*MAP UPDATE*Due to not being here for an update in the map on Monday I will be posting it today.
As sad as this is, it appears as though there have been no changes in the map. Obama still has an easy win in November. However, in better news, recent polls have indicated that the race in popular vote is not only a statistical tie, It is a tie.
* END OF MAP UPDATE*
*NOTE*I apologize for not having this post up earlier in the morning and for having the other one that says “no comment”. Basically, what happened is that I forgot that it was Sunday night and thought that it was Saturday, giving me an extra day.
Also, for those that do not know this, Busch, the makers of Budweiser, has been sold to an out of country brewer. Now, don’t go and buy them
*END OF NOTE*
This is Columbus, Ohio, my hometown of 20 years. Look at that skyline, it is absolutely horrific. Cities live and die by skylines. New York, LA, Seattle, all big tourist areas, all big skylines. Tourist information indicates that skylines are an important factor in picking a city, so, we should probably be working on ours. Really, there are three things that we can do to help our skyline (and thus, our tourist trade) out: Build Unique Buildings, Showcase the State House, Build it towards the airport. While this may seem like a non issue, enough people do care about skylines that it should help us. Skylines, what really grinds my gigantic notched wheels.
Build Unique Buildings:
Seattle has the Space Needle, NY had the WTC, Dubai has the moving office buildings. All of these cities have unique (very, very) buildings, as do most great skylines. Here in Columbus we boxes and more boxes, with the slight pointy hat of the Leveque tower. We have nothing unique, nothing original, nothing that says we are any different than a cookie-cutter capital city. Hell, even Cleveland has some unique buildings. I think that we should focus on building at least one building that is unique and will scream out “COLUMBUS” to anybody who sees it. Maybe one the shape of the shoe but bigger (after all, most people think we are only about football). Frankly, I am sick of seeing these gigantic boxes of brown sitting around my city.
Showcase the State House:
The Other Paper did a feature two weeks ago that focused on the fact that our State House is the only one without a dome. Our seemingly unfinished seat of government is a beauty to look at AND it is unique (see previous paragraph). That said, Why do we not start to focus on the State House. Knock down a few of our rectangle buildings (either the Key Bank building or the City Bank Building will do, leave the Huntington Building (we like banks) as it is historic) and take some photos looking in at the State House. Why not feature a small building, one with historical and architectural significance as our main skyline feature. Think about it: Columbus, while other cities are thinking about money, we are focused on your government. Might not be catchy, but it sure beats any other motto we could have.
Build it Towards the Airport:
Most cities have a skyline that is built towards the road most traveled by. As you approach the city from that direction the skyline bursts out of the mist at you. Here in Columbus, we really do not have a main entrance, most people come in on 70, but really, nobody drives here. However, a fair bit of people fly into Port Columbus, either to come to the city or to switch flights (yay for being a hub). So, why do we not build up our skyline with that in mind? We could direct our skyline (minus the State House, not really viewable from that far away) towards Port Columbus so that visitors and passerby’s could see our city when they land. Make us Memorable, make us unique, make us the New York of the Midwest (screw you Chicago)
As always, please leave any comments, no matter how large or how small about the contents of this blog post. Also, please leave any comments/suggestions about this site/post as a whole.
Feel free to e-mail me if you so wish too instead.
Thanks,
Robert M. Barga,
Editor of http://whalertly.blogspot.com/
barga.24@osu.edu
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9 comments:
I think Obama is in for some rough times. He's really pissed off his base with the FISA vote. I'm not sure what's going to happen but I don't think it's going to be a cakewalk for him.
Mountain Sage
Why on this post must you talk about Obama?
A few notes here...
a.) You'll have a heck of a time buying beer now. The three major producers of US beer (Anheuser-Busch, SAB Miller and Molson Coors) are foreign owned. (Well, the latter is part Canadian, I guess it depends on how you look at it.)
b.) As for skylines, not many people know/remember this, but in the early 90s a Bronze sculpture maker from, I believe, Ukraine, offered our fair city a 200 ft bronze statue of Christopher Columbus. (All we had to do was figure out how to get it here.)
The Chamber of Commerce really wanted it. "Cooler" heads prevailed and I believe it went to St. Petersburg and was refashioned as a 200 ft statue of Peter the Great.
People said it would have overwhelmed our downtown. I think that giving it up was the stupidest thing the city's ever done. It would have been our Statue of Liberty, and it would have been awesome on the banks of the Scioto.
Having said that, I'm told by long time Columbians that the city skyline is far more interesting than it was in the 80s. I think you're being a touch hard on it, for a city this size and with this topography, it's not bad.
c.) Amazingly enough, our statehouse was considered for demolition. Replaced with a newer office building, a la the Rhodes Tower. I dunno, I'm embarrassed by the simplicity of our statehouse.
d.) We're not a midwestern city.
a) I have a heck of a time already... after all, my liscence says 1988 on it
B) I WANT THAT... can we make one? I am not saying the skyline is bad, i am saying there is nothing that says Columbus in it. We are a capital and a large city, lets look like it
c)I like how it looks, classical, unique, and sexy. I work in Rhodes and I call it the brown box
d)How are we not?
a) I have a heck of a time already... after all, my liscence says 1988 on it
B) I WANT THAT... can we make one? I am not saying the skyline is bad, i am saying there is nothing that says Columbus in it. We are a capital and a large city, lets look like it
c)I like how it looks, classical, unique, and sexy. I work in Rhodes and I call it the brown box
d)How are we not?
c.) It is classy, and it is unique and it's also easy to visit. It's just a bit low-key in comparison to the magnificence of other statehouses.
I'm reminded of a joke that Canadians say about themselves--something like "we work hard for the silver." The statehouse reflects Ohio's attitude of working hard for...well, maybe a 4th place finish, I don't think they really strive for the a medal.
c.) The definition of midwest (once a reference to the states of the Northwest territories) has moved much farther west and become much more rural and culturally plains like than what Ohio really is. It's a pejorative that I think we Ohioans need to banish from our vocabularies as quickly as possible.
The reality is that Ohio is a transition region...but not necessarily east to west. We're more of a north to south transition region...as I like to say, Ohio is the bastard love child of New Jersey and Tennessee. The northern/northeastern counties are very Northeastern US, in culture, attitudes and politics. Southern Ohio is Appalachian and Southern.
Now I'm originally a Clevelander, and we naturally consider ourselves Easterners. I believe Ohio would be better off branding itself as an Eastern state. (Start with signs at the southern and western borders which say "Now entering the Eastern United States."
I disagree about its glamour. Wow, a lot of state house have golden tops... WHOOPDIDOOO... ours doesnt, doesnt that make it better and more glamorous?
I find our statehouse to be squat and mostly bereft of interesting architectural details...a golden dome wouldn't help that much.
I disagree about the design, it is quite interesting architectually
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