Columbus City Center - 10; Youngstown Paramount Theater - 0

My pet peeve is Columbus, Ohio. There is not a time that I visit there that I don’t become aggravated by the excesses I see in a city that hosts our state government, the two of which have joined to drain the rest of the state. It is unbelievable. It is unforgivable. Our lawmakers should be ashamed for allowing this to happen.

And it is not just a Democrat v. Republican issue. The money sucking machine draining the state’s wealth to the center has been fueled by both parties for forty years. I suspect it was deliberate, fed by smart Columbus planners who wowed our lawmakers with Columbus perks.

On the way down to Columbus last week, the lead story on the local news was that the City of Youngstown refused to take control of the old Paramount Theater which has been closed since the early 1970’s. It is a rat trap. It is a health hazard particularly since there are number of restaurants operating around it. Various reports say it is filled with asbestos. Those ceramic panels on the front can’t be in good shape. One can only imagine the pigeon droppings inside the place. Any hopes of restoration are pipe dreams.

Youngstown officials stated while the plans are there to tear it down, and some state funds are available, the cost is not certain and matching funds would have to be found. They are in the process of doing that…translate: talk to us in a few years.

Now let’s go to Columbus. City Center Mall was a shopping center in downtown Columbus just south of the state capital building. It was a 1,200,000 square foot three story development anchored by Jacobson’s, Marshall Field’s and Lazarus Department stores. Lazarus was located across High Street and attached to the mall by a pedestrian bridge. It also had a mammoth attached parking garage, and was connected to the Hyatt on Capital Square.

When it opened in 1989, it was considered to be among the swankiest malls in the United States, not to mention a utopian urban planner’s dream. It was crowded, and I shopped there many times. But as these things go, it rapidly declined for several reasons. For starters, the same developer built a swankier mall out in the suburbs called The Mall at Tuttle Crossing, eliminating the need for folks to drive downtown. Then the Easton Shopping Development opened up…and finally, the Polaris area was developed through all sorts of public/private partnerships. Couple that with the rapid consolidation of department stores combining all of the City Center anchors into one, and Federated (Lazarus to Kaufmann’s to Macy’s) pulling out and closing the downtown store. Goodbye City Center Mall!!

Now the Columbus fathers had a problem, a big ole eye sore smack dab in the middle of downtown. After our trip to Columbus last week, I can report that City Center Mall is nothing more now than a big hole in the ground. It was torn down, and plans now exist to develop a multi-million dollar park on the site.

I was shocked. Who tore City Center down? What did it cost? Who paid for it? The public reports have been vague, but here is what I gleaned. First, it wasn't torn down by the people who owned it. The total cost of the initial building tear down and park construction is $15 to $20 million. The total planned development for the area is in the $145,000,000.00 range. Columbus supports two semi public corporations which sells bonds and secures governmental guarantees for said bonds for whatever endeavor these quasi public corporations choose to fund. The tear down was funded by these quasi public corporations funded by the taxpayers. Nowhere could I find how the financing for the tear down was actually configured, except that the State of Ohio gave Columbus $2.5 million to fund the tear down of the High Street pedestrian bridge between the defunct mall and the old Lazarus building, which is currently being converted to office space.

I can go on for pages about other construction projects, including fence lined state routes between Polaris and Powell, brick paved streets and sidewalks in the Arena District, massive planters and high end public light fixtures everywhere you look, and the infamous arches up High Street.

Those of us here cannot comprehend the amount of money that is being spent on what is now a showplace city.

And the Paramount Theater is still standing, waiting for the crumbs the State of Ohio chooses to throw our way. And make no mistake about it, be it V & M Steel, or the money to tear down the old Sheet and Tube office building on MLK Blvd which has stood vacant for 40 years…all we really get here are crumbs.