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Barbara Nicholson World class city that we strive to be, Columbus needs to recognize that in order to truly achieve this status we must support the arts—large and small organizations and artists—financially as well as including representatives at the “table” when discussions and decisions are made regarding every aspect of this city. The arts have demonstrated their ability to impact every facet of the city from education, economics, employment, development, leisure and tourism to bringing national and international attention. Aminah Robinson and the Columbus Museum of Art’s recent New York opening of her work garnered greater positive mention of this city, the King-Lincoln District and the history of Columbus in the New York Times and other print media serves as a perfect example. Columbus needs to acknowledge and promote the rich diversity of this city. Again, in striving to be a “world class” city we should pay serious attention to what are common ingredients in other world-class cities globally—the arts, the rich diversity, good transportation systems and a clear brand appear to be mainstays! Columbus still has some growing to do. Columbus needs to cease being marginalized by private self-appointed leadership groups that operate in seclusion to control, dictate, establish and set the priorities and procedures for the entire city. BACK TO THE LIST OF RESPONDENTS Dae Oh Columbus needs an infrastructure to support the new urban style of residential living in downtown Columbus. We don’t necessarily need to expand the transportation system, but we need the basics of great city life; that is, food and shopping. Downtown desperately needs viable and convenient grocery markets and diversified entertainment and retail to draw in the public and make urban living appealing. Residents want to step outside their home, turn the corner and find the nearest grocery store or restaurant. We should establish a Chinatown (allow me to offer myself as a member on the committee to develop this design). Every great city has a Chinatown, such as New York, Chicago, San Francisco and even Toronto. Yet, that is not the reason Columbus needs one. We need Chinatown in order to officially introduce Columbus to authentic Asian culture and present the community with new tastes, culture and aesthetics that many haven’t experienced. Columbus, like many cities, has the challenge of building local public interest. Accordingly, we should generate more public interest business by developing zoos, aquariums and even an amusement park. These entities will build visitor interest in the city and provide the community with wholesome entertainment and fun. Ultimately, generating interest beyond the local community is what will establish Columbus as a great city. BACK TO THE LIST OF RESPONDENTS Maryellen O’Shaughnessy We need more balance in our transportation system. Currently our system is all about cars, and there are more cars than people in Franklin County. With the increasing scarcity and high cost of fuel, increasing congestion on our roadways, an overwhelming price tag to build the roadways to support all these cars and an increased awareness of the environmental and health costs of this unsustainable lifestyle, more people will soon begin to demand alternatives. Our community needs to support COTA’s efforts to build a comprehensive mass transit system that includes expansion of bus routes and the introduction of light rail. But we can’t stop there. We also need to support development patterns that create walkable, bikeable, livable, mixed-use communities that allow people to live closer to work and to transit in order to use these alternatives to the car. We need to continue to build a vibrant and lively core city. Downtown Columbus is truly the heart of the heart of it all, and despite the exodus of residents and businesses in recent years, it still functions as the economic heart of our region. It’s been proven that the health of a region is dependant on the health of its downtown, and we certainly are no exception to the rule. We have in place an aggressive effort to bring jobs and people back to downtown, and we’re getting results. But it’s taken 50 years for us to gut our downtown. We need a sustained effort to rebuild our core city. We need a greater effort by our entire community to support the arts. We’ve got a core group of people who have been supporting Columbus arts for years, and we’ve got a core group of artists who are determined to be successful in our city. But for us to really kick it up, we need to embrace stronger efforts to fuel the arts as a real catalyst for economic and cultural change in Columbus. We should look at beginning programs to offer incentives (Housing? Healthcare? Studio space?) to artists priced out of places like NYC. We need a cabinet-level position for the arts and cultural affairs. And very simply, we need more Columbus people to feel compelled to get out and buy tickets to cultural events. And we need a real public art program, with art in the right-of-way, to stimulate our minds and lift our spirits out of our mindset of mediocrity. BACK TO THE LIST OF RESPONDENTS Charles Parker More police protection and involvement in the community. Crime is escalating throughout the area. More code-enforcement officers to do just that—enforce the current regulations that are on the books and that continually cause neighborhood problems. More specific laws regarding multiple families residing in rental and owned apartments, homes and duplexes. Housing with multiple families or overwhelming numbers causes nothing but friction in our neighborhoods. We are in the midst of several culture clashes in this country because of this issue. BACK TO THE LIST OF RESPONDENTS Rick Pfeiffer Free the Santa Maria! Figure out how to make the Scioto River between the Broad Street Bridge and the first railroad bridge upstream navigable so the ship that didn’t make it back to Spain can be sailed (probably a small Evinrude outboard motor could be hidden somewhere) in that small lake. Living, moving history. Get rid of the 300-gallon residential trash containers. Substitute the 95s for each household. Build a justice center that houses both state-level trial courts. BACK TO THE LIST OF RESPONDENTS Kellye Pinkleton More companies and businesses that offer their employees domestic partner benefits and include sexual orientation AND gender identity in their nondiscrimination policies. Community-building efforts to strengthen partnerships and relationships between various groups, such as the faith-based communities and the glbt community. I think Columbus has a large progressive, faith-based community and we need to seek ways to enhance partnerships so that fair-minded citizens recognize local religious “leaders” that politic from the pulpits or preach hate are not in fact in the majority, but only represent a small number of faith-based organizations, church groups and Columbus citizens. BACK TO THE LIST OF RESPONDENTS Daniel Province We still need those bronze horses! As I said in your 2001 “What Columbus needs,” we need some bronze horses. Horses running along I-270 to replace the real ones that no longer roam free. Remember that the annual horse show brings in more folks to Columbus than the Arnold Classic. Dublin has placed some horses around. Worthington has had bronze horses on its green, but only temporarily. We have wonderful spots on the Broad Street bridge that are made for horse statues. Another good location would be the corner of International Gateway and Stelzer, where the city owns property. Oh, heck. Why not have a bronze Arnold doing a Mr. Atlas pose on one of the other concrete pedestals of the bridge? We need a public square! Oh, sure—we can gather around the Chris Columbus statue, but then we are hanging around in the street, messing up traffic. Did anyone watch the Olympics? They were always showing this wonderful plaza with a giant horse statue in the middle and a raised circle where the “Today” show was broadcast from. Now imagine a really neat plaza like that in Columbus. Surround it with small classy shops and condos for young professionals, and you have a really neat place to live and play. Imagine now the big party we all could have there when the Blue Jackets win the Stanley Cup. What we need is an overhead monorail, not trains running through town. People have to jump out of the way of trains, and cars have to wait forever while they load people. A monorail going all over downtown, to the baseball stadium, the Chiller, the Short North, the Brewery District, Columbus State and even up to THE Ohio State. Now that was planned three decades ago, and it does not interfere with activities on the street level. BACK TO THE LIST OF RESPONDENTS Kathy Ransier Aside from the issues that plague the entire country, and indeed the world, such as poverty, intolerance, concentration of wealth, poor healthcare and failing educational systems, Columbus could improve itself as a city by: Embracing and integrating its growing racial and cultural diversity into all efforts to increase economic development. Those with the means to do so should encourage each other to endow the arts and other unique aspects of Columbus to ensure quality leadership, financial stability and a quality of life for all citizens of Central Ohio. Recognize that billboards on downtown buildings do not enhance the appeal to downtown living or the image of itself that Columbus should be giving to the rest of the world. BACK TO THE LIST OF RESPONDENTS Cleve Ricksecker More downtown jobs: There are compelling social, economic, and environmental reasons for keeping downtown commercially strong. Anyone who doubts this statement should look at Detroit. Economically integrated school districts: Central Ohio has never been so economically segregated. Segregation by income is reflected in the region’s school districts, and they all suffer as a result. An adequately funded, regional transit system: A good transit system is the glue that keeps an urban region connected to its downtown and central city. Columbus will never become a great city without one. |
