Just curious as to what you guys think would help raise awareness (or to just make people aware at all) about city living. For example, you have to seek out info on urban revitalization on your own as there's nothing on TV about it. I think for most people in this state they have no idea it's happening. Unless you've been to certain cities mostly in the east or west coast or traveled abroad you probably have no idea of what you're missing. Traveling to Spain opened my eyes; they know how to live. I just don't see why more people here wouldn't want to adopt a similar lifestyle.

I agree with you about people not realizing what type of urban living is available here in Ohio, or to be more specific, Columbus. I've been to Europe many times, my parents lived there until about 1983 or so. Most people there live in urban areas, and by that I mean central city areas. You dont find many people who live in "suburbs", or at least our defintion of it here in the States. We still have family over there (in Weisbaden/Frankfurt am Main, Germany) and every time they come to visit us, they are always amazed at how many people live in the suburbs and how much sprawl there is. I live in New Albany and they are amazed that we live in a pretty large house have neighbors who have (huge) estates, lawns, etc... In Germany it seems like, people with huge homes live out in the country or have a villa of some type.

 

I think a good way to get people to know is thru word of mouth and somehow advertising the advantages of urban living. Also, I think it also depends on some people willingness to search for information, I mean there is only so much that these developers can do.

 

I would maybe like to live in an urban setting such as Downtown, Victorian Village, Campus area, German Village, Franklin Park, Harrison West. Maybe my mom will once I move out and get married, then maybe me and my wife will.

After going to the Jackets game against Nashville last night, I can't help but think that the arena and surrounding district has been monumental in raising awareness of the advantages of urban living. Upon leaving the arena, many in the crowd looked up and commented on the new condos and apartments in the area, admiring how nice it must be to live so central to everything.

 

Something I believe would help continue the trend of finding homes in urban areas is through corporate recommendations, especially for those relocating to a new city. For example, a freshly-hired executive to AEP might be relocating to Columbus. To assist in his/her move, AEP should point to the advantages of living downtown or in the surrounding neighborhoods. The company could point out that their home would be within walking distance of their office, central to just about every activity in Columbus, and would be in a safe and functional area. This would also give more corporations more incentive to invest in the downtown area.

After going to the Jackets game against Nashville last night, I can't help but think that the arena and surrounding district has been monumental in raising awareness of the advantages of urban living. Upon leaving the arena, many in the crowd looked up and commented on the new condos and apartments in the area, admiring how nice it must be to live so central to everything.

 

Something I believe would help continue the trend of finding homes in urban areas is through corporate recommendations, especially for those relocating to a new city. For example, a freshly-hired executive to AEP might be relocating to Columbus. To assist in his/her move, AEP should point to the advantages of living downtown or in the surrounding neighborhoods. The company could point out that their home would be within walking distance of their office, central to just about every activity in Columbus, and would be in a safe and functional area. This would also give more corporations more incentive to invest in the downtown area.

The only problem with that is alot of the time a freshly-hired executive tends to have a family.  They are a little leary about the CBD and intercity schools and lack of yard to play in.  Also the streets are busy.  Basically, the Ohio CBD's need to offer alot more amenities and cosmo lifestyle to attract family style living in the city.

 

^In other words, the awesome CBD most overshadow the intercity schools and the lack of yard to play in. 

Your children don't have to have their own yard.  I have no yard, but my son is out at the playgrounds and parks (and the sidewalk) everyday.  My son has a great time meeting all the other children at the park, and I sometimes chat with the other parents. 

 

Also, from my observation, many of the historic Columbus neighborhoods do have yards, albeit, very small, but still enough for child play.  Fear of bad schools is also overblown.  Many cincinnati public schools do have poorly performing students, but the teachers are top notch, and my son will do fine there. 

 

Do you have a magnet schools program in Columbus? If so, they offer great options.

 

I wouldn't choose a central business district for raising children myself, but an inner city residential neighborhood with parks and shopping nearby is great.

One thing that has helped boost city living to Clevelanders has been the "Cool Cleveland" parties. Cool Cleveland is basically a weekly email newsletter that lists all the cool/cultural/funky events going on during that week. Every now and then, they'll have a party - usually based around a new residential project (the first I attended was at the Tower Press lofts, others have been at the Bingham Building, Rockport Square, etc.). The parties give people a chance to socialize and check out new living options in a festive setting which no doubt adds to the appeal. The turnout is usually in the hundreds so I would guess that in the crowd are a few potential prospects.

 

It also helps when those of us who live in the city show people some of the things that first attracted us. For example, my friend who lives in a small town came to visit - she and I hit some of the spots that I'm used to. She absolutely raved about places like the West Side Market, Tremont, etc. What really appealed was when I showed her how close I live to work. She has a 40-minute drive, and when she saw that it's possible to live IN the city, 5 minutes from work, and STILL be in a nice area - that made a big difference in how she saw things.

 

 

Your children don't have to have their own yard.  I have no yard, but my son is out at the playgrounds and parks (and the sidewalk) everyday.  My son has a great time meeting all the other children at the park, and I sometimes chat with the other parents. 

 

Also, from my observation, many of the historic Columbus neighborhoods do have yards, albeit, very small, but still enough for child play.  Fear of bad schools is also overblown.  Many cincinnati public schools do have poorly performing students, but the teachers are top notch, and my son will do fine there. 

 

Do you have a magnet schools program in Columbus? If so, they offer great options.

 

I wouldn't choose a central business district for raising children myself, but an inner city residential neighborhood with parks and shopping nearby is great.

Living in an intercity neighborhood is not a problem at all for an intercity family.  My arguement was based off of a family trying to live in a CBD of a large Ohio city.  As far as magnet schools in Columbus go, I don't know.  I am from Cleveland.  Sometimes I feal as though we need to think outside of this forum and ask yourself where you would live if you were not interested in urban developement.  When an individual is not into these topics and is "on the fence" about living in a CBD or an inner-ring suburb, that's when you know the CBD is doing great things.

The only problem with that is alot of the time a freshly-hired executive tends to have a family.

 

What I meant by "freshly-hired exec" was a person coming out of college (i.e. just graduated from Purdue and gets a mid-management position at Simons in Indianapolis). By in large, most college grads do not have a family yet and are looking for an affordable, fun, central location in which to live.

 

My arguement was based off of a family trying to live in a CBD of a large Ohio city.

 

I completely agree that it is difficult to make urban (especially downtown) living attractive to a family with small children. But then again, why does a city have to try and cater to them when there are pleanty of other population segments that are more than willing to move to the center city? I think a small part of why young adults and empty nesters gravitate towards downtown is because there aren't many kids. It all boils down to what the individual is looking for. If you want a nice cul-de-sac where the kids can ride their bikes without any supervision in a subdivision with several other families with children that has excellent public schools, then maybe an urban dwelling isn't right for you.

Since only one out of four households in this nation have school-age children, the issue of making the city more family-friendly is pretty overblown. Think about how many people at your workplace have school-age children (a better sampling can be had if you work in a large office, of course). Market your city first to those who can move without fear of the schools (even then that can be overblown, as there are some terrific magnet, parochial and charter schools in Cleveland). You repopulate and stabilize the city, provide jobs for parents, opportunities for more community activism and serve as better examples for young people. The learning environment is likely to improve as well.

 

Off subject, but you folks are killing me in your use of the word "intercity" -- "Intercity" refers to something that is between two cities (eg. "intercity bus service"). "Innercity" is something that is near the center of the city (eg. "an innercity neighborhood"). And, in the interest of prevention, the opposite of "intercity" is "intracity" meaning something that exists entirely within a city (eg. "an intracity rail service").

 

So endeth the lesson!

From my experience in Cincinnati...it all starts with the media.  It is true the media doesn't cover these stories that may be integral to getting people about the inner city.  In Cincy they cover Fountain Square, The Banks, the stadiums, OTR, etc. in a negative light.  While the suburban areas like Anderson Towne Center are with the largest Kroger ever are covered as being brilliant and progressive.  This couldn't be farther from the truth; I am not sure how to change this trend across America but it must be reversed.  Another interesting fact is that across the country crime has gone down while coverage of those crimes has gone up. :|

KJP, what you said is correct but considered blasphemy in the planning and community development community.  Everything must be family friendly!

 

My favorite argument that people use is "well what will happen when those young people get older and have children of their own?", to which I say "We aren't making new young people?"

I've been to Europe many times, my parents lived there until about 1983 or so. Most people there live in urban areas, and by that I mean central city areas. You dont find many people who live in "suburbs", or at least our defintion of it here in the States. We still have family over there (in Weisbaden/Frankfurt am Main, Germany)  .. In Germany it seems like, people with huge homes live out in the country or have a villa of some type.

 

Really...I have relatives in the Frankfurt am Main area too..north of the city in the Bad Nauheim/Friedberg area, and in Frankfurt proper..

 

What I noticed is that there is single family homes in suburbia there, but they are usually part of an expansion of a town or villiage....stand alone leapfrog subdivisions or houses are very very rare...the ones that I knew of where sort of manor houses from the old days...villas as you say. 

 

Of course the Germans have a very different view of urbanity and urban living than we do, seeing it more as a positive (though there is that "wohnen im grune" sentiment there, too).

 

@@@@@

 

I can only talk about Dayton, but its never going to happen in here, that the city becomes desirable to all but a small fraction of the local community.  A lot of that has to do with racial issues, class issues, taxes, poor schools, older and smaller housing stock, and an anti-urban bias within the people affluent enough to be able to purchase and restore older homes, and affluent in migrants...a bias which is reinforced by the local real estate community.

 

 

 

 

This is such a mutli-layered issue.

 

I've had conversations with people here in Columbus who have moved here from out-of-state and far more dense metropolitan areas.  From memory, here are some of the pluses and minus I have heard them observe about "city living" in Columbus....

 

PLUSES:

 

On-going construction of more downtown housing (including conversions of existing buildings)and in-fill housing in existing neighborhoods

 

Concentration of attractions in or near downtown: Arena District, planned new baseball park for the Clippers, live theater at Ohio and Palace Theaters, more music venues

 

Closeness walkability of "restoration" neighborhoods to downtown workplaces (German Village, Short North, Victorian Village, Italian Village, etc...)

 

MINUSES

 

Lack of modern public transportation (no light rail, poor bus system, poor connections to airport, no intercity rail service)... this is the criticism I hear the most.

 

Too much surface parking (occupying space that could be developed for housing or retail)

 

Good bike/pedestrian trails coming into downtown.... but very bike and pedestrian unfriendly once you are in the downtown

 

Inconsistent occupancy and condition of core downtown buildings (empty storefronts... some for a long time)

 

Lack of some basic retail needs: supermarkets, drug stores, dry cleaners.... perhaps not on the huge scale you'd see in the "burbs", but at least smaller versions that would fit in or near a downtown area.

Being family freindly isn't everything, but I want to live in a neighborhood that has people of all ages.  One of the wonderful things about european cities is the families and old people, everywhere.  From Italy, where families and teen all take their evening stroll, to England where mothers with their prams are at all the parks.  Our cities are meaner and less civil.  I am for changing this.  Most of the people on this board seem to be a bit younger than me, and I think your bias' are showing!

 

Getting back to the original issue of raising awareness of city living: 

This is very difficult.  You can't sell people a defective product.  If our cities are broken, then they need to be repaired.  The news will spread of it's own accord if lots of good things are happening in the city. 

 

30 years ago, the emphasis on city survival was offices, since they paid the income taxes.  However this push came at the expense of the retail and residential, which was decimated.  Today, I see corporate expansion in the burbs while residential is emphasized in the cities.  Following the residential, will be more retail (hopefully).  Maybe our cities will be more balanced places in the future decades.

My favorite argument that people use is "well what will happen when those young people get older and have children of their own?", to which I say "We aren't making new young people?"

 

True, and not every one wants a family when they get older, either. I have several coworkers who have been married (obviously not all to each other!) for number of years and have no desire to raise a family. He is considering buying a live-work unit in Cleveland's Chinatown with his wife of 15 years.

Who says you have to leave the city when you have kids, anyway?  In my opinion, suburbs (especially the newer ones) are terrible places to raise kids.  I think in a city, the kids have more social interaction with a diverse array of people, and learn independence a lot better.  Never mind the cultural and recreational opportunities that just don't exist in your typical subdivision or strip mall.

 

 

I think cities could be better than suburbs for children.  Could is, for the time being,  the operative word in most American cities.  And should, I suppose.  And would, as in "they would be better than the suburbs for raising kids if".  Crime rates and schools have to be improved to make most inner city neighborhoods the great places for people of all ages that they "should" be.

What I meant by "freshly-hired exec" was a person coming out of college (i.e. just graduated from Purdue and gets a mid-management position at Simons in Indianapolis). By in large, most college grads do not have a family yet and are looking for an affordable, fun, central location in which to live.

 

Well then I guess you mean me!  And I did just buy a condo downtown (brewery district) a few months back.  I've bragged about downtown living so much that I've even gotten a few of my coworkers to consider it.  Once we get 10k people downtown, I feel that the word of mouth advertising and energy in the city will be enough of an attraction in itself.  Now...will we be able to get the the 10k goal without really selling downtown to the masses?  Idonno.