About Columbus's Downtown

Today in the Columbus Dispatch... an article about City Center the downtown Columbus mall that the city wrestled away from the company that was mismanaging the mall a year ago.

When I moved to Central Ohio in 1990 I loved City Center. I lived in northwest Columbus just inside 270 and tried Northland and Westland and for me the only place to shop in Columbus was City Center.... I am not much of a mall shopper anymore... I was at Macy's at Polaris last night but did not make it out into the mall from the department store.

In May I went downtown for the Real Living Convention (Momentum 2008) for an oversold continuing education class the first day, paid for valet parking and spent the morning roaming around downtown Columbus killing time. I did a little shopping in the museum shop at the Statehouse. I bought some things at a CVS. I thought it was odd that Real Living would invite people from all over the US to a conference in a downtown with no shopping but they pulled it off.

I go downtown for Red, White and Boom, usually First Night Columbus (I skipped it in 2007) and a few other events. I occasionally go to COSI... I go to the Short North occasionally for a Gallery Hop. I showed homes in the German Village area earlier this year. I live and work on the far north-side of Columbus, Worthington, Polaris, Westerville.... north outer-belt.

I walked through the mall a couple of times in 2007. There is a list in the Columbus Dispatch article of who the remaining tenants are. Fast food, a Dollar Store....

There is housing in Downtown Columbus now... and there's more housing in urban areas contiguous to downtown than there has been in decades. It's just ironic that there is no shopping to speak of in downtown Columbus. There will be something at City Center in the future... The Columbus Dipatch article says:

"A major factor in the mall's decline was the opening of several suburban retail developments. Georgetown Co., the developer of the most successful of these -- Easton Town Center -- has been brought in on the City Center revamp."