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In other news, Columbus is going to permanently scar one of only a few decently intact urban business districts which could be a walkable cluster of unique destinations for a Family Dollar instead. In other cities, the city actually funds facade improvements even in neighborhoods worse than the Hilltop rather than just tear them down. I'm glad to live in one of them to see this for myself. Yep, just more of the same in a city that's still only one street and clearly doesn't want that to change. Oh, and South Linden is getting another Family Dollar on E Hudson: just what the area needs to improve.
I'm not a fan of this proposal whatsoever, but as usual, you're intellectually and factually dishonest about it. And I still think you should be banned for constantly talking about MSP in an unrelated forum.
I'm sure he is and regardless the continued hemorrhaging of the Hilltop neighborhood (and not surprisingly Linden) proves my point even more. No amount of apologetics could ever show otherwise and it's not like I'm somehow behind sabotaging potential up-and-coming neighborhoods after I left.
Demographics don't really support your view of Hilltop. I looked at the 13 census tracts that make up the Greater Hilltop area. If you just look at the whole tracts, only 3 showed growth 2000-2010. This is almost all because of a shrinking White population, which is not unusual in urban tracts, even those that are growing. If you break down those 13 tracts to the block level, the picture is a bit more interesting, I think.
Out of the 4 major demographic groups (White, Black, Asian and Hispanic), 10 had at least 3 of the 4 growing in population. The one usually not was the White population, but Black, Asian and Hispanic populations are rising quickly. The White population fell by -12.5% on average per block, while the average change was +70.3%, +83.3% and +332.1% for Black, Asian and Hispanic populations, respectively.
So it seems to me that the Hilltop is in a state of transition more then simple decline. The dominant majority White population is being replaced. Hilltop has serious problems, though. As a former resident myself, I know firsthand that there are too many renters, too many absentee landlords, etc. The Family Dollar thing seems to be a product of an unengaged population rather than a symptom of decline, however, and certain not a Columbus-specific situation, no matter how hard you're always trying to make that be the case.
But yeah, this is probably a much better response than you deserve. The massive log on your shoulder about Columbus (which seems to be spreading to the rest of Ohio) is well documented, so as has been said dozens of times already, it's kind of hard to take you at your word, especially when you make such simplistic and false statements.
Design for the Statehouse Holocaust memorial has been chosen. There remains a lot of controversy surrounding this. Some of the criticisms include why only Jewish people are part of the memorial when several other groups were part of it, that putting it at the Statehouse violates church/state and that it seems completely unnecessary to put it in a city/state that had nothing to do with the event, like Botswana erecting a 9/11 memorial.
The demolition of the Hilltop's best asset is just another in a string of backwards policy from the city of Columbus. Instead of taking a proactive approach to make wise investments in a neighborhood they'd rather just let most of the city crumble while throwing money at unnecessary projects in areas that have long since been gentrified and yes these are well documented thanks to me.
The city waits around and as I've mentioned before is only interested in shelling out money for these districts to demolish them. Even Long St where the city did rehab the theatre they still demoed more of the very few commercial buildings standing over there. Sure, Columbus isn't the only culprit, but Columbus claims its best asset is its neighborhoods and actions such as this prove otherwise and that is multiplied several fold when you look at many others. Denigrating and marring its neighborhoods outside of a handful of select ones is constantly being perpetuated: hardly false, but simplistic yes. The city could simply choose to improve neighborhoods such as the Hilltop, but instead opts for pulling the rug out from under them. Yes the Hilltop is losing population and I should have specified the urban portion since I could care less about the surrounding suburban cluster**** that is of no interest but gets lumped into the part of the Hilltop which actually are neighborhoods. Seriously, when's the last time you made a point to visit someplace on Clime Rd? Exactly.
As to the transition vs decline argument we've seen this song and dance before with Linden and Northland. The continued decline in Linden which is much sharper proved that the suburban form of nearby areas are not immune and in this case it's the Northland-ish area just north of Linden which has been suffering a spike in crime including homicides and a couple of tracts showing populations losses in the teens from 2000-2010 as a result. With further city-funded ghetto-ization of the Hilltop we can expect to see similar results worsen in the core and spread outside of the urban part of the neighborhood.
The city of Columbus could have created a program to assist businesses to move into the area, like that urban coffee shop idea that was talked about oh,six f!cking years ago. Instead, after 6 long years of this district stagnating thanks to the city of Columbus' active divestment of said district residents and out of town visitors will have a Family Dollar instead of a budding miniature Short North this year. Gee, I suppose I should be kicking myself for moving and missing out on that.
So after six years, yeah, Columbus is still just the same old street lacking decent mass transit and after more than six years of talk about streetcars and downtown bike lanes it's still just talk, but I'm glad I stopped buying those empty promises later than never. (And before you even mention the bike share I have to find you the article on St Paul severely under-performing with their downtown bike share stations due to, you guessed it: no bike lanes or other bike-friendly measures for those riders to use once they get on the bikes!).
The demolition of the Hilltop's best asset is just another in a string of backwards policy from the city of Columbus. Instead of taking a proactive approach to make wise investments in a neighborhood they'd rather just let most of the city crumble while throwing money at unnecessary projects in areas that have long since been gentrified and yes these are well documented thanks to me.
The city waits around and as I've mentioned before is only interested in shelling out money for these districts to demolish them. Even Long St where the city did rehab the theatre they still demoed more of the very few commercial buildings standing over there. Sure, Columbus isn't the only culprit, but Columbus claims its best asset is its neighborhoods and actions such as this prove otherwise and that is multiplied several fold when you look at many others. Denigrating and marring its neighborhoods outside of a handful of select ones is constantly being perpetuated: hardly false, but simplistic yes. The city could simply choose to improve neighborhoods such as the Hilltop, but instead opts for pulling the rug out from under them. Yes the Hilltop is losing population and I should have specified the urban portion since I could care less about the surrounding suburban cluster**** that is of no interest but gets lumped into the part of the Hilltop which actually are neighborhoods. Seriously, when's the last time you made a point to visit someplace on Clime Rd? Exactly.
As to the transition vs decline argument we've seen this song and dance before with Linden and Northland. The continued decline in Linden which is much sharper proved that the suburban form of nearby areas are not immune and in this case it's the Northland-ish area just north of Linden which has been suffering a spike in crime including homicides and a couple of tracts showing populations losses in the teens from 2000-2010 as a result. With further city-funded ghetto-ization of the Hilltop we can expect to see similar results worsen in the core and spread outside of the urban part of the neighborhood.
The city of Columbus could have created a program to assist businesses to move into the area, like that urban coffee shop idea that was talked about oh,six f!cking years ago. Instead, after 6 long years of this district stagnating thanks to the city of Columbus' active divestment of said district residents and out of town visitors will have a Family Dollar instead of a budding miniature Short North this year. Gee, I suppose I should be kicking myself for moving and missing out on that.
So after six years, yeah, Columbus is still just the same old street lacking decent mass transit and after more than six years of talk about streetcars and downtown bike lanes it's still just talk, but I'm glad I stopped buying those empty promises later than never. (And before you even mention the bike share I have to find you the article on St Paul severely under-performing with their downtown bike share stations due to, you guessed it: no bike lanes or other bike-friendly measures for those riders to use once they get on the bikes!).
It is not city policy to bulldoze the Hilltop, please. This was a private seller to a private company. The city can make certain design demands and recommendations, but it can't tell FD that it can't build at a site it owns. I do think this is a case where the city needs to implement stricter development standards, such as zero setback similar to what it did further west on Broad Street near Georgesville. Unfortunately, that overlay doesn't extend that far east. In any case, you're placing blame on the city for what a private company decides to do with it's own property, which is dishonest and ridiculous. Blame FD and the owner of the property for selling it to them. The city had no direct part in this transaction, and considering that the current administration has done more for rebuilding the urban core of Columbus than the past several combined, it's really hard to understand where you're coming from on this. No matter how good the urban movement of a city government is, not every battle is going to be won.
I'm not sure what you're talking about in regards to "suburban" Hilltop. The entire area is seeing a demographic transition, not just urban vs. "suburban" areas of the neighborhood.
Linden is not Hilltop and I would argue that Linden is in actual decline in a way that Hilltop is definitely not. The majority of Linden's tracts and blocks are losing the majority of demographic groups.
Keith, as always, your expectations and viewpoints of the city are completely unrealistic and not remotely in line with what the city has and hasn't done. For the record, the city does offer tax breaks and incentives for businesses in Hilltop. They still can't force them to move there. The Hilltop is not dead or dying, but it is changing and it does have problems. The city isn't ignoring the area and has not set policy to force it into decline (that's crazy to even suggest).
if the city did put millions in to the hilltop and it became gentrified..this guy would be the 1st to complain about it. i dont know what people expect.columbus has done a better job than most in maintaining older prosperous neighborhoods close to downtown .even china has abondoned the mass bicycling commute in favor of cars..and streetcars are a waste of time..they dont have streetcars in new york or chicago to my knowledge..they are no faster than buses.now a commuter train say staring in dublin,,stops at polaris ,westerville,easton,port columbus and then downtown..that would be exciting and prosperous
Homeport is expanding its operation beyond 21st street. The organization's rehabbed and new-build homes there have all sold, so they are planning an additional 18 homes (also rehabs and new-builds) on nearby streets.
if the city did put millions in to the hilltop and it became gentrified..this guy would be the 1st to complain about it. i dont know what people expect.columbus has done a better job than most in maintaining older prosperous neighborhoods close to downtown .even china has abondoned the mass bicycling commute in favor of cars..and streetcars are a waste of time..they dont have streetcars in new york or chicago to my knowledge..they are no faster than buses.now a commuter train say staring in dublin,,stops at polaris ,westerville,easton,port columbus and then downtown..that would be exciting and prosperous
Keith seems to forget that the SN did not see much city investment until many years into its gentrification. It was about local residents and business owners getting together and rebuilding the neighborhood one house or building at a time. The same thing happened in German Village (the city was going to tear most of the neighborhood down) and the same thing is happening now in OTE, although they are now seeing city investment, finally. Franklinton and the South Side are the only areas I can think of that saw city investment at the very beginning of the revitalization process beyond tax incentives for homeowners and businesses. Hilltop's biggest issue is that, for the most part, it does not have an engaged population. Sure there are small groups trying to get things to happen, but there are just too many people in too large an area that are not interested or not able to help. Renters do not care about the neighborhood in general, and the landlords are just interested in making a buck. Could the city do more? Sure, such as extending development overlays for the area. But even if they did that, that alone would not bring in more investment. If anything, it would prevent it... at least until other forces created more demand. No, it's going to take the individual, which is what I find so ironic about Keith's rant. He goes on and on about how the city is at fault, but he used to live in Hilltop as well and now is patting himself on the back for leaving.
St. Mary's School at 637 Mohawk Street in German Village, could become a 18,000+ square foot private home under the plan of the Cardinal Health founder and his wife. The building was built in 1887 and was a high school until the 1960s. Today it is a commercial building. The adjacent parking lot would mostly be converted to green space.
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