This is just a cut & paste of my recent blog entry (new design!). Enjoy!

 

Urban renewal, better described as urban destruction, had taken its toll on the Short North in numerous ways including demolition of buildings for parking lots, projects, and suburban development, not to mention the blow that was dealt by severing it from Downtown with the construction of I-670. Unlike other similar corridors the Short North is centered in the heart of the city on High St and that played a large role in its comeback.

However, there are still remnants of urban renewal which affect the neighborhood in various ways, but is mostly negative by serving as deadspace in the form of parking lots. Some would be easy to give up while others not so much. Ideally, these would all be filled in, but even a handful would make a noticeable difference. Before I completed a map of this I didn’t think there would be this much, but hey, that just means more development opportunities. Except for the drive-thrus, they’re most likely not going to budge. Unless of course, drive-thrus were not allowed in the urban commercial overlay which dictates the kind of development that can occur on urban commercial streets. Time for a little tour for all of the untapped potential here.

 

MAP

 

Scroll up to see  more. Spaces are numbered to correspond with the photos.

1.Starting south we have a parking lot where a building used to be and still could be used for one.

 

2.Same deal here.

3.And here.

4.Now we have Bollinger Tower which was a project and now houses low-income seniors. After having one of the residents talk my ear off, I can attest that this development lends some colorful characters to liven up  the Short North. It’s even getting a face lift thanks to the  CMHA (Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority).

5.A thin sliver of land for a narrow building used for parking, but at least it’s hidden and is for the sake of some tasty local eats.

6.Haiku has a good-sized parking lot, and I’m guessing not likely to go away.

7.I think this is used for neighboring Greystone Apartments, also not likely to go.

8.Parking lot now included in the long-awaited Ibiza condo development which includes a 500 space parking garage for both residents and visitors. That should mean a higher likelihood of some spaces documented here being looked at for development.

9.A suburban-style UDF which has got to go. Urban, that is. Next to it is the most dilapidated parking lot in the Short North. Just horrendous.

10.The Short North’s very own strip mall. Nice to see a section of the lot used for something other than parking.

11. These couple of buildings look like they were body shops now re-used for retail, but as they’re setback they have parking right in front. Donato’s drive-thru is on the right; It’s up against the sidewalk, but fails in other regards for good urbanism.

12.White Castle drive-thru: see above. Next door is a parking lot, exacerbating the large amount of parking at the White Castle.

13.A parking lot right up against the sidewalk. Not even a landscaped brick wall here.

14.A suburban Payday complete with drive-thru and parking lot.

15.A narrow lot

16. Former garage/bodyshop converted to gallery with minimal parking and landscaped greenspace facing the sidewalk. That’s how you do it.

17.Parking lot which at least has a little greenspace in the corner, but othwerwise offers nothing substantial for visitors.

18.Another autoshop converted to retail, but with too much parking right against the sidewalk.

19.Another narrow lot.

20.A good sized lot for the Family Dollar.

21.Sitting as a grass lot for a while, The Jackson is now u/c (under construction).

22.The parking lot facing the sidewalk was converted into outdoor seating while the parking surrounding the diner is used for various businesses.

23.Parking lot next to Skully’s, yet not nearly as lively.

24.Parking for Stonewall.

25.Right on the corner of 5th & High, this is one of the most noticeable due to it’s size and bad condition.

26.Parking lot converted into Smith & High Loft Apartments. Includes some nice retail spaces which I’m eager to see filled.

Ending the tour on that note, which serves as a tangible example of what a difference there is once something for people replaces a deadzone for cars. Who wouldn’t want the Short North²?

Yeah, the problem areas (parking lots) are so obvious and stick out like a sore thumb. I actually remember almost every one of these spots in my head - that's how much they stick out, next to the buildings.

What an eye-opener! I normally don't think of the Short North as as gap-toothed -- indeed, it is as vibrant and unbroken as any urban commercial strip in the city. But you have documented just how broken and gap-toothed it really is -- and shown how much potential remains.

 

Columbus Alive last week had a list of 150 or so "pet peeves" and one of the tops on the list was "Short North parking." To which I responded (in my head): Don't park, stupid! Walk. Or ride a bike. Or take the bus. (Or build a rail line.)

I was a bit underwhelmed on my trips to Short North and I think you've identified why. It stretches a little too far with a few too many gaps (and High Street is so friggin' wide) that it doesn't always pop. I'll acknowledge I've mostly been there during the day on a weekday.

Great study. I'm as interested as anybody to see the Ibiza go up, but my stomach churns every time I hear the 500 car parking garage offered up as the panacea to the Short North parking crisis. The "There's no place to park!" gripe about the Short North reminds me of the old Yogi Berra line: "Nobody goes to Coney Island any more: it's too crowded." Which reminds me of another great line, paraphrased from a Toledo's parking study, "we don't have a parking problem, we have a walking problem." Which reminds me of another great line...

I think is what is going to be interesting is to see how hipster urbanism is going to transform this street.  Maybe more "Goody Boy" style neon? 

 

In some ways these northern stretches of High remind me just a little of Salem Avenue in Dayton, or even a few busy streets on the NW side of Chicago that saw the same gap-toothed development (in Chicago the lots were never built on since the Depression intervened, in Dayton-Salem Avenue it was more like High Street) but with fairly intact neigborhoods on either side of the busy street.

 

I like the people hanging out on the parking lot with the retro lawn furniture (my granparents actually had those steel lawn chairs)....  Cool way to "inhabit the space".

Which reminds me of another great line...

 

Short North has plenty of places to go, but no place to park. Downtown has plenty of places to park, but no place to go.

a laser-focused thread -- great job. not to worry, no doubt many of those parking holes will go away.

 

smith&high is a new on on me. wow it looks fantastic. whats the word with ibiza? looks the same as it did last summer. any work going on? more site prep at least? i take this situation is due to credit crunch delays?

 

oh and thanks for throwing in a current shot of one of my old cols apt buildings (#5). speaking of way back when, if today's short north parking holes bug you, hoo boy you should have seen the area when i lived there. ugh. just go in the short north tavern sometime and ask them about the infamous "surface of the moon" parking lot.

 

How much of this is really urban renewal (ie planned clearcutting of large areas) vs a more ad-hoc erosion due to individual demolitions for parking and suburban style development? 

 

 

The suburban style development (fast food places) occured before the neighborhood began gentrifying. The neighborhood was very different place in the 80s. If you look at new development in Clintonville or by OSU, they require the buildings to be brought up to the curb and the same would be done further south on High St.

 

I would actually hate to see something like Michael's Goody-Boy go. It has a parking lot but it's well landscaped and has a patio out front connecting life inside the building to the sidewalk. It's also a historic slice of Americana. It shouldn't be looked down apon because it has cheap food.

 

The Haiku lot is frustrating because it's not even a legible place. If you looked at the site for a split second then had to tell someone what you thought it might be, they would probably say that it's a craft store. If their goal was Japanese flair, they failed miserably.

 

There's too many tacky and cheap attempts to connect the businesses with the street, imo.

The suburban style development (fast food places) occured before the neighborhood began gentrifying. The neighborhood was very different place in the 80s. If you look at new development in Clintonville or by OSU, they require the buildings to be brought up to the curb and the same would be done further south on High St.

 

I would actually hate to see something like Michael's Goody-Boy go. It has a parking lot but it's well landscaped and has a patio out front connecting life inside the building to the sidewalk. It's also a historic slice of Americana. It shouldn't be looked down apon because it has cheap food.

 

The Haiku lot is frustrating because it's not even a legible place. If you looked at the site for a split second then had to tell someone what you thought it might be, they would probably say that it's a craft store. If their goal was Japanese flair, they failed miserably.

 

There's too many tacky and cheap attempts to connect the businesses with the street, imo.

 

nooo, they're not threatening to tear down Michael's Goody Boy, are they? That should be an historic landmark! When I lived in Col's in the 70's I had a friend whose father was a lawyer in a fancy suburb who would stop there every morning on his way to work downtown. Then again, in those days that stretch was really seedy--like the Bowery, before it became gentrified. I loved it!

I don't think they are. The only reason I brought it up is because an armchair planner on here might look at it and instantly say "this is suburban and outdated - it doesn't belong because of its parking lot and set backs". It's just as important to the neighborhood's history as any other building.

 

Along Calhoun St. by McMillan in Cincinnati, they tore down this beautiful Arby's. It was a split level fast food restaurant. Anyone who is pro-development would want to see it gone and I usually support UC's projects but those were some of the first chain fast food places ever built in the U.S. and should have been preserved imo. They could have built around it but instead, with the help of the City of Cincinnati's lawyer, they used immanent domain and caused the franchise owner to go bankrupt. During the whole legal process, the flyposting and muggings near the now vacant building made an easy case for tearing it down and rebuilding.

Great photo thread Columbusite.  You raise an important urban development issue.  You also show that even though the Short North/N. High Street commercial corridor is an urban jewel, it still has room to grow and improve.  And building on existing parking lots and other underutilized lots should be (and is) the next wave of Short North revitalization.

 

However, Jeffrey is right when he asks...

How much of this is really urban renewal (ie planned clearcutting of large areas) vs a more ad-hoc erosion due to individual demolitions for parking and suburban style development? 

These scattered parking lots are not what is classically defined as "urban renewal".  But I realize what Columbusite is getting at with this photo thread.  It is, as was said earlier, laser-focused on the surface parking lots in an otherwise great urban corridor.  The forumers that know the Columbus' Short North understand this, but forumers who have never been here might not get that. 

 

Besides, "Ad-Hoc erosion due to individual demolitions for parking and suburban style development in the Short North" really makes for a lousy thread title!  :wink:

 

For the larger Short North context, here are two other photos from two previous photo threads Columbus & Pittsburgh, 2008 and Columbus, August 2008.

 

The Short North Arts District (the linear High Street) and The Ohio State University towards the top...

 

...and a ground level view of High Street

That's another thing. The gaps tend to appear the further you go north. The southern portion is very much filled in.

I should mention that the color coding is:

 

red=car-oriented deadspace

orange=improvment(s) have been made , but still lacking in some regards

green=optimal use of land/people oriented space

 

The southern stretch is much more intact and yes, during weekdays it doesn't have the same feel. Head out on a Thurs-Sat night and it's packed. The Short North serves as an example of a threshold that has to be crossed for a building to parking ratio in the prospective revitalization of an urban street. If that ratio were inversed, I wouldn't be surprised if it looked like Parsons (south of Livingston). I never think of High as being too wide here. Now in Clintonville, it gets up to seven (4 lanes for traffic, two for parking, and the turn lane) and you have to wait forever for the light to change, not to mention how spread out traffic lights are. That's friggin' wide.

 

There was an interview with the developer and the building is to be completed by Spring 2010 with sold units being finished.

 

Great study. I'm as interested as anybody to see the Ibiza go up, but my stomach churns every time I hear the 500 car parking garage offered up as the panacea to the Short North parking crisis. The "There's no place to park!" gripe about the Short North reminds me of the old Yogi Berra line: "Nobody goes to Coney Island any more: it's too crowded." Which reminds me of another great line, paraphrased from a Toledo's parking study, "we don't have a parking problem, we have a walking problem." Which reminds me of another great line...

 

And yes, the garage is just more of the same and will encourage more driving, but I hope with that going forward regardless of us urbanist naysayers, it means that development will be more likely on existing surface lots. If that's the trade-off then I'll be happy.

 

Which reminds me of another great line...

 

Short North has plenty of places to go, but no place to park. Downtown has plenty of places to park, but no place to go.

 

Bingo, which is what the case would be for the Short North if parking were easy.

 

How much of this is really urban renewal (ie planned clearcutting of large areas) vs a more ad-hoc erosion due to individual demolitions for parking and suburban style development? 

 

 

In this case this is what I'd call small scale urban renewal, since buildings were sporadically torn down (still a good number) and there is a project building, along with sprawling "modern" development on top of what was once urban.

 

.

Yes, but a good question to ask is when did these demolitions for surface parking lots occur?  The Short North is left with the impact of decisions made in the 1970's and 1980's.  There are two City Historic Districts on High Street that go from I-670 to Fifth Avenue (Victorian Village on the west side / Italian Village on the east side).  These commissions aren't in the habit of allowing demolitions for parking lots - quite the opposite.  So I'd be surprised if these surface parking lots were created within the past 10 to 15 years.

Great study. I'm as interested as anybody to see the Ibiza go up, but my stomach churns every time I hear the 500 car parking garage offered up as the panacea to the Short North parking crisis. The "There's no place to park!" gripe about the Short North reminds me of the old Yogi Berra line: "Nobody goes to Coney Island any more: it's too crowded." Which reminds me of another great line, paraphrased from a Toledo's parking study, "we don't have a parking problem, we have a walking problem." Which reminds me of another great line...

 

And yes, the garage is just more of the same and will encourage more driving, but I hope with that going forward regardless of us urbanist naysayers, it means that development will be more likely on existing surface lots. If that's the trade-off then I'll be happy.

 

To be sure, as far as parking in the Short North goes, the Ibiza garage will be a step in the right direction: vertical.

I'm surprised that there isn't a Diesel clothing store in the Short North. I wonder if they've scoped out any locations. The neighborhood couldn't be any more on target for their demographic.

I don't think all parking lots and garages are bad news. Most of what exists in the Short North is fairly small anyway compared to some of the <A href="http://www.columbusunderground.com/tag/wasted-space">larger lots</a> that can be found Downtown. I'd much rather see those lots downtown be addressed before we start worrying about the Goody Boy having room to park 15 cars.

Not worried about that at all. They made good use of the building and built an outdoor seating area against the sidewalk. Just pointing out that with all the potential infill we could have the Short North on steroids. I have an idea for a thread on Downtown infill, but I'm pretty sure my photoshopping will need some work. I'll see how that turns out.

Oh yes. It's definitely something to think about for the SN. I think it will get there over time too. If you look back just 10 years ago to what didn't exist yet, the neighborhood is still continue to grow at a pretty fast clip.

While I'm looking forward to more infill in the SN, I have to admit I'd rather see another street elsewhere get some infill and re-occupied buildings for more variety.