the urban news for the week ending Sunday, June 1, 2008
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...
Paul Bonneville  
 The site of a former factory near Huntington Park could be developed into a residential neighborhood, providing a crowning touch to the western reaches of the Arena District.
Ohio's food pantries, community theaters and other nonprofit groups are preparing for an expected decline in corporate donations as the economy slows and big businesses look to limit gifts.
"A dark Ohio [Theatre] will be a real challenge for us and all of Downtown," said Bill Conner, president and chief executive of the Columbus Association for the Performing Artsââ¬Â¦
The Greater Columbus Arts Council on Tuesday approved operating and project grants for 32 area groups totaling $2.49 million, but the jury is still out on an award of up to $245,000 for the suspended Columbus Symphony Orchestra.
Columbus Symphony Orchestra musicians and board members are considering their next steps in negotiations to keep the CSO operating. The two sides met Monday for another round of bargaining. The meeting came almost a week after musicians held a news conference to present a plan that would add "In-Kind" donations to the budget's bottom lineââ¬Â¦
The state's preliminary capital budget includes $200,000 in funding for the Grandview Yard project.
More than 4,100 vacant residential properties stain the landscape across Columbus, but city officials hope a bill passed by the Ohio Senate today will help them get those buildings into the hands of new owners.
The new Clipper's Stadium, Huntington Park, at Neil Ave. & Nationwide Blvd., May 24, 2008
As City Council members debate a plan to put crime-watching cameras in Columbus neighborhoods, people's privacy is shaping up as issue No. 1.
Columbus is one of the most affordable housing markets in the country, based on a survey that compares home prices with rental costs.
America's home-buying season, when for-sale signs sprout like dandelions, is shaping up to be even worse than expected this year, with prices falling, sales slowing and few signs of a turnaround emerging.
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.
Schools are another victim of the housing downturn and sluggish economy. Most local revenue for school districts comes through real-estate taxes, which typically grow with home construction, Franklin County Auditor Joe Testa said. But that growth has flattened, based on a comparison of tax collections for February of this year with those of a year earlier.
A proposed 8.3-mill levy floated last week would increase taxes on a $100,000 house by $254 a year. That's high, yet still wouldn't be enough to pay for the program changes suggested by Superintendent Gene Harris. Other proposals ranged as high as 12 mills.
District officials have said that maintaining the districtâââ‰â¢s current operations will cost about 8.3 mills, or $254 annually for a $100,000 home.
A tax deal to help boost the state's aviation industry, and specifically encourage NetJets Aviation to expand its Columbus operations, was added yesterday to the new $1.3 billion state construction budget before it passed the Ohio House.
The move marks another roadblock for the proposed commission, which would be asked to identify how local governments can operate more effectively and efficiently.
The chamber late Wednesday passed House Bill 554 and House Joint Resolution 5. The package would place a $400 million bond issue before voters in November to renew state's $400 million Clean Ohio initiative, a key element of the jobs plan Strickland unveiled in February.
Amid the glut of negative economic statistics these days, this is perhaps the most stunning: More than 13 percent of Ohioans are now living in poverty, unable to afford adequate food, housing, clothes and other necessities.
Compared to this time last year, COTA said ridership is up by nearly 18 percent. The average number of passengers every day is almost 56,000.
The Department of Transportation said figures from March show the steepest decrease in driving ever recorded.
The high cost of soy biodiesel is prompting COTA to discontinue, at least for now, using the environmentally friendly fuel to run its buses.
Flanked by business owners and residents, Mayor Michael B. Coleman and City Councilmember Hearcel Craig officially kicked off the $15.8 million neighborhood revitalization project today on High Street, between Lane and Arcadia avenues, in an area known as Old North Columbus.
More arches are coming to High Street - but these won't have lights.
City officials on Thursday kicked off a planned $15.8 million revitalization project on North High Street in an area known as Olde North Columbus.
Living Cities, funded by more than a dozen major foundations and banks, describes the effort as a groundbreaking effort to remake urban policy. The organization has spent more than $11 million throughout Ohio over the past decade and a half on housing improvement and other initiatives, saying it helped generate additional spending of $63 million.
Neighbors have blasted his five-story, 56-unit Arlington Crossing condominiums, across from Kingsdale Shopping Center, as too close to the street and too big for the neighborhood. The project replaced duplexes and apartments on Tremont Road.
It looks like fewer of those 78 million will be either rich enough or young enough at retirement to meet the expectations of businesses catering to boomers released from the workforce.
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