Posted March 15, 200916 yr <a href="http://www.columbusunderground.com/statehouse-to-kickballers-get-off-our-lawn">Statehouse to Kickballers: Get Off Our Lawn</a> By Walker | March 11, 2009 2:01pm <img src="http://www.columbusunderground.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/kickball.png"> For the past few years, the Ohio Statehouse lawn has been home to the Capitol Crossroads downtown kickball league where office workers, young professionals, and downtown residents have all been able to converge and participate some friendly intramural activities. But word has been handed down from the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board (the organization that operates the Ohio Statehouse) that the kickballers are not going to be as welcome in 2009 as they once were. They felt that the grounds had been too trampled and want to see fewer games, fewer teams, and potentially a relocation of the playing area. The Ohio Statehouse Lawn is one of the few large grass field gathering places in the core of downtown big enough for activities such as this. I guess we collectively need to decide which is more important: maintaining a pristine grass plot that is untouched by the public, or providing the public with a gathering spot that actually gets utilized. If you’ve got an opinion to voice, you can contact William E. Carleton, the Executive Director at the Ohio Statehouse at [email protected] or 614-752-9777.
March 15, 200916 yr Let the kickballers stay. This would be great to see happening in any downtown. Why try to get rid of it?
March 15, 200916 yr Here's a copy of an article I wrote that was rejected by Columbus Monthly in 2004, about the time the kickball league was getting started: On a sunny afternoon in mid-June, power-brokers, politicians and the press crowded into a room on the 35th floor of the Huntington Center, where floor-to-ceiling windows looked over the downtown bend in the Scioto River. They were there to hype the Scioto Mile, a grand plan for parks on both sides of the river, with a $30 million, tree-lined promenade along Civic Center Drive between Battelle Park and Bicentennial Park as Phase I of the plan. “Parks define a neighborhood,” said city councilman Kevin Boyce, as he and others said that with a growing downtown population, people will need a park. But wait a minute. If those couple dozen people had looked out the window on the other side of the building, they’d have seen a seven-acre park smack dab in the middle of downtown. Has everybody forgotten the Statehouse lawn? Until about 15 years ago, the Statehouse grounds was a bustling downtown park: a place to play, relax, sunbathe, toss a Frisbee, eat lunch, wait for a bus or kill time while taking a break. It was a classic public space, a much smaller version of the National Mall in Washington. But today it is a quiet expanse of green, defined by sidewalks and statues, and occasionally protesters or patriots. What happened? “Learned behavior,” suggests Keith Myers, a landscape architect and principal in the MSI planning and design firm. When the old Statehouse grounds was torn up for new trees and landscaping in 1990, Columbus lost its downtown park. When work was completed, the lawn was initially roped off. That made sense from a horticultural standpoint, but not a public-space standpoint, Myers said. As a result, a lush lawn was able to take firm root. But new habits also took root. The subservient Columbus civic psyche makes people reluctant to step off the hot Statehouse sidewalks and onto the cool grass. People still obey long-gone “Keep off the grass” admonitions, just as they still wait obediently at downtown Don’t Walk signs, even on sleepy Sundays with no cops around. Ronald Keller, executive director of the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, agrees with the “learned behavior” explanation, but wants people to unlearn perceptions such as those of Lou Jannazo, who has worked downtown 25 years with the Ohio Rail Development Commission and other agencies. “There’s no signs or anything, but you feel you shouldn’t be on the grass,” Jannazo said. “To throw a Frisbee or run in the grass, you feel like the state troopers would be there.’’ That’s a far cry from the 1980s, when flying discs and sack lunches were the norm. “People would take their shoes off and sit on the grass, enjoying the sun, using it like a lawn,” he said. “It was the downtown Oval,” recalls Aris Hutras, who has worked in and around the Statehouse for over 30 years. Like the Oval at Ohio State University, the Statehouse lawn “was busy all the time,” Hutras said. “It wasn’t exactly Beach Blanket Bingo, but people would catch a few rays, or hang around and throw Frisbees. It was a destination spot for lunchtime – or for siestas. You knew you could find your own space on the public space. “Now, the spontaneity seems to be missing. People just need a history lesson to see what it used to be.” A summer kickball league on the Statehouse lawn may restore the greenspace to its long-lost luster as the downtown Oval. The Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District organized the league as part of its weekly Party on Pearl event to showcase downtown and keep bureaucrats around after quitting time on Thursdays. It’s reminiscent of the Rally in the Alley after-work parties on Pearl Alley in the late 1970s and 1980s. Cleve Ricksecker, director of the district, said the kickball games are not the first attempt to get people to use the lawn. A few years ago, the district made Frisbees, bocce balls and other lawn toys available on Tuesday and Thursday lunch times to promote frolicking, but the efforts faded. He thinks shorter lunch hours and concern about over-exposure to the sun may be as significant as the renovation in changing the way people use the lawn. “People think differently than they did 15 or 20 years ago,” he shrugged. But then Ricksecker admits to being among those who, even 20 years ago, shunned the Statehouse lawn in favor of a bench in the shade. In 1980, up to 8,000 people a day relaxed, played, ate and attended concerts on the Statehouse lawn, said Joel Flint, curator of the Statehouse education and visitor center. He hopes to finish a history of the statehouse lawn in August and has a trove of pictures showing past activity. “There’s a picture from 70s in which the lawn is absolutely covered with people eating their lunches. I haven’t seen that since the renovation,” he said. But people – and animals – have come and gone since the Statehouse was completed in 1861. In the early years, neighborhood people would bring their cows to graze there. The lawn was not mowed regularly and people would make hay from it, Flint said. It wasn’t viewed as an urban park until the 1870s, when it became a mowed and manicured gathering place. But even in the 19th century, there were keep-off-the-grass curmudgeons. The superintendent of the grounds in the 1890s once cancelled performances by a tightrope walker crossing from the Statehouse to the old Neil House hotel because so many people trampled the grass to get a good look. Flint said there were cyclical 20th century attempts to keep people off the grass. He also noted that today’s kickball games follow volleyball, badminton and shuffleboard games instituted by Gov. James Rhodes in 1977. In those same years, the Columbus Arts Festival was held on the lawn and included concerts by such local acts as McGuffey Lane. That kind of activity sounds good to people who are moving downtown. “The kickball leagues are a good start,” said Kevin Wood, president of the Downtown Residents Association and owner of a condo a block away from the Statehouse. “I see some people using the lawn on weekends. It would be great for them to promote that it is ours to use.” Capitol Square is a 10-acre block with seven acres of park and three acres of building. And Keller, overseer of the grounds, is as eager as anybody to see the lawn again teeming with lunch-hour sun-worshipers and afternoon athletes. “That’s what it’s here for,” he said. “People used to keep a beach towel or small blanket in a desk drawer, get a lunch to go and eat on the grounds. The grounds were in awful shape back then. Now it’s in great shape and people don’t take advantage of it.”
March 15, 200916 yr Here's a copy of an article I wrote that was rejected by Columbus Monthly in 2004, about the time the kickball league was getting started: On a sunny afternoon in mid-June, power-brokers, politicians and the press crowded into a room on the 35th floor of the Huntington Center, where floor-to-ceiling windows looked over the downtown bend in the Scioto River. They were there to hype the Scioto Mile, a grand plan for parks on both sides of the river, with a $30 million, tree-lined promenade along Civic Center Drive between Battelle Park and Bicentennial Park as Phase I of the plan. “Parks define a neighborhood,” said city councilman Kevin Boyce, as he and others said that with a growing downtown population, people will need a park. But wait a minute. If those couple dozen people had looked out the window on the other side of the building, they’d have seen a seven-acre park smack dab in the middle of downtown. Has everybody forgotten the Statehouse lawn? Until about 15 years ago, the Statehouse grounds was a bustling downtown park: a place to play, relax, sunbathe, toss a Frisbee, eat lunch, wait for a bus or kill time while taking a break. It was a classic public space, a much smaller version of the National Mall in Washington. But today it is a quiet expanse of green, defined by sidewalks and statues, and occasionally protesters or patriots. What happened? “Learned behavior,” suggests Keith Myers, a landscape architect and principal in the MSI planning and design firm. When the old Statehouse grounds was torn up for new trees and landscaping in 1990, Columbus lost its downtown park. When work was completed, the lawn was initially roped off. That made sense from a horticultural standpoint, but not a public-space standpoint, Myers said. As a result, a lush lawn was able to take firm root. But new habits also took root. The subservient Columbus civic psyche makes people reluctant to step off the hot Statehouse sidewalks and onto the cool grass. People still obey long-gone “Keep off the grass” admonitions, just as they still wait obediently at downtown Don’t Walk signs, even on sleepy Sundays with no cops around. Ronald Keller, executive director of the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, agrees with the “learned behavior” explanation, but wants people to unlearn perceptions such as those of Lou Jannazo, who has worked downtown 25 years with the Ohio Rail Development Commission and other agencies. “There’s no signs or anything, but you feel you shouldn’t be on the grass,” Jannazo said. “To throw a Frisbee or run in the grass, you feel like the state troopers would be there.’’ That’s a far cry from the 1980s, when flying discs and sack lunches were the norm. “People would take their shoes off and sit on the grass, enjoying the sun, using it like a lawn,” he said. “It was the downtown Oval,” recalls Aris Hutras, who has worked in and around the Statehouse for over 30 years. Like the Oval at Ohio State University, the Statehouse lawn “was busy all the time,” Hutras said. “It wasn’t exactly Beach Blanket Bingo, but people would catch a few rays, or hang around and throw Frisbees. It was a destination spot for lunchtime – or for siestas. You knew you could find your own space on the public space. “Now, the spontaneity seems to be missing. People just need a history lesson to see what it used to be.” A summer kickball league on the Statehouse lawn may restore the greenspace to its long-lost luster as the downtown Oval. The Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District organized the league as part of its weekly Party on Pearl event to showcase downtown and keep bureaucrats around after quitting time on Thursdays. It’s reminiscent of the Rally in the Alley after-work parties on Pearl Alley in the late 1970s and 1980s. Cleve Ricksecker, director of the district, said the kickball games are not the first attempt to get people to use the lawn. A few years ago, the district made Frisbees, bocce balls and other lawn toys available on Tuesday and Thursday lunch times to promote frolicking, but the efforts faded. He thinks shorter lunch hours and concern about over-exposure to the sun may be as significant as the renovation in changing the way people use the lawn. “People think differently than they did 15 or 20 years ago,” he shrugged. But then Ricksecker admits to being among those who, even 20 years ago, shunned the Statehouse lawn in favor of a bench in the shade. In 1980, up to 8,000 people a day relaxed, played, ate and attended concerts on the Statehouse lawn, said Joel Flint, curator of the Statehouse education and visitor center. He hopes to finish a history of the statehouse lawn in August and has a trove of pictures showing past activity. “There’s a picture from 70s in which the lawn is absolutely covered with people eating their lunches. I haven’t seen that since the renovation,” he said. But people – and animals – have come and gone since the Statehouse was completed in 1861. In the early years, neighborhood people would bring their cows to graze there. The lawn was not mowed regularly and people would make hay from it, Flint said. It wasn’t viewed as an urban park until the 1870s, when it became a mowed and manicured gathering place. But even in the 19th century, there were keep-off-the-grass curmudgeons. The superintendent of the grounds in the 1890s once cancelled performances by a tightrope walker crossing from the Statehouse to the old Neil House hotel because so many people trampled the grass to get a good look. Flint said there were cyclical 20th century attempts to keep people off the grass. He also noted that today’s kickball games follow volleyball, badminton and shuffleboard games instituted by Gov. James Rhodes in 1977. In those same years, the Columbus Arts Festival was held on the lawn and included concerts by such local acts as McGuffey Lane. That kind of activity sounds good to people who are moving downtown. “The kickball leagues are a good start,” said Kevin Wood, president of the Downtown Residents Association and owner of a condo a block away from the Statehouse. “I see some people using the lawn on weekends. It would be great for them to promote that it is ours to use.” Capitol Square is a 10-acre block with seven acres of park and three acres of building. And Keller, overseer of the grounds, is as eager as anybody to see the lawn again teeming with lunch-hour sun-worshipers and afternoon athletes. “That’s what it’s here for,” he said. “People used to keep a beach towel or small blanket in a desk drawer, get a lunch to go and eat on the grounds. The grounds were in awful shape back then. Now it’s in great shape and people don’t take advantage of it.” This is a microcosm of the way things are going in this country.
March 15, 200916 yr Strange, I'm in the DC summer kickball league, and our games are on the national mall by the Washington Monument. The NPS doesn't seem to care. Also, is the grass looking that great really that important right now? If you go to the national mall right now you'll find that what's supposed to be green isn't so green after all. Why does the Statehouse grounds crew find the need to make their grounds perfect? Is it worth taking away a fun activity from downtown? Probably not.
March 15, 200916 yr Here's a copy of an article I wrote that was rejected by Columbus Monthly in 2004, about the time the kickball league was getting started: [ ... ] But people and animals have come and gone since the Statehouse was completed in 1861. In the early years, neighborhood people would bring their cows to graze there. The lawn was not mowed regularly and people would make hay from it, Flint said. [ ... ] Even before I read this, I was thinking (somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but nevertheless ... ) "Why not use it for community gardens, or let people pasture dairy goats and use the milk to make cheese?" A more seriously-intended idea, disruptive to formal order but with creative possibilities, is to lay out plots where gardening enthusiasts plant and tend annual flowers and ornamentals and perhaps herb gardens. Let them recruit sponsors to underwrite their costs, and place the sponsors' names on small signs on the plots. Open it up to both amateurs and professionals and foster a friendly competitiveness. The results would be random, but probably amazing. The flower gardens on the statehouse lawn could become a tourist draw and a focal point for a downtown festival. People from the area and beyond would come to get ideas and learn from the gardeners.
March 15, 200916 yr Statehouse to kickball teams: Get off the lawn League must cut games in effort to save grass Saturday, March 14, 2009 - 3:14 AM By Mark Ferenchik, The Columbus Dispatch Downtown is supposed to be everyone's neighborhood, so it was only a matter of time. Like the cranky neighbor who yells at kids to stay off his lawn, the folks who work to keep the Statehouse grounds green said kickball players trampled the grass last summer. So Statehouse officials told the Downtown league it had to cut the number of games and teams by half if they are to play this summer at the Statehouse -- the "People's House," as the Web site calls it. The Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District, which runs the league, has suggested kickballers could play at a park on E. Mound Street near the Jury Room bar Downtown. Many players aren't pleased. "My wife and I have always held that the Statehouse is our backyard," said kickball player and Downtown resident David M. Morgan, 31. "As a citizen of the city and the state, and as a taxpayer, that kind of is our house." But visitors complained to officials about the lawn's condition, and state cuts have reduced the maintenance budget, said William Carleton, executive director for the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, which oversees the Statehouse grounds. Full story at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/03/14/KICKBALL.ART_ART_03-14-09_B1_J8D7R3O.html?sid=101
March 15, 200916 yr Here's a copy of an article I wrote that was rejected by Columbus Monthly in 2004, about the time the kickball league was getting started: Very nice article! Interesting historical uses on the Statehouse lawn. Those previous uses seem far worse then any present-day "kickball damage". Also great to include Cleve Ricksecker of the Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District. Capitol Crossroads really deserves alot of credit for trying inject more activities into downtown Columbus. Walker: You could be a headline writer for the Dispatch. Their headline is almost identical to yours. Columbus Underground: "Statehouse to Kickballers: Get Off Our Lawn" Columbus Dispatch: "Statehouse to kickball teams: Get off the lawn"
March 16, 200916 yr Yeah, that gave me a laugh to see such a similar headline. ;) Hopefully the check is in the mail. :lol:
April 16, 200916 yr With fewer games, Statehouse kickball won't get the boot Thursday, April 16, 2009 - 3:22 AM By Mark Ferenchik, The Columbus Dispatch Yes, there will be kickball on the Statehouse lawn on hot summer nights this year, but only once a week. The Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board voted yesterday to allow teams to play on the west side of the Statehouse from June 4 through Sept. 24. Kickball teams have played twice a week the past two summers. That damaged the grass, and visitors complained about its appearance, said officials from Capitol Square, which maintains the Statehouse grounds. The board approved the plan 6-2 but not without debate. Board member Neal Zimmers said he opposes any kickball because it harms the lawn. "To have regular leagues is not appropriate," he said. Tom Fries dissented because he thinks teams should play more than once a week. "I don't understand why we can't have two nights of kickball," he said. Capitol Square spends $70,000 a year to maintain the Statehouse grounds, but officials couldn't say how much was spent to repair kickball damage. Full story at http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/04/16/copy/KICKBALL.ART_ART_04-16-09_B3_J9DIOCB.html?adsec=politics&sid=101
April 17, 200916 yr Ugh. They're still reducing kickball by 75%. Instead of two teams with two game per week, there will be one team and one game per week. Which means only 25% of the players and teams from last year. Weak.
April 17, 200916 yr From here: http://www.progressohio.org/page/community/post/brianrothenberg/C2Zg/ <b>Shadows On High: A Tale Of Two Histories</b> By Brian Rothenberg, Executive Director - Mar 20th, 2009 It was first noticeable during the renovation of the Statehouse. The budget for Ohio’s history made a subtle shift from towns and villages, from period recreations like Ohio Village and from the Ohio Historical Society on the state fairgrounds, downtown to Broad and High. Over $100 million dollars later and Senate titan Dick Finan had his masterpiece – one he continues to reign over in his retirement at the most exclusive Board in town – the Capital Square Review and Advisory Board (CSRAB.) As usual in Ohio, where power resides money resides, and slowly Ohio’s Statehouse history display began to dwarf all others. CSRAB’s board is required to have a retired Senate President, an ex-Speaker of the House and the Governor’s Chief of Staff – and not just in name or proxy – they actually sit on the Board itself. Sen. Finan deserves credit for restoring a building long neglected. However, there is the unintended effect of Ohio’s waning commitment to its heritage of history beyond Broad and High. A decade later, the museum we all marveled at in the 1990s is already being modernized: kickballers have nearly been kicked off the Statehouse lawn; you need a permit for just about anything CSRAB wants to hassle you about; and weddings are now allowed – with of course a State Legislator’s daughter being the first in over a century. <A href="http://www.progressohio.org/page/community/post/brianrothenberg/C2Zg/">READ MORE</a>
April 17, 200916 yr I think kickball on the statehouse lawn is a great idea. The lawn does't seem to get much use otherwise. It can only add some vibrancy. They should look into Astro-Turf lol! We could be the only statehouse with it. Just adding to Columbus' progressiveness.
April 20, 200916 yr Ugh. They're still reducing kickball by 75%. Instead of two teams with two game per week, there will be one team and one game per week. Which means only 25% of the players and teams from last year. Weak. Agreed. I'd like to think that the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board (CSRAB) will allow the kickball leagues to return to their original activity next year. However, after reading the below blog article you posted, it doesn't look good does it? Is there anything that the freakin' old state pols don't screw up? From here: http://www.progressohio.org/page/community/post/brianrothenberg/C2Zg/ <b>Shadows On High: A Tale Of Two Histories</b> By Brian Rothenberg, Executive Director - Mar 20th, 2009
April 20, 200916 yr According to everything I've heard (and their website), it looks like the 2009 Kickball League will try to work with the limited times given to them by CSRAB. Here's what their website says at http://www.downtowncolumbus.com/experiencing/capitol-square-kickball-league Capitol Square Kickball League Information for 2009: The league coordinators are working to finalize the league details including the location of playing fields. Games are tentatively set for Thursday evenings between 5:30pm and 8:30pm, June through August. Registration will open in mid-April once these details have been confirmed. Questions? Contact Kacey Campbell at (614) 645-5095 and [email protected].
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