DTCL11

I fly Delta once or twice a week and Concourse C is never bursting at the seams. Flight are full but there's still so much space unused there. There are certain operational changes that could be made in the meantime to alleviate the Southwest Terminal bursting at the seams but contracts may impact that and airlines may be upset if Columbus were to start swapping gates. But even some newer terminals I've seen, the gates areas aren't much bigger. A big trend right now is to increase the shared amenity spaces to draw people away from sitting at the gate so long and spend more money on retail and food. I always ask myself about bathrooms at some airports, "we build roads for max capacity during a brief specific time of day? Why don't they do the same for bathrooms?' The newest trend in airport bathrooms: stall occupancy lights on the cielings. Like the parking garages at Easton. I'll still never understand why even a modest elevated walkway to connect concourses has never been an option even for a temporary solution until the new concourse is built. Seems like a connecting walkway should have been a solution even 10 years ago. At least B and C for the major traffic and leave A for smaller airline traffic. I'm really excited for a single terminal and all the people used to 10 minute or less security times not realizing that a single entry security check point is gonna change that real fast. Gonna be a few missed flights if folks arent careful 🤣 And if the new terminal can have a large runway viewing area like Seattle, I'll be an even happier traveler.

It's a garage so I'm not gonna spend to much time praising it but the stairwells throw the whole aesthetic off. Why not just brick the entire face or at least go with a different 'field brick custom blend' there? Or something more aestetic than exposed concrete. Ultimately, it's hidden so it's not a big deal bit still an odd choice.

That implies they won't look creepy pulling a giant slingshot 😉 Edit: I can't find where the hands were part of the plan?

Is @wpc88 the one with the inside insight to NRI? Someone on here has an inside connection to one of the developers and drops the occasional hints and I can't remember who and who.

Inside joke or not, y'all be sleeping on the Ft Wayne Skyline.

There's got to be a version of Godwin's law that applies to comparing skylines.

They also chose that location for other strategic reasons including proximity to the largest Ohio Health facility and many other outpatient facilities, ability to build lower cost short buildings across a larger campus than a mid-high rise, ability to expand, and create a larger health campus in the future. I'm not particularly bothered by their decision. They made it pretty clear when they announced it why they didn't opt for downtown.

I would have sworn there was a rapid 5 thread but couldn't find it. Anyway, I hope that we see success with the COTA levy. Then once the Rapid 5 plan is more solid, we might see a similar parks and rec levy that would be intended to be transformational and be applied to making it happen. Some of the Rapid 5 Project is just fluff, but there are some really cool concepts within it but it's all going to require significant funding. Without it, it's like any other study or interest group. The good news about the COTA levy is that should it pass, some of the fund contribute to crossover Rapid 5 goals. One criticism that applies to both the Rapid 5 and LinkUS plans are that they still lack a truly comprehensive East/West strategy beyond simplistic 'expand bike boulevards' etc. They touch on it but it's not enough. It's also not entirely unheard of though. Even a city like Chicago still struggles with a comprehensive east/west plan. Crazy Idea. Connect Morse and Bethel finally but only for pedestrians, bikes, and busses and connects many of the 5 on the north. Re envision all of Morse/Bethel. And the residents might be less resistant than the prior plans since it wouldn't be general traffic and in theory, wouldn't require as much of a right of way as prior auto centric proposals. 🤔

High street has no bike lanes. Sharrows don't count as biking infrastructure. Period. I live in the most well connected bike Corridor in the city and bike as much as I can and I will still say the bike infrastructure in Columbus is mediocre at best. The only time I dare high street is in the morning before traffic even starts. And getting east/west is even more miserable. The gains Columbus makes are modest at best. I'll say what I said in the COTA thread before. Columbus, Central Ohio, and state leaders are so focused on 2050 that they lose the sense of urgency for the now. We spend so much time thinking about 'what are we going to need in the future' rather than 'what shoukd we have already had or need now'. It really isn't rocket science anymore. It's a matter of putting them into motion. These things need to have happened to serve the residents now and attract growth now. As for other cities, there's always many factors at play but I will say that compared to other peer cities, of which I have spent alot of time in covering significant portions of the cities over periods of multiple weeks, part of the reason Columbus is losing out is Columbus is so afraid to make those bold moves on a larger scale that might inconvenience cars or car centric residences and businesses that others aren't. There's no reason that the summit and 4th project should be the ONLY fully dedicated and protected bike lanes in the city more than 6 years later. That's not a highlight or accomplishment to tout anymore. Other than a small section downtown, Columbus has failed to adopt bus only lanes which is common practice. We are still terrified to shut down High Street in the Short North during Gallery Hop instead giving cars 5x the amount of space during the biggest pedestrian events of the year. The Short North cap. It was a first of its kind in the country. Cities from all over came to see it and study it. It took almost 20 years for us to get any semblance of another. In the meantime other cities have been running circles around Columbus building entire parks with pavilions, buildings, etc. The best we can do anymore is the addition of some greenery while we add 6 lanes of car traffic. 'Cap Capable' isn't enough. We are bold enough to re-envision a river but not bold enough to re-envision the river of cars that divide our core whether it's 70/71/670/Broad St etc. Columbus has a track record of doing some small scale projects successfully but it has not been good at scaling up. I'll post this again from 2010. Mods, can we get a CDDC Strategic Plan thread?

You can't grow if you don't let folks build. Build all the bike lanes and sidewalks you want, but no new units means no growth. And that's the idea. Keep (insert neighborhood) Exclusive.

The biggest hurdle to and from the airport has and will continue to be right of way. The rail from the airport to downtown should be a fast and direct line. The fastest and most direct route to downtown is 670 or rail line and without ODOT or CSX etc providing that right of way, the next options are going to be Broad or 5th and those won't provide an express route for visitors or residents. Or if it is an express, why put a rail on Broad or 5th that largely skips the residents? Would visitors and residents ride a rail that that 1. Have to get downtown for and 2. Have to spend 30ish minutes on for local stops when an uber is 12 minutes? I have many beefs with COTA and the city on Transit, but this, like amtrak, isn't a city or COTA thing. It's an ODOT and Private Rail issue. Unless the city starts to argue for eminent domain but I'm not sure that works against ODOT or freight lines. I think at best we could hope that COTA and ODOT work out a method of BRT with a separate dedicated lane (that can't be blocked by a disabled vehicle like the shoulder) and flyover bridges much like portions of Minneapolis's BRT. A pie in the sky idea would be an elevated rail line above 670 or the rail lines. The cost of which for that distance might exceed what is reasonable for an airport to downtown connector.

This is most likely going to come across as unfavorable to many but this all seems very performative to me. At this point city leaders, developers, and residents know what is needed and desired downtown. Much of the presentation is very much them stating what needs to be done. To me, the survey reads more like a quiz than an actual ideas survey. So, there's going to be alot of dog and pony show to create a list of things they been done knew and maybe a few pet projects. They could just take half of the last 2 plans and finish those goals. But we will go through all of this process for community buy in? I guess I'm also not sure what the end goal of such a lengthy process is to come up with the same information and goals well known to everybody and a small list of wants, many of which have almost certainly been discussed by the CDDC as well. What is the end game here? How many strategic plans will need to include transit and a pedestrian bridge from Arena District to the Peninsula before it happens? Better transit options? More housing. Less parking lots, etc. Do we need a year worth of meetings to say the same things we have been saying for 20 years at this point? At best the survey seeks to identity some new park locations or ideas for the 3rd cultural spot on the peninsula but the rest is just rote repetition of the downtown goals or general good urban design practices. The biggest questions they ask for input on have answers and they know them. Here folks, 'play around with street design and you can see what fits in some of our very own streets'. Ok, but are you going to ACTUALLY do anything about the complete streets or continue to prioritize cars, whether or not the urban development needs like us show up to these meetings and push for it? I'm all for the plan. But I suppose I'm more of a 'just publish your priorities and be done with it' than the current process. Also interesting to see the CDDC jump on the warehouse district branding. I'm not anti-warehouse district. Just interesting how that has kind of taken off as a thing so quickly. Also, perhaps this needs it's own thread. The random thread is getting a bit hefty IMO.

9 Bridge parks = +/- 63 Skywalks. Better place that order now.

Land Value and Outside money. It's coming. We are seeing it. For a long time, Columbus was a local developers market. As outside developers come into the market it *should* push demand. There's no incentive for Arshot to build Millenial Tower. They paid pennies for that land decades ago. When a developer starts buying small properties for millions we will see towers rise faster.

I figured it out. It's not super hero. It's Warner Brothers. And with 'Stark World'..... I'm getting some Animaniacs vibes.

Sintel Hotels The phone number matches the Holiday Inn on ORR. The properties and inventory listed are consistent with what I found earlier. They also say they have some retail locations. They ambiguously highlight some retail near Polaris and have a list of retail partners. So I assume they are the owners of those buildings.

Living and retail > than hotel Stark Superhero-esque logo > Borror crest Well, I'm glad to see that Stark appears to be choosing the site to expand their portfolio from hotel. 🙌 Now we wait...

This was always a concept with soft targets but nothing ever solid. The TMUD was going to help push it further up on the timeline I think, but we never saw the full details that I recall. I believe the forces that be will support a decent tower on the peninsula with or without TMUD. It might not be multiple like some prior concepts but the city, CDCC, and the developers have all been pretty consistent in their desire for something big at some point.

The Nicholas was also really lazy. It's still monolithic and didn't play enough with scale, set backs and designs to truly be effective in their attempt to 'break it up' We have seen 2 proposals that come to mind that would probably fit the bill but neither came to fruition in favor of monolithic architecture. Adjustments like the Nicholas tried or the updates to the King and High Proposal aren't enough IMO if you're trying to play with that scaling to get the feel that I agree with you on. I'm just less worried about floor plates lining up. The IBEW proposal and Summit and 5th from way back when offered that. And this is honestly the type scale and intent that should have replaced the Giant Eagle in German Village (not necessarily 15 stories like IBEW but I wouldn't have opposed it lol)

I think that speaks more to the laziness of developers as well. You can develop entire megablocks without it looking that way but they don't. And commissions haven't been super great about pushing hard for that.

I think 'eyesore' is a bit strong coming from Encova being worried about the aestetic of a building next to a parking garage ramp... It will be interesting to see how much the city stands against this for not having immediate plans to replace the building when at least Pizutti presented a 3 year concept that sits on the corner of 2 glorified alley streets in the vicinity of other parking lots, not visible from main streets while requiring none of the same for Main Bar. Not to sound conspiratorial but what weight does Schiff hold that Puzutti doesn't? FTR, I lean toward letting it stand until the actual plans are presented. Nothing about the current building begs to preservation but nothing really seems to warrant demolition until it's time to build. Admittedly, the other factor that might be in play here is leasing terms. If Pizutti isn't sure when they might start construction exactly, then I can see why they might want to end the leases now and tear it down so it's ready if they are in 12 months or 36 months. I think if they presented it that way, I might also be ok with it. And this goes back to city zoning etc, I wish the city could enact financial disincentive if it doesn't get developed. So if they don't have a plan for approval in 3 years, they owe the city in financial penalties. I know we aren't set up that way but it would be nice. I might also bet that we see Pizutti complete the project before we even see a proposal for the Main and High space or the former Marconi and Spring/Long garage lot. Edit: and maybe it's the naivete/idealist in me, but I'd think that for something like this, there would be more willingness and demand for some sort of land deals, contracts, etc to develop some of these small lots. I can see where large lots owned by families making bank on a surface lots might be harder to acquire (again without city disincentive) but I guess I would be trying for some sort of deal if I was Egan or Kramer and/or Pizutti for a non income generating surface lot. If the builder can guarantee me the same, or better for parking/storage/commercial with guarantees of unimpacted operations... I'd be signing on some dotted lines. Some of it goes to ingenuity and creativity I suppose and I've found that Columbus doesn't seem to demand it as much as other places right now. Perhaps it just hasn't been worth it yet whereas in some other places, developers can get pretty creative with design and deals to maximize space.

They delivered them to the wrong development. Bridge Park has been wondering where their next shipment of Skywalks went for days now.

Cbusorbust out here giving themselves their own hard hat tours 🤣 Awesome set of pics

If it wasn't for the BRT plan, I would 100% agree. But with the city specifically identifying ORR as the NW corridor and to be up and running by 2030 (which I have doubt will happen in time), then it's not acceptable to me that something like this should be built or that ORR from Goodale to Kinnear should be accepted as is. The city should be simultaneously updating zoning for this corridor as they implement the BRT plan to prevent any more of this along the stretch. Why bother discussing or planning a BRT on ORR if we resign ourselves to it's just a suburban feeder? I think we should expect good urbanism here if this is going to be one of our first 2 high capacity transit corridor. If we don't expect and demand that, and developers aren't hanging their hat on it, what are we transporting in high capacity? A handful of apartment complexes, perhaps some single family home users? Otherwise, I'd roll my eye at it but not really care like ChickFilA replacing Teejays at Morse and High.

I'm glad to see they are upping the ambition with a goal of having more completed by 2030 than previously detailed. That's good news. I'm skeptical about the levy. I think it may be a hefty uphill battle. The zoo has easily passed Levies by great margins but when a project that was perceived as a special project to benefit a limited number of people, it was handily defeated by opposite margins than the prior and subsequent renewals. Granted, voters tend to be a bit more defensive with a property tax levy vs a sales tax. With an even wider base of voters subject to a COTA levy, there's a greater chance that those same forces may be at work when it comes to 'why should I have to pay for something that isn't going to benefit me?'. Especially without more detailed plans for connecting some of the outer reaches. I'm less concerned about the current economic factors playing a part. I think the previous point will play a larger part. I'm inclined to believe the number of people who think about it from an inflationary spending standpoint will be less impactful than the 'what do I get out of it' group. Indy Passed with a 58/42 (ish) margin in 2016. The results of the Marion County Transit levy were nearly identical to the presidential D / R+L+I split vote for the county. Good news is, the general D/R split in Franklin county is more favorable, but COTA voting territory spills over those borders. So the base is there for a likely passage, but the 'what do I get out of it' and zoo scenario comes back in. If it fails, it seems that there is no alternative. Early articles seems to indicate that the BRT programs hinged on it. Even when the timeline showed trying to get just 1 route online by 2029 and starting the other even as late as 2028, they seemed to indicate that the whole project would be in limbo without the sales tax. I believe it was mentioned that LinkUS was dodgy about it in their CU podcast interview(?) Federal funding hinges on this vote. A failure here would be similar to the turn of the century rail plan. Columbus had the plans. They had the approval from the federal government. But couldn't get voters to approve the needed funding to get federal funding. The feds will not contribute anything unless the municipalities funding piece is guaranteed. Granted, I believe that transit is much more important to voters at large than it was 20 years ago so there is some good news there. I think one of the awesome pieces of this plan is $61m annually through 2050 specifically dedicated to sidewalks, trails, biking infrastructure, etc getting to and from the BRT. It's an excellent detail, that hopefully combined with other funding sources could mean great things for perpendicular connectivity. I still don't get the CBUS issue. It was also a factor in parking pressures. I know so many people who would park at the statehouse and take the cbus up for gallery hop, comfest etc. Or use cbus to go to dinner in the Short North before a show etc. It was a great bus. If they're going to bring back airport connect for events even with staffing and funding issues, why cbus for major events isn't part of that confuses me. CBUS could even just be rebranded as a special events circulator. So on Gallery Hop it might follow a similar path it used to but for things like Pride, ArtFest, Jazz&Ribs it can be adapted with special access to shuttle folks. My one complaint about cbus was that it got snarled in traffic on gallery hop. I still dream of a day of limited vehicle access in the Short North to allow a more pedestrian and transit friendly experience. It would definitely take some thought and planning but there is potential there to be more open to road closures for events like some other cities.