Topic: Columbus: Demolition Watch

[Keith M.]

http://www.youtube.com/v/y_BscR90on4&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1

And there's going to be a parking lot in its place. OSU is so green!

[Matthew]

Yeah they are Green alright.   Green motivated - liars.  Checked out some stories in the lantern where Christine (sp)Poldeman was quoted as saying there's a difference between demolition and deconstruction.   She went on to define demolition by saying it includes dozers and cranes, whereas deconstruction is a piece by piece method.   Apparently she's not too bright, because a track hoe is part of the bulldozer family.

Further, in regards to all of this "green" "deconstruction" bullcrap that they totally patted themselves on the back for last fall....Lord Hall still had furniture in most rooms, flush valves on the toilets (not cheap), drinking fountains, filing cabinets, display cases and chalk boards.  Sure, of course, none of that could possibly be reused or cycled.  (sarcasm)

 Further, the roof support system was made of fine old growth timbers the size of railroad ties.   Have you ever seen what those look like when planed down and sanded?   Talk about hardwood floors you can't find at Lowe's.  Also destroyed were all of the original 5 panel doors, radiators, window glass, marble, stone, tile, paver style brick, cap stones, lighting, and well maintained shrubs/bushes planted at it's outside walls.  All stuff that people renovating old homes would love to have, and might even haul away for free.   Apparently though, that's not green (cough) enough for OSU.

Bottom line.   They removed nothing, and landfilled everything. 


 

[C-Dawg]

^Good lord, why didn't they salvage anything?!

[Keith M.]

My little exposé of OSU leadership. I just let the quotes and the reality speak for themselves. And here's a clip of Brown Hall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3MjhTsLg54

[NorthAndre]

I'm just blown away.  A parking lot?  It just doesn't seem consistent with the direction many universities are taking with campus planning.  I've recently become interested in campus planning (since that sector seems to be doing well.)  I've read how many Universities want to take their surface lot count to zero, and locate parking structures to the periphery.  It just seems all backwards to be building them in the first place.

It can be valid at times to argue that the buildings just don't serve their purpose effectively anymore.  (I usually disagree with that since anything can be retrofitted.) But the failure to replace them with anything worthy is a crime.

Here's a photo I took last fall.  Just look at how well the views are framed here.  What a shame it's gone.

[ColDayMan]

I believe the actual plan is to build a new hall OVER the "temporary" parking lot.  Still, demo'ing Lord and Brown is just wrong.

[Keith M.]

They say they're going to build a new building where Lord was, but Brown is slated to be "green space". I'm guessing grass and a couple of trees with sidewalks.

[ColDayMan]

Hell, it'll be an extention of that "greenspace" infront of the SEL.

[atlas]

well I remember them (forget who 'them' is) saying the master plan for the oval is to 'extend' it out into the surroundings.  They said they were hoping to 'green' the connections.  It looks like they are literally creating connections as well. 

[Keith M.]

Here's the new (temporary?) parking lot. But first, OSU patting themselves on the back for being so "green".

[C-Dawg]

I love it when large organizations try to justify everything they do by saying "it's OK, we're green."

[Keith M.]

What's wrong? It's for the disabled! Why do you hate people in wheelchairs?

[Keith M.]

Couldn't the money the city wants to spend on demolition be used to rehab the building? Why are they so intent on demolition?

Historic Building Gets 2-Week Stay On Demolition

COLUMBUS, Ohio—A neighborhood group has been given two weeks to find an engineer to say whether a historic building is safe.

The historic Edna Building is located at East Long Street at 21st Street on the city’s near East Side. It’s just down the street from the newly restored Lincoln Theatre.

The Bronzeville Neighborhood Association, which includes the King-Lincoln District, has been trying to keep the deteriorating building from being demolished and has been given another two weeks to find an independent engineer to deem it safe.

continued w/ video...

[DetroitZack]

Monday the fight to save the former Methodist church on East Long Street ended when it started being demolished.  There was an attempt to renovate the building last year.

http://www2.nbc4i.com/news/2010/may/17/fight-save-church-ends-demolition-ar-79193/

For a picture and history of the church go here...
http://columbuslandmarks.org/advocacy/centenary-church.php

[Columbo]

City plans to demolish or repair 100 more homes
Monday, February 21, 2011
By Mark Ferenchik, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Columbus will spend millions more dollars to tear down or fix up nearly 100 houses in three neighborhoods hit hard by foreclosure and blight, including a South Side area where a new health center will go up next year.  The city will receive $4.8 million in the latest round of federal Neighborhood Stabilization money and will spend the bulk of it in the Linden and Franklinton neighborhoods.

Some of the money will go to demolish houses or develop new ones in the South Side neighborhood near Parsons and Innis avenues.  The city owns land along Parsons and will build a new $5 million health center there.  Construction will begin next year, and the center will open in spring 2013, said David Bush, a city assistant finance director.

MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/02/21/copy/city-plans-to-demolish-or-repair-100-more-homes.html

[Columbo]

An update of sorts to the previous Dispatch article about the City of Columbus renovating houses in targeted neighborhoods.

Scourge of the city: Millions spent on renovating, demolishing eyesore properties
Saturday, February 26, 2011 
By Mark Ferenchik, The Columbus Dispatch

City officials say there are now 6,117 vacant properties in Columbus, the largest number anyone can remember.  It's the latest sign that the foreclosure crisis continues to take a toll here as neighborhoods battle eyesores and the city sinks more than $50 million in federal money into boosting the hardest-hit areas.

This most recent tally represents an increase of nearly 5 percent from February 2010.  If there's a silver lining, it might be that the increase is less than the 8 percent jump from February 2009 to February 2010.  "The bad news is, it continues to outpace our ability to address it," said Dan Williamson, spokesman for Mayor Michael B. Coleman. "It's difficult to build strong neighborhoods when you have buildings boarded up."

The city said the vast majority of vacant properties are single-family or two-family houses that inspectors have deemed empty for more than 60 days and not up for sale or rent.  The hardest-hit areas are the Near East Side, the Hilltop and North and South Linden, said Dana Rose, city code-enforcement manager.

MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/02/26/vacant_homes.html?sid=101
This map included with the article shows the location of vacant properties in Columbus as of February 1, 2011. 
Because it is a city-scale sized map, each dot representing a vacant property is vastly oversized for display purposes. 
But it does give a good identication as to which neighborhoods are more affected. 

VACANT PROPERTY MAP

[Columbo]

Columbus Underground: 900 Abandoned Homes to be Demolished in Columbus

Dispatch: City to raze 900 vacant houses - $11.5 million project will take at least three years

[Columbo]

Follow up to yesterday's announcement that the City will demolish 900 abandoned homes in the next three years.

Coleman forms unit to monitor neglected properties
By Mark Ferenchik, The Columbus Dispatch
Friday, February 24, 2012 - 7:12 AM
 
Acknowledging that they haven’t kept up with blight spread by 6,200 vacant and abandoned houses, Columbus officials have created a unit to monitor the properties and crack down on bad landlords.  A main goal will be to acquire dangerous vacant houses and raze them.
 
It’s part of what Mayor Michael B. Coleman calls a “comprehensive attack” on the vacant properties that plague many of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.  The city plans to spend $11.5 million in the next three to four years to demolish 900 vacant houses it deems dangerous.  Coleman said yesterday that the city also plans to:
 
• Lend $1 million to help owners restore 36 rental houses and vacant properties.
 
• Provide $1.9 million in loans and grants to preserve and restore homes in the Old Oaks neighborhood east of Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
 
• Create a land-care program in which residents who maintain vacant lots after houses are demolished can acquire those lots through sweat equity.
 
• Compile quarterly lists of landlords who have a history of neglecting properties and publish their names in newspapers.

MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/02/24/a-war-on-blight.html

[Columbo]

City demolition project is 14% completed
By Mark Ferenchik, The Columbus Dispatch
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 - 7:23 AM

Columbus has demolished 123 buildings this year, about 14 percent of the 900 “worst of the worst” properties that Mayor Michael B. Coleman said he wants torn down.  An additional 37 buildings are in the pipeline to be torn down, according to John Turner, the city’s land bank administrator, and more are being tested for asbestos or are in line to be assigned to a demolition contractor.

The vast majority of the 123 buildings that have come down are vacant houses in the city's poorest areas that have seen population decline - Franklinton, Linden, the Near East Side and the South Side.

READ MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/11/13/city-demolition-project-is-14-completed.html

[Columbo]

City publishes list of problem landlords
By Mark Ferenchik, The Columbus Dispatch
Wednesday, December 12, 2012 - 8:25 AM

The city has put the owners of 111 Columbus properties on notice by publishing their names — an effort, officials say, to publicly shame the owners into bringing their vacant, dilapidated properties up to code.  If they don't, their properties face demolition.

Coleman said in February that the city would publish a list of landlords with a history of ignoring orders to maintain properties.  It's part of his effort to demolish 900 "worst of the worst" houses.

READ MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/12/12/city-publishes-list-of-problem-landlords.html

[Columbo]

Columbus Underground: 900 Abandoned Homes to be Demolished in Columbus

Dispatch: City to raze 900 vacant houses - $11.5 million project will take at least three years

Continuation of the abandoned property demolition program by the City of Columbus, noted above.  More from the Dispatch in their report about this week's City Council meeting, linked below:

Dispatch: Columbus to tear down another 120 abandoned properties

[jeffinmichigan]

Watch out, Columbus.  It's a slippery slope on the way to becoming Detroit!  I am only (mostly) kidding!  My point is, though , that when Detroit started knocking down vacant buildings and homes they probably had no idea they would end up with half the city being gone in 40 years.

[Columbo]

^ I hear what you're saying jeffinmichigan.  And I get that you're (mostly) kidding when you compare the Detroit and Columbus neighborhood demolition programs.  But I just wanted to clarify exactly how different these situations are. 

Two main points:

1) The financial conditions of Detroit and Columbus could not be more different.  Detroit is unfortunately on the verge of financial insolvancy and a state takeover of its operations.  Columbus has weathered the recent national economic downturn with very strong municipal finances.  In 2009, the City got business leaders and voters to approve a city income tax increase to prevent massive municipal employees layoffs.  Part of that support from the business community came because Columbus promised to reinvest a good part of the tax increase into infrastructure and development projects in the city that promote additional development.  This has worked so well that Time Magazine wrote an article about the way the City of Columbus functions as a model for other cities to follow.

2) The level of public and private investment in inner-city neighborhoods in Detroit and Columbus could not be more different.  Detroit has unfortunately seen massive disinvestment and decline in its inner-city neighborhoods over the past 40 years.  Columbus is seeing a record surge of both public and private reinvestment in its inner-city neighborhoods.  Some, like German Village, have historic revitalization efforts going back to the 1960's.  Some, like the Short North and the Brewery District had efforts beginning in the 1980's.  Others, like the Near East Side and Franklinton to the west of downtown have revitalization efforts beginning in the 1990's and 2000's.  Still others, like Weinland Park - the neighborhood north of the Short North and east of OSU, have even more recent public/private reinvestment efforts. 

I would also note that the demolitions being proposed are not for grand historic properties or huge swaths of neighborhoods, but are for the worst-of-the-worst houses that tend bring down otherwise good blocks of properties.  Many of those neighborhoods I cited above are local/national historic districts that have seen extensive renovations and restorations along with infill development.  Neighborhoods that aren't historic districts have seen more infill development and new construction that is supportive of the existing urban context.  These abandoned home demolitions in the articles I posted are serving to assist these revitalizing inner-city neighborhoods - not to work against these efforts.  And that's an important distinction.