One of the big issues that is currently facing our city (and in particular the campus area) is gentrification. Gentrification does not seem to have a particularly hard and fast definition. From what I have seen, it seems to mean demographic change. The term is frequently applied when a wealthy class of people moves in and makes improvements to a neighborhood. This drives property values up, and the poorest residents find themselves priced out.

I feel like gentrification is happening right now in the campus area. There has been a huge increase in luxury housing options since I became a student (The View on High, Norwich Flats, the new construction behind Tommy’s Pizza, ect.). These housing options are more expensive than the dorms. There are obviously enough wealthy students in order to support them, but the problem is that by building new and more expensive housing, they are slowly lifting the value of the property in the surrounding area. This is causing pain for regular students trying to find affordable decent housing.

This same thing is happening in Berlin. Berlin has recently enjoyed a reputation as an affordable and vibrant city. I read an article today (cannot find it) that said that the reason for Berlin’s affordability is that when the wall came down, there were many redundant buildings in the city, which, due to supply and demand could be bought very cheaply. This allowed the club scene to flourish, which resulted in Berlin becoming a popular destination and contracted the supply of housing. The result is that now Berlin is facing a housing crunch. The supply of new housing is far outstripping demand which is driving rents sky high (The Wall Street Journal). New luxury housing is adding fuel to the fire.

In Berlin, the government is using rent control to try to mitigate the problem. I know that rent controls have been used elsewhere, but the whole concept seems kind of counter-intuitive to me. Any time there is a shortage of something (assuming constant demand) the price is going to go up. If you try to control the price, it seems like the supply will respond to that price. The underlying problem however, is the demand. The demand will still be there (since the price is not going up), and now there is no incentive for developers to build and satisfy the demand. I will be interested to see how this works out for Berlin.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/berlins-housing-problems-boil-over-1444123804

Yesterday (Sunday the 28th) I took advantage of the great spring-like weather that we had and spent several hours just walking around the Olentangy Trail between the wetlands area and campus. I started out at the crowded Tuttle Park Rec Center where there were families on the playground with their small children and looped my way around the wetlands.

At one point I stopped and relaxed on one of the benches for the better part of an hour. I saw people riding bikes, walking, jogging, walking their dogs, hiking, fishing, and sitting on the riverbank. It was a busy day on the trail, and I was surprised at how many different kinds of people I saw. I saw children riding bikes with friends. I saw college students of course, but they were seriously outnumbered by the adults using the trail. I was not expecting to see a crowd of middle-aged and elderly folks in a park so close to campus. My favorite thing that I saw was two college aged guys sitting on a limb of one of the trees that hangs out over the water. There is a picture attached that shows someone sitting in this tree, but the two boys I saw were way out on the end of the branch and they looked really comfortable just hanging there soaking ups rays.

When I was done sitting on the bench, I opted to take a hike right along the riverbank past the wetlands area. There is actually a well defined foot path that follows the curvature of the river. The river itself is pretty gross (I noticed lots of trash floating), but it feels good to step out of the city. From this path you can’t see the trail and it really feels like you’re hiking in the woods. I was overtaken by more than one person on a hardcore mountain bike using this trail like a single-track mountain bike trail. I never knew this was here. I’ll have to come back with my bike and give it a try. The other thing that I found when I got off the paved trail was this massive lean-to that someone obviously spent some time working on constructing.

City parks are an important part of the urban landscape. They generally started out as the pet projects of wealthy philanthropists. In 1728 when Boston Common was established (Wikipedia), we can generally agree that this was the first established city park in the U.S. City parks were initially established on the outskirts of town where land was readily available and typically functioned as playgrounds for the rich. They were not accessible to the working class that was not able to get the outskirts of town in order to enjoy the parks.

Over time, the definition of park slowly transformed from a natural area for the wealthy to enjoy into more of a recreational area and included fields for sports, stadiums, and more. Parks also moved inward towards the center of the city. The small “pocket parks” that occupy only a block of city space and include jungle gyms and other recreational equipment were born. Our own metro park system was born in 1945 (Wikipedia) by the Ohio Revised Code.

It has been generally accepted that providing residents with a park service with active programing does not need justification anymore. This idea still comes under fire occasionally. City managers and planners like to try to take park lands to do other projects with. Active park management means that the park provides sporting programs and promotes activities whereas a passive park would just be a natural green space that has not been severely altered by human hands where urban dwellers can go to relax and get out of the city. I think that it is good that cities do this. Parks I feel are an essential part of the character of a city and seriously improve the quality of life for residents.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_park

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Parks_(Columbus,_Ohio)

I chose to write about this little gem because I feel like so few people know about it. We have a world class outdoor climbing wall right in downtown Columbus! In Columbus, we really don’t have a strong outdoor community. You would expect to find a public outdoor climbing wall in a city like Portland or Denver, but in Columbus it is a welcome surprise. Supposedly, this is the largest free outdoor climbing wall in the country. The park system spent $600,000 to build it. This park sits just on the edge of downtown on a former industrial site between some good neighborhoods and some not so good neighborhoods. This gives it an interesting feel. Some visitors are well heeled, and others not so much. The other thing that I noticed is that because this wall is in a metro park in the middle of downtown, there are a lot of non-climbers using the park too. It is always interesting to watch their reactions when they see rock climbers in action. Having a park like this really draws attention to this fringe sport. The other thing that I like about this park is the size of it. This is a large chunk of green-space in the middle of the city. This helps to make the city feel less dense and really improves the quality of life by giving everyone that lives downtown some elbow room I have not seen another city with anything like this. It really makes Columbus unique.