinds of constraints with funding, acquiring entitlements, zoning, and whatnot. I do not deny that. I do find it hard to believe that it would be that difficult to have a cafe or small restaurant type use in a nine block area of the CBD.

I do not like to be so critical of something that I’m currently disconnected from now that I live in California. However, I still want what’s best for Columbus and I think this project needs some adjustments. You only get one shot every few decades to do something right, so it’s very important to get it right in the beginning.

I’d really love your feedback on this topic.

 

Category: Walkability •• Region: Columbus OH •• comments [1]

A Columbus Walkable Neighborhood: The Arena District

Toby Boyce • Monday April 23, 2007

If you need a definition for revitalization, take a trip to one of central Ohio’s top walkable attractions — The Arena District in Columbus, Ohio.

Head back into the last century and you’d have found a lot of empty lots and nothing that really made for a reason to exit of I-70 or St. Rte. 315. And people were not. The downtown area was struggling as residents continued to move further into Union and Delaware Counties in endless sub-divisions. Of course, there was the Short North, German Village, and campus areas that had desirable sections. For the most part though, downtown was a place to work and then return to your home in the suburbs.

When Nationwide Arena opened its doors in for the Tim McGraw and Faith Hill “Soul to Soul Tour� in 2000, it ushered in a rebirth of another urban area and created another “true� downtown environment.

Sites that had been destinations before became hubs of downtown living. The North Market has been around for more than 125 years, but it became a community “marketâ€? for those moving into downtown around the area. Reports have a Whole Foods Market moving into the area and of course the new Huntington Park will open in 2009 as the home of the Columbus Clippers. ...Continue Reading this Article at Sadie’s Take on Delaware Ohio...

 

Category: Great Places •• Region: Columbus OH •• comments

What is a Walkable Neighborhood: The Epiphany

Toby Boyce • Friday February 16, 2007

When Eric invited me to become part of the Walkable Neighborhood network, I was honored, and when he asked me to write some articles, I was, again, honored. Then I sat down at the computer and … nothing.

I was haunted by the same question, “what is a walkable neighborhood?�

Of course there are the “rules� that determine a walkable neighborhood. However, living in predominately-rural Midwest, I was struggling to fit my circle into that square-opening. So, I did what I usually do when writer’s block hits me … I went for coffee. And that was where I received my answer.

I wasn’t sitting in my normal Delaware coffee shop, but rather out on the town. I stopped in the morning at a shop on a busy street. Sitting for 20 minutes, I was the only customer to enter the store, the rest going through the drive-thru. Later in the day, I ended up at the same chain but in a more “walkable� location. And that’s when the epiphany happened.

• The two friends looking for an apartment to rent together in the corner,
• The couple in the process of splitting up on the couch,
• The prerequisite number of teenagers studying,
• The older men sitting reading the paper,
• And of course the busy working executives on the cellular phones coming and going with the business deals.

They – each and every one of them – are the definition of what makes a walkable neighborhood. “But Toby, they are so different,� you say. Exactly! The majority of our communities will have all these people in it. But is there that one location that they ALL will congregate? It doesn’t have to be a coffee shop, but it will see people relaxing and being themselves and a cross-section of your community.

Then you can apply the “rules� to the community to determines its walkability. However, without having the heart of a walkable community the walkable factor becomes simply a “stage� full of actors.

Walkable communities place pride on the community and the walkability just happens.

That’s a walkable neighborhood I would be proud to call home.

Toby Boyce is a Realtor with Disbennett Real Estate Company in Delaware, Ohio, and author of www.delawareohrealestate.com .

 

Category: Third Places •• Region: Columbus OH •• comments

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