SNA Spring News

Short North Alliance Spring Newsletter!

It's almost here: The 7th Annual Short North Gala!

To purchase tickets, contact the SNA office at 614.299.8050

District Beautification

Holiday Décor

The cost to execute the 2012 holiday initiatives was roughly $8,500 (with $5,000 coming from the SNA and $3,500 from businesses). Residents, visitors and business owners have expressed extreme support of the initiative. All have expressed the need to further evolve the Short North to be a holiday shopping “destination” that can support the ever-growing roster of businesses. This has resulted in a proposal to develop a $50k - $100k holiday decoration campaign for 2013. Grants, sponsors and donations would fund this campaign.

District Development

Bike Shelters

Public Art

 

10x10x10

Click here for the 10x10x10 mural map!

The mini-mural project was envisioned by Ralph Rosenfield and chaired by Sherrie Hawk. Between the SNBA and the SNA, $5,000 was contributed in support of the project. This amount was matched twice-over by the galleries, the Columbus Foundation, and the Johnstone Fund for total of $16,500 including the replacement of one damaged mural. The SNA shepherded the project through the Italian Village Commission, Victorian Village Commission and the Architectural Review Commission (downtown). The community was given a 12-month authorization. In 2013, it is anticipated that the galleries will rally again to install a new collection of micro-murals.

200-Tile Mosaic

This is a bicentennial project spearheaded by ROY G BIV. Between the SNBA and the SNA, $5,000 was contributed in support of the project. This amount was matched twice-over by the Columbus Foundation and ROY G BIV donors for total of $15,000. The mosaic will be displayed at the Riffe Gallery, downtown, in January. ROY G BIV is finalizing site selection in the Short North with plans to complete semi-permanent installation in the spring.

Parking

Parking is becoming more and more of a sore point in the community. Residents are resenting business use of non-metered parking on side streets  (both for employees and customers). As construction projects (such as Pizzuti’s and Elford’s) remove even more parking, we can expect people to go to extreme measures to protect what little parking they perceive they have claim to.

The SNA has been engaged in conversations with the city (Randy Bowman) and the Italian Village community since May. Residents have petitioned the city to disallow all allocation of permits to businesses along High Street. Some businesses currently have as many as 23 permits. Currently there are 186 parking spaces available in the IV permit parking area. Unfortunately, over 1,150 permits have been distributed for these spaces. Of these, less than 200 are for business use. It is likely that the city will limit allocations to two per business. Several businesses have expressed concerns of extreme hardship if this is the case. The SNA is working with a variety of partners to determine immediate alternative parking options.

Part of the challenge facing the district is the lack of a professionally led parking study that includes representation from all constituents (SNA, SNF, IVC, VVC, IVS, SNCA, etc…). Without an agreed upon assessment of the situation, answers to parking related questions  (including variances, loading zones, valet zones, metered areas, permit-only areas, garage development, etc…) are handled differently by each constituent. To unite the district and build a plan for the future, the SNA applied for a UIRF (Urban Infrastructure Recovery Fund) grant. In response, the city has allocated $250,000 for 2013. The SNA will be working with Randy Bowman’s office to begin mapping out a strategy this winter/spring.

The SNA has been searching for parking alternatives on private lots for employees. The challenges thus far have been safety (directing employees to park in poorly lit locations behind buildings), enforcing use of lot by employees only, cost of managing small lots. While small lots can be activated for valet purposes, it is more difficult for lower-cost employee parking. Many of the employees who need parking are waitresses, carrying significant tips in cash and getting off work at 2:30AM. The SNA has conducted a survey regarding current employee parking scenarios and is analyzing the results.

City Relations

Food Trucks and Carts

The SNA is participating in conversations with city staff and truck owners to establish guidelines regarding locations where food carts are permitted to set up shop and how they are expected to operate. The city claims carts cannot set up on any form of brick inlay, yet the city is not enforcing that policy by the limestone sofa. The result is a grease-stained, rat-infested park. Food truck vendors want cart-blanche access to set up in virtually in public location, including: parking meters, curbside, and parks.

Marathon Routes

Far too many marathons, walks and runs are routed through the Short North’s residential streets and down High Street. Numerous weekends per year, residents cannot leave or access their homes, and customers cannot get to businesses. In several extreme cases, guests could not depart the Hampton Hotel and shoppers could not reach the North Market for over an hour during prime time on a Saturday because the run route encircled the properties. The SNA has spearheaded intense dialogue with city staff (including all city council members, Public Service Dept, Safety Dept, and Police Dept) to revamp the city’s process of permitting all such functions (including gaining input from the effected communities) and choosing routes for all such functions.

HighBall 

This year HighBall reached a tipping point with 15,000 attendees. We had over 400 volunteers. 500 people attended Party Within a Party, which was hosted by Gordon Gee, Alex Fisher, Doug Kridler and Charly and Jeni Bauer. We are looking for ways to increase revenue from HighBall in the future. This would help us be better able to tackle District-wide projects such as holiday streetscapes. We are also looking to deepen our relationship with the Latino community in Columbus. The future of HighBall may include multi-day programming, various cultural zones, and industry events.

Short North Ambassador Update 

By the Numbers:

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Hospitality and Assistance provided:   approximately 3,572           

Average engagements per day:  17

Shop Checks:            Essentially every business once a month plus many “impromptu” visits.                                                Average Shop Checks per day:  approximately 11

Safety Patrols:  1,884

Number of safety patrols north end of SID:  938 (through November)

Number of safety patrols south end of SID:  946 (through November)

                                                                        Average safety patrols per day: 9

Average miles walked per day:  Approximately 7+ per Ambassador

Flower Watering:  Approximately 610.5 hours spent flower watering.

Number of graffiti removals:

            Total graffiti removed:  approximately 1,178

Graffiti Removal Time:  If each tag takes 4 minutes to remove then 1,178 tags time 4 minutes each = 78 hours
            This is a very rough estimate.  Stickers take only 1 to 4 minutes to remove while spray paint tags can take up to an hour and a half.

This does not include time travel.  I estimate half of these removals or more were during the normal course of a patrol or cleaning and about half were specific projects to go and remove the graffiti.

Average number of graffiti removals per day: 5.6

Significant Graffiti Incidents:

Jellyfish tags:  approximately 84 individual jellyfish from approximately 28 different incidents.  These are not limited to the Short North.

STDK tags:  about 20 spray paint including American Gothic (September)

                        Duck Tags:  65+ (Mostly November)

                        SOE tags:  about 17 spray paint (November)

Number of calls to CPD and responses…

39 total calls – 32 CPD Responses

 


Panhandling

The only 100 percent effective remedy is that the panhandler fails to get handouts because the public refuses to give money because they recognize that it is harmful for the panhandle and the general public.

The Ambassadors approach every Aggressive Panhandler we see and request voluntary compliance.  If they don’t comply, we call the police. Our proactive approach is to address panhandlers when they begin to give signs that they are going to panhandle.  (i.e. Hanging out around parking lots.) 

This is one area where getting to know the street population is paying off because we can approached them, frequently by name, ask how they are and remind them about the Aggressive Panhandle laws.

Recently, one of our regular street people (Lewis) was cited by CPD for “directing cars into parking spaces” then wanting a “tip”.  About ten days later, an Ambassador saw “Willy D” hanging out at the same parking lot and was able to remind him, “You know Lewis got busted here not too long ago.”  Just a genuinely friendly reminder which helps keep Willy D out of trouble and protects the public.

Graffiti

We know from our experience that rapid removal of graffiti discourages vandals.  We aim for removal in 24 hours or less, but sometimes it runs closer to the 48 hour mark (especially when there is a “graffiti attack” by a vandal through the length of the district).

We did have a few of these “graffiti attacks” this year including one who defaced the American Gothic mural.

We have considered using social media to help identify the “taggers” but have determined that “publishing” the graffiti on-line is a mark of pride for these vandals.

This is a crime that depends on the weather.  When the warmth of spring comes around we will again see an increase in tagging.  We are also giving consideration to filing police reports for graffiti.

Landscaping and Plant Watering

With advice form a landscape company who will choose drought resistant, low maintenance plants and more diligent management of the watering program, we anticipate a very successful 2013 for our Short North plants.

In 2013, we will be eliminating all private property flower watering except for our gateway areas (such as High Street by Salon Lofts).   One of the reasons for getting out of the private property watering is that some residents have questioned why they aren’t getting flower watering.

Plant watering took approximately 20 to 25% of the hours Ambassadors worked this past summer.  Once plant watering was complete for the season we were about to dedicate our time to other projects including a clean-up of the construction material at the dead end behind Family Dollar, tree and ivy trimming in Poplar Park, graffiti removal, leaf removal and safety tours.