BLOG 6 – UPPER CLASSMEN (TERRACE PLACE)

Our site was Terrance Place at 81 E 9th Avenue. It is approximately two years old and houses 60 units. This location is part of the Community Housing Network that opened it for local citizens at risk for homelessness due to problems of addiction and health.  It is connected to the OSU Extension office where there is work and financial counseling available. They were given 11.1 million to build the property from a large variety of sources such as the City of Columbus, Huntington Bank, Arlington Bank, Ohio Housing Finance Agency, etc.

The property both fits in and does not when considering its surroundings. When looking from the view of 9th Avenue, it seems to flow with the unit to the east, what seems like another housing complex. However, when looking at the unit from the front (which is actually behind the unit so you must walk around), it does not flow with the rest of the its surrounding buildings. It is adjacent to a large black structure that seems like a parking garage, and it also faces the back of a housing unit that is also extremely different looking. The height of each of the buildings vary, though it is much more similar to the black structure than to the house it faces. So while from the street view it aesthetically flows, it does not when you actually see it from its intended entrance. It is not obviously an attractive building. It is, however, very clean and obviously appears new. It may be attractive to some, but in general it seems quite bland. There is nothing exciting or innovative about the building.

The property seems very well maintained. There are several trash cans and practically no littering. The plants were not very exciting or appealing, but they were alive. The white walls were clean, the door and windows were spotless, the porch lights were function, and the parking lot was clean as well. The parking lot was full so it is unknown to us if there is not enough parking, but there is definitely not too much. The only thing that was not “clean” was across the street in front of the house you could see their construction material. However, it is against unknown if this has been there for a long time if there was a temporary/ short-term location for these things. Also, since not actually apart of the property it is not the properties fault if these materials were there consistently.

The property is located on a block that is fully residential. On the east side of the block, there’s a large open space attached to an orthodox cathedral. These are zoned as a park space and an institutional space, respectively. The property is bordered on the west side by mixed use spaces, specifically Gateway Film Center. Since the property is so close to High Street with plenty of shopping, the closest grocery store is Kroger, only a quarter mile south.

The nearest bus stop runs along high street 0.1 miles west of the property. Bus line 1 and 2 both stop here. Bus line 1 runs from Clintonville, through Downtown, and over to Reynoldsburg. Bus line 2 runs from the Carriage shopping center in Upper Arlington, through Downtown, and over to Reynoldsburg. Both of these routes run through the most populated stops on High Street.  

Secondary Effects- At around 500 ft, for our site there were 7 crimes mostly break-ins and robberies. When you get to around 1000 ft, there are 36 crimes committed, mainly thefts and robberies. At .25 miles there are 74 crimes and by .5 there are 204 crimes, some being violent. Our area is fairly spread out in terms of crime and robberies where there aren’t that many crimes happening around our property. The most dense areas are around 5th avenue and sex offenders on opposite sides of our range but definitely not close to our property. The map spreads out many of the crimes where the majority of the crimes committed around our range of a half-mile are just robberies. There are quite a few sex offenders however and they all seem to live very close to one another however, they are on the outer ranges of our spectrum. High street seems to be quite clear of crime as is expected being right on the main road and many cops patrolling the area on a daily basis.

We were unable to retrieve data for housing prices at this location on account of the building being too new to be mapped out. The surrounding areas are mainly houses, and are much less densely packed together than the University District. I would assume this apartment complex is less expensive than the surrounding houses and adjacent apartment. The prices seem to increase as you move North towards the University, and decrease as you move towards the Short North. This is only a trend when zoomed out to a half-mile radius.

Weinland Park Elementary School is the closest school to the property, and is about a quarter-mile away. It scores a 2 on GreatScores. The closest High School is the Fort Hayes Arts and Academics High School near Columbus Community college. The student population is 760 and it received a score of 3.

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