TH3BUDDHA

I took a trip out to Denver on Amtrak and the boarding process blew my mind. I went in expecting it to feel like flying, but was way off. I boarded at the "station" in Elyria. I put that in quotes because I almost couldn't find it because I was looking for a building, but it is actually just a small elevated platform by a parking lot. I later learned that this is what most pick up locations look like outside of big cities. Just looks like a bus stop. The train pulled up in the middle of the night(it was like 1.5 hrs late for a departure time that was scheduled for 3am-ish) and a person jumps out of the door to check your ticket. At that point, I got on the train with a huge bag of luggage(backpacking/camping equipment) no questions asked. There were a couple Amish guys getting on as well with gigantic camo backcountry backpacks that I assume contained hunting equipment. If you are looking for a quick, convenient trip, Amtrak doesn't really provide that. You regularly stop and wait for long periods of time for freight trains to use the track and are often very behind schedule. Would I recommend trying it? Absolutely. I plan to do a major trip around the country at some point. You see things you wouldn't if you flew/drove and it was fun just hanging out in the observation car.

Yea, I figured the building will actually appear "done" long before it actually opens. Especially at the rate they're working and the core about to start going vertical.

Yea, we were also approaching the threshold that they deemed necessary to justify beginning the terminal expansion. Seems like that's probably going to be off the table for a while now, unfortunately depending on how travel rebounds. It will probably depend heavily on the long term effects to business travel and if companies will permanently cut back on business travel after this.

This is most likely why the All Aboard Ohio director mentioned that development has made the route "too narrow" to revive the old Union Station location.

You clearly haven't been around for some of the more intense inter-city spats on this forum. The fact that you said it is "slowly" growing could have easily been interpreted as a slight that Columbus is growing faster or something. These kind of things lead to arguments on here all the time. Not calling you out. Just giving you an FYI on how some things can lead to petty arguments on this forum.

At the city council meeting, the director of All Aboard Ohio mentions the need to find station locations in Columbus. He specifically mentions that the original Union Station(the Convention Center) probably won't work because development has narrowed the route too much. He specifically mentions the Arena District as an option. I'll link the specific location in the video, but his whole part is a pretty good listen. He talks about Amtrak's interest in a Chicago - Columbus - Pittsburgh route and the potential for Columbus to become a hub for Ohio and surrounding states.

So, in the video of the council meeting, the All Aboard Ohio director brings up potential station locations. He mentions that the original Union Station location(where the Convention Center now is) probably won't work because it has become too developed and narrowed. He mentions the Arena District as an option.

That will be so cool to swim up there during summer festivals and stuff on the Scioto Mile. Not to mention prime Red White and Boom viewing.

Future Amtrak Station location for the Amtrak expansion just announced? One can dream, right?

I would agree, but they didn't cut down 100 percent of the trees. Just like 95 percent. They left some really big ones pretty regularly spaced. Is it possible this could be used as green space from Neil? I forget who owns it. It looked like they had possibly planted grass, but I'm 0 percent sure about that.

I was driving on 670 and noticed they had cleared out the trees along Vine St. I don't think it means anything, it was just very noticeable with it being so open. I pulled off and turned down Vine from Neil, and you can see the stadium driving on Vine now. I wonder if maybe there were some homeless camp problems in there that they wanted to clear out.

Yea, we're going to need you to set up a livestream from your window. Lol

Wonder if we'll see any movement on this soon now that things are picking up over there.

It's insane how built up 5th is about to be in a few years

Couldn't get a pic driving by, but things actually started today. Even more equipment on site and two drills were working. One of the drills was right at the corner of Broad and the tracks. So, where the 12 story building is set to go. Feels like things are really getting set to heat up this summer around Columbus.

According to one of the southside commissioners, no: Hopefully he's right.

The infill on the East side right now is just crazy. Driving around over there, grass lots all over the place are being eaten up by small apartment complexes, condos, and new single family homes.

I haven't personally seen them in the neighborhood. I did see a little old man putting the fliers on doors one weekend.

You guys will get a kick out of this: Foes of "whale" apartment project near German Village ready for possible legal fight "A while back, someone made comments that putting this 262-unit apartment complex on parking lot would be like putting a whale in a pond — it just doesn’t fit," explained John Clark, a German Village resident who is among those opposing the apartment development. So neighborhood residents opposed to the project are wearing whale costumes as they periodically walk the area to solicit support for their cause. Another walk was held Saturday. "People have gone all out, people with whale hats, facemasks. An inflatable whale travels with us," said Regina Acosta Tobin, a real estate agent and German Village resident who is one of the leaders of the resistance movement, now called Neighborhoods for Responsible Development. ... Meanwhile, about 25-30 people have donated to the cause of retaining a zoning lawyer to possibly fight the Pizzuti project, Tobin said. More here: https://www.thisweeknews.com/story/news/2021/03/29/pizzuti-apartment-project-money-lawyer-whale-walk/6963385002/

You seem pretty certain here. Do you have some inside knowledge of the situation or is this just personal feeling? Not trying to call you out or anything, I just forget which forumers have some inside connections on the local development scene and I'm trying to calibrate my excitement meter.

I don't know. If they come out and say they want to add "iconic Oreo packaging" to this building, I'll probably find that pretty meaningful.

Obviously joking, but I do seem to recall that there was an article where they were talking about how they wanted this to be an iconic addition to the skyline. Maybe I'm wrong. Also, who knows what their definition of "iconic" is, though.

Just FYI, the article wasn't reporting that the building will cost $130 million in total, just that $130 million was earmarked for it in the 2019 bond package. To my understanding, it may cost more. According to another article: "Much of the construction would be funded by the $1.03 billion bond package that voters approved last year, which included $130 million earmarked for the courthouse project." https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2020/01/23/city-county-exploring-plan-for-new-downtown.html

On a scale of Millenial Tower to Hiltion 2.0, what is the likelihood that we ever hear about this again? Also, I apologize in advance to anybody that saw activity in this thread and got excited, only to come here and see this lame comment.

I just happened to be looking through the Harmony Tower thread and you were very supportive of that project because of the height. Based on what you're saying here, I'm not sure why you would support that building. While 30 stories, only the top 15 will be condos with the bottom 15 being hotel. The developer mentioned that the number of condos will depend on buyers and that it's possible that entire floors will be one condo with a maximum potential of 3 per floor. So, we could potentially only see 15 housing units from that building with a max of 45. That project would do very little to increase housing units, will add very little density, and it certainly won't do anything for affordable housing. So, why would you support it other than its height? You could pack a lot more people on this same parcel into a smaller building with smaller apartments, but, if that happened, you would complain that the density isn't enough because it isn't taller, even though it would provide more density than Harmony Tower. I think this is the primary reason people get annoyed with these comments about height sometimes. It seems like people get fixated solely on height without even taking density into consideration. While you're saying all of those other things, it seems that you really just want a tall building because it's cool.