Monica Khemsurov wrote a piece for this Sunday’s New York Times Travel section on Columbus, Ohio. To the left is her article, to the right is my counterpoint.
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Most travelers don’t give much thought to Ohio. But in the last few years, Columbus has undergone a transformation. By luring young professionals to its homegrown empires like the Limited and Abercrombie & Fitch, the city has seen a flurry of downtown development — and gained an unexpected new profile as a Midwestern style capital. The transformation has mostly taken place in the Short North district, a gallery-filled strip of North High Street that’s home to the Wexner Center for the Arts (1871 N. High Street; 614-292-3535) and boutiques like Jinny (1) (844 N. High Street; 614-291-3600), where the former Los Angeles fashion editor Jin Fillinger stocks clothes from Sue Stemp, Harlow, Clu, Willow and Phillip Lim — labels hard to find in the Midwest outside Chicago. Four blocks away, the New York City expat Maren Roth recently opened Rowe (4) (718 N. High Street; 614-299-7693), a cool whitewashed space where she introduces shoppers to clothes by Generra, Lauren Moffatt, Bulga and Nieves Lavi. Customers often slip next door to the beauty boutique Luxe de Vie (720 N. High Street; 614-421-0589) for Bond no. 9 perfume, and around the corner to the street-wear shop TigerTree (2) (17 E. Brickel Street; 614-223-2136). A restaurant scene has also taken hold in the Short North. The new wine bar Marcella’s (5) (615 N. High Street; 614-223-2100) is packed nightly; Northstar (6) (951 N. High Street; 614-298-9999) draws crowds for its organic menu; and Rosendales (3) (793 N. High Street; 614-298-1601) serves coffee-and-pepper-crusted steak with grated chocolate and parsnip silk. All this is a short drive from Tee Jaye’s Country Place (4910 N. High Street; 614-885-1383), a Midwest stalwart where you can order anything on the menu covered in gravy. |
Dear Sweet Lack of Jesus, but nobody in their right mind should travel to Columbus, Ohio to buy clothes from NYC and LA designers. The reason to travel to Columbus is to experience something unique, not for shops just like the ones they have in Manhattan. A lot of people who live outside New York City know the annoying drone of the visiting New Yorker with the compulsive need to point out what is and isn’t like “The City.” So let’s nix the underhanded tributes to coastal living and look for what Columbus offers that’s different.
Perhaps we should begin with a bit of accuracy. The Wexner Center for the Arts isn’t in the Short North District, and neither is Tee Jay’s Country Place. Columbus’ arts, entertainment and independent business is centered in five areas that are more or less contiguous and run more or less from North to South in the following order. The University District Tee Jay’s isn’t even close to any of that; it’s connected to the vast suburban wasteland surrounding Columbus where people who don’t want to be interested or interesting go to die a decades-long death smothered by their own body fat, hair spray and exhaust fumes. The University District is the area including and abutting Ohio State University, which is larger in size and population than any of the universities in or around New York City. The Wexner Center is in the University District, right on the border between the University proper and the student-centered area of High Street. The Wexner Center is an interesting art museum with architecture that plays with light and shadow in some really interesting ways on the outside while creating nooks, crannies and nearly hidden spaces on the inside. Just this afternoon, I walked up to the Wexner Center from my home on the border of the University District and the Short North with my kids. We caught the hilarious Hardly Boys spoof by William Wegman before looking at some of his less-appreciated paintings and non-dog photography. Before or after the Wexner, head straight across High Street and look for Bento Go-Go for some good Japanese food on the ground floor (a sake bar and dance club are upstairs if you’re inclined later on). A few doors down from that Bento place is the Newport Music Hall, an old-style dance hall place that is the largest of a half dozen venues up and down High Street that (along with the big ol’ Nationwide Arena in the Arena District) make for a pretty active music scene. The Newport and Skully’s in the Short North are the two places where I think you’re most likely to find acts on their way to breaking through the barrier between unknown and known.
The picture above shows the South Campus Gateway, a pretty bland set of same-old-same-old corporate shops and restaurants on the southern edge of the University district. If you’re like the Times’ Khemsurov and you want to find things just like home when you visit Columbus, visit here. It’s got chains like Mad Mex offering a craaaazy menu with little quips about hippies and faux-Mexican artwork of coyotes playing electric guitars. Wowsers! Add in McFadden’s “Saloon,” which is the only “Saloon” I’ve encountered with a dress code requiring formal shoes, and you’ve got a very comforting yet bland time in store for you.
This is the side of the building holding Industry Standard, a combination clothing store, skate shop and recording studio that openly proclaims its desire to bring West Coast “couture” to Columbus… but not in a way that I think Khemsurov would appreciate. The word “couture” is, what, three generations into its own derivative use? If you want to be a good looking poser, this is your place. Is it on the southern end of the University district or the northern tip of the Short North? Yes. A detour: take a four-minute walk West from High Street when you reach King Avenue, and you’ll find near Neil Avenue an almost-invisible restaurant called Dragonfly Neo-v Cuisine. the “v” stands for vegan, and this is some really inventive, really yummy vegan fare we’re talking about. I eat meat (I’m cooking beef right now), so you know that’s not just the PETA party line. Go there for dinner, then head south along Neil Avenue just a block and you’ll hit Victorian’s Midnight Cafe, a coffee shop and bar that wears its liberal stripes literally on its walls, in the form of peace signs and slogans aplenty. This is a joyously ramshackle place where you can get all sorts of local activist literature and still hear people vocally disputing the value of the Nader candidacy (I heard this resurface again just last week). In the Short North itself, between 5th Avenue and the Convention Center, stick to High Street for all your goodies, unless you need a break… then look for Buttles Ave. and walk west a block for the calmer greenery of Goodale Park. Yes, walk. You can’t appreciate High Street from a car, and you aren’t going to be able to park there anyway, so walk, preferably on the first Saturday night of each month, when just about every place in the neighborhood — including an eyeglass store and an insurance agency — puts local artists’ work up on the walls, puts on some music, and turns the street into an art-watching, people-watching, bar-hopping time of it. You’ll see suburbanites who would never, ever live in that kind of neighborhood mixing with artists, buskers, college kids, street kids and old fogies on that night. I really like that night because nobody controls or homogenizes it. If you don’t like what you see in the Short North, keep walking: it changes character frequently and quickly. I’ve already mentioned Skully’s as a place to try for good music (and pretty good greasy food). Ignore Haiku and Lemongrass for dinner. These Asian places know how to create the appearance of hip, but the food is bland. Try Rigsby’s Kitchen and the Rossi, or go down the street a bit further, down into the Arena District, to find the North Market for something you can actually afford. Oh, right, but before you head down to the Arena District, pop into Palnik studios on 14 E Lincoln Street, just a smidgeon off of High, where Paul Palnik continues to create stubbornly optimistic and thought-provoking comic posters. He and his wife are really big-hearted people. For this last bit, you’ll need to drive. That’s Columbus’ downfall outside of High Street, and the ability to walk about is what makes High Street so fun. But there are a few more fun bits. The Arena District has a lot of bars and nightclubs surrounding that North Market, which is an enclosed farmer’s market and independent proprietor space offering this, that, and lunch. This is another place to go to into the wee hours. Then look for Broad Street downtown and head a few blocks East to the downtown Arts District, which consists of a performance center, an arts school, and the Columbus Museum of Art, which until just a few weeks ago hosted the first major exhibition of Op-Art since the 60s. Drive back over to High Street for the last place I think you should visit if you end up in Columbus, especially if you really like books. After you get past downtown, go East a block and look for The Book Loft, a gigantic old house with innumerable rooms that has been converted into an independent book store. I have no idea where the rooms begin and end, and I appreciate its idiosyncratic collections. The books go straight up to the low ceilings and straight down to the floors, on every inch of every wall. Hanging out in this place for an afternoon is like one big, long bibliophilic orgasm. But by all means, if you want to fly all the way to Ohio to get some expensive shoes, visit those LA-NYC shops Khemsurov mentioned. |
Now you’re going to have all those obnoxious New Yorkers ruining all your favorite places.
I was just telling a friend today here in Michigan, where I live now, how great the Franklin Park Conservatory is. And wow, I miss the Book Loft.
I agree there is more to the city than what was mentioned. I think you missed the point of the article though. Columbus, once seen as a fly-over city, is beginning to have a thriving fashion scene. Like it or not, that goes a long with being a metropolitan city.
I think its a little insulting to call us copycat shops. We get comments all the time from people vacationing from New York and LA that the shop has a unique flare, I think one that comes from living around the country and landing in Columbus. We draw on the influences of our time in those places but in no way are we copying them.
I think you did a pretty decent review, although a bit wordier than the original article, and a bit biased on some things.
I’d hardly call the area around CCAD the “Downtown Arts District”. Why can’t we just call it Downtown?
And while the South Campus Gateway does have it’s share of chain stores/restaurants, it’s no more unbalanced than the rest of the campus stretch along High Street (McDonalds, Starbucks, Urban Outfitters, etc). There are quite a few shops/restaurants in the Gateway that are local and independent such as (Au Moda, Eddie George’s Grille, The Drexel Theater, Y Boutique, Pesto, The Happy Greek, etc).
And I have to agree with Tigertree’s post. While some of the style of those fashion boutiques in the Short North might be influenced by what can be found in larger quantities in coastal cities, they’re still unique, local, independent businesses. To bash them is to bash all entrepenuers in Columbus.
The NY Times article is partly about clothing, partly about the arts and partly about eateries.
I’ve never been to Tigertree, so I apologize if that reference is taken as referring to Tigertree, because it’s not. I have no idea whether you’re a “copycat shop”. I was specifically referring to these passages:
and
which are just dripping with the attitude, “It’s all right, daaaahlings, you may be surrounded by spud-eaters, but the right people are in charge of these boutiques.” The “right people” being, surprise, people from NYC or LA.
I’m sure the NYTimes author was also shocked that we don’t carry around fishin’ poles to the waterin’ hole in our bare feet.
Walker, ‘course I’m biased. I have preferences. Happy Greek has so-so food in my opinion. I agree with you that Pesto is absolutely deliciously spectacularly yummy. McFadden’s, Mad Mex, Barnes & Noble, AT&T, Game Stop, Finish Line, Revol, AT&T, Aveda all contribute to a samey-samey shopping mall feel there.
Solidarity is wonderful and all, but I just couldn’t manage to write that it makes any sense for someone to fly to Ohio for the purpose of buying clothes from NY or LA designers without having spittle hit my keyboard as I laughed, so I felt compelled to write the opposite, just to save the money on the inevitable computer repairs. Columbus is never going to draw snooty coastal people with the notion that we have their clothes for sale, too. People who live in Columbus may appreciate that, but this was a TRAVEL piece in the NEW YORK Times.
The notion that we must say we love everything about Columbus, with three exclamation points!!!, or else we’re “bashing all entrepreneurs in Columbus,” is just plain silly. Leave that bullshit to the Republicans.
The big tall buildings are downtown. The Columbus Museum of Art is not where the big tall buildings are.
people are always purchasing their identity. whether someone wants to have a coastal label associated with it and pay 3 times the price is their own business.
I think there’s an awful lot of undeveloped style here. It’s style that can come from not only an authentic representation of our roots / cowtown aesthetic, but also our teetering political identity and the fact that we are where we are and we embrace it.
If you think you need a car to experience all of High Street and beyond, you are part of the problem.
I’m sorry, when I wrote “you’ll need to drive” I meant “you’ll need to drive unless you want drivers to run you down on your bike, unless you want to walk four hours with your kids, or unless you want to take the bus.” The bus is an option, and I should have said that. But as for the rest of it, hey, I have a bike and I take it out in Columbus, and except for right around the Short North area, I fear for my life. I’ve lived in bike-friendly cities and public-transportation-friendly cities and walking-friendly cities, and this is not a bike-friendly city, and it is not a walking-friendly city (except around High Street), and compared to other cities of its size the public transportation is for crap. It’s a structural defect of Columbus’ that it is, except for some limited areas that are (not at all coincidentally) those areas I’ve talked about, centered around cars and driving. That’s the way Columbus is.
Falarkey.
I regularly bike way more than the distances talked about by you or the original author. I helped with a bike tour for new OSU students on Sat morning which covered the ground you describe plus more. Saturday night, I biked-shopped (Tigertree)-ate (@ Rosendale’s) with my 8 yr old over all the Short North and today we went farther North than campus on the same mission.
Lack of imagination is always part of the problem.
A.
Thanks for the speedy reply Jim.
I agree with you that it’s a bit absurd for the article to try to play up our stores that have “New York Style” for people who want to travel to someplace that is not New York City.
I just wasn’t sure if some of your negative commentary directed towards other parts of Columbus was any more helpful…
Honestly, I don’t really like Pesto much. But I’m proud that it’s owned and operated by a 23-year-old OSU grad, and to me that speaks volumes about the Gateway being someplace that shouldn’t be overlooked. Hell, go to any retail district in any major city and you’re bound to find chain stores mixed in with unique boutiques.
At the end of the day, this is just a fluff peice in the NYT. I’m glad it was there… instead of it not being there.
Snark about travel modes aside:
There is also a rather dopey idea that the NYT Travel section is all written in the same way a Conde Nast Traveller is, that everything is a destination.
People forget that the NYT sees it audience as much further than the five boroughs and that article was written for Nashvillians, Omahites and Phoenicians as much as a Noo Yawker.
Furthermore, a lot of travel pieces are written with the non-vacationing traveller in mind. So, you are going to Columbus? Here’s what’s cool. Very valuable to those who don’t always pick their destination.
You are criticizing the article for something it is not.
Oh, Walker, that’s where you got me dead to rights: I’m just not a “helpful” person. I’m a regular J. Arthur Crank. It’s true; every once in a while I try to summon my inner nice guy, but I can’t keep that smile up more than half a minute. Maybe that’s why I keep finding those dead rats nailed to my door…
Andrew, if you are taking your 8 year old biking on a Saturday night around High Street, you’re a braver man than I am, or maybe more coordinated. So props to you and all, but nope, I’m just not there with you on that, safety-wise. Any time of day or night, any part of town, a person can bike safely in Tucson. San Francisco (just slightly larger than Columbus in population), NY, DC, Chicago, Portland OR and probably some other cities I don’t know about have kick-ass public transportation systems. Columbus doesn’t compare.
I hereby surrender to all people who desire to travel to Columbus and buy expensive shoes from LA and NYC on the side. Go, go to those boutiques. Spend lots of cash there! Do it!
I found most of the rest of your article to be very helpful.
Spend lots of cash at Abercrombie & Fitch, Jim? Surely you jest.
After their offensive anti-Asian tees:
http://www.geocities.com/vnwomensforum/article_aftshirt.html
Oh and there were the thongs for children with slogans like “eye candy” on the front, the women’s tees with “who needs brains when you have these” that was also successfully boycotted, the “L is for loser” that USA Gymnastics boycotted. Then there were the accusations of discriminatory employment practices and the Saipan sweatshop lawsuits.
Abercrombie & Fitch might not still sell safari wear to wannabe colonial elite elephant hunters like it did a hundred years ago, but can all of the offensive actions resulting in boycotts be coincidence? Perhaps its marketing department still has a colonial mentality.
Abercrombie & Fitch is hardly the stuff for a progressive blog. Maybe, Jim, you can manage to be unhelpful for just a little while longer.
Sarcasm.
I feel like I really need to chime in again and stick up for Jinny and Rowe here.
While they are catering a bit more to the NYC and LA urbanite-esuqe shopper than we are, their success has shown that can be a viable market in Columbus as well. I think that speaks volumes about where our city is heading.
People tend to be a bit more frivolous with there spending while traveling than when they are home, so it is reasonable to expect people form the coasts to buy things there that are just as available while out of town. Everyone likes to have a tag-line story with an article of clothing. I got it _________, I got for only __________, can you believe a store in Columbus, OH carries ______ that wouldn’t have happened ________ years ago.
I have been in Sole Classics several times when people call from the coasts to order limited edition Sneakers that sell out the first day they hit the shelves in their cities. I guess that is evidence that we have a ways to go, but the rest of the country is at least taking note of us, and that seems like an important step forward.
No, not sarcasm at all, Jim. I love designer stuff as much as anyone, not just for the status but also the look and feel and smell of quality, and I have spent money on business trips that I would never be able to justify to myself at home. It’s the false sense of wealth created by the per diem plus being stuck in a place you wouldn’t travel to voluntarily. Also if you are married, it’s nice to be able to account for your free time in a tangible way.
But A&F, no way, those guys try to be elite by putting their foot on someone else’s neck, and I won’t have any part of that image.
Probably ninety per cent of the population that travels for business that I’ve seen wants to do it the NYT way, but I prefer Jim’s way. I know that there are more travelers like me because I’ve seen them in places like Katmandu and Cairo. If I’m ever stuck in Columbus, I’ll be checking out that bookstore.
ME Sarcastic. Ug.
You really shouldn’t label your blog as ‘progressive.’ More like ‘making excuses-ive.’
Do you really think that cities like Tuscon became bike-friendly because people sat on their asses and drove their SUVs five blocks (SN to Arena District, for example)? Or did it get that way because there was an active demand of people out on their bikes, using them not for cute little smug jaunts, but for transportation and as part of the urban lifestyle? Most of the whining about alternative transportation seems to come from bloated jellies who don’t and wouldn’t use it. Be part of the process and make something happen. People like Tigertree are doing it on one front, bike commuters on another. What part do you play?
Again, it is so easy to be sarcastic and ‘not helpful’ than it is to DO something. Being progressive means progressing, but I am sure you are a lot more comfortable hiding behind the name instead of moving forward. I would be in awe of how cool you, but there is just too much to do.
If you want to put your ass in the bike seat, join us for the Monday Night Ride and see Columbus from outside of your smugzone. Every Monday. Departs 10PM from 15th and High.
A.
You know, I could tell you about where I live and decisions I’ve made to reduce my environmental impact, but I think you’d just ratchet it up, asking me whether I use the dyed pink flamingo feathers to scour my rectum or the more responsible natural white flamingo feathers.
So let’s just get right to the point and I’ll tell you exactly what you want to hear:
Oh, my. You have a very big cock, Andrew. It is so very, very big.
Very cute. But again, you evade the specific issue. Instead of making snide and irrelevant comments about anatomy or how hard it is to bike in Columbus and how we are so unworthy compared to , get out and do it. The ‘we are not someother city’ refrain was a cliche 15 yrs ago. It is now just a willful decision to simply engage in nose-in-the-air whining. Just like your initial piece said – we are NOT any other city. And making that mean something is our responsibility.
It is not about “environmental impact” or other grandiose terms that people want to hide behind. It is about being working at something very specific, very local and productive. Yes, our transportation infrastructure is poor. No one disputes that. A big part of the problem is that everyone wants to complain and use excuses as to why they are exceptional (too far, too unsafe, too whatever). When the people who make plans and get funding sit down, they look at reality and who is really out there. People who just blog about transportation issues are simply irrelevant. Personal knowledge on that one.
Right in the area you were talking about, right now, this week, things are happening which directly addresses the future of transportation and cycling in particular in this city.
Your initial commentary was not particularly noteworthy except for the very typical Columbus myopia you displayed about navigating our urban environment. I took you to task because your prejudices in that regard undermine your self-proclaimed progressivism. You seem to have more of an interest in justifying that view than in engaging the problem. So be it. No interest in the personal or personalities. I only mentioned my experience with biking in SN to make evident that doing so was not abstract and your perception of its impossibility was wrong. If you choose not to do it, then take responsibility for that choice instead of blaming outside forces.
Invitation still stands. Join as many of 70-100 of us on any Monday night, put tires to street and see a less-theoretical side of biking and Columbus. We depart 10PM, every Monday, 15th & High. Guaranteed fun.
A.
Yeah, my wife works nights and my kids are asleep by then, so no.
I work from home, which is a zero-energy commute, and my son walks thirty yards to his school, so no, I don’t need to bike, and yes, that was my choice. Sorry, is that an excuse in your book for not biking around Columbus? Do I scour my anus with the wrong color of flamingo feathers?
What’s your job, Andrew Hall? What do you do for a living?
I am not sure why you want to personalize this. You made the assumption of driving in your initial piece and that was wrong. You justified it with sarcasm which equivalently stated that it couldn’t be done. Again, that is wrong. If YOU choose not to bike in the SN or anywhere in Columbus, fine. When you equate YOUR choice to not do so with the impossibility of doing so, then not so fine in my book as that is part of the bigger problem.
Those assumptions, that immediate negativity followed by a defensive blaming of everything else is part of the problem with transportation solutions in Columbus. Your initial article displayed the same prejudices and destructive attitudes that have inhibited transportation planning in this city since I can remember. It warranted being called out. Instead of being inclusive and really being progressive, you are shooting the messenger. Simply put, one can effectively bike the SN and beyond to all the areas not mentioned by the NYT. Your wish not to do so doesn’t change that and your piece deliberately or not displayed this prejudice of yours that one couldn’t enjoy the greater coolness of Columbus without a car.
At a very specific point in time when there is much positive movement and even more potential for car-alternative transportation in Columbus, I find it very irresponsible to fall back on the same negative attitudes and excuses.
A.
YOU are personalizing this, telling me that unless *I* bike at 10 pm on a Monday night (for what reason?) just like YOU, I’m just “making excuses.” I didn’t say it couldn’t be done. I didn’t say it was impossible. There’s pavement, there’s a bike. Obviously, it CAN be done. I ride my bike around myself. But I have seen with my own eyes what happens to bicyclists on Columbus streets. I’ve had beer cans thrown at me here. I know someone who works in an emergency room in Columbus, and they get a lot of bicycle injuries and a more than occasional death. Don’t bullshit me and tell me this is a bike-friendly town. And don’t expect me to do exactly what you do.
Excuses? I don’t need to bike to work because I work at HOME. I don’t need to bike my kid to school because his school is THIRTY YARDS AWAY and we WALK THERE.
Christ, you’re psychotic. I am not your therapist. Go work it out somewhere else.
Google “Andrew Hall” and Columbus to find out what this guy does for a living. It involves a lot of fuel.
The invitation to Monday Night Ride was an honest one. No have-to. No challenge. You can’t do it, so no problem. It is simply a fun, social biking outing that I encourage anyone who bikes to join. You see parts of Columbus you might not otherwise see. You join other cyclists on the road. Heard of Critical Mass? Like that, but w/o the agenda.
I never said it was a bike-friendly town. I said that to make it so required getting on the bike and all the negative commentary would do nothing and is counter-productive. You can do whatever, but when you put your words on in the public sphere you should take responsibility for them. Those very words are part of what makes this a less bike-friendly town. Not as much as a beer can (which happens everywhere) or cyclist injuries (we are not worse than many and a lot better than some places you’d consider bike-friendly), but every bit makes it harder to move in a better direction. All I am saying is that you should like up to your self-proclaimed progressivism and go for progress, not regress.
And that is totally the wrong Andrew Hall.
A.
The wrong Andrew Hall? Not the EPA air pollution permits? Hee, hee, hee, no wonder this guy wants to risk his life and the life of his 8-year-old making restitution for being part of the Bush EPA system.
Really Andrew–can I call you Andrew?–going off on someone in a personal attack because they choose their own issues is a bit counterproductive for your cause. It makes you sound really passive-aggressive. Telling people “you are part of the problem” is not exactly making friends and influencing people now, is it.
Read Jim’s post #9 again. Those are the issues you will have to address if you want Jim on your side, indeed, if you want to make Columbus a bike-friendly place. Where are Columbus’s green spaces? Where are the parkways? Where is its development plan?. Get a copy of Burnham’s 1903 Plan for Chicago (it’s been reprinted) and see what a vision for a city looks like.
Then get a website and start putting information on it. Like where are the paths. What areas are safe. Where are the proposed expansions to the present routes?
You heard Jim say safety was a problem. Now go after the safety issue. Find out what a bike-friendly city looks like and how they made it that way. Check out the New Urbanism. Find out what kind of injuries and deaths are happening. Compile them. Interview the victims. Cannonize the Martyrs. Publicize the inaction of the city council or whoever it is has the power to put your vision into action.
Stop telling people they are wrong and start listening to them. Jim is not “wrong” to take a car. Listen to his concerns. Stop bitching at him about being “negative”. He is telling you about the exact barriers to using bicycles that exist in your town. Don’t shoot the messenger. He is giving you the message, listen to it.
Jim-
I’m the owner of Sole Classics, possibly one of the stores you were referencing in regard to “expensive shoes”. I guess “expensive” is all relative. But that is really beside the point. Even if Sole Classics was not one of the stores that you were talking about I would like to address your attitudes/comments in regard to Jinny, Rowe, Tigertree, my own store (or not), etc.
First of all, I am somewhat put off by your dismissal of these stores as mere “copycats.” Unlike chain stores, each boutique is different and represents the unique vision of it’s owner(s). While some of this vision might have been inspired by shopping experiences/options in other cities, it is not fair to say that Columbus’s boutique owners were simply trying to recreate stores that they have seen in other cities. All of these people came here (if they weren’t already here), voluntarily I might add, to pursue personal visions and aspirations. While you might not see the benefit of their presence or their offerings, I can assure you that many others are thankful.
In their own way, one that you do not have to support or subscribe to, these people are adding to the tapestry that is Columbus. So, you aren’t into fashion or designer labels. That’s fine. I don’t think anybody is asking you to be. But it doesn’t mean that there aren’t other people here that are, people that, prior to the openings of these stores, saved their shopping for trips to other cities. Rather than dismissing people’s efforts and ingenuity, you should be celebrating the fact that they are adding even more diversity to Columbus and keeping more money here. They, and I, opened these shops because there were people who already lived in Columbus who wanted these products. Not under the delusion that they might lure people from other cities. And not in an attempt to make Columbus something that it is not.
Additionally, and as Josh touched on above, these people are adding to the local economy. They all live here and the money that they make is going back into Columbus’ economy. Everybody (well, most everybody) wears clothing and shoes. The presence of these stores means that local people have additional outlets for getting these things aside from just shopping at the mall, where the money spent will not funnel back into our local economy.
Also, I see many of these business owners out at local fund raisers, at art shows, at concerts, at coffee shops and restaurants, etc. They are active and vibrant members of the community. And I know that most of them try to shop as often as possible at other local businesses.
On a personal level, I can also share your satisfaction with some of the wonderful Columbus spots that you mentioned. I have eaten many times at Dragonfly and Rigsby’s. I have gone to open-mic nights at Victorian Midnight Cafe. I walked around the corner from my old apartment to go to Skully’s nearly once a week. I will probably do the same from my new one. I have been to the Wexner Center and the Columbus Museum of Art. I like to spend my Saturday and Sunday afternoons (when I have them . . . I’m usually busy 7 days a week running a copycat boutique) in Goodale park playing tennis or just sitting under a tree and reading a book. Speaking of books, I absolutely love the Book Loft and the Downtown Library too.
I guess what I am getting at is that progress and variety mean different things to different people. And different people look for different things in a travel experience. To some people a varied shopping experience that might include labels that they only used to see in bigger cities or where they can buy things from a local start-up is a sign of progress and increased variety, and maybe even a reason to come here for a weekend. I’m not speaking for or against this. I’m only stating that it is sometimes the case.
Just last weekend I had a couple from Charleston, WV make a purchase from my store. They saw an article about the Short North in some publication and decided to come to Columbus (for the 1st time) to go shopping and check the rest of the city out too. They had just had lunch at Betty’s and were on their way to the Wexner. In the last month I have heard similar accounts from a couple from Philadelphia and a couple from Chicago. Whether you like boutique shopping or not, this kind of thing is good for Columbus! Even if they come to go shopping, they are going to see and enjoy the rest of Columbus too. I grew up here and never thought of it as a spot that people would come to for a weekend getaway. The fact that they are doing so does seem like progress to me.
Finally, it is not fair to condemn these businesses because a writer for the NY Times made what you considered a condescending assertion: The assertion that the “right people” ran these shops because they were from LA or NYC. They certainly didn’t make that assertion themselves. Anyway, maybe they are the right people. Not because being from LA of NYC makes somebody superior . But, because fashion is a subject that people tend to be much better versed in in cities like those. So, it would stand to reason that people coming from those cities, due to exposure and relevant job experience, would in fact be the “right people” to open boutiques in other cities. That’s not an affront to Columbus or it’s citizens. It’s just a fact. If I wanted to learn about rock-climbing I’d be more likely to trust somebody from Colorado in the Rocky Mountains than somebody from Columbus. Not that somebody from Columbus can’t be well-versed in that. But the chances are greater that the person from the Rockies is going to have the relevant knowledge. It isn’t snotty or condescending for me to say that, it’s just playing the odds.
-Chris C. Davis
Sole Classics/Owner
Yes, it is snotty and condescending; fashion isn’t about fact, it’s all about perception, and you just shared yours. Living in Columbus is not a team sport, and I don’t feel any need to fall in line and follow some kind of “United We Stand” routine. The New York Times writer likes what she likes, and I like what I like, and you like what you like, and I have no obligation to tell everybody I like your shop, or that I think shopping at your shop will give you anything that’s uniquely Columbus. I have no power or inclination to shut your shop down, and I have no power or inclination to burn down the offices of the New York Times.
Andrew, I apologize for getting the wrong you. And thank you for toning down your rhetoric.
Oh, I’m sorry Jim, but I think that you missed the point of my writing. I did not write the above because you failed to plug my store or tell people to shop there. I couldn’t care less about that. I was writing because you sounded like an ignorant jerk.
I’m not saying that you have to toe the line and support all of these stores. I was just defending them from what I felt was a false and, actually, condescending claim that you made.
Whether or not you like them or not, they can help to contribute to greater diversity, commerce, and tourism in Columbus. That should be a good thing for everybody here. Though I’m sure you will disagree, as your contrarian nature wouldn’t allow you to see the good in anything.
As for your first sentence above, personal style is about perception. That’s different than fashion. Just wanted to clear that up.
I am completely ignorant of the dictates of the fashion world, in which apparently people love to jet in to Columbus to buy apparel from elsewhere. You’ve schooled me on that, and now I know. And fashion has nothing to do with perception. I know that now, too: It’s a FACT! I already was aware of my identity as a “jerk,” and I’m comfortable with that label.
I have a different opinion than yours. The Short North will not crumble to the ground as a consequence.
There is a fundamental assertion by Jim – and seconded by another who is not even from Columbus – that biking in Columbus, particularly in the Short North area, is inordinately hazardous and not a viable means to experience our city. That simply is not the case. Jim may feel that way and chose not to bike and at that point there is no issue from me.
Where I have a big problem is that his take is simply not reflected in the reality of those who bike here. And in the role as a progressive commentator, eco-concious city-dweller, his misperception is more in need of correcting that a suburbanite SUV’er. If someone like Jim dismisses biking in Columbus – and wrongly so – then that gives more credence to non-progressives to do so.
I was chatting about this on the Monday Night Ride and the massive consensus was that High Street, the Short North in particular, is a great place to ride and to use the bike to “do” the Short North. “Usually traffic is so slow, you are faster.” was a common quote as was “I feel more endangered in a car there.” People who use their bikes as a primary means of transport agree there are places we hate to bike in Columbus and there is much room for improvement, but High Street/Short North/Downtown/German Village/Arena/Clintoville/Grandview/etc are all pretty fine.
I have little interest in the geezer version of getting involved presented by Iroquois. There are advocacy groups and resources in Columbus and I do my pittance. There is actually serious city planning with specific regards to cycling ongoing right now (as in a big event tommorrow night). But quite honestly, from my experience in the past working w/ transportation people, numbers talk. People who blog, blather or attend meetings to pontificate don’t. A lady on a bike, commuting to work daily, does. People out on bike, shopping, dining, having fun count. The city and planners will respond to an actual demand far more readily than any plan to create one. That is why Jim’s misperception, negativity and perpetuating myths are part of the problem.
It was a beautiful night for biking last night and well-ended by fresh cookies at 2AM from the newly-opened Insomnia Cookies on High Street.
A.
Jim, I wasn’t calling you ignorant because of your ignorance of fashion. I don’t even know that to be the case. I thought what was ignorant was your offhand dismissal of these stores because of something you perceived from a NY Times article. Something they had nothing to do with. All I was trying to do was humanize the argument. I know many of these people to be charming and thoughtful people who add much to the fabric and character of Columbus, not through their businesses but on a personal level. I guess we will just have to agree to disagree on this fact.
As for the rest of your webpage, I’m glad I found it. We share many of the same views and would probably even get along. Be well.
If I’m reading the remarks in Post #9 correctly, Anonymous, (and you sound a whole lot like that Andrew Hall person), Jim says the Short North is the ONLY place he feels comfortable biking.
If Jim says he has safety issues with biking in the rest of Columbus, I trust him to keep his family safe, and I believe him over someone who keeps his 8-year-old out until 2AM on a school night. For that matter, how can anyone who is a grownup hold down a job and still be out at that hour? If Anonymous is representative of the attitude and maturity level of Columbus’s bikers, maybe that has something to do with the city’s unwillingness to listen to bikers and the lack of adequate biking trails.
As far as the geezer issue, why doesn’t everyone over the age of nineteen just hurry up and die and make room for people like “Anonymous”.
Might there be something to the argument that these expensive boutiques contribute to the city’s economy in a positive way? Do they have a more positive effect than, say, Walmart? The Italians who make those shoes must get paid more than the Asian sweatshop child laborers who are the backbone of the WalMart empire. Or do they just pay the same wage as Walmart while hiring fewer people. Aren’t WalMarts and other chains locally owned so that some of the money spent there goes back into the community?
(I neglected to put my name on post #32)
I misread what Jim said and took it to mean the Short North was where he feared for his life. I apologize if I misread it. I am glad if he doesn’t mind biking there, though he imply is was bold of us to bike with a child there which seems to mean he is unsure about how safe it is. But in the same vein as his initial point, there is a more to Columbus than the SN and more to enjoy on a bike like areas only a couple blocks away like the Arena District and North Market that he recommends driving to.
Where did I say there was any child out last night? I made one ref to Sat night with my son and nothing else. Whereas Jim’s comment was somewhat ambiguous about the safety of the SN and I take responsibility for misreading it, you are willfully and grandiosely making stuff up loosely based on what I wrote. Not only have I never said that City of Columbus wasn’t listening to bikers, but I explicitly said they WERE and were holding an event on same tommorrow night. The extent of their interest and committment will be determined by usage though, not words. I don’t put Columbus on a pedestal with regards to bike-friendly, but it is moving in the right direction. Heck, tough to beat a town where there are bars which offer ‘two-wheeler specials.’
I also said your approach was geezer with no regard to anyone’s age. Making websites, sitting on committees, being an “activist” count for not much on this issue and being on the streets on a a bike (or using the bus for that matter) do. When taking action becomes secondary to palaver, that’s pretty geezer.
And what wierd assumptions you make. That every job is 9-5 or only M-F? How … quaint.
A.
Well, Anonymous, I assumed that you were either dumping your child with an adult who was actually responsible or you were taking the child with you while you stayed out until all hours of the night. Weird assumption on my part indeed to think you might act responsibly towards your family since the evidence points elsewhere.
I have heard the expression “build it and they will come”, but what exactly do you expect to accomplish by getting drunk on a bicycle in the middle of the night? Nobody from city hall is even awake to see what is going on at that hour.
If your idea of a bike-friendly urban environment is the presence of bars with “two wheeler specials” you probably have exactly the kind of bike environment you have worked for and deserve.
Oh joy, a bunch of drunk absentee parents on bicycles clogging up the hospitals’ all-night emergency rooms because they say that’s the way to effect policy change. Remind me not to visit Columbus.
With logic like yours, no wonder “progressives” get taken so lightly. And such wit and humanity! I throw elbows in my rhetoric where I see Jim’s (or anyone’s) words as harmful to something important like transportation alternatives in Columbus and I don’t pull punches when I see attitudes and actions not living up to what the person claims to stand for. I wish I had thought to question Jim’s parenting skills, his state of intoxication and anything else. Sounds like a much better way.
I wish I had learned how not to read. So I could have been like you and missed statements such as (MNR) “like Critical Mass, without the agenda.” Or that MNR is a purely social ride and my invite to Jim (or anyone) is to have fun on the bike in a different environment and see other parts of our city. (I will say 50+ people out on bikes, chatting with people (police as well who are pretty positive), enjoying their city does create a pretty positive vibe for cycling.) Or miss where I point out completely unrelated positive bike developments.
You don’t live in Columbus. You have absolutely ZERO knowledge as to the cycling situation here. Less than zero since it appears you like to invent things. Jim and I disagree about that state, though I suspect he sees a half-empty where I see a half-full. I also have a problem with a progressive who displays such an easy assumption of car use over a few blocks. That kind of thinking, especially by progressives, just shows how far we have to go in changing transportation thinking. If people who ought to think better are still stuck in the car rut, that is pretty sad.
Since MNR is out of the question, I extend this invitation : Jim, Let’s find a mutually acceptable time (like when the kids are in school) and bike/walk the greater cool zones of Columbus together. Clintonville to Campus to Short North to Arena/North Market to German Village to CCAD/CSCC to Grandview. Let’s see if I can change your mind on the ground. Jeni’s ice cream on me at any of the three locations.
A.
In this major city, bikers meet in the parks or downtown in public plazas in the morning during weekends. While recreational biking is doable here, commuting by bike remains difficult at best, as traffic is congested and commuting distances are far. City streets near campuses may have bike lanes marked out, but you don’t see them used very often. The universities’ urban planning departments definitely have some diehard bikers among their graduates.
I am a ten minute walk from a branch of the state/city/county interconnected park system. In my end of the forest preserve, bike trails are shared with walkers and runners and little kids, strollers, dogs too. State and county parks close at dusk, but the trails that connect them remain open and are crowded on warm summer evenings. This is a hard drinking town, but you don’t see any open bottles in public or anyone biking irresponsibly or inebriated.
Ice cream clogs your heart. So do cookies. And I can’t even BEGIN to speak to getting drunk in the middle of the night, then getting on a bicycle. Don’t you guys have anything healthy to do in that town?
If you ride 20+ mi / day and like to knock off 60 mi for fun, ice cream and cookies are not clogging anything. Moderation – in all things. Total calories count more than the source. And why not have a sorbet made from locally grown melons?
Does that fact that bars offer Happy Hour specials mean that the roads are overly packed with drunk drivers from 5-7PM? Why do you assume different for cyclists and a special for them? Why do you assume a lot of things? Even so, I wish more people who got hammered on the weekend rode bikes. It would make things a lot safer for everyone.
Bike trails are nice. Bike trails between forest and park aren’t terribly useful for transportation. Columbus has a long N-S bike trail which is very useful for commuting. And there are plans and commitments for connecting it with more E-W ones. This will be very nice as too often bike trails (multi-use paths, really) are planned for recreation and not utility. Again, we are not perfect, but the bike-friendliness of Columbus is way more than people who don’t ride perceive it to be.
Which is the problem I see with your perspective – the bike is mostly a toy – and which is shared by way too many in planning or activism. Like Jim. My bikes are fun AND useful. Whether it is reducing cost and emissions for doing(and enjoying) the urban round-robin of banks and clients I have to do regularly for the office I manage or going to farmer’s markets or just getting milk and bread or going out at night to a movie or just adding the fitness component to any of those tasks, my bikes are tools, not toys. They are part of my overall lifestyle for any and all the reasons above. What is even nicer is that being on the bike puts me in way more touch with what is going on around the town. You find neat bits of art, shops, events and more.
Yeah, commuting or using your bike for transportation is harder than jumping in the car. And – without passing any judgement to anyone’s particulars – it is real easy to use that excuse for not doing it. Suprisingly, roads that look hard to bike from behind the wheel can turn out to be pretty easy and you often discover alternatives that are not readily noticable from the car. It feels great to zoom by congested traffic too. And bike lanes are mostly useless as they get clogged with tire-puncturing crap since they are usually curbside. All this is stuff that people who are not out there biking don’t realize.
A.
Sorry, Andrew, I’ve countenanced a lot of what you’ve written lately and let it pass, even your statements about what you say I think and you say I assume and you say I support and you say I oppose, but your last comment is just crazy, wacky wrong. I’ve lived in multiple communities with bike lanes, and they work much better than the Columbus system, which has bikes relegated to curbs, shoulders, or the space between traffic and parked cars. Bike lanes work.
I am unable to edit what I put earlier which I want to after I posted, but the intent was that bike lanes _in Columbus_ are mostly useless. There are cities where they work better. Whether they are best solution for roads is a question debated hotly by cyclists. There is definitely not agreement on the matter.
Dropping the inferences I drew from what you said and my take of what assumptions you make, we clearly don’t agree on the state of cycling for transportation in Columbus. I am not even sure if you consider cycling (or buses or anything for that matter) to be important or relevant to city life or transportation issues. No prob.
If do have any interest in considering biking in Columbus, I’ll repeat the invite : Join me on a bike tour of Clintonville to German Village to Grandview to CCAD/CSCC. By clean and legal urban biking, I think you will change your mind about at least the inner part of city.
Serious invite – I want to change your mind and I think this will. Right now is a good time in Columbus for transportation planning. I wish I could go to the event tonight, but already had concert tickets before I knew.
btw – Bikes are not relegated anywhere and have a legal right to the street.
A.
I’m really busy and don’t have much time off… but let me consider it. Just to let you know I’m not blowing you off. I’m thinking about it and looking at my schedule.
Fair ’nuff.
I assume you can pull my email from the comments.
A.
Here’s a link with more info on the meeting tonight (in the first comment) and everything you could possibly want to know about biking in Columbus.
http://bikecolumbus.blogspot.com/2007/07/mayors-bicentennial-bikeway-plan.html
Looks they will have the first draft of the city’s Bikeway Plan and comments will be accepted. Hopefully the local bike groups have already seen an advance copy and have been busy preparing a presentation of formal comments.
The meeting is 5-8pm at North Bank Park Pavilion. When does the concert start? I bet you could pick up a copy of the handout on your way to the concert.
Commuting in this city is really not a serious possibility for most people. This is not just an excuse. Commutes of an hour or an hour and a half are not uncommon. Already many commuters spend two or three hours a day just on the commute; how much more time would using a bike add to the commute–assuming there is even a bike route available. In addition the typical commutes go past many ethnic neighborhoods where safety is a real issue. If you are the wrong color you can easily be involved in a crime–even just driving through in a car with the doors locked–so it’s best not to even get off the expressway.
Drunkedly weaving through the streets after several two-wheeler specials with the family in my wake has already been scheduled before the extreme Death Metal concert. Seriously, we are having dinner at one of the places (it is a restaurant) w/ the special before the concert though no biking is involved. And the concert is John Williams lest my Death Metal comment get taken literally.
I know the more civic-minded cyclists will have the plan. I used to work with some of the people involved at a planning agency, which is how I know that numbers count more than blogs. There are more meetings to follow. What I know of the plans is good, the follow-through is the big question. They got huge and positive response of a demand for bike paths/lanes/etc in their survey. My peeps at http://www.considerbiking.org should have the info. There will probably be discussion on http://www.columbusunderground.com as well.
We ride through ‘ethnic’ neighborhoods on the MNR. Get lots of questions, applause and the occasional object lobbed at us. Feel safer in most places like that than in the ‘burbs. City cops usually think we are nuts, but cool.
Jim – good to meet you today, which I am sure was a surprise to you. Do you promise to use the same language you use here at the next PTA meeting? I will, if you will. Hope we can do that ride sometime.
A.
I totally empathize with the notion that you feel safer biking through neighborhoods that are usually considered dangerous than the suburbs. I owned a scooter in LA. I was staying with some friends in Beverly Hills for a while and I had way more close calls from high-school girls in their parents audi tt’s (or more likely their own) than I ever had in any of the unsavory neighborhoods I could afford to live in myself.
I don’t bike. I bought one, got really excited about it. It got stolen. I replaced it. It broke. So, I have given up until the spring, but it seems pretty exciting how into self-propelled transportation Columbus is. I think we should get more attention for it and the city (and businesses) should do more to cater to it.
Hey! I usually refrain from responding to comments about my articles, but I just wanted to note that first off, I was actually born and raised in Columbus — I spent my first 18 years there. Second, the article was a shopping story about one thing only: The newsworthy changes going on in Columbus that make it a style capital. Whether or not the boutiques sell clothing you can get in other cities is, in a way, irrelevant (most clothing stores, whether high-fashion boutiques or not, sell clothing made elsewhere). The fact is that when people like me, who love shopping and love traveling, visit other cities, we seek out areas that embody the lifestyle we love. We start with a few cool stores we may have read about, and we explore outwards from there. It’s a way of orienting yourself in a city you are totally unfamiliar with. If shopping is your thing, you should check Columbus out. If not, someday I hope there will be an article about Columbus that talks about your thing. Personally, I’m rooting for all the amazing entrepreneurs that are trying to make the Short North a starting point to draw people to the city. It’s a pretty incredible change from when I lived there, that’s for sure.