Downtown Columbus sidewalks: WTF?

[UrbanSurfin]

In Columbus, apparently, it's all or nothing. It used to be almost impossible to have sidewalk cafes, leaving wide sidewalks for pedestrians. Now the sidewalk cafes are increasingly permanent (even in snow), leaving little room for pedestrians. Until 2003, restaurants had to pay a $27 fee per chair over the 180-day "outdoor dining season" -- unless they had a liquor license, in which case the fee was $63 per chair (35 cents per chair per day). Starting in 2003, there was a $500 "cafe-table lease" (leasing the sidewalk space) per business the first year, renewable for $50 each year thereafter.

But the leased space soon became permanent, blocked off with fences bolted to the sidewalk. Even in snow and ice. Even when the storefronts became vacant. Here is a tour of sidewalks in the block immediately north of the Ohio Statehouse.


Cafe Brioso, on Gay at High. Solid, permanent fence; tables get lots of use.


Across Gay Street. Two storefronts that have been vacant for a year or two.


Next door to those two. This former cafe has been a hair salon for a year or two.


A few doors to the east. Fancy Due Amici next to funky Tip Top. Both nice places with active sidewalk cafes -- that make for a narrow public way year round, especially hazardous in winter.


I don't like Quizno's, but at least this sidewalk cafe makes sense.


Broad Street at High. I don't get it. An accident waiting to happen. The function of  sidewalk is to provide a level surface for walking. So, why try to trip people with low barriers?


It's attractive, but totally impractical. Not just because of the danger to pedestrians, but because these decorative surfaces are expensive to buy and install, they don't hold up well and they are difficult and expensive to repair, and must be repaired more frequently.


Pretty. Silly.


High Street. Right around the corner from the previous abomination. A gated sidewalk community?


Same, from the other end. For almost two centuries, builders in Columbus knew how to do buildings that worked along with the gentle slope of High Street, with doors to each successive storefront a bit lower (or higher, depending on your direction). Each opened onto the common sidewalk. Now, suddenly, all the storefronts have to be at the same level, which means the sidewalk is on two levels.


Or is this an extremely permanent sidewalk cafe? This storefront is soon to be the next franchise of the Soup Nazi (Al Yageneh hates the moniker that has made him successful). Is that part of the sidewalk for customers only? Who knows? Not a word about it in the Dispatch, despite this very visible construction site at the Crossroads of Ohio, Broad and High.


Not much room for us little people, who are merely walking on the sidewalk and not eating at cafes.

[Columbusite]

I see your gripe, but aside from those trippers I'm not against it, despite skinnier sidewalks. When they get the new caribou coffee on the corner of Broad and High I'll be able to literally look down on all those crossing my path. 

[UrbanSurfin]

But how can private businesses take control of the public right of way? What gives Caribou the right to look down on lowly passersby?

[ink]

I don't have too big of an issue with the first examples; they don't make the sidewalk feel that much narrower, add to its intimancy, and make for an active street. The elevated examples are sickening, however. Not only are they an aesthetic disaster, but they are stifling for the pedestrian with that narrow path squeezed between a cold concrete wall and the street.

[X]

I'd rather have the cafes than the extra 10' of row that isn't being used for anything.  The elevated sidewalk/cafe areas are ridiculous, though.

[Neville]

They do the same thing throughout downtown Indianapolis. But they have VERY wide sidewalks to go along with extra wide streets. It does make the sidewalks more intimate.

[Columbusite]

I believe they are still public, but you have to walk up...I forgot if they are wheelchair accessible. They better be.

[UrbanSurfin]

I believe they are still public, but you have to walk up...I forgot if they are wheelchair accessible. They better be.

Wheelchair accessible from only one side. So if you're southbound in your wheelchair and want to go to a store on the northern edge of the raised sidewalk, you can get there -- but you have to go almost a full block out of your way on a narrow sidewalk. There had to be dozens of people at least who put their heads together on this and failed to think.

[Columbusite]

So there's only one solution: a road diet for High St!

[GCrites80s]

This is all because of the smoking ban.

[mrnyc]

I see your gripe, but aside from those trippers I'm not against it, despite skinnier sidewalks. When they get the new caribou coffee on the corner of Broad and High I'll be able to literally look down on all those crossing my path. 

caribou coffee? they're still in business? the rest of us coffee drinkers will be looking down on you 

[ProkNo5]

Seriously Caribou sucks.  But for a downtown area, those sidewalks are entirely too narrow.  I can agree with people on the intimacy factor, but pedestrians in a central business district require FAR more space.  Short North Al Fresca is great.  And I sure hope someone got fired over those stupid pedestrian trippers.  I don't even think they're that attractive.

But negativity aside, Columbus is a fantastic city.  Stay proud C-Bus.

[WalkerEvans]

GCrites80s is spot on... every bar and restaurant has been going patio crazy in the past two years since the city enacted the smoking ban.

Personally I like the permanent patios. The sidewalks are rarely so crowded that you can't easily walk around them. Columbus needs more people out on the streets and sidewalk. It makes for a more vibrant city, not to mention safer streets to walk on.

It's great to be able to walk down Gay Street and always bump into someone you know hanging out on a patio and stop and chat for a bit.

I heard awhile ago that Latitude 41 also wants to knock out part of their northern wall and extend a patio onto the sidewalk along Gay Street. Not sure if that's still in the works or not.

[UrbanSurfin]

Except that the city sidewalk policy and most of the semi-permanent fences in these pictures predate the smoking ban by a couple of years.

[KJP]

How does this even meet ADA requirements? I thought ADA not only requires accessibility for wheelchairs, but blind people with canes, etc. Also, I thought there had to be lateral space for two wheelchairs to pass, or one wheelchair and one pedestrian. The area to the left just doesn't look wide enough. This scene really sucks...

[Ronnie]

^---That is strange...and dangerous!

[cincyimages]

UrbanSurfin, I agree with your gripe.  Europe does it right.  Here are three photos I took of sidewalk cafe's in Amsterdam and Paris:







http://www.pbase.com/cincyimages/amsterdam

http://www.pbase.com/cincyimages/paris2

[MyTwoSense]

Are those "squares" or "plazas" not sidewalks with walkways built in?

[UrbanSurfin]

It looks like the first is a sidewalk cafe, while the other two are plazas. It looks like an outdoor food court. Maybe downtown Columbus could do that with one of the overabundant surface parking lots.

[UrbanSurfin]

By the way, yesterday I bumped into the head of the downtown special improvement district right next to the bi-level sidewalk gated community. He said it was done that way to create dining space, but primarily to accommodate development plans: What looks like a couple of separate buildings is actually varying facades on a single building, and the developer wanted to have consistent floor levels. That certainly makes sense on the upper levels, but it shouldn't be hard to make the separate storefronts on the ground floor at levels consistent with the grade. The northernmost storefront might have a higher ceiling, but so what?

I didn't have a chance to ask about ADA, or about how much the developer is paying the city to permanently seize a chunk of the public right of way.

[X]

What Europe is doing right in those photos is their alcohol laws.  Our alcohol laws constrain our urban design related to patio space.  Until we bring a little more common sense to our alcohol laws, we will be stuck with fenced in patios.

[UncleRando]

What Europe is doing right in those photos is their alcohol laws.  Our alcohol laws constrain our urban design related to patio space.  Until we bring a little more common sense to our alcohol laws, we will be stuck with fenced in patios.

Amen.

[WalkerEvans]

Except that the city sidewalk policy and most of the semi-permanent fences in these pictures predate the smoking ban by a couple of years.

I was referring to bars/restaurants all over town, not necessarily the ones pictures above.

[UrbanSurfin]

The odd little granite barriers on the new sidewalks on Broad Street at High now have some added hardware for blind pedestrians to stumble over.

[David]

But how can private businesses take control of the public right of way? What gives Caribou the right to look down on lowly passersby?

I think they're great. As long as there's enough room for two people side-by-side to walk, I have no problem with it. I would rather see the road become more narrow than to take that away. Gay St. only appears as vibrant as it does because of the outdoor seating.

[Columbusite]

I´m hoping for more to fill in the empty spaces on Gay, especially the H / R block one. That one is a great opportunity just waiting to be taken full advantage of. Also, during the end of bike to work week a resident of Worthington had no idea that Gay St had quite a bit going for it and said he´d make it back and wss going to bring people to try out the El Arepazo. Gay St. could use a nice High St entrance because, unless you know Downtown it´s easy to miss.