Small Plans for Columbus

In response to recent moves to complete a part of Burnham’s 1909 Plan for Chicago, a Chicagoan called for smaller plans, which I posted about earlier this week.

Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District, right smack dab in the heart of downtown Columbus has commissioned a series of small plans. A local design firm has put together some great proposals. You can also read more in The Columbus Dispatch.

Together, the proposals could cost $5 million. That’s not bad, considering the cost of many infrastructure projects. However, some projects could cost as little as $4000. There’s no need to do them all at once. They can go gradual.

You can debate the merits of aesthetics-focused projects, but the approach is quite Jane Jacobs where she talks about “gradual” versus “cataclysmic” amounts of money. (I’ll cover that chapter once or twice this year.) It’s something to keep in mind as we await a not so gradual federal stimulus.

Do such little plans lack the ability to stir souls, as Daniel Burnham claimed? I’ve got proof of the opposite in the commentary on Columbus Underground. There’s quite a bit of enthusiasm for public art and bicycle parking. There are also some concerns:

It Looks better, but I don’t see this … attract more people Downtown after hours. For real change the city needs adopt new policies to discourage surface lots and empty buildings whose owners are sitting on them and not bothering to fix them up. ~”Columbusite”

Some of these small, gradual plans might not be the fixes needed in the long run, but they can’t damage downtown Columbus in the same way that cataclysmic amounts of urban renewal did. The land economics down there are still caught in the echo of that action.