With the Omicron variant running rampant, Columbus schools are facing significant absences from both students and staff. Keep track of this data with this hand link, which ranks the best and worst schools for absences, shows how many cases are being reported, quarantine data and more.
An overcast day in 2011.
I received a massive positive response for the first version of this series, which was just a simple mashup of before and after photos of different parts of Columbus urban neighborhoods over the course of a decade. Because of that response, I have decided to do this How Columbus has changed in 10 years part 2 series. This time, besides adding more photos from core neighborhoods, I will expand the series out to other parts of the city and some suburbs, though still remaining within the 270 Outerbelt. In some ways, these before and after photos are even more drastic than the first set.
Downtown
Front Street, looking north from Main Street.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Gay Street, looking west from Front Street.
Before: 2011
After: 2020
Gay Street, looking northeast from Normandy Avenue.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
High Street, looking north at the Convention Center.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Nationwide Boulevard, looking north just east of Front Street.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Nationwide Boulevard, looking east from the Olentangy River.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Spring Street, looking northeast from Neil Avenue.
Before: 2011
After: 2020
Spruce Street, looking south from 670.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Goodale Street, looking west from the 315 Exit.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Short North
High Street, looking south just north of 3rd Avenue.
Before: 2009
After: 2021
Weinland Park
High Street, looking north at 7th Avenue.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Italian Village
Detroit Avenue, looking east at Hamlet.
Before: 2009
After: 2019
4th Street, looking north from 4th Avenue.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
OSU Campus
Fred Taylor Drive, looking east at Defiance Drive.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
High Street, looking east at 15th Avenue.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Medical Center Drive, looking north at Old Cannon Drive.
Before: 2009
After: 2021
Olentangy River Road, looking west at J Edward Weaver Memorial Drive.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Milo-Grogan
Cleveland Avenue, looking north towards 5th Avenue.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
American Addition
Lee Avenue, looking south from 12th Avenue.
Before: 2009
After: 2019
Linden
Cleveland Avenue, looking north at Agler Road.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Easton
Worth Avenue, looking east from Fenlon Street.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Worth Avenue, looking east from Stelzer Road.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Franklinton
Souder Avenue, looking west just south of I-70.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Fifth by Northwest
Norton Avenue, looking north halfway between 3rd and 5th.
Before: 2011
After: 2020
Chesapeake Avenue, looking west.
Before: 2011
After: 2020
King-Lincoln
Long Street, looking west at I-71.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Long Street, looking northeast at Garfield Avenue.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Long Street, looking north just west of 21st Street.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
West Side
Georgesville Road, looking east south of Broad Street.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
North Side
Wakeford Street, looking west from Olentangy River Road.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Ohio Health Parkway, looking north from Healthy Community Way.
Before: 2015
After: 2021
East North Broadway, looking north at 315.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Grandview Heights
Yard Street, looking north from just south of Burr Avenue.
Before: 2011
After: 2020
First Avenue, looking northeast at Edgehill Road.
Before: 2012
After: 2021
Dublin
Edwards Farms Drive, looking south at Frawley Drive.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Dale Drive, looking northwest north of Banker Drive.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
High Street, looking north from North Street.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
High Street, looking east at Rock Cress Parkway.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Upper Arlington
Riverside Drive, looking east just south of Bethel Road.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Bexley
Parkview Avenue, looking southwest just north of Main Street.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Main Street, looking northwest at Cassady Avenue.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
As I stated in the previous installment, these photos still just represent a small fraction of the development and changes that have occurred across the city and its suburbs in the past decade. These are meant to be representative of those changes, not to suggest that other neighborhoods not featured didn’t change as well. Either way, enjoy!
This 2-part before and after series highlights many projects that have changed the landscape around the city. Many other projects that will continue to transform the area for the next decade and beyond are still in development or construction phases. A list of local area commissions provide monthly updates on potential new projects around the city.
Part 2 is now available for more great before and after comparisons.
How Columbus has changed in 10 years is not always easily quantifiable. Columbus added more people in the past decade than during any previous similar period in its history. I’ve posted a lot about the 2020 Census data and updated many pages worth of information to the site. However, examining only population change through numbers is just one part of the story. How has that population growth manifested in terms of how the city appears in its built environment? This before and after look shows how the city has been transformed on a visual scale, and shows how some of the hottest neighborhoods have been radically altered in a short time.
Downtown
High Street, looking north from Rich Street
Before: 2011
After: 2021
High Street, looking north from Gay Street
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Long Street, looking east from 6th Street
Before: 2011
After: 2020
Neil Avenue, looking east at Broadbelt Lane
Before: 2011
After: 2021
The Short North
High Street, looking north from Milay Alley
Before: 2011
After: 2020
High Street, looking south from Buttles Avenue
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Fourth Street, looking east at Auden Avenue
Before: 2011
Before: 2021
Summit Street, looking west at 5th Avenue
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Perry Street, looking south at Quality Place
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Weinland Park
Grant Avenue, looking north from 7th Avenue
Before: 2012
After: 2021
Eighth Avenue, looking west from Section Alley
Before: 2011
After: 2020
Franklinton
Rich Street, looking east from McDowell Street
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Broad Street, looking west from the railroad tracks.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
South Side
Livingston Avenue, looking east at Parsons Avenue
Before: 2009
After: 2020
Washington Avenue, looking southeast from Innis Avenue
Before: 2011
After: 2020
Front Street, looking south at Whittier Street
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Campus
High Street, looking south from Lane Avenue
Before: 2011
After: 2020
10th Avenue near Dodd Drive, looking northwest.
Before: 2011
After: 2021
High Street, looking south from 8th Avenue
Before: 2011
After: 2021
West Side
Parsons Avenue, looking northeast from Chapel Street
Before: 2011
After: 2020
Champion Avenue, looking northwest at Phale D. Hale Drive
Before: 2011
After: 2021
17th Avenue, looking north from Gay Street
Before: 2011
After: 2020
Broad Street, looking northeast west of Woodland Avenue
Before: 2011
After: 2021
Oak Street, looking east from Ohio Avenue
Before: 2011
After: 2021
These images represent just a small fraction of the development and changes that have occurred in and around the city, and don’t even include the large developments in suburban areas like Grandview Yard in Grandview or Bridge Park in Dublin. The next 10 years looks to be even more significant, with new mixed-use towers for Downtown, potential skyscrapers for Easton, and large numbers of infill development projects continuing in central neighborhoods from Franklinton to Linden to the South Side. With them, the city will continue to grow more dense and more vibrant and- with any luck- will also help spur much needed change to Columbus’ underwhelming transit system.
These Columbus development links show many of the projects seen in the photos, as well as projects that are still just in the proposal stages. The City provides a master list of area development commissions to keep track of the latest proposals.
In the last few decades, the Columbus Bhutanese community has grown into one of the largest in the world outside of Bhutan, itself. Many of these immigrants were resettled in other parts of Canada and the US, but an increasing number of them have made their way to Columbus and Central Ohio. According to the Bhutanese Community of Central Ohio, the area’s Bhutanese population now numbers upwards of 27,000, and projected to surpass 30,000 over the next few years.
This community has already made a local impact, opening new restaurants, shops and cultural and religious centers across the city and region.
With the latest US Census data for 2020, we can once again take a closer look at how the Downtown area is doing.
Looking at the graph above, we can see that the Downtown population peaked in 1950 and declined through 2000. The last 20 years have seen accelerating growth and the population was the highest in 2020 since 1970. One caveat with this is that the census tract boundaries that are used to make up this graph have changed some over the years. They haven’t changed significantly, but the area that’s being covered in 2020 is slightly different than it was in 1950. As such, it’s more of an approximation per year rather than exact figures based on the exact same area. Still, the rapid decline after 1950 is well-documented. Highways were either being planned or already under construction through the neighborhood during the 1950s, and this also helped the beginning stages of the suburban flight from the urban core.
The urban core of the city overall reached its population peak in 1950, and the 1950 boundaries represent the oldest, arguably most urban part of the city today. Let’s examine how the population within that boundary changed over the same time.
The 1950 boundary peaked in 1960 and then declined through 2010. Between 2010-2020, the 1950 boundary area gained more than 22,000 new residents, a significant increase which puts the area back to where it was around 1995.
So in both cases, the urban core of Columbus is in recovery, though it is unlikely to ever regain its 1950 population. Average household size is much smaller now than it was 70 years ago, so it would require a massive amount of infill that would be far denser than much of what is getting built in recent years. Outdated zoning codes, among other reasons, have been limiting many projects in the urban core from reaching their potential.
Breaking things down a bit further, let’s look at the census tracts that made up the 1950 boundary in 2020 and rank them for population and growth.
1950 Boundary Census Tracts by Population Rank 2010 and 2020
2010————————————2020
1. 1121: 7,300——————–1. 1121: 12,131
2. 13: 6,583———————–2. 49: 5,686
3. 10: 5,830———————–3. 10: 5,613
4. 49: 5,651———————–4. 12: 5,201
5. 43: 5,613———————–5. 47: 5,138
6. 50: 5,205———————–6. 45: 5,048
7. 45: 5,154———————–7. 1810: 4,324
8. 47: 4,971———————–8. 22: 4,279
9. 12: 4,822———————–9. 4002: 4,245
10. 1810: 4,434—————–10. 30: 4,189
11. 55: 4,228———————11. 5: 4,187
12. 5: 4,057———————–12. 220: 4,186
13. 26: 4,028———————13. 1902: 4,063
14. 6: 3,780———————–14. 55: 4,062
15. 220: 3,727——————–15. 1901: 4,059
16. 1110: 3,688——————-16. 17: 3,994
17. 57: 3,629———————-17. 26: 3,920
18. 1902: 3,410——————-18. 6: 3,839
19. 910: 3,409———————19. 1110: 3,751
20. 4610: 3,368——————-20. 57: 3,715
21. 110: 3,344———————21. 910: 3,693
22. 37: 3,303———————-22. 730: 3,629
23. 20: 3,252———————-23: 32: 3,500
24. 120: 3,162———————24. 4301: 3,532
25. 1122: 3,159——————–25. 110: 3,489
26. 310: 3,147———————-26. 37: 3,389
27. 420: 3,139———————-27. 310: 3,377
28. 820: 3,121———————-28. 710: 3,339
29. 30: 3,105———————–29. 2760: 3,331
30. 710: 3,102———————30. 420: 3,316
31. 730: 3,090———————31. 4610: 3,298
32. 2760: 3,066——————-32. 1122: 3,268
33. 53: 3,054———————–33. 20: 3,259
34. 40: 2,941———————–34. 120: 3,220
35: 210: 2,935———————35. 820: 3,193
36. 4810: 2,891——————-36. 2510: 3,144
37. 2510: 2,856——————-37. 52: 3,125
38. 17: 2,704———————–38. 5002: 3,095
39. 4620: 2,659——————–39. 210: 3,049
40. 2520: 2,648——————–40. 1302: 3,039
41. 28: 2,629————————41. 4810: 2,929
42. 4820: 2,589———————42. 1301: 2,903
43. 810: 2,540———————–43. 29: 2,887
44. 410: 2,419———————–44. 2520: 2,784
45. 320: 2,390———————–45. 810: 2,747
46. 720: 2,384———————–46. 5810: 2,719
47. 330: 2,314———————–47. 4820: 2,685
48. 1820: 2,598———————-48. 53: 2,676
49. 52: 2,584————————-49. 4620: 2,609
50. 5810: 2,548———————-50. 720: 2,583
51. 59: 2,546————————-51. 2750: 2,554
52. 2780: 2,423———————-52. 51: 2,548
53. 61: 2,398————————-53. 61: 2,534
54. 29: 2,368————————-54. 320: 2,505
55. 2750: 2,349———————-55. 1820: 2,478
56. 60: 2,345————————-56. 28: 2,461
57. 2740: 2,316———————-57. 21: 2,456
58. 5820: 2,230———————-58. 2740: 2,447
59. 5420: 2,151———————-59. 410: 2,439
60. 32: 2,147————————-60. 330: 2,427
61. 2730: 2,104———————-61. 5620: 2,422
62. 920: 2,069————————62. 16: 2,399
63. 15: 2,031————————-63. 59: 2,365
64. 1901: 2,031———————-64. 2780: 2,353
65. 2770: 1,995———————-65. 2770: 2,300
66. 51: 1,928————————–66. 60: 2,224
67. 38: 1,896————————–67. 920: 2,209
68. 2710: 1,858———————-68. 2730: 2,183
69. 22: 1,851————————-69. 5820: 2,127
70. 21: 1,808————————-70. 38: 2,105
71. 5610: 1,784———————-71. 15: 2,092
72. 16: 1,682————————-72. 5420: 2,082
73. 14: 1,543————————-73. 36: 2,039
74. 23: 1,453————————-74. 2710: 1,908
75. 36: 1,442————————-75. 4302: 1,740
76. 42: 1,370————————-76. 5001: 1,647
77. 5410: 1,362———————-77. 5610: 1,646 ———————————————78. 14: 1,531
——————————————79. 23: 1,503
——————————————80. 5410: 1,418
——————————————81. 4001: 1,253
——————————————82. 42: 1,107
The color coding is Green: Growing since 2010, Red: Declining since 2010, and Pink: New Tracts that did not exist in 2010. New tracts: 13 became 1301 and 1302, 40 became 4001 and 4002, 43 became 4301 and 4302, 50 became 5001 and 5002.
Top 10 Fastest-Growing 1950 Boundary Census Tracts by Total 2010-2020
1. 1121: +4,831
The tract is the main OSU Campus. The explosive growth is mostly due to the recent requirement that sophomores also have to now live on Campus, prompting thousands of students to move to the tract from nearby neighborhoods.
2. 4002: +2,592
This new tract was split off of Tract 40 and includes the southwest area of Downtown, including RiverSouth.
3. 22: +2,428
This tract is the heart of Italian Village and includes the large, new Jeffrey Park development.
4. 1901: +2,028
Includes the 5th Avenue corridor to just east of 5thxNW.
5. 32: +1,353
This tract covers the southern part of Victorian Village/Harrison West, as well as the far western sections of the Arena District where the new White Castle HQ complex is.
6. 17: +1,290
Western Weinland Park, which has seen rapid revitalization in recent years.
7. 30: +1,084
This area includes all of the norther half of Downtown north of Broad Street and west to Neil Avenue in the Arena District.
8. 16: +717
Eastern Weinland Park, which has seen hundreds of new housing units constructed along and near Grant Avenue.
9. 1902: +653
Includes the 5th Avenue corridor through 5thxNW.
10. 21: +648
The heart of the High Street strip in the Short North continued to add people. It reached its highest population in 60 years.
Top 10 Tracts with the Highest Population Densities in 2020
1. 1121: 34,888.8
2. 1810: 28,351.1
3. 1302: 24,740.7
4. 1301: 20,549.1
5. 17: 20,158.6
6. 12: 20,069.6
7. 1110: 18,353.2
8. 10: 16,260.2
9. 16: 12,675.6
10. 21: 12,196.7
All of these tracts are either in the Short North or surrounding Ohio State’s campus. They include the highest densities anywhere in Ohio.
So there you have it. The urban core of Columbus is clearly on a positive path. So long as infill development continues, population growth should also continue to increase. Perhaps someday, this increasing population and density may facilitate the construction of more amenities, including rail lines, BRT and more biking infrastructure, all of which lags in the area.
To see Census Tract data in map form, the Census Tract Maps page provides it.