Ginther: Light on horizon after 2020
Mayor says Columbus is ‘on the path to a comeback’
“What a year, but we’re still standing.”
That was how Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther began his virtual State of the City speech Wednesday night, one that repeatedly acknowledged the hardships the city has endured over the last year due to COVID, social unrest and spiking violent crime.
Yet amid the pain of a troubled year, Ginther built the case for an optimistic future being closer than many may think – one which, he said, depends on residents getting vaccinated against COVID-19.
“With the vaccines in our hands, there is a light at the end of the tunnel,”
Ginther said, urging people to get the coronavirus vaccine.
“I need you to be that light.” Though the annual event was missing the customary mayoral declaration that the state of the city is strong, Ginther still stuck to the formula of going over the city’s achievements and programs of the previous year while plotting a course for the future.
In many areas, Ginther said, Columbus still managed to move forward despite having “weathered one of the most-challenging years in our city’s – our nation’s – history.”
Recovery appears to be on the horizon with “great hope and a tremendous opportunity to right the wrongs of the past and to build back stronger,” he said.
“We are on the path to a comeback, Columbus, an equitable, full-throttle, better-than-we’veever-been comeback.”
He pointed to the city’s early response to the pandemic, when it provided rental assistance, food and small-business relief, purchased laptops for Columbus students to help them transform to sudden at-home learning over the internet, and helped build internet “hot spots” where students lacking internet service at home could connect.
“COVID-19 did not create the disparities in our community, but it shone a bright light on those that already existed,” Ginther said, with his words delivered over video of city programs in actions.
Combatting surging violent crime, which he blamed on the hardships of the pandemic, will continue to be a priority moving forward, Ginther said. Last year, the city invested $2 million in federal coronavirus relief funds toward anti-violence initiatives and prevention strategies.
Ginther announced that another $500,000 would be committed to juvenile-offender diversion programs that can be implemented by judges.
He called on the state and federal governments to “finally enact commonsense gun laws – universal background checks – because firearms are responsible for the vast majority of violent crimes.”
Ginther urged the city’s employers to engage teens with mentoring and employment this summer, with the assistance of city grants.
“What are you willing to do to invest in our young people this summer?” Ginther asked. “Recovery and rebuilding means investing in the next generation now.”
Ginther also announced a city goal to decrease infant mortality by 28%, specifically working with the Ohio Better Birth Outcomes Collaborative “on the next 10 years of this initiative.”
The mayor detailed numerous ongoing and future city investments in Linden and the Hilltop. Those on the Hilltop include an early learning center and plans for a new police substation, and in Linden a new fire station, market and community center, as well as the reconstruction of a segment of Hudson Avenue.
The city also is investing in the Sullivant Avenue corridor with $10 million in new streetscaping coming this year, and “Sanctuary Night,” which helped 170 women in human trafficking, he said.
Ginther said that Columbus doesn’t have enough housing at “any price point.” He set a goal to cut the number of residents forced to pay at least 50% of their income to housing by half over the next nine years.
The city also is nearing the end of a national search for a housing director, he said.
Ginther championed the City Council’s ongoing rewrite of zoning laws “to support the needs of a growing city” by eliminating variances on many big projects.
He highlighted his changes to the Division of Police, including the institution of independent investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation of any deadly use of force by a law enforcement officer in the city, new useof-force policies for police dealing with protests, a successful ballot initiative to create a Civilian Police Review Board and a new inspector general to investigate citizen complaints against Columbus police officers.
“At this time next year we will be a better city than we are today,” Ginther said, “and on our way to being the best city we have ever been.”
This year’s address was a low-budget affair from the in-person speech in February 2020, which was funded by requests of donations from city contractors that caught the scrutiny of the Ohio Ethics Commission.
Ginther made requests of between $2,500 and $30,000, totaling $124,000, to 24 firms and organizations, including many doing business with the city.
He ultimately returned $66,000 to 15 city vendors after the Ethics Commission warned the city attorney’s office that such solicitations potentially could violate Ohio law if the firms had a contract renewal or business opportunity pending before the city.
Ginther’s office said this year’s State of the City address was done in-house with the exception of a $2,500 payment to Urbanone for advertising and promotion. wbush@gannett.com @Reporterbush