Site 1: New Village Place – 130 Piscitelli Pl. Columbus, OH 43201
New Village Place homes and apartments are located in the Itallian Village and Short North districts, less than two miles away from The Ohio State University and 8 to 9 miles away from both North and South High Street. I would say that the surrounding buildings of the districts are fairly diverse; the property doesn’t necessarily match the architecture and designs of the houses on 71 E 1st Avenue, however there are still a handful of structures that match the same, plain design of the New Village Place property, such as the houses on Robertson Street. I wouldn’t say this is an attractive building; the aesthetics of the apartment building is short of anything unique and don’t really stand out from other surrounding properties in the district. The building, while well furnished, doesn’t really stand out as anything creative or colorful, but rather just as a plain brick building that you can live in. Brick is, of course, one of the main materials used besides wood and concrete for patios, but none of them are used are used in any particular fashion to stand out aesthetically and attract residents from other surrounding properties. The apartment building does try to add some kind of the design, with the front of the structure positioned in a sort of zigzag. We honestly don’t know why this was added in the first place since, due to the no creativity in using the materials, the townhouse is still left looking bland. This time it’s with a little pointless design that no one would bother to point out. Maintenance of the building, however, is fairly well kept. The mulch surrounding the building is laid down well, and none of the bushes are overgrown and ferturding onto the sidewalks. A small plot of land dividing Piscitelli Pl. and E 1st Avenue is also well maintained, with no overgrown grass or misplaced trees that could disrupt the layout of the properties. One thing we’d fix for landscaping are the random dead grass patches, but other than that the landscape’s well maintained. Nearby land use is mostly residential; the village consists of other houses and apartment buildings, and other business are on the busy streets such as High Street, Summit Street and North 4th Street. The nearest grocery store is Kroger, which is a 4 minute drive from the property.
(Land in between Piscitelli Pl. and E 1st Avenue)
(Other surrounding houses on the property)
The New Village Place homes are located in a low crime area when looking at a small buffer area. When looking at a buffer of 500ft there was only 7 crimes surrounding the affordable housing unit. When the buffer grew to 1000ft the crime in the area was over 100. The crime grew to more than 500 when looking at a buffer of .25 of a mile and the crime grew to over 1000 when looking at a buffer of .5 of a mile. There may not be crime surrounding the affordable housing unit right away but as you look at the area in a bigger perspective there is a good amount of crime within a small distance of the homes. The affordable housing unit is located in a low density crime zone as you move to the left of the affordable housing you start to see why there’s so much more crime when the buffer is larger. Moving to the left of the homes there are a couple of areas where the crime becomes very dense. The most common crimes around the affordable housing unit is traffic incidents and burglary from a motor vehicle. When looking at the property values surrounding the affordable housing unit we saw that most of the property values were about the same. The only time we saw a significant increase in the property values was as we got closer to certain districts such as the short north district. The reason for that is the short north is a new developing area that is very attractive to the higher class. The property values surrounding the affordable housing unit are all about the same because the affordable housing unit is well maintained and doesn’t give off the affordable housing feel that people seem to dislike. The schools near the New Village Place homes are the Hubbard Master School which is Pk-6 with a rating of 2 out of 10, the Arts Impact Middle School which is grades 6-8 with a rating of 3 out of 10, and the Fort Hayes Arts and Academic High School which is grades 9-12 with a rating of 3 out of 10. There aren’t many schools in the area surrounding the affordable housing unit most likely due to the fact that the area is not very family oriented. The schools in the area have very low ratings which is also probably due to the fact that it is not a very family oriented area. The affordable housing unit is located in an area where it didn’t have a huge affect on the surrounding property values, also its out of the main area of crime, and its near a couple decent schools. Overall the New Village Place homes are located in a spot that makes sense to have affordable housing.
Site 2: Weinland Park Homes – 1215 N Grant Ave. Columbus, OH 43201
Weinland Park Homes are located east of campus, only 2 blocks off of 4th street. The aesthetics of the homes are somewhat uniform, with wood siding but each is unique in that the colors are different for each home. The surrounding area around Weiland Park Homes consists of empty lots directly across from Grant Avenue. The only building on Grant Ave. other than the homes is an apartment building which does not fit the aesthetic of the surrounding homes because it is of metal and brick construction. The Weiland Park Homes fit the scale of the greater Weinland Park neighborhood. I find the homes in Weinland Park Homes to be very attractive and aesthetically pleasing compared to other affordable housing options in Franklin County. The properties are well maintained with the landscaping kept tidy with shrubs, trees, flowers and other features being maintained well. The lawns of the homes are trimmed and green indicating that they are also well maintained. Each home has their own detached garage for accessible off street parking, as well as available on street parking for guests. Trees line the area between the sidewalk and the road and include lightposts for illumination at night. The backyards are fenced in providing the residents with privacy. There are buildings on nearby 5th Ave. including: Harris Paper Crafts, Columbus Medical Equipment, National Seating and Mobility. The nearest grocery store is Kroger on High St., which is only 0.8 miles away.
For the Weiland Park Homes, the crimes near the homes themselves are actually extremely rare. Within the 500ft range, there were only 4 total crimes within the 6 month period from April to October with two assaults, one vandalism, and one commercial burglary. All things considered, that is a really low crime rate compared to the surrounding areas when expanding to 1000ft and a quarter mile. Even at just 1000ft the crime numbers go up to 30 adding some trespassing, burglary and car burglary as well as a few weapons violations. At a quarter mile, there are 57 crimes, and at a half mile the number skyrockets to a total of 446 total crimes and violations. None of it is densely located at the homes themselves, more around the outside of the half mile radius, even so, to have that many crimes in just a short walking distance area is a rough look. The most common crimes also seem to be burglary from a motor vehicle and assault making up about one third of the total crime in that half mile radius. Definitely not a good trend for walking around the Weiland Park Homes, but at least the homes themselves are safe overall with little crime directly in the area.
As for property value, Weiland Park Homes seems to have a lot of variety. Most of the houses are in the general range of 150,000 dollars to roughly 200,000 dollars, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any under or over that range at all. In fact, even within a 500ft radius, there are plenty of houses that have a much higher estimate, including 300,000 and 400,000 dollar homes. Over double the value of the similarly located 150,000 dollar homes. Once you start going a bit more south, or a bit more west, there are clear areas that have homes of lesser value, directly in line with where the crime density increases as well. East seems to be more land to possibly expand with more homes in the future, and just past that there is some commercial and parking lots. As a general rule for the area though, it seems that prices vary all around and do not increase or decrease as you go further away, following the same trend of mixed pricing in the area. The schools in the area however are not very good at all. Weiland Park Elementary school received a score of 3 out of 10, the same score that Whetstone High School received. The middle school, Dominion Middle school was only marginally better with a score of 5 out of 10. Certainly not a good look for people thinking about moving into the area, but since these homes are newer, built in 2011, and there is room for expansion, the schools can grow with the area and become better overtime as well.
