VIDEO: Columbus Metropolitan Club: Developments on the Urban Frontier

The Columbus Metropolitan Club just recently started to post their forums online after they occur. In May I moderated a discussion for the CMC about "Developments on the Urban Frontier" that was geared to talk about what opportunities lie downtown now that the downtown "boon" has subsided.

Not that anyone is going to have an hour to watch the whole forum, but there are definitely a few chunks in there worthy of viewing. Ken Danter talks about downtown boundaries and his studies on the proposed downtown streetcars and downtown housing. Marilyn Vutech discusses the state of the downtown housing market and Liz Lesner offers some thoughts on opportunities for entrepreneurs in downtown Columbus' Central Business District.

In case you do watch I bit, in case you can't tell, I had a blast :)

Right-sized Approach to Downtown Retail

I have never been much of an advocate of an approach to downtown retail as core element of a sustainable recipe for sustaining downtown revitalization. After all, that was the concept behind the creation and development of City Center mall so many years ago.

My research into the Columbus Dispatch archives from years ago, before the mall was even complete, dredged up quotes that saw City Center as the element that would not only spur on additional retail development, but would also lead to office and residential development. City Center and retail was the prime ingredient for downtown's success. Or so it wast thought.

Last week however, a new bend on how to develop downtown retail was released and, in my opinion, it's a right-sized approach and the only one which currently has the potential to establish any sort of lasting foothold.

Just as I believe you can't create a housing market downtown at a fixed price to make it affordable to young professionals who may have limited financial means at the beginning of their careers (at least not for very long), you also can't create an artificially developed retail core for a customer base that doesn't currently exist.

I do, however, take Capitol Crossroads recent retail report as a marker, an indicator of sorts, that suggests that there is some untapped retail potential. It's not a guarantee, it's a suggestion. A suggestion that I do support and agree with.

THAR'S GOLD IN THEM THAR HILLS

Despite the study and the estimated $110 million of untapped revenue that the new study suggests is out there, if we dropped a new prepackaged, out-of-the-box-big-box solution into the Central Business District to try and tap into that revenue, history suggests it would more than likely not work. But history, like the recent retail study, is not a definitive road map of what is to come. It is something to study and take lessons from, mile-markers from the path we have been on and indicators of how far we've come.

If we're going to venture out into this retro final frontier for Columbus' economic development, an organic effort that grows in line with demand that is based on a small business approach is a plan that has merit in my eyes.

Help sprinkle the seeds of entrepreneurialism downtown and let the businesses which can create and grow their own "organic" market of consumers define downtown as opposed to trying to slap in a fully-grown commercial solution full of brand names with no community ties.

A WORD OF CAUTION

Part of the study suggests that one of those sources of untapped revenue exist in a fairly sizable amount of tourist and cenventioneer dollars that come into our economy from out-of-state and out-of-city sources. That element though does appear to be in danger if we take heed of Experience Columbus' recent call for sustained funding to their efforts to attract and grow convention business in a time that they are seeing a reduction in funding due to economic sluggishness.

Economic development for the entire city of Columbus has a huge stake in the continued growth and success of our convention business. Those convention-derived dollars come to the city and benefit ALL of Columbus with regards to public services. The success of this small-business approach to downtown retail also hinges on the continued growth of our convention market and its ability to harvest out-of-state dollars that come into our city and business's coffers as a result of it.

From here is where we build a larger and more comprehensive vision that ties into the potential economic impact streetcars can have. Organic growth centered on some existing revenue models, convention business, mixed with economic stimulators, like the streetcar, offer a glimpse at a sound an scalable plan for organically growing downtown's retail scene.

If there is any hope for retail, it is in some combination of the elements mentioned above that it lies within.

PINNING HOPES ON THE ENTREPRENEUR

It is not so much the study that excites me, but the approach that Capitol Crossroads it taking that offers the greatest offering of hope for any sort of retail to be able to take root in the Central Business District. This is an unsubsidized support plan that is worthy of our attention:

“If you are a mom-and-pop business and have any interest in expanding or relocating, we want to talk to you, “ said Cleve Ricksecker, Executive Director, Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District. “We want to hold your hand and , provide encouragement, data, relationships and enthusiasm for bringing your business downtown. “

We're seeing the start of a right-sized approach to downtown retail that roots itself in an organic, small-business centric model that has potential to be able to scale appropriately with the fluctuating needs of the Central Business district.

Winding things up, I'll pull a quote from one of my own editorials from earlier this year:

I truly feel that there is still too much dependency and "waiting on the city" to bring Columbus to a whole new level. From where I sit, many folks are somewhat lulled into complacency and are awaiting news of the next big initiative to come down from on high. What I feel is mostly overlooked is the fact that some of the largest fires, the fires that bring change, often start out very small and off the radar. Just a few sparks can ignite the flames that can dramatically change the face of our city forever.

Take my perspective with a grain of salt though and soften the voice a little with regard to what I'm saying about Columbus. I don't see a lacking in the efforts of the city and its umbrella of supporting organizations at all. I don't see a lack of talented and passionate people either. What I do see is a gaping hole where there should be some sort of culture and environment that embraces and incubates small businesses and the entrepreneurial spirit. Being that I am an entrepreneur of sorts, I can make that statement with the greatest of confidence.

In a city of hundreds of thousands of people, we still have a significant need for more sparks to come together to ignite the larger fire that is needed to ensure Columbus' future economic growth and to earn our spot as a real contender for attracting people and companies back to our Central Business District in the coming years. The future I see for Columbus lies in part in entrepreneurialism, innovation and a new means of creating more social opportunities for all demographics... 

...People attract people, places attract people, stories of people and places attract people. I would argue that plans however, do not attract people, nor do governments in and of themselves. The sparks that can light this enticing fire to attract business and social opportunity are still mostly off the radar [in the form of yet unknown entrepreneurial ventures]...

Frugality, it's the new black

Wow. What a sobering week in the world of Columbus news.

I always like to say that I try to share a different perspective on what's going on the city and how various stories and initiatives relate to each other with regards to their impact on urban revitalization in Columbus. That was always the intention anyways.

In recent weeks, I've been trying to retool my observations skills and get refocused in my writings on RetroMetro. As my continuous entrepreneurial adventures and, er...misadventures, have always come out on top in pulling my attentions to other matters, as I am currently back in TLC mode for RetroMetro, there couldn't be a more interesting time to dig in once again.

This week I have more questions than answers really but if you follow this seemingly downtrodden line of stories from the past week, the doom & gloom storm clouds start rolling in, ready to rain out some of our revitalization efforts.

Let's break it down...

DOWNTOWN DESTINATIONS

With the Columbus Symphony Orchestra potentially having played their final concert and with Experience Columbus sending out a funding distress signal, are we seeing the handwriting on the wall for the old school way for driving traffic to our cultural and tourist/convention attractions? Or, are we seeing the handwriting on the wall for our cultural and tourist/convention attractions?

If these trying economic times, which have really just started to kick in within the last year, are already straining these organizations to the breaking point and they lack the ability to nimbly restructure, resize or rethink on the fly, shouldn't they have built into their organizational plans a means to scale up and down? Are our other organizations taking note and throwing on their thinking caps or are they waiting there turn, hoping for continued miracle benefactors to come to their aid?

Keep in mind that if the Columbus Symphony Orchestra bows out of the 2008-2009 season, the Ohio Theatre will be out $800,000+. That has to hurt and won't be easily patched over. If CSO goes, how long before the next organization or venue bites the big one? Will it be the Ohio Theatre, and if that happens, what does that mean for the direction of downtown if our venues start to slowly drop off?

I always pitch that it's our great Arts & Cultural Destinations that need to be bonded together in conjunction with our restaurants and marketed as a "Downtown Date Night" deal. Without the arts, destinations and a suffering convention business of Columbus, what's the plan?

This is not negative folks, if you recall my old writing style. I'm asking questions. Sometimes when my girlfriend asks me questions about some bigger issues (like money), I get a bit uneasy. Not because she's asking me questions, but rather, it's the questions she's asking me. I realize that there are some gaping holes in my "entrepreneurial approach to finance" logic, and when I realize them, I don't feel so good. It's not until a little while after I recover, all the better for my woes, I realized I now can approach working towards a solution as opposed to going about my merry business, heading obliviously down the path to certain ruin. Questions are good things although they don't always feel that way.

I think Columbus needs a new slogan and marketing campaign we should work to:

"Columbus: Where to go to have a blast on a dime" or "Frugal City." As I've realized in my own life as of late with my own business ventures, the money may not come as quickly as you hope and you better have a plan for when it doesn't. More money is not always the answer.

PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING

Public school systems are a key ingredient to helping fuel a healthy urban revival. In Columbus, it is well known that we face a great deal of challenges in this regard.

School District tax revenues are flattening out in step with the sluggish housing market. So if the housing downturn continues, as it is thought is may for some time, does this mean that with foreclosures and property tax bills not being paid, that the schools will be losing some expected funding in the next year or so?

To compound that potential issue of shortfalls in revenue, Columbus Public Schools is considering how big of a levy, if any, they will be putting on the ballot this year. Initial projections are looking at 8.3 mils as a minimum just to cover current operating costs. That equates to adding $254 for every $100,000 of your homes value.

So that leads me to my next question: If passing a levy of 8.3 mils is what it takes to sustain current operating costs in the school system, what happens if, when every one is pinching pennies, it doesn't pass when people realize they'd be shelling out an additional $300+ a year for a school system that is shrinking?

PROPERTY TAXES

There were a few articles in The Columbus Dispatch on Sunday that talked about the mortgage crisis fallout and property taxes. One of the points it brought up was that property tax valuations do not factor in the values of foreclosed homes or homes sold by Sheriff's Sales and the like. In other words, if you live on a block with 10 foreclosed properties that may have been auctioned off for significantly lower amounts than their worth, when calculating your property tax, they do not diminish the value of your home.

That might sound great at first pass, but unfortunately, when you are selling your home, an appraiser does take into account the foreclosed properties to determine the value of your home. So, you could technically be paying more taxes for you home despite the fact that numerous foreclosures may have decreased your home true market value.

Don't get too bent out of shape yet. While the current foreclosure rate is breaking records across the nation and here in Columbus too, since the Franklin County Auditor's office has not had to deal with this type of situation, the unknown impact of foreclosures has led to the County Auditor not changing the values for homes in the this years updates (if I'm reading the article correctly.)

TAX INCREMENT FINANCING

I am by no means an expert in this area, but here's an issue that I've been wondering about:

There are a number of capital improvement infrastructure projects across the city that are tapping into financing programs that essentially pay back borrowed funds over a 20 or 30 year period by "promising" a piece of future property tax dollars. I'm referring to Tax Increment Financing programs, or more commonly called TIF's. TIFs are most often used, and were originally designed for, the revitalization of urban areas.

Basically, TIFs allows the city to borrow against future property tax income to fund streets and other community enhancing infrastructure projects with the idea that the projects will contribute to revitalization of the area. Revitalization increases home values, which increases the taxes collected. The increase in the taxes beyond what they were at the time the TIF was instantiated are what are used to pay back the borrowed funds.

Since it is assumed that property will always continue to rise in value, by investing in these infrastructure projects in certain communities and neighborhoods, the idea is that the projects being funded by the TIFs will have a additional direct benefit of increasing the values of the homes that are in these TIF designated areas. 

I'm going to stop there before It gets too much deeper and I really turn things inside out by messing up some nuance of the TIF program that is beyond my grasp. If you didn't follow that chunk, don't worry. My reason for bringing it up is that I'm wondering that if we have a lull in home values, or a drop even, that spans 5 or more years, what impact will that have on the performance of the TIFs? Is that another potential long-term problem10-20 years down the road? Are we building things with money that doesn't really exist? Are we relying on "guaranteed" tax revenue growth?

Honestly, I don't know enough about the programs, but they are widely used, and the more I think about it, the more questions I come up with. Guess we won't really know for another 20 years...

THE LIST GOES ON...

I can keep going actually but that's enough prodding the doom & gloom for this week. Just trying to get the wheels spinning again. I will however, leave you with this final question: If we are going to see a continued economic squeeze for a while, what can Columbus do on the cheap to make this place a continued success and "the place to be" without millions of dollars?

Frugality, it's the new black.

What's up with Downtown?

People talk about master plans, grand visions and unified goals when it comes to planning for downtown. In the past I've been one of the advocates of the planned approach of revitalizing downtown, always feeling we lacked a cohesive vision. As of late though, there has been a subtle shift in my thinking as I have watched certain events in the city unfold over the past 4 years.

It's not about the plan, it's about the story.

Spending a few years poking around and keeping tabs on all of the city's various economic development, transportation and housing initiatives finally revealed to me that the city does indeed have a plan and always has. You just have to look at a picture that usually spans no less than 5-10 years to see an particular initiative move from the proposal stage to its eventual implementation. That was a realization I came to a year or so ago. I too move slow, somewhat like a city in certain ways...

Piece by piece, step by step, the city's plans are slowly being realized in many of initiatives that been laid out over the years. Quite often however, since the variables are always shifting, by the time an initiative may be delivered, its form or effectiveness may be almost unrecognizable with regard to its original objectives.

City panning and city building are often slow and laborious processes. Politics, economics, national trends; they all have their influence on those plans, shaping and modifying them as they grow to adapt to their ever-changing social, political and financial environments. That is the nature of cities. Large, complex, organic and ever-evolving or devolving depending on what day it is and who's driving the ship.

As we look across the country, there are a number of other cities working on the same initiatives that we are working on here in Columbus. Streetcars, bike paths, attracting and retaining a younger workforce; all issues that are not original nor unique to Columbus in our approach to addressing them. In terms of city building, these elements are quickly becoming status quo given the fact that more and more cities are moving to implement these same types of infrastructure systems and initiatives that they hope will make them attractive to the various demographics, both young and old, that are slated to be the ones with the talent, skills and or money to drive local economies in the years to come.

What is unique to Columbus is our potential position with regards to aviation (NetJets), logistics and freight shipping (Rickenbacker), a huge college student base to tap into (OSU and our other campuses), and our growing tech corridor (TechColumbus and affiliates). These are elements that are not the status quo and present some of the ripest opportunities which we are attempting to capitalize on. That's good stuff. It makes for a good story that you won't hear in Everytown, USA.

But here's my question: What's up with downtown?

The downtown housing craze is in remission. Our arts organizations and some of our historic venues are facing uncertain financial dilemmas. Streetcars are off the media radar for the moment while additional community education efforts and funding mechanisms are being evolved. City Center's future is still being contemplated. RiverSouth is slowly but surely coming out of the ground. The Scioto Mile park system is being carved into the riverfront as you read this. The Main Street bridge is coming along nicely. The Arena District and another potential residential development at the Jaeger Commerce Park are back on the radar as of the past week or so. And the Whittier Peninsula and the Adubon Nature Center are being formed out of the earth as the weeks roll by. Lots of actors in the story of what is "downtown."

Those are lots of interesting and engaging projects and subplots to sink your teeth into, but unless you see them all in one paragraph, it's easy to forget about what the media doesn't pick up as the flavor of the week.

What is missing for Columbus is the ongoing, continuing saga itself, the ongoing "tv drama" that folks want to tune into every week to know what happens next. A show where they know the actors and their roles. It's the drama I'm addicted to (can you tell I don't have cable?) and the one I tune into every day in order to try and pass along the fragments I gather from around the city to my readers through RetroMetro.

Downtown's success isn't so much about the planning and the process we go through to get there. It's about the people, places and stories that are interwoven into the journey of building the city that can be used to get others hooked and tuned in. The greatest thing about Columbus is that all the positions aren't cast and there's plenty of room on the stage.

Somewhere along the line though, I stopped telling the story like I used to, but I never stopped watching it. There's a lot to catch up on. So what's up with downtown? Let's see if I can get you back in the loop again...

Arts & Culture at the Core

Is the plight of the Columbus Symphony and its budget shortfalls and troubled musician contract negotiations an indicator of a greater problem for the traditional and established arts & cultural institutions we have in Columbus? Is the symphony just the tip of the iceberg with regards to arts organizations having more and more difficult times trying to stay afloat without heavy subsidization?

I went to the symphony for the first time this past Saturday, something my girlfriend and I had been planning to do for a few months now even prior to the budget woes going public, and the experience was a bit gray for me because I knew what storm clouds were hanging overhead for the whole organization.

Without question I enjoyed both the experience and being able to take in the music and the talent. I'd like to be able to do it again. But will I be able to? That question is a hefty one and for me, it goes beyond just the currently undetermined fate of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. What might this potential loss mean for downtown?

If the dilemma that the orchestra is facing is a sign of more troubles in the world of traditional arts & culture in Columbus, I guess it leaves me to ponder two questions: 1) Is it possible to grow or tap into a new demographic for the organizations that may be suffering from lackluster audience growth, and if so how do we go about it? Or, is this a change in cultural values that will see the death of old arts and entertainment only to bring life to new forms? And 2) with a solid core of these downtown cultural organizations making up a bulk of the unique "experience opportunities" that only downtown has to offer, shouldn't we be making more aggressive attempts to tie the fate of the arts, new and old, with the fate of downtown to a greater degree?

I've written about it in the past, and am a firm believer of the concept that it is in the unique experiences that downtown currently has and can continue to develop that the hopes of a downtown revitalization lie. For my vision of downtown, it is that unique "experience" factor, tied into easy accessibility, that holds the key to success.

Question 1 from above regarding dwindling audiences is one that the city and its many arts organizations have been chewing on for years. Having attended the symphony the other night and, at the ripening young age of 35, and being one of the few under-represented folks in the late-20's early 30's that attended the event, the problem of new audiences is abundantly apparent. From my row, which was farther back in the Ohio Theater, the venue appeared to me as a sea of silver, seniority and seasoning.

To my personal experience there still continues to be a lack of outreach and public exposure to the great venues and organizations that we have in out downtown entertainment arsenal, and with the focus being on scarce funding as opposed to building audiences and ticket sales, the future is far from clear from my perspective. It seems that concerns over money may continue to trump innovation.

If a more diligent effort is not pulled together to either strengthen our existing arts, cultural and entertainment offerings in downtown, what exactly is it that will make Columbus a draw for a shrinking 25-44 year old work force that we are going to grow so desperately in need of in the coming years? Where will those retiring boomers and empty nesters spend their discretionary income if downtown's offerings flail around an die a slow death of audience attrition?

With the Grandview Yard mixed-use projects in the wings and most recently a proposal for bringing Westland Mall back to life fashioned as an outdoor "mini-Easton" mall, I don't think it is necessary to point out that the challenges for downtown retail growth are growing, not shrinking. Where does the future of downtown lie?

I've used this quote before in the past, but to me it grows all the more appropriate, especially in times of economic hardship:

"Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans. Aim high in hope and work. Remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die."

- Daniel Burnham

It's time for a unified vision. A goal. An objective that picks a cause and a theme that organizations, businesses and citizens can rally to. A plan, so audacious, that does not rely on building things, rather focuses on building up "places" and "experiences" out the abundant raw material we have in our entrepreneurs, our artists, our musicians that all share a common urban core.

All downtown is a stage

Sometimes my brain starts swimming in all the facts and opinions that are out there about the various initiatives and issues that Columbus faces on a daily basis. It is too easy to get caught up in the details of all the individual issues and never stop to zoom out to a 10,000 foot view of all the issues, how they play together and what it all means. I see that as a problem, personally.

It is the big-picture that is what has always kept me interested in following the story of downtown Columbus' efforts of revitalization. But it's that big-picture that gets lost in a sea of details. I guess it's a case of not being able to "see the city through the buildings" in a manner of speaking.

Currently though, as the buzz about the downtown condos is but an echoing memory and as we once again let City Center fall to the back burner as we wait for the next piece of breaking news, we can witness downtown itself fall off the radar a bit, even in the midst of a critical issue such as the streetcars.

With the streetcars for example, folks get caught up in potentially overlapping COTA routes and bus service offerings or investing in safety equipment or spending money on other programs and departments that are in need of funding. Businesses, with concerns about their stores being strained for customers if and when construction on a streetcar line were to take place, focus on the few months that there storefront might be partially blocked off.

These are all valid concerns and issues for citizens and businesses alike that do need to be addressed, but the big-picture becomes impossibly out of view when we're down in the details of individual issues.

In my mind, the answer to seeing the big-picture lies in finding a way to tell Columbus' story over the next 20 years by pulling together all the issues we face and the initiatives we have going that are designed to address them. As I always say, that is no easy task, but it is not impossible. I'll go so far as to say that I think it is actually imperative that we start to address telling a much more comprehensive story for Columbus as we roll out some of our more skepticism-prone initiatives.

People say they want to see what the bigger plans are for Columbus, be it with streetcar, rail transit, bike paths, downtown retail...etc. But I'll suggest that all the pieces are there and already working in unison, but the story is not being told as one. The stories are playing concurrently in separate theaters, but if you watch just one, it won't make any sense. Watch them all and you can see that they are all very clearly connected.

If you just skim all the titles from this week's RetroMetro newsletter, do you see the connections between many of them?

What does the Columbus Symphony's budget shortfalls have to do with a shrinking 25-44 year old workforce? How does that tie in with the fact that gas prices continue to climb and freight rail is making a comeback? What does the future of City Center have to do with the fact that Columbus is paying $2.5 billion to separate storm water lines from sewer lines throughout the city? How does the streetcar tie together the Convention Center, OSU and downtown in a way that is different from a bus? Where are all the opportunities and overlaps with these issues and how do we identify them?

If you use downtown Columbus as the anchor for the drama, it becomes very easy to tell a bigger story where the issues and initiatives are the actors and the Central Business District (CBD) is the stage. If we select a common theme of revitalizing downtown to the end of generating a massive increase in tax revenue in the CBD because of its potential for high density, mixed-use growth, in a place with paid-for infrastructure then we have an outcome that benefits every single citizen in Columbus. More tax revenue gives us the funds to provide more and better services to downtown and all of its suburbs, not just downtown. And that's just the opening act.

It's time to start writing the story I suppose, or at least begin drawing more connections between all of our initiatives on a more regular basis. There is a greater story yet to be told...

2008 State of the City Metrospective: Part 3

This week's metrospecitve, the last piece in a 3-part series, covers the final five points I wanted to touch on from Mayor Coleman's 2008 State of the City address which he delivered last month on March 13th. Today I share my thoughts about the Scioto Mile, the Mile on High District, City Center and finally, the Lifestyles Communities RiverSouth Apartments and Condos.

NetJets and the Airport Economic Development Corporation mentioned in the Mayor's address, which I have been planning on covering, is going to be upgraded to its own separate metrospecitve and melded together with my perspective on Rickenbacker International Airport and Intermodal center in the coming weeks.

On a quick aside before I get started though, there is no doubt that the sudden shuttering of Skybus and all of its operations leaves the city a bit taken aback, not to mention the organization's 450 former employees. I find my own personal perspective more focused on the fact that there was quite a bit of local investment that went into what we hoped would be a contributor to economic development for the city and the region.

Unfortunately, Skybus was more of a risky investment that did not end up panning out as we had envisioned. But there is no growth without risk, and for Columbus, investing is Skybus was a little outside the conservative approach we're been known for when it comes to how we spend our public dollars. Nothing ventured, nothing gained though, and this is one way for us to learn from risky ventures.

For a round up of articles covering the Skybus shutdown, visit the News section of RetroMetro this morning. Additional articles can also be found under the Transportation & Roadways category of the News section also.

The Scioto Mile

“With the construction of the Scioto Mile, we will see the greatest public park in all our state. The Scioto Mile will be our signature park, the symbol of our city. It will connect the riverfront from North Bank Park to the Whittier Peninsula. It will feature numerous fountains and a four foot wide water canal, a place for outdoor concerts, and a restaurant with outdoor terrace dining overlooking the park. Benches and chess tables, dominos tables, swings, and free wireless internet access will invite people to stop and sit for a while. It will be a place for relaxation, recreation and entertainment.”

- Mayor Michael Coleman, Columbus, Ohio, 2008 State of the City Address

The Scioto Mile project has always been more about sprucing up our riverfront area than creating a great public space in my opinion. Everyone will indeed have their own definition of what constitutes a great public space of course, and my own involves places that see a good share of foot traffic on a regular basis where residents and workers alike can take full advantage of them throughout the day, sun-up to sun-down, through a majority of the year. “Places” don’t button up after 5 o’clock and they’re not empty at 8 o’clock in the morning once the workday begins.

The “Mile” is not located centrally enough within a high enough density of people to really reach its full potential in terms of becoming a bustling destination for downtown dwellers at this point in its evolution. I suppose all of that almost goes without saying and I imagine that the short-term goal of the project is not focused on becoming a “place” out of the gate.

I visit North Bank Park on the southern edge of the Arena District at various points during the year, typically on weekends. The park is currently the northern most leg of the Scioto Mile project at this point and it has always seemed to be in want of more folks to take advantage of it. It is a part-time public place as it stands today. Whether not enough people know about or if it’s not enough to draw people out for a visit isn’t really obvious at this point. I suppose people might ask why they would want to come down to visit the park when they’ve got parks with more green and shade in their own neighborhoods.

However, if you picked up on my use of “evolution” above, the riverfront is an area that is used by the entire city for numerous arts & cultural events throughout the year. Red, White & Boom, The Columbus Arts Festival, Jazz & Rib Fest just to name a few, pull in large crowds from across the Central Ohio region. The work and investment that is currently going into the Scioto Mile will immediately affect the experience people from throughout Central Ohio have when they venture into downtown for these events. Positive experiences downtown are definitley “a good thing.”

The challenge with any downtown initiative, in our Central Business District’s current state, centers on the fact that there are not a lot of people to partake in any of the initiatives as they stand today. The entire idea with all of the investment though is to build up our downtown one block at a time. Baby steps if you will.

From neglect to love, the Scioto Mile, while currently far from becoming a major downtown draw in and of itself, does represent an investment into downtown’s future, and lays down the foundation from which a great place my eventually grow as all the seemingly disparate downtown initiatives, from housing to retail, slowly come together over the next 10 to 20 years.

The Mile on High District

“Today, there is 152,000 square feet of vacant retail space in the High Street corridor and 12 acres of vacant lots and surface parking. These vacancies scar this corridor, and it’s made worse by the space of City Center. The High Street Corridor needs a 21st Century make-over, like we've begun at the corner of Broad and High. So today, I am proposing a new district downtown - The Mile on High District. This new district will increase our focus on rebuilding the High Street Corridor with active retail, office and housing, bringing more people and new investment back to the area.”

- Mayor Michael Coleman, Columbus, Ohio, 2008 State of the City Address.

152,000 square feet of vacant retail space says a lot. That number alone addresses what some folks were up in arms about when given the fact that the proposed parking structures that are being constructed downtown (first in the RiverSouth District and then next to the Neighborhood Launch Condominium project near Fourth and Gay Streets) aren’t mixed-use, containing street facing retail on their ground levels. With a 1.2 million square foot empty mall to boot, why would you build more retail space? But that’s an aside…

Despite having a number of “Districts” within the boundaries of the Columbus’ Central Business District, it has been my opinion for the past four years that there has been a lack of any cohesive marketing efforts for what the new Mile on High District aims to bring together. There have been blogosphere and general rumblings along the lines of “not another district…” but I have to say that I’m all for this one. Where this initiative goes and how it evolves remains to be seen, but there is now at the very least a name for what had remained one of the last areas downtown without an identity.

I will add to the mix though my own curiosity, concern possibly, with how retail would evolve downtown, or if it can in the next 10 years, given the efforts of Nationwide to develop their proposed Grandview Yard mixed-use project on the eastern border of Grandview Heights on an approximate 100 acre parcel of land strung together from the remains of the former Big Bear warehouse and other properties.

In initial conversations regarding the Grandview Yard concept, Nationwide had presented the idea of making the development a regional destination. With downtown and the Central Business District a mere mile and a half away and with Tuttle, Easton and Polaris Malls as examples of what over-retailing can do to a mall like City Center, I’ll be curious to watch plans unfold in the coming years.

The only way I see retail possible downtown, in conjunction with Grandview Yard should it go forward, would be from potential development that could be spurred by a streetcar system. But that’s a topic for another day…

City Center Mall

“In the coming months, we expect to present the first phase of a redeveloped City Center. It is our concept to transform the High Street side of City Center into a retail destination around a town square at the point where Town Street meets High Street. We will open up High Street by demolishing the cavernous City Center walkway.”

- Mayor Michael Coleman, Columbus, Ohio, 2008 State of the City Address

I won’t delve too far into City Center at this point given my observations above, but basing possible futures for the vacant structure off of the preliminary announcements by Nationwide on what some of the possibilities for City Center might, and might not, be in the coming years, I think there are a good number of people waiting with baited breath for the next steps for the forlorn mall. Again, whether or not the streetcar line design and engineering funds get triggered by Columbus City Council in the coming months will have a potentially significant impact on what possibilities lie ahead for City Center.

In my little fantasy world though, I’d like to see at least on level or chunk of the old mall turned into a small business incubator for technology based companies, maybe even as specific as saying Internet-based companies. When I have mentioned the idea of a entrepreneurial incubator downtown to some folks, they refer to TechColumbus and the Scitech Research Park over on Kinnear Road, both initiatives that I am very familiar with. They are, to be clear, effective and successful at their mission. That’s not what I talking about though. Take the TechColumbus incubator concept and park a branch of it downtown on a level of City Center, if even temporarily, with the idea of not only sparking entrepreneurialism but giving businesses some fertile soil to set up their roots in with an environment that has the potential to offer more than just a place to have an office.

If you want to spark innovation and entrepreneurialism, a cheap cube in an office park is one solution to help get businesses off the ground, but why not offer the whole enchilada in terms of a place to do business, get lunch and then hang around after hours. Make it an entrepreneurial business experience and invite folks from across the nation to come set up shop in our shiny renovated business incubation mega-center at the former City Center mall. Parking, the Scioto Mile, the streetcar, condos across the street…now you’ll be able to get folks attention. You can’t do that in an office park.

Lifestyles Communities RiverSouth Apartments and Condos

“I've got good news for you, because this Summer I will stand with Michael DeAscentis, and his team at Lifestyle Communities to break ground on more than 200 new apartments and condos along Front Street between Town and Rich Streets. When it comes to building for the young and talented, Lifestyle Communities gets it and they are going to deliver it, as they move their corporate headquarters downtown in June. We welcome them and the hundreds of young professionals that will be moving into this community. This $25 million project will create a new neighborhood of great looking, but accessible, downtown homes with more than 300 on-site parking spaces. The 130 apartments will start from $750 to $990, and the 76 condos will sell between $125,000 and $250,000, far less than what most downtown units costs.”

- Mayor Michael Coleman, Columbus, Ohio, 2008 State of the City Address

They will sell, no doubt. As is well known in the real estate world, you can’t effectively dictate the real estate market and the value of the land and any property on it. Affordable housing downtown is a one-time deal so if you are on board with the idea of moving downtown, you might want to keep an eye on this project. Again, I tie into the streetcar system, but mark my words, if the streetcar system design phase gets funded and the project moves forward, run don’t walk to Lifestyles Communities to buy one of those $125,000 condos. Sure, it's speculation, but follow my logic if you will:

If the successful examples of development and investment that have occurred in some other cities that developed streetcar lines ring true here in Columbus too, your condo is going to be worth quite a pretty penny five years from now. No guarantees there, but if you pull the pieces together, you won’t find it too hard to come to the same possible outcome that I just suggested.

As far as the folks out there that cry, “bring on the density!,” don’t fret. If downtown developers run out of space to build high-density, high-rise mixed-use projects, should they come into high demand in the future, that low-density land and its housing will have such a great value that it would make financial sense to buy them, knock them down and build up. Let’s hope we get to that point. (Just let go of how un-green that sounds for the moment)

We’ve already learned that in the downtown market that if you build it they won’t necessarily come, but if you build what they want for those who want them, they just might. If we get the streetcars though, I’d put my money on a downtown real estate swell, be it moderate or large, a swell in interest there will definitely be.

2008 State of the City Metrospective: Part 2

In a continuation from last week’s Metrospective, I’m carrying on with Part 2 of my observations from Mayor Coleman’s 2008 State of the City Speech which he presented a couple of weeks back on March 13, 2008.

This week I look at the items the Mayor discussed in relation to the Columbus Streetcars, the possibility of the return of Passenger Rail in Ohio and efforts to significantly expand the city’s Bike Paths.

Appropriately enough, of the three topics I'm hitting this week, the Columbus Streetcars have by far been the most talked about with the announcement this past Thursday that the city will be moving forward to seek City Council approval for $2 million for the engineering and design phase of the 2.8 mile starter streetcar system line. The approval that is being sought for the next phase of the streetcar system will be going in front of the Columbus City Council for a vote in the near future.

If you are an urban advocate, you are no doubt aware of the details and the proposed funding scenario that the Mayor presented this past Thursday. I’m not going to get into those details since, while the funding plan was being announced, it was also made very clear that the funding plan presented is a starting point from which to have discussions with the various stakeholders that would be affected by the proposed additional charges. The funding plan is "not set in stone" and there are sure to be changes as the project moves forward.

Things are starting to get a little more interesting here in Columbus, and I've been watching pretty closely for about 4 years now via RetroMetro...

Columbus Streetcars

“It's time to start with a 21st Century streetcar in Columbus. Electrified, sleek, modern streetcars that operate alongside cars on High Street, and connect downtown with the Short North, Italian Village, Ohio State's campus. A study by the Danter Group projected that streetcars in Columbus would help spur thousands of new jobs, new housing, new hotel rooms, new visitors, and most importantly, about half a billion dollars in new economic development. Streetcars will help us connect people to our stores, our restaurants, the life downtown and neighborhoods to each other.”

First off, streetcars are, in my opinion, a very good thing for Columbus. But the opening question in the streetcar debate is how did I come to that opinion? How does anyone come to that opinion?

Can I pull out my reams of data, studies and proven factual reports that virtually guarantee that a streetcar system will be the biggest boon for Columbus since Nationwide? Well, from my cyber travels, I can pull together a few examples of where streetcars have had significant economic impact, spurred development and resulted in a growth of public transit use for city in which they were implemented. Likewise, if you are against the streetcars, you can probably pull up a few examples to refute my examples. It’s a pointless endeavor at this point in the game.

Thankfully, public opinion is currently not calling the shots on whether or not the streetcar system goes forward at this point. If it was, we’d likely be sunk…at the moment.

I’ve been watching comments on The Columbus Dispatch polls about the streetcars and reading (skimming) opinions on a variety of websites, blogs and discussion forums and there is one thing that is clear: Columbus needs to be educated on transit, rail and most specifically, the streetcar system that is being pursued. I’m not making that statement as if I’m coming down from on high to offer some loftier view, perspective or understanding than the next guy might not have. My understanding is really novice at best at this point. But despite my limited knowledge, my opinion is that before the banter starts to heat up about the streetcars and how they will be funded, if it indeed ever does, folks need to understand the big picture.

Since even Thursday night, the articles that have popped up start adding to the confusion and the deluge of information that is out there. The task of education will require precision and consistency that can tell the story to a variety of audiences on their own terms. The biggest challenge is that any education attempts have to be boiled down to a 15 minute pitch that could be broken down even further into catchy sound bites and headlines. No easy task.

I could ramble on about how I think all the parts and pieces come together for the streetcar system and its immediate and deferred economic benefits. I could get into the bigger picture perspectives that relate to economic development, high-density development, central cities as the cornerstone of financial growth in metropolitan areas, reusing existing infrastructure…yada, yada, yada. I won’t. The people that I would want to reach out to really won’t care to hear or read it. Instead, I’m going to invest my venting against the anti-streetcar group and my rail proselytizing into gathering the facts and information on streetcars, putting them in order and then forming my own opinion first.

Fortunately, while I head off to put my nose into my monitor and start the data gathering, we’ve got some leadership in this city that is willing to step-up, take a risk and do what they feel is the best thing for the city despite the possibility that the masses could come out on the negative side of this initiative.

Passenger Rail

“Finally, I want to say tonight that I join our Governor, Ted Strickland, in urging Amtrak and the Federal Government to bring a rapid transit passenger line through Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. We are far too reliant on the "Automobile". Our city was built to accommodate them, with roads, highways, stop lights, parking meters, and traffic jams".

I’ll once again start out with the fact that I support the statewide rail initiatives that are being spurred on by Governor Strickland’s recent request to Amtrak to study the feasibility of returning passenger rail between Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland.

There have been a lot of people and organizations that have been advocating rail initiatives for years here in Central Ohio. I’ve been following them from the sidelines, waiting to see what would throw the switch to get their initiatives for rail on track here in Columbus. With some recent developments (passenger rail in Ohio and streetcars), I think the switch is now in the “on” position.

When it comes to passenger and freight rail initiatives, just like the streetcar, there needs to be some more education with regards to what they mean for Columbus, Central Ohio and Ohio. To tie the word “rail” to “economic development” is easy to do when you’re giving your schpeal on various initiatives, but to be able to illustrate the opportunities in some tangible manner that makes sense to the audience you are trying to educate is really where the secret lies.

Take for instance the fact that last year, a major freight line between Virginia and Columbus was federally funded to allow grading, crossings, bridges and other elements of rail infrastructure, to be updated so that the affected line could accommodate freight cars that could be stacked 2 containers high. That means roughly that the capacity to move goods by rail from the coast to and through Ohio would be substantially increased, if not doubled.

Add in that those goods could be stored and shipped out of the Rickenbacker Intermodal yard (intermodal being a point at which goods or people change their method of transportation: car to bus, train to truck, truck to air…etc.) and or shipped off to other destinations via rail, truck or plane, then you start to see Rickenbacker and Central Ohio as a key regional rail and freight logistics player at a time when diesel prices are growing and transporting goods by truck is getting more and more costly. I'll leave the problem we’re facing with funding our current automotive highway and byway infrastructure alone for the moment.

Since we are dealing with rail and upgrading and reinstating existing rail transit systems, moving goods and people between cities starts to become the true "bigger picture."

From the "people" side of these rail initiatives, once the people travel from "city to city", presumably with no car since they went by rail, then they need a means to circulate around their destination city. That’s where a streetcar system comes in to play one of its many supporting roles. When we talk about getting those same people from “city to suburb”, that’s where light rail comes into play down the road. But we’ll save that for another day. The point is, all the systems connect and without the door to door rail solution in place, it's full utility and benefit is not realized.

You have to start somewhere and in Columbus, we're starting with the smallest and most manageable player in our "big picture": The Columbus Streetcars.

If we want to tell the story of rail in Ohio, from streetcar to passenger rail to Interstate freight and shipping, we have to pull all the pieces together and sell the dream. Strong, risk-taking leadership can only get us so far on some of these initiatives. At some point in time we won’t be able to get things to the next level without public approval. That’s what we need to prepare for and start our door-to-door educational campaign for.

Bike Routes

“Tonight I am proud to announce that we will make our start this year, and I am committed to investing $20 million to build 86.3 miles of new on-street and off-road bike routes and trails by 2012. This will be funded by our current Capital Budget and by the Bicentennial Bond Package going on the November ballot, if our voters agree. That includes 54 miles of new on-street bike routes and lanes by the Bicentennial, which will require rebuilding dozens of intersections in this city to make them safer for walkers and bikers alike.”

In the same way that connecting all the rail pieces together is important for Columbus and Ohio, if you keep making the connections with regards to transportation, they all really start from the moment you step outside your door and your two feet hit the pavement. Feet to rail, we need to connect everything.

Whether you choose to walk, bike, drive your car or someday, hop on your local rail transit option, it’s having all the pieces with regards to transportation alternatives that can really spell success for a competitive city in years to come.

Personally I’m more of a walker than I am a biker, but having in place a means for everyone to be able to have the option of taking their bike to work or school grows more important with every passing year.

Since I’m not a biker, only having used the trails on occasion, I can’t say I can represent the crowd that would benefit the most from this initiative but having a well-connected bike path that runs the width and breath of Columbus is definitely an important transit option which warrants investment. With a city-wide dedicated bike path that integrates with a “complete” street system that accommodates all modes of transportation, Columbus will have in place a much need transit infrastructure that gives everyone a variety of options for getting around that don’t really on personal automobiles.

One little twist I’ll throw out for folks to think about: I haven’t heard a single word, balk or complaint about investing $20 million into the bike paths which will not serve all of Columbus. No one has made a big deal out of the investment. I haven’t heard a negative peep. The following point is not meant to undermine the positive effects of the bike path, both health-wise and economic, but more so to share some perspective: The bike path is priced currently a 1/5 ($20 million bike path - $100 million of streetcar system) of the streetcar system that is packed with economic benefits that bike paths could never come near. Remember, I’m for the bike paths, but why didn’t that make the news?

It’s just that I really wonder how and when we form our opinions for or against various city initiatives, especially in the absence of all the facts. Are the stories that are pitched to us by the press and the typically sensationalized angle they take supplying a flimsy basis of our knowledge on this topic or that or do we actually take 5 minutes to find out the facts…the ones that aren’t processed and spun to help ratings? You can answer that for yourself, I already have my opinion.

No real big point there, just an observation.

When it comes to transit in Columbus, we have a long way to go in both understanding and then getting in place the transportation systems and the alternatives we’ll need in order to be a competitive and thriving city in the coming decades.

With that, I’m off to go sharpen my teeth just in case any anti-streetcar groups come out of the wood work in the coming months…

Next week I’ll wrap up my 2008 State of the City review with my take on the Scioto Mile, the Mile on High District, City Center, the Lifestyles Communities Condo and Apartment Project in RiverSouth and the NetJets and the Airport Economic Development Corporation initiative.

2008 State of the City Metrospective

If you still haven’t had a chance to go over all the high points from Mayor Coleman’s 2008 State of the City address, which he gave on March 13th, please join me for a review of the highlights from his speech that I think are the most noteworthy from the urban revitalization perspective. I give you the snippets that stuck out the most to me and also share some of my perspectives and observations along the way.

More importantly though, I hope to be able to shed a little light into what some of the items really mean. I’ve been reading so many opinions out on the blogosphere and in the mainstream media of what folks think about various initiatives that were discussed by Mayor Coleman, but I saw too few attempts to explain what some of them really mean.

My head is in this urban stuff every single day and I barely feel I have a strong enough grasp on city operations to offer a somewhat educated opinion on some of these topics. To that end, rather than share emotion wrought feelings and opinions, I’d rather pull some facts together, sprinkle them with a few perspectives, and throw them on your plate in a digestible manner so that you can hopefully form your own opinions based on a little more than gut feelings. Let me be the Spock to your Captain Kirk.

There are a lot of good topics to get into from this year’s State of the City address so I actually had to break them down into a multi-part editorial I’ll present over the next couple of weeks so that you don’t spend half your morning reading this thing.

This week I cover the Bicentennial Bond Package, the Curfew, Vacant Housing and the Columbus Coated Fabrics project.

Bicentennial Bond Package

“We must invest in our neighborhood's basic needs: parks, sewer and water lines, policing centers and bike paths. In short, we must meet the needs of our residents, today, tomorrow and for the next generation. And we can do this by going to the Ballot with the Bicentennial Bond Package this November. I am asking you to support your city, support your neighborhoods, and support your family. We can do this without raising taxes. If you vote to give the City permission to sell bonds at a lower interest rate, we will protect our quality of life and build for our City's future.”

I have always felt that the concept behind the billion dollar Bicentennial Bond Package was a strong one to the end of generating the necessary funds to put a great many of the 2012 Bicentennial capital improvement projects, which are still being designed and sorted out, into motion.

I’m a supporter of the Bond Package and when I see it on the ballot come November, it will get my vote. But, really, what the heck is a bond and what is it used for? You really need to at least understand the concept to be able to make an informed decision come November. Let’s see what Wikipedia has to say:

Municipal bonds are issued by states, cities, and countries, or their agencies (the municipal issuer) to raise funds. The methods and practices of issuing debt are governed by an extensive system of laws and regulations, which vary by state. Bonds bear interest at either a fixed or variable rate of interest.

The issuer of a municipal bond receives a cash payment at the time of issuance in exchange for a promise to repay the investors who provide the cash payment (the bond holder) over time. Repayment periods can be as short as a few months (although this is rare) to 20, 30, or 40 years, or even longer.

The issuer typically uses proceeds from a bond sale to pay for capital projects or for other purposes it cannot or does not desire to pay for immediately with funds on hand. Tax regulations governing municipal bonds generally require all money raised by a bond sale to be spent on one-time capital projects within three to five years of issuance.[1] Certain exceptions permit the issuance of bonds to fund other items, including ongoing operations and maintenance expenses, the purchase of single-family and multi-family mortgages, and the funding of student loans, among many other things.

Because of the special tax-exempt status of most municipal bonds, investors usually accept lower interest payments than on other types of borrowing (assuming comparable risk). This makes the issuance of bonds an attractive source of financing to many municipal entities, as the borrowing rate available in the open market is frequently lower than what is available through other borrowing channels.

Read the full Wikipedia Entry

Columbus is one of a handful of cities across the country to repeatedly receive a AAA bond rating for municipal bonds issued by our city, making Columbus “the highest credit ranked big city in the nation.” It doesn’t hurt that Franklin County also has a history with AAA ratings. This means for the investors out there, when bonds from Columbus, Ohio show up on the table, they are like Grade-A Prime Beef (assuming you are a meat eater.)

What makes the whole bond story all the more interesting and enticing for investors is the fact that Berkshire Hathaway Assurance Corporation, a municipal bond insuring company, was cleared to operate in Ohio on March 14th,  2008. Municipalities use companies such as Berkshire Hathaway to guarantee their bonds, allowing them to get even higher ratings and cheaper financing. So AAA bond ratings and a new bond backer who has an interest in Columbus since their sibling company owns NetJets, which recently decided to stay and expand their corporate operations in Columbus, makes Columbus one heck of a top notch investment from where I’m sitting.

The only concern I really have is what possible effect all this recession activity will have on municipal bonds as the year wears on. Will municipal bond become more or less attractive as things continue to swing around and undulate out there in the investment world.

Curfew

“The City's current curfew law has existed for over 34 years, and since there was no good place for Officers to take the kids it has been difficult to enforce. But we're now giving everybody fair and advance warning, that the curfew laws will be enforced in the City of Columbus. Beginning June 5th, our Officers will pick up children 17 and under, out past midnight.”

I read a couple of articles about the curfew and potential issues there might be, but the authors seemed to miss the simplest point from how I saw it. The city is pulling up an old ordinance, dusting it off, informing the public about it and will put it into their arsenal for dealing with youth that are out on the streets causing trouble after dark. Instead of just telling kids to break it up and go home, they have a tool to take an action with which I personally believe may help keep some kids out of trouble. I can’t imagine the intention of this curfew is to start carting kids around, but if some kids are lurking around after midnight, the police have something they can use to enforce parental responsibility.

Vacant Housing

“We've already helped scores of Columbus residents stay in their homes. Last year, our team and the City Attorney filed 60% more cases to push property owners to maintain their vacant housing. And when a building is too far gone, we knock it down. So far we've demolished 165 abandoned houses. In addition, we took on, took down, and took out Public Enemy #1 - Woodland Meadows, a 122 building cesspool of human misery, crime and decay. We've know we've got more to do. Even though our Home Again initiative impacted some 600 homes, 1,000 more homes are vacant and abandoned today than when we started because of the national foreclosure crisis.”

Vacant housing is a major source of economic burden for the city. Not only is there the loss of property tax revenue, but there is the cost of additional city services that are left to deal with these problem homes. Part of the $25 million price tag for the Home Again initiative involves dealing with these houses to the end of demolishing them or revitalizing them enough to stabilize the structures. According to a recent report by the Community Research Partners, there are nearly 5000 vacant homes in 3 of Columbus’ inner-city neighborhoods alone.

For me, the bigger picture for the vacant homes issue has to do with the fact that these homes sit on city streets, with city infrastructure and city services that we are all paying for which these homes do not generate any of the tax dollars needed to maintain them. In other words, the homes, streets, sewers, power lines, police and fire trucks that care for these neighborhoods are being paid for by our tax dollars, suburban and urban dwellers alike, but aren’t generating their own contribution to pay for the services they are taking up.

These vacant homes, and the streets and utilities they are connected to can’t be abandoned. We are paying for these blighted neighborhoods and not using them while we keep building outwards to meet housing demands which are created as a result of a city’s efforts to grow.

Figuring out how to reuse what we have in terms of urban housing and infrastructure is one of the major principals that drive RetroMetro. We need to tackle the issue of revitalizing and re-utilizing the existing neighborhoods, housing stock and infrastructure that we are already paying for before we continue building new communities.

Columbus Coated Fabrics

“Today, I'd like to announce the City's investment of $14 million for infrastructure construction that will leverage $80 million dollar in private investment - to transform that tainted rubble into homes, jobs, life, and hope. With help of local leaders such as Robert Caldwell, Joyce Hughes and Catherine Grives, we've begun taking down this eyesore. Campus Partners and Wagenbrenner Development have joined together to build a new neighborhood with 600 new condominiums, townhouses and apartments. Homes will be priced for working families, first time home buyers and those looking to move up beginning at $90,000.”

The Columbus Coated Fabrics site is located on the eastern edge of Weinland Park, located in the southeast corner of the University District.

I suppose there is a large portion of this project that I currently do not understand, which I have to throw out as a disclaimer. I’m not currently for or against the project, but I’d like to get a better understanding as to the larger strategy which is planned here.

Knocking down the site’s fire-prone and collapsing structures is a clear plus, but the current strategy for investment into the land after demolition and any environmental remediation leaves me scratching my head a bit.

Weinland Park, according to their own neighborhood plan from 2006, is “one of the largest concentrations of Section 8 Housing in Franklin County and a place of housing of last resort for many low-income families.” That concentration is directly to the west of the Columbus Coated Fabrics site.

There is a concentration of nearly 500+ Section 8 homes in Weinland Park (although that number may have changed in the past few years), out of the 2000 or so households in that community. If I am not mistaken, Section 8 housing contracts run for a number of years, typically measured terms of decades.

Weinland Park also holds a ”word on the street” history for crime occurrences that are statistically higher than the rest of the city. I use the term “word on the street” because actual statistics are not easily found on the web aside from a few references in flimsy articles so I can’t really back it up aside from what I would call a collective perception of the neighborhood in the surrounding communities. Not the greatest set of information from which to base a decision on, to be sure, but it leads to a question that I can’t get a clear and easy answer for.

Since real estate value is determined by the value of the land, its location and the amenities it is connected to, how can this project lead to a positive effect for the neighborhood without simultaneously dispersing the high concentration of Section 8 housing?

Again, this is not a slam or an attack, but I merely wanted to point out that there is not enough readily-available information out in the public from which to make an educated decision on this initiative. Honestly, how can you form a meaningful or constructive opinion without some of the above information?

After having just written this little perspective, I am going to reach out to a few contacts to see what I can find out…

Next week, continuing on with the review of Mayor Coleman's 2008 State of the City Address, I'll poke into the Columbus Streetcars, Passenger Rail and Bike Paths.

Opening the Discussion

If you followed last weeks editorial, I mentioned the fact that I was going to start a guided analysis that looks at the benefits of a streetcar system in Columbus.

In order to do that, I had to dive into a new piece of functionality on RetroMetro that would enable moderated discussions (otherwise known as Discussion Forums in web-tech terms) so that my streetcar exploratory efforts would at least have the opportunity to gather some public input in a structured manner.

You may or may not have an interest in participating in the discussion and since the effort is just getting started, things are going to be a little rag-tag as I work out the kinks. However, I would encourage you to start wrapping your mind around sounding off on the topics I get into here on RetroMetro as things move forward.

In RetroMetro's effort to move away from one-way communications, you'll be seeing more of my weekly efforts divert away from just writing and moving more towards interactivity with a few new initiatives I have up my sleeves.

I'll be posting regularly over the next month in terms of my streetcar analysis effort, so keep an eye out.

For know, you can get a look at what I've gotten started over the last week and jump in if and when you feel like it...

Continue reading the editor's weekly metrospective

Laying Track for the Columbus Streetcar

There is so much background information to cover when it comes to telling the story about why the City of Columbus is even contemplating the creation of a modern streetcar system here in Columbus, never mind the education that will have to take place if we actually receive a green-light from Mayor Coleman and the Columbus City Council in late March or early April.

After seeing an updated presentation on the proposed streetcars by the mayor's Chief of Staff Mike Reese last week, I know that he would agree when I say that a lot of education needs to take place so that every citizen in the City of Columbus, and our surrounding suburban cities for that matter, has an opportunity to understand why we may be building a streetcar system and what it means.

I have yet to see anyone tackle the "streetcar education" issue, and with good reason. It's no small chore. But, as with any monstrously complex or burdensome task, the best approach is to break it down to digestible chunks.

That being said, I have an idea...

It's been a couple of years since I've performed any sort of overhaul on RetroMetro and it was within the last month that I have finally begun to architect the next version. With this next proposed version being a pretty sizable undertaking, I'm always looking for ways to simplify things. Make it easy. Simplicity beyond complexity if you will.

With RetroMetro 2.0, I have been working on a simple framework that I plan to use as the core of the site and the way I track and cross reference all the information I collect. Think of it as a glorified filing system.

It's that filing system that I want to apply to the streetcars in order to break down all of its pieces into  "digestible chunks" that will be used as the raw material to create the story that has bites in it for everyone.

That being said, I want to take a crack at starting to tell the streetcar story, and I want your help. Don't worry...I'll do all the heavy lifting. After all, I do love to write, but I need some serious thought and input to be able to put together the story that I am envisioning.

THE FRAMEWORK: FROM YOUR FRONT DOOR TO THE CAPITAL

The goal will be to fill in the following framework with all of the short bullet points, not paragraphs, of the benefits and/or issues that would apply to each of the line items within the structure.

I've created this framework in part from my own research, experience and methods of classifying information as it relates to urban revitalization. The other input into this system is based on the structure that the Congress for New Urbanism uses to break down and explain their charter.

Basically the idea is to think about the benefits or issues of the streetcar system as is pertains to each geographic area in the chart going down the left-hand side. Across the top, think about how it would affect that group of stakeholders within that geographic area.

For example, in the first area of "Building," ask yourself how a citizen's building or home (and who would be affected) by the streetcars and what that affect would be. Then ask how a business's building, customer traffic or services would be affected. Finally, in what way would government buildings, utilities or services be affected?

If it doesn't all make sense, no worries. I'll be filling it in myself over the next week or so and will be prompting folks for input on the specifics as I walk down the chart.

Once I've collected all the thoughts, ideas, issues and benefits...I'll write my story. I'll also be putting up an ongoing Web site to collect this information, along with stories from around the country about other cities that are doing the same thing we are, including their status and progress.

	Citizen	Business	Government
Building/Home	-	-	-
Street	-	-	-
Block	-	-	-
Neighborhood/District	-	-	-
Corridor	-	-	-
City/Town	-	-	-
Metropolis	-	-	-
County	-	-	-
Region	-	-	-
State	-	-	-

USING THE FRAMEWORK

So looking at Building/Home as the first geographic area, there are three questions (maybe more) that could be derived:

1. What homes, and their home owners, will be affected by the proposed streetcar systems and how will they be affected? Property value? Noise? Transportation alternatives?
2. What businesses and property owners will be affected by the system and how? Will they have to pay for the system? Will they get more customers and increase their bottom line? What will this mean for on-street parking?
3. What city utilities and structures will be needed or significantly affected? Since we are thinking about buildings at this point, I will wonder where the streetcars would be garaged. Would any additional buildings or structures be needed on the street to the electricity needed, beyond the overhead wires?

That is just a quick and dirty example of how to use the framework to help guide your thinking about the streetcars in an orderly fashion with the objective of pulling out all the benefits and issues you can think of.

GOING FORWARD

The city doesn't have all the answers at this point and some of the answers may not come for a year or so if the project goes forward since it would go through a serious design phase, but by having a collection of questions and answers we'll be able paint the bigger picture of what a streetcar system would mean to even one of us, at every level from homes up to larger implications within the state. In turn we'd be able to build some stories and "case scenarios" out of the aggregated information...stories that could be tailored to various groups and demographics since the proposed system doesn't affect us all in the same way, but it does affect us all in the long run as we'll see going forward.

It will be hard to punch a hole in a project that would eventually be very thoroughly contemplated and discussed in the community even before the city designed and starting building it.

Even if you don't participate, I imagine watching it progress as I work on it may get the wheels spinning and hopefully answer some questions along the way.

Railing to Entrepreneurialism

If a time of "economic recession" is truly upon us, that also means that there exists a potential for recreating existing economic markets for developing wealth and/or potentially creating new ones.

Investors want a place to put their money and with real estate investment leaving center stage at the moment, the question is, what are the new markets that Columbus has the potential to develop and in turn, lead the way in, for investors to put their money into?

Looking back we can see that our economy went from a dot.com boom and bust to a housing boom and bust. Now we have to ask ourselves what the next industry will be that hordes of investors will flock to. If we can capture just one of these new investment markets as part of a diversified "attract & retain" effort, since there is a long-term risk in tapping into these trends, we'll be able to reap the benefits from both a financial and population growth perspective.

Columbus needs to make great strides in the next year to identify and then "railroad" our efforts to jump on the next economic "train" before it pulls out of the station. I'm suggesting that one of the "tracks" to that objective lies not only in innovation and entrepreneurialism, but in rail transit (if you didn't pick up all the hints by this point.)

From my perspective, we've already reserved our ticket for this gravy train through the efforts of the Ohio Rail Development Commission and the activist engagement of All Aboard Ohio, but we need to get to the box office to pay for our ticket and pick it up.

We need all of Central Ohio to get "All Aboard" our various rail initiatives as a starting point...

There are two major rail-based initiatives that Ohio and Columbus are looking at to lead the way in rail transit in the next decade. For that State of Ohio, the Ohio Hub Plan seeks to create a means to evolve our ability to accommodate both passenger and freight rail capabilities to the end of stimulating economic development across the state:

The Ohio Hub Passenger and Freight Rail Plan breaks from the long-standing Amtrak model and suggests a policy that invests public dollars in improving the railroad system to achieve public benefits and generate economic development activity. If Ohio and the nation are to effectively address issues such as mobility, moving increasing volumes of freight, growing the economy, creating jobs, conserving energy, and improving air quality then we must look upon rail as “an essential transportation investment.”...

Visit the Ohio Hub Plan Web site

Within the City of Columbus, to the same end of stimulating economic development, there is a plan underway that is currently seeking funding to construct the city's first modern streetcar line reaching from downtown Columbus all the way up to OSU, with other lines branching out to other urban neighborhoods and districts planned for future phases if the project gets funded:

...An economic impact study prepared by Danter and Associates, found that Columbus streetcars would create $764 million in economic impact after five years of operation. That’s one of the reasons why the Downtown Residents Association has endorsed the idea and has launched a petition drive to show rider interest...

Visit the Downtown Columbus Streetcar Web resource site

As the recently abundant funding sources for different industries are considerably throttled back, such as with the current case for housing, construction and business lending, new sources for wealth development will be sought out and eventually created. These next-generation means of wealth building may be government subsidized, they may not. We can't afford to wait for more programs. Either way, there are some clear movements in the world of rail transit that might suggest one of the directions to look into as far as where some of those investment dollars just might be heading:

...Buffet and his conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., have a proven track record of investing in successful companies.

So his acquisition of stock in railroad company Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. has made those in the transportation industry take notice...

...Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway officials declined to discuss their strategy for BNSF, but the large stock purchase seems to indicate Buffet's confidence in the future of the rail industry...

View the full article: Railroad Rebound: Signs point to resurgence in one of the country's oldest shipping modes
Business First of Louisville
February 15, 2008

Add in one more ingredient, which is the investment and effort being put into the Rickenbacker Inter-modal hub which lies on the southern border of the City of Columbus, and you may start to make some connections to what potential rail has for Columbus and Central Ohio, from both a passenger and freight perspective:

Rickenbacker is an international multi-modal cargo airport, a charter passenger terminal, a U.S. Foreign-Trade Zone, a distribution hub and a major component and economic engine of the Central Ohio region, servicing customer needs around the world.

Rickenbacker is also a high-speed international logistics hub with a strategically planned cargo complex that serves several key business segments, including international airfreight, freight forwarding, corporate aviation, e-commerce fulfillment and distribution.

Rickenbacker's unprecedented geographic location, tools and expertise give companies key competitive advantages for gaining access to the global marketplace. Columbus is within a one-day truck drive to more of the U.S. population than any other city in the United States or Canada. Foreign-Trade Zone No. 138 offers many costs savings in the processing and distribution of international cargo at the airport.

Visit the Rickenbacker Multi-Modal Logistics Hub Web site

Now what happens when you tie all of the highlighted initiatives and stories from above together? Interesting futures start to be envisioned from these connections, along with infinite possibilities for economic development. Some of these opportunities are distinctively unique to Ohio and Columbus given our location as a gateway to the rest of the countryand I smell one of many opportunities for innovation here which lies in leading the way in accomodating rail-based initiatives and infrastrucutre investments.

Making sense of all rail initiatives is not necessarily as easy as dreaming about the future though. And that is where the challenge comes in for disseminating and sharing the raw potential that investment into rail transit can come into play for the economic future of Ohio, Central Ohio and Columbus.

That brings us to the next question: How do we get everyone on board these rail initiatives for Columbus and Ohio? It's a process that goes back to my mantra from last year: Communicate, Educate and Engage.

These rail initiatives hit on so many up-and-coming trends in a variety of overlapping issues that Ohio and every other state in the union will be facing in the coming years:

• changes in the shipping industry
• projected growth in international