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PrintTalking points 2012
Get the early word on the big issues of the coming year, from Andrea Cambern’s replacement and Urban Meyer’s other job to an inside look at the new casino and the return of the Arts Festival to the river.
General manager Ameet Patel at the casino site in early December.
Dan Trittschuh
The Columbus casino: Here at last
Penn National’s Hollywood Casino is expected to debut this year on the west side of Columbus after nearly three years of civic wrangling. Construction has been progressing steadily, even as the gambling giant and city officials battled over annexation. The foundation and steel supports are in place, and the structure was supposed to be enclosed by the end of December. Ameet Patel, the casino’s general manager, predicts a grand opening at the end of 2012.
In November, the casino workforce consisted of just Patel and his administrative aide, both working out of a trailer at the construction site. The numbers should rise soon, however. More than 2,000 people are slated to work at the facility, which will be Penn National’s largest casino. Patel says he expects to have his senior management team in place by early 2012.
In mid November, Patel, who previously worked at Penn National’s Kansas City casino, showed off a model of what the casino will look like once completed. The main entrance off Georgesville Road will guide visitors between two ponds as they approach the casino, which will feature 160,000 square feet of gaming space, including 3,000 slot machines, 76 table games and a poker room with 30 tables. Other amenities include an on-site bakery, a steakhouse dubbed the Final Cut, a sports bar and a 350-seat lounge.
Based on company research, Patel expects to draw some 10,000 visitors a day to the casino, with most coming from a 60-mile radius. “This is like nothing else the city or the region has really experienced,” he says.
—Dave Ghose
New downtown hotel: The sales pitch begins
If all goes as civic leaders expect, the new Hilton Columbus Downtown will allow Central Ohio to compete with other regions for major trade shows and events. For years, the city lacked adequate hotel space to be considered a top-tier destination; there were even concerns that standbys such as the Quarter Horse Congress and the Arnold Sports Festival might outgrow Columbus.
Now, the new hotel—scheduled to open in September—gives the city more than 500 rooms to market to potential visitors. Considered a full-service convention hotel, the Hilton Columbus Downtown on High Street also will include a three-meal restaurant, a bar and a lounge, 48 suites and 10,000 square feet of meeting space. Crews also are doubling the size of an adjacent 900-car parking garage to support the hotel and will build a glass bridge across High Street to connect to the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Like the center, the hotel is owned by the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority, which hired Hilton to run the facility.
Before the city can become a major attraction, however, Columbus backers must persuade folks to come here. The hotel helps—and it already has nabbed at least one major event, the Southern Baptist Convention in 2015—but Columbus cheerleaders realize they need to boost their efforts. To that end, Mayor Mike Coleman has proposed providing $2 million more in funding for Experience Columbus in 2012 to help it promote the city.
Paul Astleford, the president and CEO of Experience Columbus, says the new hotel gives Columbus enough space to accommodate some 900 top-tier events it couldn’t handle before. “That opens up a whole new world for Columbus, and we’re excited about that,” he says.
—Dave Ghose
Columbus Arts Festival: Return to the river
The Scioto Mile will welcome back the Columbus Arts Festival this summer. After four years in the Discovery District as crews completed the $44 million upgrade of the downtown riverfront, the event, scheduled for June 1 through 3, is back at its longtime home.
The festival again will center on Bicentennial Park, which will host the main music stage, and spread to both sides of the Scioto River, as well as the bridges along Main and Rich streets. New amenities include free Wi-Fi, provided by presenting sponsor Time Warner Cable, the return of the Community Stage (there was no room for it at the temporary site in the Discovery District) and more food options. A restaurant, Milestone 229, now will be in the center of the action at Bicentennial Park, while festival planners are hoping to tap into the food-truck craze sweeping Columbus.
Leah Alters, festival director, hopes the return to the waterfront will reenergize the event, which lost some attendance after it moved to the culturally vibrant but less centrally located Discovery District. The arts shindig, celebrating its 51st anniversary in 2012, will be the first major festival for the revamped Scioto Mile, which debuted last year. “We know attendance will increase when we move back to the riverfront,” Alters says. “Everyone is very excited for us to go back to our home location.”
—Dave Ghose
Andrea Cambern: Who will replace her?
It won’t be easy for Channel 10 general manager Tom Griesdorn to find someone to fill Andrea Cambern’s anchor chair. During her two decades at the station, Cambern became one of the most popular people ever to read the news in the city.
Fortunately for Griesdorn, however, Cambern gave the station a nice going-away gift—nearly seven months to find a replacement. The lengthy lame-duck period—Cambern’s last broadcast is May 23—will allow WBNS to launch a thorough nationwide search. “We will do everything we can to find a capable successor,” Griesdorn says. (The TV station, along with Columbus Monthly, is owned by the Dispatch Printing Company.)
Contractual issues will influence the station’s ability to snag an outside candidate from the Columbus market or elsewhere. “I would presume, and I think is true, that anyone who is experienced and capable is probably under contract to another TV station if that TV station is smart in doing business,” Griesdorn says. One local exception might be Yolanda Harris, Channel 6 evening anchor. Her agent, Columbus attorney Bret Adams, said in early December that Harris is “nearing the end of her current agreement” with the Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of the station. Adams declined to comment on whether Harris is interested in the WBNS opening.
Griesdorn also says he’ll consider internal candidates. He declined to name any possibilities, but the other female anchors at the station are Tracy Townsend, 5:30 pm broadcast (Cambern’s role prior to replacing Angela Pace in the main anchor chair in 2006); Angela An, weekday mornings, and Jessa Goddard, weekend mornings.
A lot of people have quizzed An about her future since Cambern announced her departure. “I’ve been asked that a million times,” An says. “Andrea is going to be a tough position to fill. She’s such an icon. I’ve been concentrating on the job that I’m supposed to be doing right now, which is the morning show.”
—Dave Ghose
Children’s hospital: A park, Animal Friends and 42-inch TVs
Central Ohio finally will get a chance to peak behind the curtain of the largest pediatric healthcare construction project in U.S. history—the $810 million makeover of Nationwide Children’s Hospital. In June, the hospital will unveil its new 12-story, 750,000-square-foot main building, followed a month later by the debut of the research facility on the other side of Parsons Avenue. The development is projected to be an economic driver, generating some 2,400 hospital and research jobs and creating $1.3 billion in regional economic activity, according to Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Six acres of green space will stretch in front of the new main building, complementing the adjacent nine-acre Livingston Park, which the city Recreation and Parks Department recently upgraded. The hospital-owned and -operated park will include trees, a grassy lawn and a “fragrance maze.”
The nature theme will be found inside the building, too. Mansfield’s Carousel Works is handcrafting Animal Friends to “live” inside the hospital. Every patient floor will have its own wooden mascot, says Patty McClimon, senior vice president of strategic and facilities planning, as well as more creatures in the main concourse. The six-to-eight-foot-tall figures will “create hope and distraction for the kids,” McClimon says. Meanwhile, officials have turned a space between the old and new structures required by building code into something they’ve dubbed the Magic Forest. It will be a whimsical play area for children featuring a cafe and three-story-tall artificial trees.
Patient rooms will be transformed, as well. They will double in size to 300 square feet with space for two parents to sleep in the room with their child. The rooms also will include 42-inch flat-screen TVs that patients can use to send e-mails. “It’s really a computer system; it’s not a TV,” McClimon says.
—Dave Ghose
Highway construction: Navigating the downtown mess
There’s no avoiding the monumental highway project in the middle of Columbus. The three-year, $200 million rebuilding of 1.7 miles of I-670 and I-71 has caused a downtown transportation nightmare: closing ramps (some permanently), rerouting traffic lanes, raising the blood pressure of motorists (crashes increased five-fold during the initial weeks of construction, according to the Dispatch). If you want to go downtown, the orange barrels are inescapable. “It’s no coincidence it’s called the Columbus Crossroads project,” says Nancy Burton, spokeswoman for the Central Ohio office of the state Department of Transportation.
Still, that doesn’t mean the nearly 137,000 motorists who travel through the construction zone every day can’t navigate the mess. On a recent afternoon, Burton gave a reporter a driving tour of the area. Granted, it wasn’t peak traffic hours, but the sailing was pretty smooth, even as Burton traveled along I-670, the stretch most affected by the construction. The reconfiguration, which should stay in its current form through most of 2012, shifts eastbound traffic onto the north side of the highway. It also closes the Third Street/High Street exit for westbound traffic (the main downtown entrance point for commuters from Gahanna and other east-side communities) and reroutes Neil Avenue traffic trying to get onto 670 east through a maze of city streets.
Yet, with two lanes maintained in both directions, folks from Hilliard, the Short North or other heavy 670 users can continue to reach important destinations such as Port Columbus or Easton via the highway. “People for some reason keep asking if they can still get to the airport,” Burton says.
Most of the work through the winter will focus along 670 as crews demolish several bridges (22 are to be razed throughout the three-year highway project, the most expensive ever in Central Ohio).
In the summer, transportation officials hope to receive submissions from local artists for what they’re calling a “cultural wall” that will be part of a rebuilt Long Street bridge over I-71. The bridge will include a public space that could be developed if someone wants to construct something similar to the High Street cap.
—Dave Ghose
Urban Meyer: The other part of the job
These days, the public relations part of coaching the Ohio State football team is almost as important as figuring out how to beat Michigan. As former coach John Cooper can attest, one poor decision about an endorsement (remember that infamous hot tub commercial?) can quickly damage your popularity with Buckeye Nation.
While Urban Meyer immediately began to make recruiting phone calls after his Nov. 28 press conference announcing him as the new coach, he also will start to introduce himself to the public.
“I assume he’ll do all the things he’s supposed to do in the community,” says Buckeye Sports Bulletin managing editor Mark Rea. “We’ll see him on Kroger commercials and going to Children’s Hospital and things like that. From people I’ve talked to, the guy is pretty genuine.”
But the Meyer family member worth keeping an eye on could be his wife, Shelley, an Ohioan like her husband. She charmed reporters after his initial press conference in a manner befitting a former Miss Ross County Junior Fair Queen. A fitness buff, she taught cycling classes at a Gainesville, Florida, fitness center, attended Bible study with the coaches’ wives and became involved with numerous charities. It’s said nothing will change in Columbus except her winter apparel.
The family, which includes volleyball-playing daughters Nicki (Georgia Tech) and Gigi (Florida Gulf Coast University) and 13-year-old Nathan, will come under some scrutiny, but none more so, of course, than Urban Meyer. And he has sometimes wilted under the spotlight.
In March 2010, he publicly berated an Orlando Sentinel reporter and threatened to limit his access to the football team only to privately apologize to him a few days later, a move not forgotten by the media.
On the day Meyer took over the Buckeyes, Gainesville Sun columnist Pat Dooley wrote, “There was always this disconnect between the fans and Meyer because he closed practices and walked away from the program twice and exhibited a closed-off personality.”
Meyer’s relationship with the local media is off to a good start and most likely will remain civil “right up to the time somebody writes something he doesn’t like,” Rea notes.
—Craig Merz
Politics
Year II of the Kasich era
Ohioans gave Republican Gov. John Kasich a kick in the posterior Nov. 8, voting overwhelmingly to kill S.B. 5, a bludgeon aimed at public employee unions. Meanwhile, a Quinnipiac University poll in October reported that only 36 percent of Ohioans approved of Kasich’s job performance.
“The good news, if there is good news . . . for Gov. Kasich is that he has another three years until he faces reelection,” says Peter Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac’s Polling Institute.
Brown makes a canny point. In 1975, the first year of his third term, Gov. Jim Rhodes suffered a big ballot-issue “no” vote. Yet, Ohioans gave him a fourth term in 1978.
For Kasich, 2012 likely will highlight fence-mending and budget policy (when he’s not trying to oust state Republican party chairman Kevin DeWine). His 2011-’13 budget junked a state school-funding plan fathered by his predecessor, Democrat Ted Strickland; Kasich has vowed to craft his own plan.
But Kasich’s biggest challenge may hinge on whether the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the congressional Affordable Care and Patient Protection acts (“Obamacare” to Republicans). Medicaid now covers 19 of every 100 Ohioans. It’s the state’s single costliest budget item. Ohio’s respected Governor’s Office of Health Transformation estimates that the two federal laws would offer Medicaid to 936,000 more Ohioans beginning in 2014 (Kasich’s fourth year as governor). That is, Medicaid soon might cover 27 of every 100 Ohioans. And though the study didn’t use these words, that could bust Ohio’s budget.
Battle of the Dems
The legislature has lassoed much of Columbus and some close-in suburbs (such as Bexley, Grandview Heights and Whitehall) into a new 3rd Congressional District, for which four high-profile Democrats are running. Three are women, including ex-Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy. It’s one of the strongest primary races in recent memory.
About 27 percent of the new district’s voting-age residents are African-American. Thus, it’s widely believed that the Democrat who wins the 2012 primary will likely find herself or himself at the U.S. Capitol in 2013. (A Republican and a Libertarian also are competing.)
The other Democrats are former state Rep. Joyce Beatty, who will take an unpaid leave from an Ohio State vice presidency that pays $326,400; state Rep. Ted Celeste of Grandview, and Columbus City Council member Priscilla Tyson. Beatty and Tyson are black. Celeste was Ohio Democrats’ U.S. Senate nominee in 2000.
Kilroy was in the U.S. House in 2009 and 2010, representing the 15th District. In 2010, Republican Steve Stivers unseated her by 28,000 votes. (In 2008, Kilroy had bested Stivers by 2,300 votes when they competed to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Deb Pryce.)
As now drawn—that could change, depending on Ohio’s redistricting war—the 3rd “is clearly configured as a significantly Democratic-leaning district,” says Franklin County GOP chair Doug Preisse. But a four-way Democratic primary could boost GOP prospects. Whenever there’s rivalry among Democrats, “We’re glad to see it,” he says.
A new S.B. 5?
The concise answer: “No way.” Just eight days after voters trounced S.B. 5 on Nov. 8, voilà, the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association announced a deal with Kasich’s administration to extend for three years the union’s contract with state government. The union said that while the extension didn’t offer raises, it did end a freeze on step-pay and the no-pay furlough days in the previous contract.
Meanwhile, a (supposed) grass-roots quest to ask Ohioans to approve a Right to Work initiative at 2012’s ballot box—a ban on mandatory union membership—got the cold shoulder from Senate President Tom Niehaus, a Kasich ally: “We just finished a very divisive and contentious election, and Ohioans made it clear they want us to be more deliberate in our approach to major reform. We need to work to build consensus on the direction we take from here.” Translation: Forget about Right to Work (not to mention revisiting S.B. 5).
Ohio’s real labor-management pressure on taxpayers may come at the local level, not at the Statehouse. The statewide ad campaigns against S.B. 5 didn’t trumpet an important fact: Only 12 percent of the state’s 358,000 unionized public employees are on the state’s payroll; most work for local governments and public schools. Down the road, big city mayors (think Columbus’s Mike Coleman) and school superintendents (think Gene Harris of Columbus city schools) may be on labor-management front lines more than Kasich will.
The Sherrod and Josh showdown
Central Ohioans otherwise bored in 2012 can look forward to what could turn out to be among Ohio’s nastiest election campaigns ever: Republican State Treasurer Josh Mandel trying to dethrone Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.
In 2010, Mandel, a former Ohio House member, unseated Columbus Democrat Kevin Boyce to become state treasurer, swamping him by a half-million votes. (Kasich’s margin over Strickland was 77,000 votes.) The congenial Mandel, once president of Ohio State’s undergraduate student government, is a Marine Corps veteran. His wife is a member of Cleveland’s nationally prominent and wealthy Ratner family.
Mandel is campaigning vigorously against Brown, throwing not just the kitchen sink at the incumbent, but also anything else within reach. For example, Mandel recently claimed that Brown is “out there egging on a lot of these [Occupy] protesters who are spitting on policemen and going to the bathroom on policemen’s cars at these protests on Wall Street and other places.”
That was, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer and PolitiFact.com’s Truth-O-Meter, “a bold accusation—one that had us eager to find evidence of [Brown] encouraging such offensive behavior. But we didn’t, because no such evidence exists.” The Truth-O-Meter, calling Mandel’s claim “ridiculous,” gave him its “Pants on Fire” award, with Election Day almost a year off.
If this Senate contest doesn’t prove to be red-hot, it won’t be Mandel’s fault.
—Tom Suddes
Sports
Urban and Braxton
Urban Meyer couldn’t have been more effusive in his praise for quarterback Braxton Miller during the new Ohio State football coach’s first press conference on Nov. 28.
Actually, he could have, but let him explain: “To tell you I’m excited to coach him, I’m not using the correct adjectives. And because there’s mixed company around I’m not going to use the correct adjectives. . . . So I think you get it, right? Really excited.”
Miller, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, is likely just as excited to form a partnership with Meyer, whose mastery of the spread offense led Florida to two national titles, including a 41-14 thumping of OSU in the 2007
Miller gave a glimpse of his talent when the coaching staff took the reins off against Michigan and he passed for a career-high 235 yards and ran for another 100 in the 40-34 loss.
He should be better next season in a Meyer system that has produced NFL top draft pick Alex Smith while he was at Utah and, of course, the Gators’ Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow.
And Meyer expects big things of Miller: “I’m putting a lot of pressure on this cat already—but he’s special.”
New year, new style
It seems OSU men’s basketball coach Thad Matta loses star players every year. This season is no different. Gone from the team that went 34-3 and reached the NCAA Sweet 16 are seniors Jon Diebler, Dallas Lauderdale and David Lighty.
Fortunately, three players who also heavily contributed to the success are still around: senior William Buford, sophomore Aaron Craft and especially 2011 national freshman of the year Jared Sullinger.
But those three won’t be enough if OSU wants to dominate the Big Ten again. They’ll need help, so all eyes turn toward sophomore Deshaun Thomas.
Known for his instant offense off the bench last season, the 6-foot-7 forward has worked to show he is more than just a gunner who never saw a shot he didn’t like. “Last season, everyone thought I shot too much and I think I did,” he says.
Under Matta’s system, the harder you play defense the more you’ll play, period. Thomas has taken that to heart and if he can follow the path of Lighty and Diebler in becoming a two-way player, the Buckeyes could have another powerhouse season.
Sammy time
Many of the passes that made senior Samantha (Sammy) Prahalis the all-time assist leader for the women’s basketball team were to three-time all-American center Jantel Lavender.
But Lavender graduated and now plays for the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, leaving an unaccustomed hole in the middle for Jim Foster, who also coached all-American center Jessica Davenport just prior to Lavender’s arrival.
Even though Foster is old school, his success comes from an ability to adopt a system that suits his best players. Those would be Prahalis and junior Tayler Hill, who give the Buckeyes one of the most dynamic guard combos in the nation.
If the Buckeyes are going to post a 10th straight trip to the NCAA Tournament, Prahalis will have to lead the way.
Rick Nash under fire
“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown”
—Shakespeare
So, too, is the burden of the hockey player who wears the “C” for captain on his jersey.
“It’s a big tradition in hockey,” Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Scott Howson says. “In hockey, the captain is looked upon to be the real leader of the team.”
That honor in Columbus has belonged to Rick Nash since March 12, 2008, but, not unlike the quarterback position at a certain university down the road, it requires a Teflon personality when things go bad.
A miserable start that buried the Jackets at the bottom of the Western Conference standings had folks once again calling for a coup of not only Howson and head coach Scott Arniel, but also replacing Nash as captain with former Ohio State standout R.J. Umberger.
You don’t hear complaints about Nash inside the dressing room, but every time the team struggles, which has been often throughout his career, the fans call for his head despite being a model citizen for an otherwise starless franchise.
That won’t appease many who see the high-scoring Nash as the face of the team, but the gritty Umberger as the heart and soul.
Until there’s evidence that Nash has lost the confidence of his teammates, all the chatter about a revolt is much ado about nothing.
Fixing the Crew
From the time Crew Stadium opened in 1999, the industrial-looking facility was the crown jewel of American soccer until the glitzy Home Depot Center outside of Los Angeles entered the scene four years later.
After hosting the
The lack of amenities and a dwindling fan base puts the organization at a crossroads.
Does the Crew seek a new stadium in Central Ohio or invest heavily in renovating its current home?
Just as critically, will the market rebound after attendance dropped in 2011 by an alarming 2,457 fans per game to 12,195—the second worst average among the 18 teams?
“We have to rekindle the passion in Columbus,”
A campaign launched in September to double the season-ticket base to 10,000 has increased sales by about 30 percent and that should translate to better crowds.
Fielding a team similar to the 2008
—Craig Merz
