Scioto Mile, Columbus Ohio

The beautiful Scioto Mile in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Promenade, parks, open space, recreation. The city took a stretch of slow moving muddy water that was held back by a dam and transformed it into this. These sorts of investments improve qualify of life and inspire investment in surrounding neighborhoods. I wish City and County of LA could get moving on the LA River master plan. 

Canton, Ohio

This is a street in downtown Canton, Ohio. It's a relatively sleepy downtown, especially on this week night. Most of the shopping and dining in town is found on the outer edge in big box shopping centers and an enclosed mall. There is a monthly First Fridays event in the downtown Canton Arts District that I am told attracts a large crowd.  I don't know enough about this town to know whether the downtown functions a prop (It was very quiet on a weekday morning as well as in the evening.), but I wonder about how you can make a place like this more actvive and vibrant.

The strung lights are a simple way to create an enclosed, festive space outside. It was quiet on this evening, but maybe earlier in the evening or on the weekends I'd see more activity. (Maybe only First Fridays?) 

Can a dying city be a place worth caring about?

I lived in this duplex on Tenth Street in downtown Steubenville, OH for a semester in the mid 90s. I passed through town recently and stopped by to see how it looked. The bright red door implies that someone recently cared about this place, but the window is boarded up and the vegetation is beginning to consume the building as it has done to other homes on the block.

Some things about Steubenville.

• Closed steel mills.
• 40 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh 
• 25-30 minutes to Pittsburgh International Airport
• Little industry left.
• Two hospitals, A junior college, Franciscan University. (None of which are located in or within safe walking distance to downtown.)
• A crummy mall several miles from the original downtown
• A Walmart distribution center out in the country. 
• In the fracking boom (Marcelus Shale) region.  

This city was prosperous before steel. Could it be prosperous again? Could this neighborhood be a place worth caring about again?