In the Spring of 2021, I wrote about Amtrak’s proposal to bring passenger rail back to Columbus as part of its ConnectUS plan. That original plan included Columbus in just one route- the long-sought-after Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati route, otherwise known as the 3-C Corridor. In my article, my view was that this plan was far too limiting for Columbus. That its growth and location suited the city for much better local and regional connections. Now, Amtrak is calling for Columbus to be a rail hub, complete with multiple routes and connections that rival those found in Chicago.
Here is the original map from last year:
And here is the updated version, recently released:
In the new plan, the Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati route is maintained, but the following routes would be brand new: Columbus-Chillicothe Columbus-Athens Columbus-Toledo-Detroit Columbus-Pittsburgh Columbus-Fort Wayne-Chicago Louisville-Nashville would be an extension of the Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati route. So overall, Columbus residents would have direct connections to 12 different cities. Of course, many of those cities would have their own routes, so Columbus residents would have rail access to large parts of the country under the plan.
The timeline for completion is tentatively for 2035. Most of the proposed routes already have existing rail lines, so it would come down to funding any necessary upgrades along with buying the trains, etc. Whether any of these routes are ever actually built and opened remains to be seen, though. Passenger rail, unlike in most of the world, is politically controversial in the US, and public transit remains deeply underfunded and underbuilt in every part of the nation arguably outside of the New York and Northeast Corridor.
Ohio School Report Cards are a measure of school performance based on several different categories. This map breaks down Columbus City Schools Ohio Report Cards average scores, as well as several additional data points to help determine the best schools within the district. Red and yellow indicate the worst schools in terms of the scores, with green and blue being the best.
Intel’s big project northeast of New Albany is now well-known. People are both excited and cynical about all the potential impacts that will come with it. But what is not discussed nearly as much- and is arguably just as important long-term- is what happens to all the land around it. Rumors are already flying about developers scrambling to snatch up as much land as they can for housing, and that is no doubt true. The land is largely a blank slate, so what happens to it from this point is entirely up to the cities, towns and townships that the land sits within. Without a coordinated effort and plan, the area will almost certainly become a nightmarish cluster**** of low-density sprawl and endless traffic, which would be to the detriment of all.
So what can be done? How we should develop around Intel is not really the open question some might think. The answer, it seems, is pretty obvious once you get into the details of what types of development provide the most economic and social benefits.
The Area Today The main Intel site is bounded by Green Chapel Road, Mink Street, Miller Road and Clover Valley Road, encompassing about 1,000 acres, but a larger expansion area is about 3x that size, as shown by the map below. This area is largely rural and almost entirely made up of farms. There is very little organized development between New Albany and Johnstown, which this site sits between. 2-lane Rt. 62, otherwise known as Johnstown-Utica Road, is the main connection between the two and runs just north of the Intel site.
How Rt. 62 looks today.
Clover Valley Road adjacent to the Intel site.
Planned/Ongoing Infrastructure Changes 2022-2023 -Jug Street between Beech Road and Clover Valley Road is being widened to 3 lanes. -Jug Street between Clover Valley Road and Mink Street will be widened, but still be 2 lanes. -Green Chapel Road between Rt. 62 and Clover Valley Road will be widened to 3 lanes. -Green Chapel Road between Clover Valley Road and Mink Street will be widened to 5 lanes. -Mink Street between 161 and Green Chapel Road will be widened to 5 lanes. 2024-2025 -Harrison Road between Clover Valley Road and Mink Street will be widened to 3 lanes and will be extended between Clover Valley Road and Jug Street. -Clover Valley Road will be widened to 3 lanes between Jug Street and Green Chapel Road. -Beech Road between Innovation Corridor Way and Jug Street will be widened to 5 lanes. -Beech Road between Jug Street and Rt. 62 will be widened to 3 lanes. -Miller Road between Beech Road and Clover Valley Road will be widened to 3 lanes.
Beyond these road changes, little of anything else is planned. Where Intel has made a presence in other communities in other states, unregulated sprawl seemed to be what mainly happened, but that doesn’t have to happen here. Here is a general outline of what could be.
Map Highlights -Rt. 62 becomes a mixed-use commercial, retail, restaurant and residential corridor along a tree-line boulevard capable of handling either bike or transit lanes (or both). Several other roads around the area also become boulevards. A “town center” of sorts could be created at the 4-way intersection in red, with mixed-use corridors in all 4 directions. South of 62, medium to high-density residential on a street grid would be the best use, while north of 62 would be more of a mixed-density residential development on a street grid. In both cases, the residential areas would be dotted with parks and playgrounds, corner shops, cafes and other amenities. The Intel site and surrounding area itself is already basically spoken for, with several areas of planned expansion, while further to the south, New Albany’s business park could see gradual expansion as well.
Now, none of this is more than a thought experiment. There is likely to be heavy NIMBY opposition by locals to any major development, let alone what would be considered a more urban and dense style. However, development is going to happen with or without local approval. The demand will be incredible and far too strong for it to be killed off entirely. All that opposition is likely to accomplish is to create all of the problems they think they’re trying to prevent. There are reasons to go with density and grids over not. Here are just a few of the advantages of a street-grid-based higher density plan:
1. Higher land values. Gridded street layouts tend to haver higher land values than sprawl. 2. Taxes. Gridded streets allow for the creation of higher densities, and as mentioned, higher land values. Cities and towns therefore get a much greater tax return than they would with sprawl. 3. Lower traffic. Gridded streets allow more connectivity between one street and another, and therefore provide more routes to choose from when attempting to avoid traffic. This allows for more traffic dispersal across the board. 4. Lower infrastructure costs. Higher densities allow infrastructure costs to be divided among a greater population, creating a lower general financial burden for residents, as well as local and state entities. 5. More adaptability. It is much easier and cheaper to rebuild along gridded streets than it is the winding streets in the average sprawled neighborhood. The infrastructure doesn’t need to be rebuilt to change development patterns. So low-density housing can be built on a grid initially and then gradually replaced with higher density residential or mixed-use depending on demand. 6. Better transit access. It is very difficult to build transit systems within a sprawled area. Winding roads prevent higher travel speeds for transit, making them inefficient and slow. These systems are also rarely, if ever, built during the initial creation of sprawled neighborhoods. Sprawl is not very adaptable to adding them later if the population density becomes significant enough in the future to support them. 7. Safer for pedestrians. Because gridded streets do such a better job at traffic dispersal, they can be narrower than say, your typical American stroad. As such, narrower streets tend to slow down traffic, lowering the risk of harm to pedestrians and bikers.
So the benefits are pretty clear, but will anyone see them? Johnstown’s government is currently a hot mess, New Albany- which at least has a bit of a track record in planning- doesn’t own any of the land, and neither have hinted whatsoever that they’d even be interested in coming up with a plan. Few, if any, of the developers buying up property have any sort of track record outside of sprawl. Enormous changes are coming for this area, and for Central Ohio as a whole. It’s going to take forward-thinking leadership to step up- and soon- before it’s too late.
Columbus has a rapidly-growing immigrant population, with nearly 13% of the total population being foreign-born in 2020. But where exactly are these immigrant coming from, and where are they settling down in Columbus and Franklin County? To answer these questions, I visited the US Census and made this immigrant place of birth map from the raw data.
Click on any census tract to see the total immigrant population in 2020, a percentage breakdown by continent of origin and the top 5 nations of origin for each tract.
From the map, we can see that the Northwest and Northeast parts of Columbus and Franklin County are dominated by immigrants of Asian origin. Hilltop, Linden and parts of the Southeast are much more North American in origin, with the 161/Morse corridors and the Far East largely have African origins. There are relatively few South American or European dominated areas, but they do exist scattered about. Some common misconceptions are debunked, however. Hilltop through Lincoln Village has long been thought to be the hub of the Mexican immigrant population, but several Latin American nations have significant populations there, including Honduras, El Salvador and Colombia. Many Mexicans seem to be settling in the Linden area now, instead. Meanwhile, Somalia is often considered as the origin of many immigrants in the Morse/161 corridors, and while that population does exist there, these corridors are far more diverse than common thinking.
2020 census tract maps are currently available for all sorts of other demographic and population data. This information in tract format is generally available for Columbus going back to 1930.
In this short edition of Strange Columbus Things, we look at Ohio’s atomic bomb evacuation routes. Back in the 1950s, many were still grappling with the implications of the birth of the Atomic Age. The US was busily testing bombs both on and outside of US soil, and souring relationships with international adversaries presented the threat of nuclear war. In March, 1955, the director of Ohio’s Civil Defense, Major General Leo M. Kreber, release evacuation routes for Ohio’s major cities should an attack take place.
For Columbus, it was either north or south. In the description of why these directions are preferred, it was suggested that it was to prevent conflict with evacuees from the Dayton area to the west, but in reality, the truth is much darker. In the event of a nuclear attack, it wouldn’t just be Columbus. Dayton and Cincinnati would also be hit, and due to prevailing winds in this part of the world, fallout would generally move eastward. Therefore, the safest routes were thought to be up towards Morrow County or south and southeast towards Hocking County. The logic hasn’t changed much in the past 70 years. North and south would still be the safest evacuation routes. However, evacuation from targeted locations would only offer temporary refuge. The cruel reality is that in the event of a true, global nuclear war, few places anywhere on the planet would be left unscathed. If not destroyed by bombs or irradiated by fallout, nuclear winter would bring incredibly devastation to most of the planet, even those completely untouched by bombs. As true today as it was in 1955, the only way to really be safe is for no one to ever push the button.
