City invests to turn blight into opportunity
A playground and park where a crime-plagued hellhole called Club Majestic used to be. If that doesn’t define neighborhood improvement all by itself, nothing does.
That’s just one small part of what the leadership of Columbus wants to accomplish with the purchase of five parcels on and near Cusseta Road — to transform deteriorated areas into profitable business properties and healthy residential areas.
This one, said Mayor Teresa Tomlinson, is one of those “great little nuggets of neighborhoods” where residents still have a sense of loyalty and place in spite of its decline.
Columbus Council voted this past week to designate an area adjacent to the five-points intersection of Brown Avenue, 21st Street, North Andrews Circle and Cusseta Road as an “enterprise zone” with the help of federal funding earmarked for such uses. The city has $1.2 million in enterprise funds, and voted to spend $365,800 on these properties.
The tract includes an abandoned restaurant, a defunct car wash, two parking lots, a vacant but overgrown lot and the once infamous Majestic.
The park and playground will be just a first step in clearing and revitalizing the area; it’s also a needed amenity for area children. Tomlinson said because of a lack of connections to other parts of the city, “there’s no way for the children to safely walk to places where they can play and be kids. So they’re playing in abandoned fields and around abandoned buildings.”
Hardly the most inspiring image in an area targeted for revitalization. The park, Tomlinson said, will be “one meaningful indicator of the promise of what might happen.”
“Might” is of course an unavoidable word in ambitious projects of this kind. Restoring blighted areas isn’t quick, easy or cheap. Sometimes potential investors respond, and sometimes they don’t.
But we already know things like this can work in Columbus, because they already have.
This story was originally published August 13, 2016 at 5:43 PM with the headline "City invests to turn blight into opportunity."