the urban news for the week ending Sunday, May 18, 2008
 
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 Talk of building a stadium for the Clippers at a different location had circulated for the past decade. Proposed sites have ranged from the Brewery District to River South, Grandview and Easton.
The final development phase of the Arena District is in the works, a $280 million expansion that would make the Downtown neighborhood a billion-dollar venture.
Although time is running out, there's still a chance to salvage the full indoor Columbus Symphony season starting in October, an orchestra official said yesterday.
As of yesterday afternoon, 1,720 tickets had been sold for the Classical Series concert tonight; 1,056 for the same program Sunday; 1,861 for the Symphony Gala with Yo-Yo Ma on Thursday; and a combined 3,179 for the final scheduled performances, featuring composer Marvin Hamlisch, on May 30-31.
The Columbus Symphony board and community leaders are strangely silent in their concern for our Columbus Symphony.
...Sadly, Columbus' city leaders appear not to have similar notions about its arts culture and, therefore, don't consider a symphony orchestra fundamental to a robust city.
Capital University has purchased the former Woodsview at Bexley LLC condominiums for $4 million and will use the rechristened Capital University Apartments as independent housing for juniors and seniors.
Columbus might be striving to emulate pedestrian- and eco-friendly metropolitan areas such as Portland, Ore., but a new competitiveness study indicates we still have some work to do.
...It's part of an effort to transform Westland into a place people want to visit again -- a smaller, less fancy version of Easton Town Center, catering to blue-collar residents in the areaââ¬Â¦
...He'll take a newly created job on Coleman's policy staff, shepherding issues such as streetcars, transportation, the arts and other quality-of-life initiatives for residents in and around Downtownââ¬Â¦
City Council members approved $1 million in incentives tonight for a corporate-headquarters expansion planned by Express, the former Limited Brands apparel division that was sold last year to a San Francisco-based private-equity firm.
As the chamber promotes Columbus as a place for business, it is advertising the advantages of Ohio State and other universities, the assets of surrounding counties, and the concentration of resources in certain industries such as transportation.
..."There are a lot of urban issues that need to be researched and we need public and private partners," Brown, 33, told Columbus Business First, adding that he's become increasingly involved in city policy issues in recent years. "People need to be engaged, and the mayor has asked me to take on that role full time."ââ¬Â¦
CompeteColumbus, an economic development group, is launching an effort to persuade Central Ohio college students to stay in the region in response to a consultant's research showing that just 13 percent of area college students have interned in the region and 26 percent plan to leave after graduation.
The Columbus Chamber said yesterday that employment in central Ohio increased 0.3 percent during the first three months of 2008, bucking a national trend that had employment declining by 0.2 percent.
Standing near several dozen booths promoting Ohio tourism on the Statehouse lawn, Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher said yesterday that tourism is a key component of the state's economy.
City officials proposed a new set of rules last night that would allow developers to provide as few as half the number of parking spaces currently required outside some stores.
The Columbus Foundation President Douglas F. Kridler announced the results of a new study completed by Collegia today, aimed at helping the community leverage one of the regionâââ‰â¢s greatest assetsâââ‰â¬ï¿½area college students and young professionals who are the future workforce of Columbus.
What I've always sought is the power to cause change, said Lessner, 34. "People always say you have to be motivated by the money to open a restaurant. But I've always wanted something to generate some money so I could do things socially."
The Franklinton Development Association (FDA) has requested OSU City and Regional Planning Master Candidate students prepare a master plan for East Franklinton to spark development interest in this economically distressed subsection of Franklinton.
Dozens of bike riding commuters came together at the Ohio Statehouse this morning with Consider Biking, Mayor Michael B. Coleman and City Councilmember Maryellen Oâââ‰â¢Shaughnessy to hear details on the City's 20-year Bicentennial Bikeways Plan.
Property owners voiced their concerns at Monday's Grandview City Council meeting about an ordinance to identify the Grandview Yard property and other surrounding parcels as being part of a blighted area.
City officials are exploring what could be the ne xt step in the process to redevelop the commercial district of Grandview.
Discussions on whether to adopt the blighted-area study for Grandview's commercial district went before the entire City Council last week for the first time.
...Historic preservation has been called the ultimate recycling because it involves the reuse of existing buildings, resources and infrastructure. A remarkable 90 percent of construction projects today involve existing structuresââ¬Â¦
The Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority wants to tear down six of its largest and oldest public-housing communities and give the residents Section 8 vouchers so they can rent privately owned places.
After years of planning to expand its campus, St. Joseph Montessori School (SJMS) in Italian Village is ready to break ground.
The Columbus Foundation wants to create a majestic block along E. Broad Street, one worthy of the history embodied in the old governor's mansion that serves as its headquarters.
Concerned about public nuisances in your neighborhood? Concerned about property not being kept up to the City's housing, building, zoning or safety codes? Is street prostitution a problem in your neighborhood? Is your neighborhood being tagged by graffiti? Is there a liquor permit holder who is not maintaining his or her business pursuant to the standards of a responsible permit holder?
The biggest percentage price decline by metro area was a 29.2 percent drop in Sacramento, Calif. Columbus saw a 7.2 percent drop.
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?
Among the action steps suggested by Coleman in his letter is the creation of a City Council Rail Transit Development Committee to be created in partnership with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, the Central Ohio Transit Authority, Ohio State University, the Ohio Rail Development Commission and other local groupsââ¬Â¦
Out of money and unable to reach a new labor agreement with the musicians, the orchestra's board of trustees said yesterday that it is canceling the summer Picnic With the Pops and Popcorn Pops series and most likely its 2008-09 season, scheduled to begin in October.
With the price of gas approaching $4 a gallon, more commuters are abandoning their cars and taking the train or bus instead.
From January through May 4, COTA recorded about 5.2 million rides, up 7.2 percent compared with the same period last year. Ridership in April alone was up 17.5 percent over the same month in 2007.
Within the next 20 years, the number of bike paths and trails in Columbus and the surrounding suburbs will increase to more than 700 miles, Coleman announced Monday.
The central Ohio average of $3.83 was a record, said Brad Proctor, founder of GasPriceWatch.com. That's a direct result of the price of crude oil, experts said, which climbed to nearly $127 a barrel yesterday, also a record.
State and local officials and private enterprise joined together Thursday, May 1, to celebrate Creekside, a project that was 10 years in the making.
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