the urban news for the week ending Monday, September 1, 2008
 Arts & Culture
Independents' Day is a celebration of the unique spirit of creativity in urban Columbus.
Brewery District
A Brewery District nightclub that was declared a public nuisance has been closed permanently under court order.
City Scene
As it moves to lay off dozens of city workers at the low end of the seniority scale, Columbus also is studying incentives to clear out higher-income people nearing retirement.
None of the group's projects was bringing in enough money to help cover operating expenses or pay for new projects, then-Urban Growth Chairman Fred Damsen wrote Coleman in 2006.
Downtown Columbus
High Street fronting the Huntington Center has been reopened after a falling pane of glass prompted police to seal off a stretch of the busy downtown Columbus thoroughfare this morning.
German Village, Historic Issues & Preservation
"I think the commission and the society and anyone else who governs old buildings need to take into context the current times and current times dictates you don't put copper outside," she continued...
Grandview Heights
The Grandview Heights City Council designated the area as "blighted," which opens the door for the city to use heavy-handed means to buy property there. But council members amended the legislation to promise that the city will not resort to eminent domain.
Grandview Heights, Harrison West
Daimler Group Inc. and Wagenbrenner Development Co. The developers hope to land up to $3 million to help them prepare seven acres north of Time Warner Cableââ¬â¢s regional headquarters on Olentangy River Road
Real Estate Affairs
The dollar value of the areaââ¬â¢s construction backlog eased by more than a third last month, driven by a nearly 50 percent drop in residential construction contracts, according to a new report.
As the value of home mortgages crumbles by the day, Wall Street has hoped that commercial real estate loans would stay clear of the storm.
The decline in existing home sales in Central Ohio last month mirrored conditions seen around the state, which saw a 13 percent decline in sales, according to data released Monday by the Ohio Association of Realtors.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are giants of the mortgage-finance industry. But to investors, they're rapidly shrinking.
Regional Scene
Some 15 companies at the job fair do business in the Rickenbacker area. Some of the dozens of employers here have full time openings, other just part-time. Rickenbacker might seem like an odd place for a job fair but not according to Franklin County Commissioners Paula Brooks.
There is growing concern that the home foreclosure crisis may worsen next year as lenders are hit by a new category of loans that haven't caused much trouble.
The cases filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Ohio represent an increase of 19.7 percent from the 21,378 cases that were filed in the year before...
RetroMetro Updates
Just an update... RetroMetro was hacked again last night and I have taken down all but the news/blog section until I can make the appropriate repairs to the rest of the site (which is no small chore) to ensure the...
Four years and no fuss...it was bound to happen :(
There are still going to be some bugs to work out, but I think I've hack proofed things for now, at least for the attack that has been hitting the site over the past couple of weeks.
Schools & Education
Administration costs will rise more than any other major category in the Columbus schools' budget this fiscal year.
Short North
The space, which once housed several shops, including a Cold Stone Creamery, can seat 55 customers inside and 30 on the sidewalk patio. Poggemeyer said the build-out, which included the addition of three more banquet rooms for the steakhouse, "cost in the seven figures."
State Scene
Large-scale layoffs last month put more than 19,000 Ohio workers in line for unemployment benefits, nearly double the number a year ago, according to a federal report released Friday.
The Buckeye Institute believes that in just ten years, Ohio can join the list of states that have no state income tax.
op state officials are continuing talks with the U.S. Department of Justice in an attempt to halt a pending agreement between DHL Express and UPS that could cost 8,000 jobs, after similar discussions with the federal Department of Transportation failed.
Transportation & Roadways
Since the early 1990s, the United States has had no comprehensive transportation development, and responsibilities were pushed off to states, municipalities and metropolitan planning organizations.
Urbanism
...It was also ripe for transit-oriented development (TOD), a.k.a. transit-oriented design, a variation of traditional neighborhood design. TODs are attracting attention because of increased interest in public transportation due to global warming and a concern over rapidly rising gasoline prices...
The key to affordability is not in government subsidies, but in size - each of the condominiums range from 250 to 350 s.f. Itââ¬â¢s the U.S. version of the UKââ¬â¢s iPad, or the housing version of the Smart car.
|
