Small Talk: Letters and Chatter about Columbus Monthly

Kudos to Jenny Rogers and Jessica Salerno for March’s story on Columbus’ Downtown rebirth, including the Scioto Peninsula revitalization project.

County Commissioner John O’Grady describes the planned development as “game-changing” and says the future Veterans Memorial and Museum will be a “world-class facility.” I agree. This will be a memorial the vets most definitely deserve. In addition to a memorial for the vets, this venue has also served as a performance facility for the arts community. What is that portion of Vets Memorial being replaced with?

Mayor Coleman says that Downtown will now become “a place to spend your nights … not just the hours between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.” What are the hours of the planned military museum and Downtown zoo going to be? Come dinner time, is this city going to roll the sidewalks out? Or up?

What about arts and entertainment, especially in the winter months? Are there any plans for a world-class performing arts facility? For inspiration, our city can look to the success of Disney Hall in Los Angeles and the Sydney Opera House in Australia. Is our world-class arts district being relegated to the OSU campus now?

Let’s finish the Scioto Peninsula project with something that’s dramatic and makes a bold statement. Columbus needs to follow OSU’s lead and wrap it up with a structure that truly transforms this city and its image once and for all.

Russell W. Gill

Galloway

Downtown Development

The Downtown special section in the March issue got kudos from other readers, too: “My heartiest congratulations on the superb coverage of Columbus’ Downtown development,” wrote George Wilson of Upper Arlington. “No longer can we be considered a cow town!” And Kevin Wood, who has lived Downtown for 10 years, wrote to say, “Your Downtown development section reminded me of how far my neighborhood has come in that short time!”

Thanks!

Seleshi Asfaw, executive director of Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services, wrote to Michelle Sullivan about her March feature “Samson and Tsegaye’s 7,500-Mile Journey”: “I and my community would like to thank you for your report about the growing Ethiopian community in Central Ohio. I personally thank you for making voices of our Ethiopian community members, visiting the business community and our prayer places and recording Ethiopians’ contribution to the Central Ohio community.”

Stuck in the Middle

Thanks to everyone who called, wrote or told us what you think of Columbus Monthly’s new look. One reader wrote: “While I love the clean look of the new style, what I miss is the story layout. Please don’t make us flip to the back of the magazine for the rest of the story. The continuity suffers.” We decided to incorporate jumps (as in the story leaps to another page) to the new design for a few reasons. Full, ad-free pages are precious real estate, and we want to use them for our best photography and design. And some stories are worth telling but aren’t visually interesting. Sending parts of select stories to the back of the magazine is a common method that satisfies both of these challenges. It’s our job to make the story so interesting that you want to flip to the back to finish it.