WalkerEvans

<b>First tenant opens at Shoppes on Fifth</b> Thursday, April 10, 2008 ALAN FROMAN, ThisWeek Staff Writer <img src="http://www.thisweeknews.com/sites/thisweeknews/041008/Grandview/News/524377-300903.jpg"> <i>The exterior of the Salon Lofts building at 945 W. Fifth Ave.</i> The first tenant at the Shoppes on Fifth retail development at the former Ed Potter Mercedes-Benz site on West Fifth Avenue is now open. Salon Lofts, a Columbus-based company that offers loft space to self-employed beauty care professionals, opened about two weeks ago. All other tenants are expected to be open by early June, said Paul Bloomfield, vice president of Kohr Royer Griffith, the real estate firm that purchased the property for the redevelopment. "We'll be completing our construction within the next two or three weeks," Bloomfield said. Papa John's Pizza will be the next tenant to open, he said. The anchor tenant will be Buffalo Wild Wings. Panda Express, four local tenants and a national dry cleaning business will also be tenants. Read more at http://www.thisweeknews.com/?story=sites/thisweeknews/041008/Grandview/News/041008-News-524377.html

<b>Columbus arena a blast</b> Cincinnati.Com » The Enquirer » Travel Last Updated: 1:15 pm | Sunday, April 13, 2008 BY DANIEL LEE | ENQUIRER CONTRIBUTOR <img src="http://cmsimg.enquirer.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=AB&Date=20080413&Category=LIFE09&ArtNo=804130320&Ref=AR&Profile=1052&MaxW=315&border=1"> On game nights in Columbus, fans throng the downtown Arena District, a historic section that once held a 19th-century train station and a prison, but which is now reborn with boutique shopping, restaurants, a theater, upscale hotels and a thriving nightlife. A strong police presence is on hand to help with traffic, questions and security, and parking garages just across the street from Nationwide Arena are well-lighted and secure. Read more at http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080413/LIFE09/804130320/1052/LIFE

<A href="http://www.columbusunderground.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=13532">COTA Service Expansion Plans for Fall 2008</a> HOORAY! :D

From here: http://walker.columbusunderground.com/?p=583 <b>The COTA Challenge: Day Three</b> Posted on April 15th, 2008 Today I had several errands to run and thought it might be a good idea to test out the effectiveness of making multiple stops with the bus. Afterall, this was during the day and my stops were all either downtown or in the Short North, and I’d have to pay to park at meters three times for three stops, which would quickly add up. All the routes I rode today ran on time which made the overall experience pleasant. The only problem was that my downtown stop was on a street where the routes came in 20 minutes headways. So a quick 5-minute stop resulted in a 15-minute wait for the next bus to come by. But since it was a nice day, and I was only a 10-minute walk from High Street, I opted to just take the stroll over to catch a bus there instead. I was afraid while out that I’d encounter some timing issues as I decided to take a detour to Tigertree to check out their new space and chat for awhile. But the #2 pulled up as soon as I walked outside, so it really didn’t delay me at all. Oh, and as I mentioned on Friday, we have three routes that take us home, the 6, 11, and 16. I was a bit confused that day and trying to get off at either Nationwide or Long to catch one of these buses on the different routes they run, but today I figured out that I was overcomplicating things. I can just hop off on High Street at the stop between Long & Gay and all three of these buses will pick us up from here. I knew that I’d quickly be figuring out some of the challenges. For anyone intimidated by the maze of COTA routes… it gets easier after a couple rides. All in all I spent about an hour and a half running around today. Probably the same amount of time I would have spent if I had drove when you consider the extra time finding meters, parking the car, and getting Desi in and out of his car seat (which he has grown to dislike). I got to save myself about $5 in parking fees and gasoline usage to boot.

From here: http://walker.columbusunderground.com/?p=580 <b>The COTA Challenge: Day Two</b> Posted in Transportation on April 11th, 2008 I wasn’t planning on writing again so quickly about my bus adventures, but today’s trip was a bit different than yesterday’s even though I rode nearly the exact same route from home to the South Campus Gateway and back. (Plus I’ve got to try to make Jeff Johnson proud!) For starters, several buses were running late. Some by as much as 10 minutes. Which normally wouldn’t be a big deal by myself, but I decided to cart Desi along for the ride. At 7 months old, he’s getting heavier, which makes standing around aimlessly drag longer than it feels like it should. The rides were otherwise pleasant, and people were very talkative since I had the kiddo with me. Who doesn’t like seeing a happy baby? The other problem was the off-and-on rain today. Some of the stops have adequate shelters while others have nothing. I can’t imagine these are expensive structures to erect. Some of the shelters don’t include system maps or timetables either which can be confusing to anyone unfamiliar with the system. Why the discrepancy? I’d assume this simple infrastructure update would be a worthwhile investment for COTA that would bolster ridership. Oh, and slightly off topic… While on the bus today I did have a conversation with a woman about the Streetcar line. She said she didn’t see the point. I explained the benefits that I personally see with it (economic development, environmental impact, public transit stigma), but it didn’t seem to change her mind. She was telling me there was “nothing to do downtown” but also telling me I should go to a show at the Palace Theater. That she was helping to promote. Downtown. Huh. Strange.

From here: http://walker.columbusunderground.com/?p=572 <b>The COTA Challenge: Day One</b> Posted on April 11th, 2008 If you’ve read this blog before, then you’re probably aware that I’m a mass transit enthusiast. I really want to see Columbus develop a multi-faceted rail transit system over the next decade or so. It would be a huge economic boon for our region and would also help to alleviate some of the problems we’re going to be facing in another 10 years as gas prices continue to rise and our city continues to grow. In the meantime though, the only thing we’ve currently got is the COTA bus system. I mentioned recently that I wanted to put my money where my mouth is and ride more frequently now that our new neighborhood doesn’t have quite as much within immediate walking distance. Well, yesterday we finally made the jump and picked up our first monthly bus pass. Right now Anne & I are opting to share a single pass, as we have a single car that we share and just one pass should work just well to supplement our transportation needs. Let me preface my overly-detailed and boring anecdote by saying that I know COTA isn’t perfect. Everyone has at least one bad story to tell about busses running late. Everyone probably also has stories to tell about their cars breaking down. No machinery is perfect, so I don’t expect the bus system to be either. And neither should you. So anyway, last night I had a meeting up at the South Campus Gateway to get to. Normally not a bad drive. Six mile round trip from home. 15 minutes up, 15 minutes back. Parking isn’t much of an issue there either with the large parking garage costing only a single dollar. Instead I decided to try out the new pass and see how it worked (I’ve only ever used change or BuckID before to ride the bus, so this was sort of a new toy for me). I set out from home giving myself about 40 minutes to get to my destination (not really knowing how long it would take) and walked down to the bus stop near my house to wait for the #16 to come by. I used the timetables they have listed online to find out when it would be coming by, so I only had to wait outside for 2 minutes. It was right on time. The bus was maybe 25% full and the ride to High Street went quickly as nobody got on or off between my stop and High. The bus dropped me off right in front of the Elevator and I crossed the street to catch the next #2 heading north on High. The #2 runs in 10-20 minute headways around 6-7pm on weekdays, but I lucked out and only had to wait about a minute to hop on. If I had missed that one it would have cost me an extra 20 minutes of waiting. That’s seriously way too long for the most heavily used route in the city. I can already anticipate that happening in the future. I better make sure to always have my Nintendo DS with me. Anyway, the ride up High street was quick. Lots of people watching through the Short North on a nice spring evening. I hopped off at the Gateway with a total travel time of 20 minutes. Not bad at all. My meeting went fairly quick, and I walked across the street to the classy bus stop in front of the 7-11 to catch a ride headed back downtown. The #2 was running 2-3 minutes late, so I had to wait a total of maybe 4-5 minutes. Still not bad. Especially when it’s so nice out. After I boarded I consulted my timetables to see the best way to get home. My situation is a bit weird since I have three lines that run past my house, but two of them travel east on Long while another starts off at Nationwide before cutting down to Long at Cleveland Ave. Should I get off the #2 at Nationwide or at Long? After some calcuations I figured that my wait would be shortest getting off at Nationwide and waiting for the #11. The lines running down Long Street would result in an extra 15 minute wait. So I hopped off at Nationwide, crossed the street and waited on the #11. It arrived on time after a 3 minute wait. A quick ride delivered me back at home. Total ride back was 23 minutes. Again, pretty speedy. Luckily for you, I’m not going to go into this much detail with future reports of mass transit ridership. But I did want to provide as descriptive of a picture as possible for something that is an alien concept for many people in our city. COTA retains a somewhat negative public image, but it’s really not as bad as the hearsay. It’s a bit intimidating at first to have to figure out the routes and times, but so was learning how to drive when I was sixteen. I’d encourage anyone to give the bus a fair shot if they’re up for the challenge. It was actually sort of fun too. I expect both the fun and the challenge to wear off quickly, but I’ll still report back with more as the month continues.

I bought a bus pass last week. ;)

Or people can just go to AGORA on Saturday. It's like a gallery hop, but indoors! And with less suburbanites! And better art! :D

http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=8154702 <b>Skybus says pact over airplane leases will save $10 million</b> Associated Press - April 11, 2008 4:55 PM ET WASHINGTON (AP) - Skybus Airlines has reached a settlement agreement on airplane leases that will save the Columbus-based company $10 million. Skybus yesterday urged a court overseeing its bankruptcy case to approve the pact with Air Canada. A hearing on the matter is scheduled to take place April 28.

From here: http://bellringerblog.com/2008/04/10/huntington-park-update/ <b>Huntington Park update</b> Posted on April 10th, 2008 by Matt Barker <img src="http://bellringerblog.com/images/041008hp_02.jpg"> Above: In this photo, taken April 10, 2008, at 8:00 a.m., shows the progress being made on Huntington Park, the new downtown ball park in the Arena District. Below: Though not quite at he same level, this computer-generated model which also looks into the park from center field, and gives you an idea what the finished product will look like. <img src="http://bellringerblog.com/images/hp02.jpg">

I went last weekend to pick up a few items. Always a fun time, but dear GOD could they have put this in a more depressing location? Endless sightlines of suburban sprawl and industrial rust coming in from 275 and 75. I'm sure if they built it in Columbus instead it would have been located up near Polaris, which isn't much better. Just feels sort of ironic since IKEA's products seem to embrace more of an urban small-spaces lifestyle.

I guess you're right. It sucks that we don't have more video rental establishments. TRUTH!

PS: You should probably avoid going anywhere near the Arena District during any time of day as well. And if you must go there, be especially wary of anyone carrying concealed fists. http://www.nbc4i.com/midwest/cmh/news.apx.-content-articles-CMH-2008-04-09-0001.html NBC4: Making people paranoid since 1949.

From here: http://walker.columbusunderground.com/?p=562 <b>Some quick thoughts on the effects of Skybus</b> I decided to wait a few days to let the news of Skybus sink in before posting anything here about it. I have to admit that I was pretty pissed off when I caught wind of the obituary on Friday night. We had just gotten home from a nice dinner out with some friends, talking about our plans the following weekend to fly via Skybus to Chattanooga for a mini-vacation. And now not only has our flight been canceled, but the airline has informed us that we have to go through our credit card company for a refund, which could take awhile. But anyway, that's old news. What I'd like to know now is what the net effect that this airline will have had on our city when all is said and done. In the <a href="http://dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2008/04/07/skybus_bankrupt.html?sid=101">financial report</a> filed by Skybus during their declaration of bankruptcy it was mentioned that <em>The airline listed its liabilities as greater than $50 million to as much as $100 million. It pegged its assets as greater than $100 million to $500 million.</em> This came as a bit of a shock to me as I didn't think there would be a chance they'd wind up in the black after their assets were liquidated. If that's the case, then I'm not as mad as I thought I was. You see, during it's short 11-month lifespan Skybus spawned hundreds of articles about their service and about their <em>destination</em>, which was always Columbus for those cities they connected us to. There's a whole plethora of links to news stories and blog postings <a href="http://www.columbusunderground.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7863">located here</a> on Columbus Underground, and <a href="http://walker.columbusunderground.com/?p=361">more news here</a> (some of which may not be directly attributed to Skybus, but it helped on a lot of them). If you read through a few of these articles, you might notice that whether or not the authors had good or bad things to say about Skybus, they almost always had great things to say about Columbus. And that's what counts in the big picture. So yeah, I'm still bummed about not being able to take my two vacations to Chattanooga and Milwaukee this spring, but as far as our city stands, this airline wasn't a total loss.

+1

My problem isn't that they're measured per capita (although I'm not sure if they're using city population or metro area population) but that they're not measuring establishments with any weight in terms of quality or size... just quantity. Two small shitty museums shouldn't be viewed as better than one large excellent museum, no matter what cities we're talking about.

From here: http://walker.columbusunderground.com/?p=565 <b>Don Casto and Frank Kass hate Downtown Columbus</b> I think that would have been a much better headline for <a href="http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2008/04/07/ZONE0407.ART_ART_04-07-08_C10_DU9QVOI.html?sid=101">this Dispatch article</a> titled "Retailers shunning Downtown", because obviously, not all retailers are shunning downtown. Just these two guys. While I'm not going to go on a total rant like the guys over on <a href="http://www.columbusing.com/?p=711">ColumbusING</a> did (nice job BTW), I will say that I was disappointed to read the opinions of these speakers at this event last week. Their suburban developments contributed a lot to the demise of downtown retail, and their bleak visions of the future make it sound like they're going to continue to chase the money wherever's easiest. While downtown isn't going to be easy, it's not going to be impossible either despite what Casto & Kass might want you to believe. What is needed isn't a traditional retail approach. The anchor-stores of yesteryear are either going under or consolidating, so there's fewer of them to fill in the large spaces. Downtown retail needs to consist of smaller stores, more local developments, entrepreneurialism, and a creative energy that you can find in the Short North, but you can't find at Polaris. Once that's established, some of the retail chains will then tag along for the ride. Some people have also been quick to say that "retail follows rooftops", which to some extent is true. But the real problem with downtown Columbus retail is transportation. The streets have been reconfigured so that downtown is a place that's easy to drive into and park, work 8 hours, and drive home, all as quickly as possible. Pedestrian traffic has taken a back seat to the drivers and retail hurts because of it. Look at the way the "town center" portion of Easton is configured. The streets are a single car wide and the sidewalks are just as big on each side. It's much less intimidating to patronize stores there when you don't have a roaring highway (ie: Third St, Fourth St, Spring St, Main St, Long St, Front St, and on and on) 5 lanes wide with cars zooming 45 MPH next to you. If we want downtown retail to return we need to start by reconfiguring the environment to be something more pedestrian friendly. The Gay Street revamp is a good start. Let's get the rest of the streets done and the retail blanks can start to fill in by themselves.

You got nothin'. That doesn't mean the arts here are nothin'. :P Just my opinion, and one shared by the survey. Surveys aren't supposed to have opinions.

Probably for same reason that the same person would have had that gun on them at Easton or Polaris or anywhere else they went.

There is art to be found in some form in every neighborhood. You should go here on Saturday April 19th though for one of the best art events of the year: http://www.agoracolumbus.com

From here: http://walker.columbusunderground.com/?p=566 <b>The Columbus Partnership screwed up their homework</b> The Columbus Partnership <a href="http://dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/04/07/1A_LOW_ARTS.ART_ART_04-07-08_A1_R39RAIH.html?sid=101">released a report recently</a> that ranked Columbus <b>dead last</b> among 16 other cities in terms of arts and cultural establishments. That's right. Dead. Last. While I haven't gotten my hands on the full report, according to the Dispatch article, the qualification for an "arts or cultural establishment" ranges from museums and theaters to video rental stores and barber schools. It also mentions that these items were simply added up in terms of quantity, not size or quality. So if Nashville has two video rental stores, each with 10 dvds to rent, and Columbus only has one video rental store, but it's got 10,000 dvds to rent, well then that's a better scenario for Nashville according to The Columbus Partnership. I'm starting to believe that the <a href="http://www.columbuspartnership.com/">Columbus Partnership</a> played with the numbers on this report just to place Columbus in dead last. It's a bit of bad press initially, but it may cause a lot of people to rise up and work just a little bit harder to make Columbus a better place. Or at least I hope it does. Oh, by the way, the latest issue of AmericanStyle Magazine ranks Columbus as <a href="http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/life/stories/2008/04/08/2_ARTBIT08.ART_ART_04-08-08_D4_MQ9S2VM.html?sid=101">the 10th best city in the country for arts destinations</a>. So that that for what it's worth. <em>Update: I just got a <a href="http://communityresearchpartners.org/uploads/publications//Benchmarking%20Central%20Ohio%202007.pdf">link to the full report</a> (Wed Apr 9th 8:30pm). I'll have to spend some time reading over it when I get a spare moment. </em>

http://www.columbusing.com/?p=711 <b>Downtown Optimists vs. Grumpy Old Men</b> by Don Kass The Big Box Ass April 8, 2008 Last week I attended a meeting sponsored by the Urban Land Institute. The topic “Downtown Retail” and the panel, to be further recognized as “Don Kass the Big Box Ass” sparked my interest. Over 150 people attended the event at the Athletic Club of Columbus, home turf for DKBBA. What I thought would be valuable information for a small downtown developer turned out to be manipulation and political rhetoric by a few of the old city’ finest titans. I left the meeting passionately angry and decided that I was determined to prove these grumpy old men wrong. Obviously the story hit the Dispatch today and was an accurate account of DKBBA’s rhetoric. As a supporter of downtown and a member of the streetcar commission I was appalled at DKBBA’s assessment of the streetcar. It is obvious to me that they are completely uninformed about the streetcar, its goals, and the proposed funding plan. The Mayor, the streetcar commission and other transportation and economic development consultants continue to make it a point that this is not a trolley, but in fact a tram or a contemporary rail system designed to connect workers and residents in downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. Trolleys are historical rail cars that look like the fake ones that you see at Easton, the town center that has street names plagiarized from New York City. Why should it surprise us that a few fat cats who continue to replicate the same old shit, would have any confidence in revitalizing downtown. What it will take is young vibrant creative’s who think outside of the box. Human Capital combined with the city officials recognizing its value will save our downtown; much like the group who transformed a ghetto into the best urban arts, entertainment, and living neighborhoods in the country, “THE SHORT NORTH”. For the remainder of my rant, I am going to refer to DKBBA as The Big Ass because I think it will be easier for all to follow. The Big Ass said that there is not a market for retail in downtown because there are not enough residents, as there were in the 40’s and 50’s. Which is true…? If you look at the statistics, Downtown has continued to lose residents for 50 years….UNTIL NOW. Downtown lost residents to the suburbs in droves when THE ASS continued to build STRIP CENTERS and MALLS. It could be argued that THE BIG ASS helped destroy the market by inventing the strip center, the mall, and now the lifestyle center. Having said that I give them the benefit or the doubt, they were doing what made business sense and made them rich which I have no problem with, and believe their intention was not to kill downtown but only to make $. THE BIG ASS offered many negative comments but absolutely no solutions. It was as if they were attempting to create a negative campaign about downtown, so that they can drive down the values even more than they are and leverage the city for incentives so that they could swoop in and conquer. They continued to bash the Mayor and the city about its revitalization plan and the street car initiative. The recent funding proposal by Mayor Coleman was purposely misconstrued by the panel in an effort to bring negative publicity. The plan is clearly not a tax plan intended to hurt downtown developers or city taxpayers. The funding plan diverts existing parking meter revenue from the general fund to the streetcar. As a downtown business owner who has customers that fill meters by the hour, I think this is a positive use of these funds and would make our customers feel better that they were paying for something they may get benefit from. Secondly and why I think the BIG ASS is most disgruntled with the plan is that a 4% surcharge for all off-street parking near or on the line will be assessed. THE BIG ASS was recently a big lobbyist for two large parking garages, one which is basically a garage for his office. The Parking garage situation is a separate rant in itself and I will save you my fury…but I will say that the locations for the proposed garage will make it very easy for downtown workers to park, go to work, get in their vehicles and flee to the lifestyle centers after work…plus a little walk doesn’t hurt and might help cure our Midwestern obesity epidemic. The BIG ASS also forgot to tell us that THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY has endorsed the project and is paying a significant portion of the construction cost and has committed to assist in annual operating costs. The final funding mechanism is a surcharge on admissions. For example if you purchase a blue jackets ticket for $ 50.00, you will now pay $ 52.00 or if you go to the Broadway Series downtown you will be charged an additional 4%. Compared to other major metropolitan cities in our country these fees are low. In summary this is not a trolley meant for suburbanites and tourists to take joy rides as are the ones at our famous lifestyle center. Please understand that I think Easton is a wildly successful business venture, just not my cup of tea, nor has it been very friendly to the local independents who tried to make a go of it…PO furnishings, Modern Object, Mozart’s, and some of our other local favorites. These are the same people who were the pioneers in the short north. They were the guinea pigs who are now replaced by the large national retailers. They are also the same types we need to lure downtown to bring back the vibrancy and fill the vacant storefronts. THE BIG ASS told us that markets are made by TENANTS, TENANTS, TENANTS and that no tenants are calling them and asking to move downtown. I am sure that is true. But I propose this is because the tenants that are there customers are not fit for the downtown market. If I was Target, Cabellas, or Tiffany’s I would not move downtown yet either and if I was the BIG ASS I wouldn’t spend my time trying to fill the vacant spaces…but why persist on creating a negative perception about downtown. There are two options, we can change it or kill it. We can wait a lifetime for tenants to come or we can create a market. I choose to create a market and we do not need the endorsement of these voices of yesteryear. We need the energy, creativity, and focus of the people who want to live, work, and change downtown. It would be nice if the naysayers would take there agenda’s elsewhere and get out of the way and come back another day as they will and they did once short north was built by independent artists and entrepreneurs. We all can do our part by taking action….don’t rant about the problems start working on the solution. I had lunch with a local artist yesterday and he and his group of artists are taking aim at creating a working arts community in downtown. They want to be here….yes a prospective tenant. They continue to grow their existing community virally through taking action and never saying die. I suspect that in 20 years we will be saying remember when those artist landed on High Street in the rundown building owned by that absentee landlord and this will be just one of many tales. To make this happen we need the city, state, county and other non-profits to create incentives targeted at us and not targeted at the BIG ASS. If they don’t believe they can do it, then why make them a part of the team. I OFFICIALLY CAST MY VOTE IN FAVOR OF NAMING OUR NEW STREETCAR “THE BIG ASS”

This study is a load of crap. As already pointed out, they're not taking quality or size into consideration, just quantity, and their consideration for what counts as an "Arts Establishment" is way out of wack. Fewer Blockbusters per capita could just mean that more people in Columbus watch movies online or use Netflix. Either way, this has little to do with the overall impact on an art scene. You got nothin'. That doesn't mean the arts here are nothin'. :P

Really? Do you plan on hanging out in the garage at 3am? Just because two drunken kids got in a late-night fight doesn't mean the Gateway is an unsafe place for normal people during the day. I'm there at least once a week and I've never felt unsafe at all.

Interesting. Does this mean that they could potentially come out in the black after everything is paid up?