The University District is, as you can imagine, populated primarily with students attending The Ohio State University. The population is roughly split 50/50 with the new rules that freshman and sophomores must live on campus. The area on campus is well lit and quite safe in comparison to the surrounding area. Once people move past High Street, lighting can become limited and the area dangerous at night if precautions aren’t taken to be aware and not travel alone. The area is serviced by several bus lines including the #2, #18, #7, and #80. With these buses people are able to reach Target, Giant Eagle, Wal-Mart and Kroger, but from experience the time it takes for a round trip to the grocery store was just around 2 hours and you were only able to bring back as much as you could carry.
An important irregularity to this area of the city is that many students can get reasonably healthy food from dining locations on campus but this is really only feasible for students with dining plans leaving others with very few affordable healthy options.
Additionally, the variety and quantity of fast food eateries along High Street provide more unhealthy options for university students increasing the likelihood that a student will choose to eat at a Raising Canes or a McDonald’s instead of making the extra effort to shop for a whole chicken and vegetables at a local grocery store. As such, the University District is food secure with easy access to food within walking distance via High Street or Campus food dispensers. This area also includes two CVS stores that offer some groceries such as boxed dinners and snack foods. However, the area surrounding High Street and main campus can best be described as a semi food swamp considering the large number of fast food chains and restaurants with partial access to healthy food via the dining halls or grocery stores down High Street.
Students that live in this area are highly reliant on public transportation since those that live on-campus are not allowed to have a car and not everyone that lives just off-campus has a vehicle. For example, in my house we had two people that had cars and eight people living in the house. Luckily those people were willing to drive us to the nearest grocery store most times, but otherwise many of us were dependent on the COTA system or walking for groceries. Furthermore, the nearest farmer’s market that offers locally grown vegetables and fruits is five miles away in Clintonville!
We would recommend the construction of mini grocery store in the new construction that is being built on high street, they can be guaranteed significant profit given the density of the area and the lack of fresh food offered to residents in the area. Perhaps the Kroger on 5th could introduce a branch shop since they are the closest full service grocery store in the area. Giant Eagle would also be an option. The university also possesses the College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Sciences which houses the Waterman Agricultural and Natural Resources Laboratory. This laboratory features an operational student farm which could be used to distribute locally grown vegetables and plant foods, including dairy products to students in off-campus areas A student-run farmer’s market could be set-up in the East Residential District or North Residential District and provide healthy, affordable foods increasing access and providing more choices.