Posted November 29, 200915 yr Just went for a little trip around Downtown. If I had to walk it or drive it or bus it there would have been no way. Oh, when will city leaders admit that Downtown was made for bikes and the car thing just isn't working out. Everything Downtown is close together by bike, it's too much work by foot, too much waiting for the bus and you get reamed by the soon-to-be-doubled parking meter rates if you want to drive. Anyway, here ya go. My route. MAP Downtown Columbus MAP Columbus' most popular tourist attraction! I chuckled out loud. :laugh: We have 4, count em, four whole skyscrapers! Nooo! Not the moon!!! New bridge. A glance down Front St. Blocky. I call it: Old & New. Cartoon public space. Great building. Not many cities can boast that a turd is their tallest building. Broad & High retail/condos. Garg...err griffins. The new townhomes are coming along. *Arnold voice* This vista is about to be terminated. Can't get enough LeVeque. Almost done! This is a nice alley. A weird empty block. Almost as dead as City Center. Aftermath! Mmm. You can get some unique shots through City Center. Get a good look while you can. Can't wait for this enclosed fortress to be gone. A play about Grandview? :? Too broad if you ask me. Too Bauhaus for my taste. Well, that's it. Time for a drink. What? I only had one before I biked back up High, I swear!
November 29, 200915 yr Very very nice tour, thanks! I'm really liking a lot of the new developments around Columbus.
November 29, 200915 yr Well done! "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
November 29, 200915 yr I agree with LAsam. I'm loving the new development shown in this thread. It looks like the streets are being narrowed to allow for more pedestrian friendly elements. This photo is great. It seems to me that the neighborhood will be pretty sweet. I sense an almost cosy neighborhood once people move in and create their own environment. I love it!!
November 29, 200915 yr Nice pics. Someone needs to take a picture of Pearl St. when all of the retailers are out!
November 29, 200915 yr Someone needs to take a picture of Pearl St. when all of the retailers are out! They are now inside the Hayden block for winter.
November 29, 200915 yr Nice pics. Someone needs to take a picture of Pearl St. when all of the retailers are out! You mean like this? Like ink said, they're all indoors now, so I'll have to check out what that's like.
November 29, 200915 yr Nice photos. But it looks like a neutron bomb went off before you arrived! "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
November 29, 200915 yr Is downtown always that dead? I was there back in May and it was the same way!
November 29, 200915 yr Is downtown always that dead? I was there back in May and it was the same way! After 6pm, hell yes. During business hours I wouldn't call it dead but the problem is that you have fragmented corridors or clusters of vibrancy with dead space in between. That's why Columbusite said that traversing by walking or bus isn't practical. It's too tedious to go from one area to the other. If I'm at the office tower where I intern, I'll be there late at night and there won't be anything at all to eat nearby. Not even the Dunkin Donuts! It's frustrating. You shouldn't have to keep a mini fridge stocked in the evening because there's nothing open in a half-mile radius of downtown. I guess there's a few bar-kitchens open really late but one is kinda expensive and the other serves nothing but like 50 types of hotdogs which is kinda lame.
November 29, 200915 yr The streets are dead after 5/6, but numerous night spots aren't. When I stepped in to get a drink at Flatiron plenty of people were coming in for dinner and before then I saw a bunch of kids inside Ballet Met. And I think what David means is that there's nothing cheap open at night for dining. Definitely tough, but there are a few options. I've included another regular map of Downtown at the top showing that there's actually a lot there (outside of cheap late night dining). The problem as I see it is that Downtown residents and those from surrounding neighborhoods don't give these establishments a reason to stay open late. My favorite downtown cafe Cafe Brioso now closes at 4PM, but I can't blame them when I was one of few people there around that time. Downtown residents especially should make an extra effort to spend their money Downtown if they want to see extended hours and more options. I certainly do my part and I don't live Downtown. Anyway, just around the corner from your office is Ringside Cafe which got new management and I've heard good things. They're also open weeknights til 1AM and some items don't look too taxing on the wallet. I've got to head back there one of these nights. I also have to add that on weekends Downtown is one of my favorite places to bike because it's rather empty and that means it's great for novices of urban cycling to get used to riding properly in the lane like other vehicles.
November 30, 200915 yr Is downtown always that dead? I was there back in May and it was the same way! FWIW, a lot of these photos are concentrated around government/office buildings during a holiday weekend.
November 30, 200915 yr Exactly. The Civic Center is always dead after 5pm because...well...it's all government offices. But the Arena District is "hoppin" and that is downtown's nightlife (along with various other places like the Elevator or Ice). "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
December 1, 200915 yr Ha, I used to eat lunch at Ringside when I worked downtown! That place had a pretty cool vibe.
December 1, 200915 yr Love the new development, but this is the most painfully bike-unfriendly stretch of downtown street:
December 1, 200915 yr I was um, shocked when I drove down that way and noticed all of those new townhomes. They escaped me on many trips before!
December 2, 200915 yr Really nice pictures of C-Bus; such a different city than Cleveland (in a good way). I'm wondering about the cobble stone street shown in the photo that KingFish highlighted. Is that new or revealed? And do you know who made the decision to go in that direction and if this is happening elsewhere in the city? Thanks.
December 2, 200915 yr Love the new development, but this is the most painfully bike-unfriendly stretch of downtown street: Though this section of Town Street looks beautiful, those cobblestones are rough on the bikes. I'm wondering about the cobble stone street shown in the photo that KingFish highlighted. Is that new or revealed? And do you know who made the decision to go in that direction and if this is happening elsewhere in the city? Thanks. These cobblestones are the only ones I've seen in Columbus. There's plenty of original brick streets in German Village and plenty of new brick streets in the Arena District. And a hodge podge of original brick streets and alleys in the neighborhoods surrounding downtown. These cobblestones are original to this street. They were removed while a new concrete slab was poured and reinstalled over the slab. It's part of the Lazarus Building/River South neighborhood redevelopment sponsored by the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation. The City went way above their normal standards for the CDDC on this section of Town Street because of the Lazarus Building and to help jump start the River South projects.
December 3, 200915 yr Is downtown always that dead? I was there back in May and it was the same way! FWIW, a lot of these photos are concentrated around government/office buildings during a holiday weekend. That was the mistake I made when last time staying in Cbus. I stayed at the Mariott, I think? I thought I was on the "I am Legend" set ... but Chris quickly chastised me and let me know what I did wrong. Cincy's new restaurant/bar scene hasn't slowed down, despite being in a heavy-heavy corporate area ... although I am very curious on how The Banks will change this or maybe even cause some places to relocate? Do you guys think the surface lots have anything to do with new places opening up around the govt. area? Or does Cbus not even bother since the AD is so popular?
December 3, 200915 yr Love the new development, but this is the most painfully bike-unfriendly stretch of downtown street: Though this section of Town Street looks beautiful, those cobblestones are rough on the bikes. It's the only pavement that's ever made me stop, walk my bike up to the sidewalk, and continue on there. One of the street's three residents witnessed this as he was walking out his front door. I felt unusually embarrassed.
December 3, 200915 yr Is downtown always that dead? I was there back in May and it was the same way! FWIW, a lot of these photos are concentrated around government/office buildings during a holiday weekend. That was the mistake I made when last time staying in Cbus. I stayed at the Mariott, I think? I thought I was on the "I am Legend" set ... but Chris quickly chastised me and let me know what I did wrong. Cincy's new restaurant/bar scene hasn't slowed down, despite being in a heavy-heavy corporate area ... although I am very curious on how The Banks will change this or maybe even cause some places to relocate? Do you guys think the surface lots have anything to do with new places opening up around the govt. area? Or does Cbus not even bother since the AD is so popular? The difference between D/T Cols and Cincy is that Downtown Columbus, particularly near the statehouse, is mostly a concentration of government jobs. With private firms/corporations, you have more people taking their clients out to lunch or dinner. They require more flexible hours from their workers. In Columbus, private firms seem to gravitate towards the suburbs too much - even if they're technically in Columbus. Although the positive side of the public sector is the fact that the jobs are fairly stable. The Department of Education probably isn't going to threaten to move to Dublin if we don't give them a 10 year 100% tax abatement. Surface lots wouldn't really be in the immediate area. You're refering to the new condos/apts and such? I think most likely the surface lots don't have a positive impact on promoting residential property or businesses that operate past 6 pm. Well, maybe they do offer cheap parking as an 'amenity' but at the same time, the parking lots just make a walk through downtown so dull. They also reflect the lack of demand for space in those areas, downtown. If you park at one of those lots, it's most likely a pretty long walk and no one likes walking more than 1/4th of a mile unless there's some interesting stuff going on around them. What I think Downtown Columbus has going for it is its safety or perception of it. People in Downtown Columbus generally feel much safer than people in Downtown Cincy.
December 4, 200915 yr As far as the three Cs go, our downtown doesn't get the suburban hysteria that exists in others when it comes to the perception of crime and safety. That said, when there are Dispatch comments online about Downtown it's usually about how there's nothing there, parking is too difficult, and there are too many aggressive panhandlers, as you can see for yourself, I had to wade through a whole sea of them. People who say stuff like this really need to get out more.
December 4, 200915 yr As far as the three Cs go, our downtown doesn't get the suburban hysteria that exists in others when it comes to the perception of crime and safety. That said, when there are Dispatch comments online about Downtown it's usually about how there's nothing there, parking is too difficult, and there are too many aggressive panhandlers, as you can see for yourself, I had to wade through a whole sea of them. People who say stuff like this really need to get out more. That's funny because those are the exact same comments you see about downtown Cleveland on the PD's website- I would say that relatively few people post about being afraid of crime downtown (outside of panhandling, or encountering "thugs.") I think it's interesting that even though they apparently share the same perception problems from the locals, in my experience many Cleveland suburbanites have no or slightly favorable opinions about downtown Columbus, while Columbusites seem absolutely terrified of Cleveland.
December 4, 200915 yr and there are too many aggressive panhandlers There are by far more panhandlers in the Short North and High St. between Euclid and 11th but that doesn't stop middle-aged suburbanites from flooding all of N. High St. and showing up to the gallery hop every month to look sophisticated. I don't see that many panhandlers downtown but maybe I don't go to the same parts. Love the new development, but this is the most painfully bike-unfriendly stretch of downtown street: That sucks -- otherwise it's a really cool street. You can count on ambulances avoiding that street as well I suppose Dispatch comments online about Downtown it's usually about how there's nothing there, parking is too difficult You can't have your cake and eat it too! I wish people would understand that. I say to people all the time "look, it takes a long time to find a parking space but any place worth going to is going to have that problem". Unless it's a suburban mall but they plan their parking for the busiest day of the year.
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