Residents talk about need for transportation, diversity, resources
Is bigger better?
Their vision for Columbus depends on where they come from, where they live, their generation.
Where they work — and how they get there — colors their perception of the city.
But people who weighed in on the future of Columbus had two things in common: a love for their city and strong opinions on where it should head in the next 20 years.
The Dispatch visited classrooms at Columbus State Community College and Westerville North High, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, homegrown restaurants and the adult-education labs at the Reeb Avenue Center over the past month, asking residents where they think the community will be in 2037.
We heard from hospital employees, students, business owners, teachers, police officers, artists and construction workers.
They think that Columbus’ future is bright, but many can’t shake the concern that the region’s growth will one day ruin its reputation as a welcoming and vibrant city.
Residents weren’t bashful about sharing their vision and hopes for Columbus’ future.
“Chicago!” yells Tommy Pappas. “We are growing and growing and growing. Chicago is what Columbus is going to be.”
The owner of Tommy’s Diner in Franklinton can’t resist getting involved in the friendly morning debate moving around his breakfast counter.
His proclamation that Columbus could resemble the Windy City in 20 years draws head nods from some who want their city to grow, and frowns from others who are just fine with its size now.
“We don’t need to change a lot,” says Don Goldhardt, 57, a retiree from Pleasant Township in between bites of his bacon and eggs. “We need to be spending our money on rehabbing neighborhoods like this one than worrying about making the city bigger. Our Downtown is just fine and we need to make what we have better, not bigger.”
The two young women in the booth across from Goldhardt are grinning and shaking their heads. Olivia Terry, 28, and Michala Rash, 23, both of Columbus, have just finished their graveyard shift at a local warehouse.
They both want Columbus to become its own version of Gotham.
“The bigger the better,” Terry says while waiting for her spinach and feta cheese omelette. “I see people riding all over on trains, more people playing music on the streets, more festivals and poetry readings and concerts. More of the stuff that brings a city alive.”
Around the diner’s counter, a police officer worries that more people would make the neighborhoods he patrols less safe. A construction worker questions whether the houses and condos he helps build will be too expensive for what he calls “regular folks.” A nurse hopes that John Glenn Columbus International Airport will offer more direct, convenient flights to cities in the West so she can do more hiking with her boyfriend. A group of women working for a nonprofit are split on whether Columbus will become more a destination, like Nashville, or will deepen its own roots the way Cleveland and Cincinnati have.
One more time, Tommy belts out “Chicago!” and chuckles while people pay their bills at the cash register.
Kori Hastrich, a 25-year-old comedian from Franklinton, likes the