the urban news for the week ending Sunday, March 30, 2008
        |
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...
Paul Bonneville  
 A trial is to begin today in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, the latest of three ballpark lawsuits in four months against commissioners. They've won one and lost one.
Franklin County will call its first witnesses this afternoon to counter a lawsuit by a contractor who says the county twisted its rules to favor labor unions for jobs building the Huntington Park baseball stadium.
Judge Michael J. Holbrook is expected to decide the case on Monday. The Painting Co. is the latest of three contractors to sue Franklin County commissioners over jobs at the new ballpark.
...The musicians also say that the symphony's marketing and fundraising efforts have been lacking.
Representatives of the Columbus Symphony and the American Federation of Musicians met Tuesday for an initial negotiation session about the orchestra's future.
Throughout North America in recent decades, dozens of orchestras have dealt with financial crises ranging from near-bankruptcy to sudden death -- situations similar to the Columbus Symphony's current struggles.
Urban Land Institute's Columbus District Council presents Columbus Downtown Retail Forum: A discussion about the state of Columbus' downtown retail market
Skybus Airlinesâââ‰â¢ chief executive, Bill Diffenderffer, has resigned, the airline announced today. He will be replaced by the companyâââ‰â¢s chief financial officer, Mike Hodge, effective immediately.
Many analysts say the market for speedy light jet travel in a global economy is in its infancy and could be a spectacular growth industry. The push to keep the company in Columbus was driven by that bet, but also because the city and state don't want to lose a company that caters to the jet set âââ‰â¬ï¿½ think Tiger Woods and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who are among NetJets' customers
Columbus might not rank among the nation's 100 fastest-growing metropolitan areas, but the city finished another year of modest but steady growth unlike the rest of the state, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Thursday.
Postcard Caption: Headquarters Fire Department, Columbus, Ohio
Nearly a year after Mayor Michael B. Coleman announced a $23 million privately funded project to turn land around the former B&T Metals plant into loft condos and apartments, town houses, gallery space and a small theater, little has changed in the three-block area west of Downtown.
Ohio State University's Agricultural Research and Development Center this week said a collaboration with the state Department of Agriculture and other organizations has launched Ohio MarketMaker, a Web-based tool that gives free information on buyers and sellers of food products along with locations and other detailed demographic information.
To keep up with demand for services in central Ohio, the Church of Scientology wants to build a new 50,000-square-foot facility near Grandview Heights.
Grandview Heights City Council's recreation, services and public facilities committee, meeting Monday morning, discussed engineering and repair work with representatives of Nationwide Realty Investors and EMH&T.
A TIF agreement that lasts more than 10 years or is for more than 75 percent requires school district approval. It is expected the Grandview Yard TIF will require such approval.
Standing outside the Lincoln Theatre yesterday, Broadway dancer Maurice Hines burst into fluid and flexible moves -- his feet lightly tapping on the pavement, hips swirling and arms gracefully twisting in the air.
After falling for six straight months, sales of existing homes posted an unexpected increase in February which may have reflected more aggressive price cutting by sellers in some parts of the country, a real estate trade group reported.
After falling for six straight months, sales of existing homes rose unexpectedly in February, which might reflect aggressive price-cutting by sellers in some parts of the country, a real-estate trade group reported yesterday.
Home prices in many cities continued to plunge by record levels in January as sellers cut their asking bids and rising foreclosures took their toll, new data showed Tuesday.
New home sales fell to their lowest level in 13 years in February, according to a key government report on the battered housing market released Wednesday.
If you still haven't had a chance to go over all the high points from Mayor Colemanâââ‰â¢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.
Lifestyle Communities Ltd. is going to build a $25-million multifamily project Downtown. The RiverSouth Residential Project, planned for Front Street between Town and Rich streets, will have 200 condo units and 130 rental unitsââ¬Â¦
Regulators have cleared billionaire Warren Buffett's new municipal bond backer to operate in Ohio, the state Department of Insurance said Friday.
Pro-streetcar City Council members won a victory Monday by approving preliminary steps to get federal money for service to Uptown.
City Council Finance Committeeâââ‰â¢s, which includes eight of nine council members, will wait another two weeks before voting on a proposal to build a system of streetcars in Cincinnati.
The Columbus and Cincinnati metro areas are gaining people, but the rest of the state's urban areas continue to shed population as Ohio's economic struggles persist.
Monday could be the day the trucks stop rolling. Across the nation, on citizens band channels, independent truckers are talking about parking their rigs and letting the country know how much it needs them.
...That seems to be an enormous amount of money to spend on some our-city-can-be-like-San-Francisco streetcars that will take people up and down High Street. Why not spend the millions on some modern commuter trains to get people in and out of Downtown during the rush hours?
Well, you know what they say about necessity. Freedman invented a rather ingenious method of planning a bike network. Her team created a modified Google Map that enables cyclists to log on and trace the routes they ride every day.
The City is reconvening the Streetcar Working Group TONIGHT to present the financing plan and get feedback. The public is invited to attend.
It would cost about $103 million to get electric streetcars started on a route along High Street, from the southern edge of Downtown to the Ohio State University campus, Coleman said. It would cost about $4.5 million a year to keep them running.
Coleman plans to send a proposal to the city council before the end of the year in which the city would add a 4 percent surcharge on tickets to most concerts and sporting events within six blocks of the streetcar route.
President Gordon Gee's plan to make it mandatory for students live on campus for two years will affect not only parents and students, but landlords who own off-campus housing.
The first place is your home. The second place is your workplace. The third place is where you hang out in between. Ray Oldenburg wrote the book on it.
...it was inevitable that as more creatives turn to more natural means of transportation we would start to see third places for biking commuters, aka urban bike stationsââ¬Â¦
|
