CMH_Downtown

First off, my appoligies to nycman. I didn't mean to sound like an asshole (after re-reading my post, I really come off like that), my intention was to interject some kind of humor into the post. Honestly, I really don't think Ohio's number of zoos has anything to do with its lagging economy. Most zoological parks are financed by donations, either corporate or personal, as well as through ticket sales and other events held at the parks, in addition to government funding. In addition, I believe most government funding for zoos is provided on the local level (i.e. Franklin County has a sales tax that helps pay for the zoos operating costs). If anything, the multitude and quality of Ohio's zoological facilities is a huge advantage to Ohio's ability to attract visitors, researchers, and other animal experts which in turn helps the economy. And by the way, if we're going to play the "which Ohio city has the best zoo" game, quite frankly that title should go to Cincinnati. I was extremely impressed with the zoo when I visited a few years ago, not only by its beautifully landscaped grounds, but its very impressive animal collection, including a wild cat exhibit that is unparalled in the United States. It's definitely one of the city's many treasures.

Oooookay...well considering I meant ANIMAL conservation and not farmland conservation, I think we're reading a weee bit too much into things, yes? And "beautiful rolling farmland"? The zoo is next to a dam! LOL! The last time I checked, a zoo's caliber was usually measured in the VARIETY of animals housed, not the quantity, which the Columbus zoo excels at. In addition, the larger acerage used is an attempt to recreate the animals' natural habitat as completely as possible, which of course is much more easily done when the land is available. The zoo's efforts to increase acerage is far from a "stunt" but more a way to continue what has been the zoo's first and foremost goal, which is animal conservation and observation. A densly laid out zoo, if anything, would be a hinderment to possible expansion and habitat recreation.

Incorrect information was given. I corrected. Cry me a river. So? British Airways and Lufthansa officials have met with representatives at Port Columbus too. It's their job to pursue all avenues of garnering new air service and to pitch to the airlines that a certain city pair that they believe can be accomplished. This in no way means that such a route is a sure thing. But herein lies the problem, which I highlighted in my earlier post, if you would have cared enough to examine it. Continental's international 757-200 is configured to seat 172 passengers. The airline's next smallest transoceanic aircraft, the 767-200, seats 174. Not a big difference, right? Wrong. The 767-200 seats 25 in BusinessFirst, while the 757-200 seats only 16. Therefore, if CO were to place a 762 on the CLE-LGW route, they would have to fill 9 more first class seats. While this may not seem like a lot, like I said earlier, the people up front pay the bills, and obviously the airline can garner much more premium traffic from their Newark hub than from Cleveland. Does this mean CLE will never see a 767-200 or larger to London? Not necessarily, but the city will have to demostrate that it can fill more than 16 BusinessFirst seats to London on a regular basis. And WHY are they doing this? Because the head guys in Houston believe they can attain PROFITABILITY on these routes. Like I said earlier, if they believed CLE-LGW was a money maker that needed more capacity, you could bet that the shift would include larger aircraft to the route. It's not rocket science, people. Neat. I hold a major in Aviation Management. I have worked at 3 different airlines. One of my instructors was the hub manager for America West at CMH. Nice try. I'll disect what was told for you: It was not a failed hub from the start, but America West did fail in making it work for several reasons. Columbus worked in the beginning as a hub for CMH because the plan by then CEO Mike Conway was to use the city as a connector from the West Coast to the East Coast, while providing regional feed with a fleet of B1990s. After Conway, Bill Franke came to head the airline. After discontinuing and starting several routes from CMH, Franke cited an unprofitable express operation in CMH and pulled all regiona flights from the hub, severing feed into the hub. Meanwhile, flights to the East Coast were added from the primary hubs in Phoenix and Las Vegas, overflying the Columbus hub. Efforts continued for several years to maintain the hub, through the use of regional jets, to using a hub and spoke model for its operations. Ultimately, as we know, America West finally gave up on the hub in 2003. This may have been the case in the hub's early days, but the later years of its life showed a large amount of both O&D and connecting traffic filtering through the hub. This changed various times, but during my stance with the airline, connectivity was most certainly offered. Any glance at the schedule from CMH would indicate a hub-and-spoke type operation, which means passengers connect in the hub from one flight to another. This is very true, the region was "over-hubbed" so to speak. Columbus of course was the weakest of the lot, and was eliminated. But also, St. Louis and Pittsburgh have both seen huge cuts in service due their status as the weakest hub of their respective carriers. While both STL and PIT maintain a large number of flights from their former hub carriers (nearly 200 in both cases), they are by no means as busy as in their formal lives as full-fledged hubs. Even more recently, CVG has seen a large decrease in their number of flights. CLE has not seem these large cuts because, quite frankly, there isn't anything more to cut. Most routes have already been downgraded to regional jets, and there are no widebody flights at all operating from CLE. Of the true hubs remaining in the region, NW at DTW, DL at CVG, UA and AA at ORD, and CO at CLE, the latter remains the smallest, and by quite a significant margin. I've always found statements like that to be humorous, especially in regards to leisure traffic. Now, Columbus certainly is not a leisure market in the traditional sense, like Orlando or Las Vegas. But those travelers have to come from somewhere, right? The truth is, many of the passengers that make LAS and MCO huge destination points come from places like Columbus. If this were not the case, Delta wouldn't fly 11 daily flights to Florida from CMH, along with Southwest, and weekend seasonal service by Northwest and USAirways. Also, you seem to be under the impression that Cleveland is somehow a "leisure destination." If that were the case, I can pretty-much guarantee you the serve level you see at CLE would be vastly different (i.e. all-coach, mainline service twice or thrice a day as opposed to regional jet service multiple times daily). And saying their is no business market in Columbus is quite frankly prepostrous. With the likes of Cardinal Health, AEP, Wendy's, Nationwide, and Limited Brands calling metro Columbus home, their is quite obviously a large business travel community here. Case in point: NetJets operations in Columbus. In case you weren't aware, NetJets is a fractional ownership corporate jet company, whose main operation base is in Columbus. Again, if you had bothered to read my first post, you would have seen that I already alluded to this... And if Delta's decision to CONTINUE much of the flying that America West once flew does not prove the viability of the Columbus market, I don't know what does. Like I said, the key is that America West adopted a fare structure that made the type of flying done from CMH unprofitable. Delta's fare structure is such that flights operated by regional jets can make money. I agree; CMH didn't fit into America West's long-term plans, but only because the airline did not care enough to make it fit. I don't believe Alitalia ever served Cleveland, however JAT Yugoslavian Airlines did fly to Cleveland at one point in time. I have no idea where the flights went to from CLE, but I remember seeing a placard at departures roadway to the terminal with their name and logo. The square miles covered in regards to an airports' catchment area is really a non-issue. In a way, Denver International Airport's catchement area is the entire state of Colorado. New York City has 3 major airports that share the region's travelers. Catchement area has more to do with the amount of people in a given area that make a certain airport their airport of choice for travel, not square miles.

Or might you be thinking of The Wilds? That's a preserve owned and operated by the Columbus Zoo way out in Cumberland, Ohio. The preserve serves as a grounds for giraffe, various species of deer, and rhinos to name a few, to exist in a natural setting where their habits can be better observed for future conservation, a hallmark of the Columbus Zoo. http://www.thewilds.com http://www.columbuszoo.com

LOL, I take it you haven't been to the Columbus Zoo lately? It's surrounded by one of the wealthier suburbs in the metro area, Powell. The reason the zoo has all this room to expand is because Jungle Jack and the zoo board thought ahead and bought all the land surrounding the park's boundaries before they were built up. Immediately to the north, south, east, and west are million dollar McMansions. And don't sell the zoo short just becuase it isn't in a more urban environment. The park's animals are among the most well-known in the world, especially the primate collection, where Colo was born, the first gorilla to be born in captivity. Having Jack Hanna as the zoos director for several decades helped it gain national attention too, with his many appearances on the Tonight Show and the Late Show. The planned expansion of the zoo is definitely exciting. I'm especially looking forward to the Arctic Frontier exhibit. Polar bears are awesome!

Pittsburgh may have the larger airport, but Columbus has always had the lowest fares, which is key to the expanse of the area you are going to attract. In fact, for the longest time, people drove from Pittsburgh to Columbus to save hundreds on airfare. Since America West closed the CMH hub and Southwest entered Pittsburgh, that really doesn't happen as much anymore. Another key to an airport's catchment area is the connectivity of the airport to the region. Columbus is far better connected to places like Athens, Parkersburg and Huntington, WV, and Zanesville, than they are to Pittsburgh.

Given your statistic for Cleveland, Columbus' service area as you put it (called "catchment area" in the industry) is actually larger. The catchment area for CMH is 6.6 million people, and includes all of Southeast Ohio and parts of West Virginia, a healthy 1.1 million people larger than Cleveland. Buddy, I WORKED at America West's Columbus hub, and I can tell you that the region definitely supported the flights HP offered from CMH, and I have the passenger boarding totals to prove it. The reason it failed was because of an over-reliance of regional jet equipment coupled by the airline's decision to adopt a more simplified fare structure, similar to Southwest, that capped fares at a certain level. For example, walk-up fares to Toronto before the pricing change on America West were over $1,000, when the fare structure was simplified, the walk-up fare fell to roughly $550. The ONLY reason the Cleveland hub survives with its disproportionately large regional jet presence is because Continental maintains a legacy pricing structure, where the airline chooses to still charge top dollar for walk-up itineraries. Having a large ethnic presence in a city is by no means an airtight justification for international service. If that were the case, New Orleans would have service to Paris on Air France already. Many people of European ethnicity have since lost contact with any family still in the terra mater, so just saying "well, my city has lots of Polish people" doesn't make it an immediate candidate for LOT to consider service. The only air service I can think of that is majorly based off of a city's ethnic makeup is Detroit's service on Royal Jordanian to Aman. However, Detroit also has a significantly larger catchment area than Cleveland, and still supports the service despite being served by Air France, Lufthansa, KLM, British Airways, and Northwest to multiple European destinations. The same goes for all the other carriers being targeted just because a lot of people of _________ descent live in Cleveland. Full planes do not mean PROFITABLE planes. If CLE-LGW was a cash cow for Continental, you'd bet they'd be on top of their aircraft schedulers to get an aircraft of larger size into Cleveland. A plane's passenger cabin can fly half full and still make money, it depends on the premium being paid by the passengers on the flight, as well as the cargo being transported in the belly. There are several international routes flown by U.S. airlines where the passengers are merely gravy; it's the cargo being transported that pays the bills. That is a moot point. Continental European footprint is huge, but a large chunk of it is flown with narrowbody aircraft (757-200s), much like CLE-LGW. Continental Micronesia is also largely supported by a narrowbody fleet. American's transcon, South America, and European network require the larger amount of widebody aircraft, likewise for United and their large Asian network. But besides the point, I applaud Cleveland and its various bureaus and chambers for pursuing greater international connectivity. They have apparently set their sights high, which is definitely a good thing. I have no doubt that more international service to Cleveland is warranted, however I certainly would not count on seeing a Varig MD-11 approaching Hopkins on a regular basis any time soon.

Delta adds destinations from CVG, including Anchorage and Traverse City. Press Release Source: Delta Air Lines, Inc. Delta Continues to Add More Vacation Destinations Just in Time for Summer Thursday March 9, 2:19 pm ET Customers will enjoy new access to popular summer getaway destinations such as Quebec City, Anchorage and Traverse City ATLANTA, March 9, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Beginning this summer, Delta Air Lines customers will enjoy new service to Quebec City, Quebec - Delta's first flights to the beautiful and historic city - and Charleston, S.C. Service between Boston and Charleston will operate daily beginning on June 8 and service between Boston and Quebec City will operate daily beginning on June 15. ``Our Boston customers continue to ask for additional destinations that are attractive for summer travel and both Quebec City and Charleston are frequently on the top of their list,'' said Bob Cortelyou, Delta's vice president of Network Planning. ``From the gourmet restaurants and Montmorency River in Quebec City to the golf excursions and quaint inns of Charleston, the options for a family getaway are endless.'' Customers may purchase tickets on the new flights beginning today at delta.com. Flights are scheduled as follows: Delta's new non-stop service between Boston and Charleston, South Carolina effective June 8, 2006(a) -- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Flight Departs Arrives --------------------------------------------------------------------- 5254 Boston at 8:30 a.m. Charleston at 10:53 a.m. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 5254 Charleston at 11:30 a.m. Boston at 1:43 p.m. --------------------------------------------------------------------- (a) Flight operated by Delta Connection carrier Comair Delta's new non-stop service between Boston and Quebec City, Quebec effective June 15, 2006(b) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Flight Departs Arrives --------------------------------------------------------------------- 5777 Boston at 11:10 a.m. Quebec City at 12:30 p.m. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 5777 Quebec City at 1:00 p.m. Boston at 1:20 p.m. --------------------------------------------------------------------- (b) Flight operated by Delta Connection carrier Comair In addition, Delta customers will be able to take advantage of new non-stop service between Delta's hub in Cincinnati and Anchorage, Alaska and Traverse City, Michigan, and between its hub in Atlanta and Traverse City, Michigan and Bangor, Maine. ``Delta is responding to strong passenger demand for convenient service to some of the country's most popular summer leisure markets like Anchorage, Bangor and Traverse City,'' said Cortelyou. ``Interest in visiting the breathtaking glaciers of Alaska, the Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor area of Bangor and the beaches and hiking and biking trails of Traverse City increases in the summer months and we are pleased to be offering our customers throughout the country easy one-stop connection opportunities through our hubs.'' Effective June 8, Delta will offer customers daily round-trip flights between Cincinnati and Anchorage and Atlanta and Bangor. Service between Atlanta and Traverse City will operate on Saturdays only beginning June 17, and between Cincinnati twice daily beginning on June 12. Daily service to Anchorage between Cincinnati and Anchorage will operate on Delta's Boeing 757 aircraft. Service between Atlanta and Bangor will operate year-round. Delta's new non-stop service between Cincinnati and Anchorage effective June 8, 2006 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Flight Departs Arrives --------------------------------------------------------------------- 735 Cincinnati at 6:20 p.m. Anchorage at 9:30 p.m. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 762 Anchorage at 8:30 p.m. Cincinnati at 7:00 a.m. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Delta's new non-stop service between Cincinnati and Traverse City, Michigan effective June 12, 2006© --------------------------------------------------------------------- Flight Departs Arrives --------------------------------------------------------------------- 5739 Cincinnati at 10:30 a.m. Traverse City at 11:50 a.m. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 5739 Traverse City at 12:10 p.m. Cincinnati at 1:30 p.m. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 5741 Cincinnati at 2:30 p.m. Traverse City at 3:50 p.m. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 5741 Traverse City at 4:10 p.m. Cincinnati at 5:30 p.m. --------------------------------------------------------------------- © Flight operated by Delta Connection carrier Comair Delta's new non-stop service between Atlanta and Bangor, Maine effective June 8, 2006(d) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Flight Departs Arrives --------------------------------------------------------------------- 4267 Atlanta at 10:00 a.m. Bangor at 12:42 p.m. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 4267 Bangor at 1:15 p.m. Atlanta at 4:05 p.m. --------------------------------------------------------------------- (d) Flight operated by Delta Connection carrier ASA Delta's new non-stop service between Atlanta and Traverse City effective June 17, 2006(e) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Flight Departs Arrives --------------------------------------------------------------------- 4911 Atlanta at 10:30 a.m. Traverse City at 12:45 p.m. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 4911 Traverse City at 1:15 p.m. Atlanta at 3:30 p.m. --------------------------------------------------------------------- (e) Flight operated by Delta Connection carrier ASA Also this summer, Delta is excited to offer our Hartford customers a daily flight to the fun and sun of Las Vegas, beginning on June 8. The service will operate on Delta's 737-800 aircraft. ``In addition to the recent announcement of new service to New York's JFK, Delta will now offering our customers in Hartford a chance to visit the Hoover Dam, take in a Vegas show, or try their luck at the blackjack tables this summer,'' Cortelyou said. Delta's new non-stop service between Hartford and Las Vegas effective June 8, 2006 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Flight Departs Arrives --------------------------------------------------------------------- 441 Hartford at 7:30 p.m. Las Vegas at 10:29 p.m. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 420 Las Vegas at 11:30 p.m. Hartford at 7:21 a.m. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Delta Air Lines continues to expand the number of markets it serves as it reworks its network presence, particularly to ever-popular vacation destinations during high demand periods as well as international destinations in Europe and the Middle East, and across Latin America and the Caribbean. In just the last two months, Delta has announced new or expanded service between Atlanta and Atlantic City, N.J., Bozeman, Mont., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Ponce and Aguadilla, Puerto Rico; Boston and Savannah, Ga. and Nashville, Tenn.; and Salt Lake City and Aspen/Snowmass, Colo., Bellingham, Wash., and Victoria, British Columbia. Just this week, Delta announced new and expanded service to 17 destinations from New York's JFK airport to support the airline's international and transcontinental growth. Delta Air Lines (Other OTC:DALRQ.PK - News) is the world's third-largest airline in terms of passengers carried, offering daily flights to 503 destinations in 94 countries on Delta, Song, Delta Shuttle, the Delta Connection carriers and its worldwide partners. In summer 2006, Delta plans to offer customers more flights between the U.S. and destinations across Europe, India and Israel than any global airline(f), including service on 11 new transatlantic routes from its Atlanta and New York-JFK hubs. Delta also is a major carrier to Mexico, South and Central America and the Caribbean, with more than 35 routes announced, added or applied to serve since Jan. 1, 2005. Delta's marketing alliances also allow customers to earn and redeem SkyMiles on more than 14,000 flights offered by SkyTeam and other partners. Delta is a founding member of SkyTeam, a global airline alliance that provides customers with extensive worldwide destinations, flights and services. Customers can check in for flights, print boarding passes and check flight status at delta.com. A portion of travel for some itineraries may be on the Delta Connection carriers: Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Chautauqua, Comair, Freedom Airlines and SkyWest. (f) From the U.S. based on July 2006 OAG. The Delta logo is available at: http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=1825. Contact: Delta Air Lines Corporate Communications 404-715-2554

Without a hub or a large corporate subsidy, Columbus quite frankly cannot support daily, nonstop service to Europe, or any other trans-oceanic international city with the aircraft that are currently on the market. Boeing's new 787 line of aircraft is supposed to include a mid-sized jet with the range to fly between the U.S. and Europe, and could hold hope for an eventual link between cities in the U.S. like Columbus, and Europe. But for now, it simply is not feasable. Just as a side note, I don't know if this still holds true, but Columbus' most traveled-to international city isn't any city in Europe actually. It's Tokyo, Japan. Why? Honda of America. Air Canada is currently the sole international carrier operating from CMH, with flights to Toronto operating 3x daily during the winter, 4x daily during the summer. USA3000 also operates flights to Cancun from Columbus, whose service ranges anywhere from 1 to 2 times weekly. The only international flights I could see from Columbus would be to vacation destinations. USA3000 operated weekly flights to Punta Cana a year or two ago, but has not since returned the service. A weekly flight to Ixtapa/Zihuatenejo or Puerto Vallarta could probably work.

The AeroMexico flights to Mexico City are in conjunction with their recently-awarded charter service between Cleveland and Cancun on behalf of FunJet Vacations. AeroMexico will be flying their own metal to CLE, however the routing of the aircraft has yet to be determined. As of now, Continental will not codeshare on AeroMexico's flights to MEX or CUN. El Al and Varig to Europe? Considering El Al is the national airline of Israel and Varig is the national carrier of Brazil, I can't really see that happening. Alitalia, Aer Lingus, and CSA are LONG-shots, especially since Cleveland can only support a seasonal nonstop to London on Continental's smallest transatlantic aircraft. If anything, the most likely international carrier to CLE would be Air France of KLM, each of which are Skyteam partners, to link up to their worldwide networks in either Paris De Gaule or Amsterdam Shiphol, respectively. COPA to Panama City could be possible, since Continental owns 49% of the airline, not to mention they are acquiring EMB-190 aircraft that will give them the range to fly longer, thiner routes, like to Cleveland. You can also get to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, nonstop from Cleveland via USA3000 Airlines. The service to PVR operates once weekly, and service to PUJ operates twice weekly. USA3000 also does CLE-CUN, 4x weekly I believe. Exactly. Mr. Mok has done a fantastic job at CLE. Hopefully Mayor Jackson will realize that Mr. Mok is about the best one can get as far as airport directors go.

Oooh, neat tour! Just goes to show just how amazingly intricate downtown Cincinnati is!

Mmmmm...sunset...*drool*

I don't know, I still have images of that McDonalds on Woodward Ave. in Detroit when I think of this project. For those that don't know, Woodward in Detroit can be pretty easily compared to Broad in Columbus. There are several areas full of historic homes and new construction immediately outside of downtown. Along Woodward, where you find some incredible old homes, you also find a McDonalds, with golden chandeliers inside and fancy-ish draperies over the windows. Man does it look cheesy. While I understand the Wendy's being built here will give a glimmer of hope to the people in the neighborhood, I still do not agree with the location, no matter how much wrought-iron they put on it. Like I said, a much more suitable location, which I think would in turn promote more development in the area, would have been building it in a storefront along Long St. in King-Lincoln.

Agreed with much of what's already been said. It would be an incredible shot in the arm to the local economy, if the city could somehow win out against some pretty stiff competition. As far as the image goes, like mrnyc said, it's a double-edged sword. If, for whatever reason, the convention does come to Columbus, here hoping for a bunch of counter-rallies. :evil:

AHHH!!! Nonononononono! :shoot: But seriously, The Cleveland Symphony is WORLD-reknown and is definitely one of Cleveland's most beautiful hallmarks. I love how when you travel through Cleveland Hopkins they play music from the symphony over the public address system. It creates a soothing environment while at the same time promoting something that is uniquely Cleveland.

Haha, I wonder if we'll have trolleys going up and down High St. with the Nationwide logo emblazened on the cars! Nationwide is basically carrying the downtown area on its shoulders, why not build a transportation system to link all its babies together? :-o

Ack! Forumers! They're everywhere! Get the pesticide...

Well, including yesterday's announcement of the North Bank Condos, there should be some nice changes coming up in the Columbus skyline. We'll use this panoramic view for reference: Working left to right, you have: 1. Hyatt Regency Expansion (proposed):would essentially be right in front of the current Hyatt building pictured, should rise approximately 20-25 stories if built. Possibility exists of a completely different hotel being built on the other side of the convention center. 2. North Bank Condo Tower (proposed): should rise approximately in relation to where the Nationwide Arena light tower can be seen in that photo, in the foreground of the Hyatt Regency. Would be 20 stories high, construction might start as early as May. 3. Riversouth Residential (proposed): another product of Nationwide, would sit in between the Lazarus building and Columbia Gas. Plans for the first residential project in the area should be announced this spring. No indication of height has been announced, but considering the lack of really any prominent structures in the section of downtown, it might have a small impact. 4. Franklin County Hall of Justice (approved): location should be roughly in between the Columbia gas building and Miranova in relation to the photo. Height has not been revealed yet, but guesses are that it would be around 10-15 stories. Grange's HQ expansion and Huntington Park would be just about at the right and left edges respectively of the photo.

Hot Damn! :clap: I like the rendering a lot, we definitely need more glass in the skyline. As already mention, this tower will more or less be the northern bookend to the skyline, with Miranova being the southern end. ColDay, the ever-thinking-ahead person that he is, already has a photo of the exact site on urbanohio.com: The delapidated old warehouse on the right is the Bundy Building, which will be turned into the 21 lofts planned in the project. The vacant lot next to the Bundy Building on Spring St. will be the site of the condo tower.

When the original North Corridor line was being explored, I remember a committee in German Village opposing the project because it would end before entering the German Village/Brewery District area. I attended one of the public meetings concerning the North Corridor, and I do recall a graphic of a light rail stop at the intersection of High and Main. I think that's the farthest it was planned to go.

This thread needs some more activity. Maybe some rumor, speculation, and/or inuendo will help...:-D 1. Rumor has it that another 100+ unit residential complex might be announced in the downtown area. Specifics aren't available at this time. 2. Apparently there is a buzz going around about setting up streetcar lines downtown, and the possibility of them not being run by COTA. Visit http://columbusretrometro.typepad.com (probably one of the best sites on happenings in Columbus) for more information.

Looks like funding has been found. City, state poised to pay for Seneca Hotel cleanup Thursday, February 16, 2006 Mike Pramik THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH City and state officials are preparing to pay for cleanup of the dilapidated Seneca Hotel, which could advance a developer’s plan to convert the longdormant property into apartments and shops. Ohio Development Director Bruce E. Johnson has recommended that the state Controlling Board approve a $750,000 Clean Ohio Assistance Fund grant to aid Campus Apartments Inc., a development firm based in Philadelphia. Upon the grant approval, Capitol South Urban Redevelopment Corp. would contribute $1.15 million to the project. The state and Capitol South money would be used to remove asbestos from the hotel. Columbus would provide an additional $176,380 for streetscape improvements. Campus Apartments President David Adelman said last year that fixing up the Seneca hinged on $1.9 million to remediate asbestos in the building, which architect Frank Packard designed in 1917. Adelman applied for a $1.9 million Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund grant last year but didn’t receive it. He then applied for the assistance-fund grant, which is capped at $750,000. The city and Capitol South, a nonprofit organization that provides aid to Downtown development projects, stepped forward with the remainder. More at www.dispatch.com

I've got their long-range comprehensive transit plan right here: 1. Build light rail. 2. Now. 3. Watch ridership explode. 4. Pay me $25,000. :-D Well, at least that's how it should be...

This commentary was in today's Dispatch, and puts an interesting spin on placing a global food outlet in a historic neighborhood. I'm still not too happy about putting this free-standing Wendy's in the neighborhood. If it would have been located on the ground level of multi-story building, I would definitely back it. I think it should have been built in a rehabbed building on E. Long St. in King-Lincoln. New Wendy’s underscores divide along Broad Street Thursday, February 16, 2006 MIKE HARDEN On the day Eric Stevenson placed the "now hiring" sign in the window of his yet-to-be-completed Wendy’s on the Near East Side, 75 people called about jobs. Within five days, his list of potential employees had grown to 250. The neighborhood Stevenson picked for his Wendy’s has unemployment percentages in the double digits, he said. "A third of the people within a mile of the restaurant don’t have a car. That’s from 2000 census figures. More than half of the households make less than $20,000 a year." Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/02/16/20060216-C3-00.html

GOP invites Columbus to bid for 2008 convention Thursday, February 16, 2006 Joe Hallett THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Elephants could overrun Columbus in 2008. The two-legged kind sans trunks but with plenty of cash and vigor, aching for a fight with donkeys. Columbus, the center of the epicenter of presidential races, has been invited by the Republican National Committee to submit a proposal to host the 2008 GOP national convention. "It would be a great option for us," Aaron McClear, RNC spokesman, said yesterday. Mayor Michael B. Coleman, a Democrat, agreed and said last night that the city would aggressively pursue the convention. "Whether they’re red or blue, Republican or Democrat, it will bring a lot of green and we welcome them," Coleman said. Read more at http://www.dispatch.com