The city’s tax abatements for apartment projects are, in effect, subsidizing the rapacious interest rates of the private equity and hedge fund ‘investors’ who help finance housing development.
Columbus is rife with silly franchised juice bars, phone stores, and other fleeting chains that occupy space for a while but never come close to replacing venerable dives and other businesses that were bulldozed to make room for ‘progress.’
While the apartments proposed for a narrow Franklinton lot might be from the wrong developer and set in the wrong location, the concept is something that has merit.
Rethinking the corner grocery store for modern day Columbus.
U.S. 23 through Delaware is not so much a transportation problem as it is a planning and zoning mess.
It’s all too common in Columbus (and many other cities) for an empty building or vacant lot to be a stain on the neighborhood while an owner waits for a better redevelopment deal.
The following is a sample column Brian Williams provided with his application to become a Columbus Dispatch Metro columnist in 1997. This is the first time it has seen the light of day.
Rather than trying to grow with the city and attract more families to district schools, CCS appears to be selling off its assets – like a failing business shrinking into oblivion.
The most important voices needed on Zone In are those of people who will be living in Columbus for the next 40 years rather than those who have been in their homes for the past 40 years.
The new code would repair damage from the 1950s zoning code, which was more about accommodating the automobile than building a vibrant city.
