GCrites

NBC (even local NBC) has been unwatchable during the buildup.

It's not even the good kind of seedy.

Enabled by leadfoot West Virginians and the state's lack of speed enforcement

Malls in Western WV wind up doing OK since the area isn't over-malled. Now the I-79 corridor is another story. I think they put a mall at every exit.

Extension on those two things: 1. The dome spent most of the '80s "Innnnn Jaaaaaiiilll" too if I remember right. 2. The Appalacian and Mid-South roadgeeks wax poetically about Cook Out constantly. I wasn't sure since many of them do the same about Wal-Mart. Do not go to the Gino's across the street. Also 35 minutes from Huntington to Charleston? What do you have now, a Bugatti?

Yeah and record labels now are like a lot of microbrews craft beers -- you think a label is small and independent but it's actually owned by the big guys.

For musicians it seems that until they are about 27 it's their chops that make the most difference. After that age, it's their ability as businesspeople that will keep them going and get them further.

It happens and people do win sometimes. They might get it down 10%, even 20% in the right circumstance.

I remember when I was little we were driving in DT Columbus and it struck me for the first time that there weren't many gas stations Downtown (at that time I think there were two, now there is one). I was all like, "What if we run out of gas????" freaking out like we were in Death Valley or something. Dad goes "There's gas right on the other side of the freeway"

Hmm, mostly Uncool Crescent. There are some strange philosophies at the Auditor's office sometimes. This makes me think they are all, "It's Columbus! You have to live here if you want a job! Doesn't matter if the part of town is Uncool." Or During the ~2007 reassessment "This strip mall where the HobbyTown that gcrites80s works at is near NEW ALBANY!" They are going to make tons of money! Let's get 'em!" Then within a few years the strip mall totally emptied out except for the bar since the rent ended up being so high. Whoops. They then lowered the property taxes in 2010 and the strip mall eventually filled back up again.

Also there's school district income taxes in many districts in Ohio that are distinct from the ones associated with property taxes. Some are collected by employers where with others you get a bill from RITA.

Yeah once the internet reached full adoption the gay bars in Columbus turned into everybody bars/restaurants and "gay" just became another theme like "sports" "Harley" and "Hipster-Lite".

It was an instant classic. "Crawl back in the butt from whence you came, you give poop a bad name "

Especially an outsider!

Once core Columbus gets its main lines, extensions paralleling some roads that are seriously Uncool such as Groveport Rd., Harrisburg Pike and West Broad would indeed be warranted. That gets you Grove City, Lancaster and West Jeff all on existing rail corridors. Several stops inside 270 on each would serve those folks.

The grimy stuff does have a place. Should it be front and center? Perhaps not unless you want to build your brand as such. It's interesting to see where the people who hang out in the grit wind up 20 years later though. A lot of those daily bar guys become top-performing salesmen. Punks have a strange knack for finding good corporate jobs as adults, followed fairly closely by the alternative rock crowd. Metalheads are a crapshoot.

Believe it or not, the Agronomy majors have quite the button-down reputation in farming. Of course that is in adulthood.

College isn't so much about bars for a lot of kids these days. More like video games, Magic the Gathering and Pokemon

The bro trucks with the wheels that look like barrels cut in half still come -- despite higher admission requirements.

You do have to drive through miles and miles of Uncool Crescent to get to the core areas if your trip originates outside of 270 anywhere from west side I-70 to all the way up to 670. These once vital areas contain a lot of workforce housing but very little in the way of destinations or anything outside of very basic services such as gas and convenience foods. And much of it is post-1960 which is tough to revive or redevelop to meet current proclivities.

Rail transit can also be important to immigrants especially if they didn't drive back in the old country.

I have not since the lines were added but have seen enough discussion about them and looked at the layouts on maps/streetview to know that they are indeed mediocre in most cases.

No. But it wouldn't be as hot. And there would be more gaps.

They do move because of "vibe" which is more difficult to have without rail transit. For us saying "rail transit" doesn't sound clinical but "vibe" suffers without it.

I'm not speaking for everyone. Different personality types look for different amenities. For some no rail transit is a "hard no" whereas for others it's not. But when people who value good urbanism and have a choice of where to live rail transit is indeed important, even if they don't use it often. This is due to the walkability and mixed-use development patterns rail transit leads to. You can build mixed-use but without rail transit and walkability in the "retail" component of it you're way more likely to only get taprooms, hair salons, offices and storage in them rather than the funky stuff and full range of businesses that keep people alive that you see when there's rail transit. We got lucky with the Short North that we got several blocks of something approaching that without rail transit but it took an enormous amount of work, unbelievable turnover and 30+ years to get there. I don't think Columbus has had a decline year for a long time, but it's native retention rate could be a lot better.