Posted June 10, 200916 yr Columbus Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Bye German Village, now it's back through downtown. The ramp to hell! Back to Short North El Fin
June 10, 200916 yr Is this the Statehouse garage? Always seemed like very poor planning from a security standpoint. Either way, it's a nightmare to get out of after a concert. Avoid.
June 10, 200916 yr Wow! Great pics .. I haven't been to Columbus in years. I'd love to visit sometime. Looks like a great town. Just curious: how many residents live downtown? Also, what are the plans to bring some light rail in, if any?
June 10, 200916 yr Wow! Great pics .. I haven't been to Columbus in years. I'd love to visit sometime. Looks like a great town. Just curious: how many residents live downtown? Also, what are the plans to bring some light rail in, if any? Roughly 5k. I'm not sure what boundaries were used for that figure - probably downtown proper. Lots of d/t condos are being built so the number should be increasing.
June 10, 200916 yr Well done for the tour! "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
June 11, 200916 yr Agreed. Great tour! I'm exhausted thinking about how far you walked. It's about two miles from the middle of the Short North thru Downtown to the middle of German Village. And that's one-way.
June 11, 200916 yr I particularly appreciated the detailed photos you took of the historic buildings. I really liked the detail on the LeVeque tower. That building is truly amazing!!
June 11, 200916 yr Just curious: how many residents live downtown? Also, what are the plans to bring some light rail in, if any? Downtown proper is still very much a business district. I think the 5k population is fairly accurate, but the surrounding neighborhoods within a short walk (Short North, German Village, Olde Towne East, etc) are much more residential and home to tens of thousands of residents. Currently there is a Light Rail proposal on the table running from Downtown to the far north side. The proposal is seeking federal stimulus funds, but we haven't had an update on it in a little while: http://www.columbusunderground.com/coleman-seeks-federal-funds-for-rail-development
June 11, 200916 yr Thanks! Light rail would be absolutely amazing in Columbus, I think. I'm sure you all agree. :)
June 11, 200916 yr Thanks for the detailed tour! When you come back Downtown you should check out Town-Franklin (only residential neighborhood left in SE Downtown) and the Warehouse/Gay District centered on 5th St north of Long. Off of 5th, things get pretty sporadic what with all the parking lots. (jpop) Back around 2004 before condos were being built Downtown had a stagnant population of 3,000, down from it's 1950 peak of 30,000. Last figure I saw was 5,500 over a year ago which hasn't move up much and I argue that it has to do with some poorly placed/isolated locations of some condos which scare off other developers by making Downtown appear much more risky than it really is. Still, there are a couple of large-scale residential developments adding more residents, 500-ish once they're filled.
June 11, 200916 yr Thanks for the detailed tour! When you come back Downtown you should check out Town-Franklin (only residential neighborhood left in SE Downtown) and the Warehouse/Gay District centered on 5th St north of Long. Off of 5th, things get pretty sporadic what with all the parking lots. (jpop) Back around 2004 before condos were being built Downtown had a stagnant population of 3,000, down from it's 1950 peak of 30,000. Last figure I saw was 5,500 over a year ago which hasn't move up much and I argue that it has to do with some poorly placed/isolated locations of some condos which scare off other developers by making Downtown appear much more risky than it really is. Still, there are a couple of large-scale residential developments adding more residents, 500-ish once they're filled. I would also correlate the less-than-stellar population increase with the target market for the new developments: singles, unmarrieds and emptynesters--NOT families. I realize the former groups are where the (short) money is, but if you really want to draw dollars and people back into downtown, you need to plan generationally. I have anecdotal evidence (served up with copious grains of salt) that suggests that many young families that would move downtown were the accommodations there. Imagine if there could be a concerted effort to build around the needs of families, for example, leveraging housing developments around downtown magnet or charter schools. Retail would spring up, parks & rec would be funded and utilized, downtown events would flourish (without traffic jams), and the case for rail would unstoppable. All it takes is a little vision and a little money. Anybody got any money?
June 11, 200916 yr Thanks for posting the tour de Columbus! Making me a little homesick :( What Columbus lacks in its downtown it more than makes up for in its adjacent neighborhoods.
June 12, 200916 yr I particularly appreciated the detailed photos you took of the historic buildings. I really liked the detail on the LeVeque tower. That building is truly amazing!! Which one is the LeVeque Tower? Also, I think a light rail line would be awesome in Columbus and make the city a more attractive place to live.
June 12, 200916 yr Thanks for the beautiful photo tour. I like your mix of wide overviews and intimate details. Some of the places bring back memories of a forum meet in 2006, a.k.a The Columbus Death March. Someone said that the ones of us who went the whole distance covered about seven miles on foot that day.
June 12, 200916 yr ^Thanks, and the path that my friend and I took was about 8.4 miles. It wasn't too bad, the heat and humidity didn't help things though.
June 12, 200916 yr Thanks for the tour! It is interesting to see what has changed in the past 10 years since I have been there.
June 12, 200916 yr Thanks for the beautiful photo tour. I like your mix of wide overviews and intimate details. Some of the places bring back memories of a forum meet in 2006, a.k.a The Columbus Death March. Someone said that the ones of us who went the whole distance covered about seven miles on foot that day. I just missed that one (I was in the process of moving to Columbus). We're due for another one, I think.
June 12, 200916 yr Le Wonderful, Le Beautiful, Le Divine Le Veque: That is a beautiful shot of the LeVeque. You don't usually notice these details on the tower because they are 500 feet above street level. Isn't the zoom lens great? Incidentially, the LeVeque Tower was originally called the AIU Tower. Named for the original builders, the American Insurance Union. The tower was completed in 1927, but AIU didn't stay in it for long. They went bankrupt during the Great Depression of the 1930's. Two local businessmen with the last names of Lincoln and LeVeque purchased the tower at a vastly reduced price. It was then called the Lincoln-LeVeque Tower. Eventually, the LeVeque family aquired full ownership of the property. Hence the current name. The LeVeque family owned the building until they sold it to a Detroit-based real estate company in 2004. But it is still called the LeVeque Tower. I thought of the previous AIU name because of a recent news item. Apparently, the failed insurance giant AIG is going to be changing its name to AIU. Now I'm really glad we call it the LeVeque Tower and not the AIU Tower!
June 12, 200916 yr A fine LeVeque (and Terminal) Tower fan thread from a while back: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,13341.0.html
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