What does $8,000 a month get you in a new Italian Village apartment building?
Nice views, for starters.
Windows stretch floor to ceiling in the new Parkside on Pearl complex, on Hubbard Avenue a block east of North High Street. And the ceilings stretch 12 to 17 feet high in the building’s 35 apartments.
On the east side of the building, apartments overlook the greenery and mature trees of Italian Village Park. On the south, they overlook Downtown’s skyline.
A decade in the making, Parkside on Pearl is the latest offering from the veteran Short North developer Wood Companies. The latest and and the greatest, says company President Tyler Puhl.
“This is the highest-end product we’ve ever done,” Puhl said. “Our goal was to create a new level of quality in urban living.”
Rent range
Rents in the complex range from $2,495 for an 880-square-foot one-bedroom apartment to $8,000 for a 1,840-square-foot top-floor three-bedroom with sweeping views of downtown. About one-fourth of the apartments have been spoken for, including all four that rent for more than $7,000, in anticipation of the complex’s August opening, Puhl said.
Puhl said the tenant mix so far offers “a little bit of everything—some younger folks who are doing very well, and some executives, people who know what they want and are willing to pay for it.”
In addition to unusually high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows, all apartments include wood floors, fireplaces, kitchen islands, walk-in closets, rain showerheads and electric shades.
Balcony fire pits
Most apartments have balconies, some 10-feet-by-50-feet large, with built-in gas firepits and gas grill hookups. Bigger units have walk-in pantries that serve as “messy kitchens.”
Parkside on Pearl contains 54 indoor parking spaces, a gym and a café that will open onto the park. A poured terrazzo floor welcomes visitors to the lobby.
The building, designed by Dan Hanes with The Columbus Architectural Studio, is wrapped in Indiana limestone and will feature a mosaic tile mural by artist Andrew Hendrickson overlooking the park, which the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department plans to start overhauling in August.
A final version of the plan was approved in 2020, in the midst of COVID, and work began on it two years ago. Even that plan was changed when Wood Companies decided to replace offices planned for the third floor with apartments because of the soft office market.
“We’ve been through 10 to 15 iterations of this building over the years,” Puhl said.https://www.google.com/maps/embed/v1/place?key=AIzaSyD9HrlRuI1Ani0-MTZ7pvzxwxi4pgW0BCY&zoom=14.75&q=Parkside+On+Pearl
Parkside on Pearl is the latest of several Short North buildings developed by Wood Companies, including the 711 N. High St. office building, Hubbard Park Place residential building, and the mixed-use Brunner Building. The company has also proposed a 15-story apartment building a block to the west, on Hubbard Avenue and North High Street. Puhl said that the project is still moving forward, but the company’s focus now is opening Parkside.
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Despite a recent slowdown in central Ohio development, several other apartments have been built or proposed for the arts and entertainment district.
Eighty years after it happened, D-Day – the largest land, sea and air invasion ever attempted – still resonates today.
With the bold invasion of Nazi-held Europe on June 6, 1944, the Allied forces began turning the tide in World War II. On this 80th anniversary of that date, it’s good to remember that it’s “one of the most famous single days in all of human history,” writes historian Garrett Graff in his new book out this week, “When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day.””Though there have been other days over the course of the last century that have re-routed our collective historical trajectory, one could argue that none has had more of an impact than the day 160,000 troops stormed the beaches of Normandy,” he writes.
In addition to feelings of gratitude, this 80th anniversary also evokes feelings of melancholy, “as we also mark the final passing of the Greatest Generation and the event slips fully from memory into history,” Graff told USA TODAY.
“Of the million or so Allied participants in Operation Overlord, there are only a few thousand left alive today,” he said. “That means that the memories and first-person experiences we have of D-Day now are, effectively, all the memories we will ever have.”
Here’s everything to know about D-Day and why it’s still so important today.
It would be more than four years into World War II—Germany’s invasion of Poland in September 1939 set off the global conflict—when the major Allied forces, including the U.S., Great Britain, France, and Russia, sought an invasion to weaken an already spread-thin German army, according to History.com.
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The operation involving the largest sea and air armada ever assembled, Graff notes in his book, had been in the works for years.
Crucial preparation began in December 1943 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt named General Dwight D. Eisenhower the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, notes the National World War II Museum.
Those troops who executed the invasion “mean everything to us,” said Sgt. Nathan Rogers, a 23-year-old Army Ranger at the time attending the ceremony. “We wouldn’t have existed if not for them. They definitely set the standard.”
In collecting more than 5,000 personal stories of participants in D-Day and writing his new book, Graff said he learned crucial insights from the participants.
“Sure, we recognize now that D-Day was a Herculean heroic triumph, but listen to the voices of the Allied troops crossing the Channel on an armada of ships on the night of June 5th, and there’s little sense that what they’re doing is historic or heroic,” he said. “They have no idea what lies ahead. They’re concerned about whether they’ll live to see the end of the day.”
What does D-Day stand for?
The answer is simpler than you might think. The D actually stands for “day,” because it is a coded designation used for the day of any important invasion or military operation. So actions four days ahead of the actual operation, for instance, would be D-4, according to the U.S. Army.
Operation Overlord, the code name for the D-Day invasion, involved the transport of more than 150,000 infantry troops across the English Channel into German-occupied France.
More than 1.5 million U.S. Army personnel had arrived in the U.K. by the end of May 1944 to participate in or support the operation, according to the National World War II Museum. Overall, more than 2 million soldiers from the U.S. and 250,000 from Canada had arrived by June in preparation for, and to support, the invasion, according to History.com. Also delivered: 450,000 tons of ammunition as part of 7 million tons of supplies.
Operation Overlord also contained a fake operation called Operation Fortitude to convince Hitler that the Allies would attempt to land in Norway and Pas-de-Calais in France, according to the Imperial War Museum. The plot, concocted over months, included a fake army, led by General George Patton, and preparations in England for the channel crossing, notes History.com.
Another fictitious force, the British Fourth Army, stationed in Scotland to threaten Norway, where Hitler’s U-boats were based, “existed only on the airwaves,” wrote historian Stephen Ambrose in “D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II.” British officers and German spies sent realistic radio messages to convince the Germans of the operation’s authenticity, and wooden fake bombers were deployed.
These ruses were successful enough that Hitler considered the Normandy invasion, as it was initiated, to be actually a ploy to divert attention from Calais. “They had placed the bulk of their panzer divisions north and east of the Seine River, where they were unavailable for counterattack in Normandy,” wrote Ambrose, who also authored “Band of Brothers.”
Did D-Day go according to plan?
After years of planning for Operation Overlord, soldiers still faced incredible challenges upon landing on the beaches of Normandy, as the intricate operation didn’t go according to plan.
“Even with… tactical and strategic advantages and more than a year of planning, D-Day’s success was a close call, achieved only at an astounding cost of more than 10,000 Allied troops killed, wounded or missing,” said now-retired Gen. Jeff Harrigian, who penned a D-Day anniversary observance editorial on USATODAY.com in 2021. At the time, Harrigian was the commander of the U.S. Air Forces Europe, U.S. Air Forces Africa, and Allied Air Command at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
Complications began when weather caused the cancellation of the original date Eisenhower had chosen, which was June 5, 1944.
Anti-aircraft fire caused pilots to fly planes faster than expected, and that meant paratroopers, dropped in the morning behind enemy lines to cut off supply routes, missed their landing targets, according to History.com details.
During the Allied forces’ landing, the U.S. landing force for Utah Beach was blown off course. The U.S. landing at Omaha Beach, where the fiercest fighting was seen, was affected by winds and tides, too.
As troops emerged from landing boats on the long, flat Omaha Beach, they were pinned down by enemy machine-gun fire from the cliffs above. “If you stayed there, you were going to die,” Lieutenant Colonel Bill Friedman told the National World War II Museum. “We just had to try to get to the bottom of the cliffs on which the Germans had mounted their defenses.”
U.S. and British destroyers arrived to attack enemy positions and support the troops, including those attempting to commandeer the critical Pointe du Hoc, a German-held clifftop between Omaha and Utah beaches, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command site.
By the end of the day, about 156,000 Allied troops had successfully landed and taken Normandy’s beaches.
How did D-Day succeed?
Operation Overlord involved more than 11,000 planes and more than 5,000 ships and landing craft, along with 50,000 vehicles, according to the National World War II Museum.
“The plan had called for the air and naval bombardments, followed by tanks and dozers, to blast a path through the exits so that the infantry could march up the draws (ravines) and engage the enemy, but the plan had failed utterly and completely,” Ambrose wrote. “As is almost always the case in war, it was up to the infantry. It became the infantry’s job to open the exits so that the vehicles could drive up the draws and engage the enemy.”
Junior officers and noncommissioned officers “saw at once that the intricate plan bore no relationship whatsoever to the tactical problem they faced,” he wrote.
Their training “had prepared them for this challenge. They sized up the situation, saw what had to be done, and did it,” Ambrose wrote.
Sgt. John Ellery, of the 16th Infantry Regiment of the First Infantry Brigade, also known as “The Big Red One,” was in the first wave to hit Omaha Beach. He told survivors around him, “We had to get off the beach and that I’d lead the way,” and climbed up the bluff to use grenades to take out a machine gun position, Ambrose wrote in “D-Day.”
“We sometimes forget, I think, that you can manufacture weapons and you can purchase ammunition,” Ellery is quoted by Ambrose, “but you can’t buy valor and you can’t pull heroes off an assembly line.”
Now how many soldiers died on D-Day?
4,415 Allied soldiers died on D-Day, with U.S. servicemen accounting for 2,502 of the deaths and 1,913 Allied soldiers from seven other nations, according to The National D-Day Memorial Foundation.
Between 4,000 and 9,000 German soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing in action.
About 200,000 German prisoners of war were captured.
An estimated 12,200 French civilians died or went missing during the battle, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
The invasion proved successful: Paris was liberated from the Germans on Aug. 25, 1944 and on May 7, 1945, less than a year after the D-Day invasion, Germany surrendered.
Special online D-Day observations
Here are some ways to observe the 80th anniversary of D-Day:.
The National World War II Museum: The museum in New Orleans has events all day on Thursday, which you can watch online. The program begins with a remembrance gathering at 6:30 a.m. ET and a performance by the 29th Division Band at 9 a.m. You can register for virtual attendance on the museum’s website.
“Frog Fathers: Lessons from the Normandy Surf“: This new documentary about the history of the Naval Combat Demolition Units, known today as the Navy SEALs, follows four veterans who visit Normandy. Starting Tuesday, June 4, you can watch it on MagellanTV ($5.99 per month or $59.98 per year after a free 7-day or 14-day trial) or on the World of Warships YouTube channel.
World of Warships: The free historical online naval battle video game has special missions related to the D-Day invasion playable this month on PCs.
It’s not enough that the two Trump lickspittles, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance and U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, spend their time embarrassing our great state with their clownish antics. It now seems that Rep. Brad Wenstrup is determined to place himself in the running for Ohio’s most ridiculous court jester.
Wenstrup’s performance at the silly Fauci hearings was humiliating for all Ohioans.
Recently, he and his fellow Republican, radical, and right-wingers tried to get a wild assortment of false accusations to stick to Dr. Anthony Fauci. They failed repeatedly, wasting their own time and our tax dollars. These exhibitions of false outrage would be comical if they weren’t leading to threats against Fauci and his family.
This strategy of putting targets on the backs of government workers has to stop.
Ohio is near the bottom of national rankings in education, health, and the environment. We need legislators who are working on our behalf, not propping up wild conspiracy theories that are leading to threats of violence against public servants.
Recap: Andres Alvarez went 4 for 5 with a triple and three runs and Brenden Dixon hit a home run for Indianapolis, which scored four runs in both the third and fourth innings to pull away. The Clippers got two hits each from Juan Brito, Johnathan Rodriguez and Lorenzo Cedrola, and Micah Pries homered. Tyler Beede (0-3) took the loss after allowing five runs on five hits in three innings of relief.
Attendance: 8,278
Next game: 7:05 p.m. Thursday at Indianapolis
Watch: MiLB.TV
Radio: 920 AM
Next home game: 7:05 p.m. Tuesday vs. Iowa at Huntington Park
SPRINGFIELD — Five consecutive Division I state semifinal meetings between UA and St. Xavier means there are few secrets and fewer surprises in what has come to feel like an inevitable showdown.
So when St. Xavier coupled a three-goal fourth-quarter outburst with a zone defense Wednesday night at Wittenberg, UA coach Kyle Olson was anything but surprised.
Moreover, he was disappointed that shots were few and far between in the period, and what shots there were usually ended up as saves for Bombers goalie Trent Yelton.
“We talked about that a lot at halftime; we were ready for different looks, and we just didn’t execute at the level we needed,” Olson said. “They typically play zone against us in the semifinal game because it’s how they can try to slow the game down against our offense, try to limit our possessions, and get the ball back—that kind of thing. They played man the first half, which really surprised us, but we battled back.”
Joe Matre’s four goals led UA (19-4), which is 2-3 against St. Xavier in semifinals dating to 2019. The Golden Bears battled back from a 6-4 second-quarter deficit to tie it 6-all at halftime, and the game was tied four times in the third quarter, when UA briefly took leads of 7-6 and 8-7.
UA also fell to St. Xavier in a semifinal last year on the same field, 8-7 in overtime.
The Bears won in 2021 and 2022, going on to capture the most recent of their 17 championships two years ago. Their only three in-state losses since 2019 have been to St. Xavier and Dublin Jerome, the latter in the 2021 state final.
“It’s the second year in a row that probably the worst game we played all year was at the end,” Olson said. “That stings.”
Jack Caine and Jack Van Aman each scored twice for UA. Quinn Crotty, Tommy Janowicz and Wally Swiney each had one goal and goalie Sam Old made seven saves.
None of those came in the fourth quarter, when St. Xavier (20-3) scored on all three of its shots.
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Brendan Deeley, Khalif Hocker and Daniel Vollmer each had hat tricks for the Bombers, who play Liberty in the final at 4 p.m. Saturday at Historic Crew Stadium. St. Xavier lost to Jerome in the 2023 title game.
Hocker, a junior attacker, Ohio State commit and two-time All-American, was held off the scoreboard until midway through the third period. He scored with 8:24 left to make it 11-10, breaking the fifth tie of the night, and Brady Bennett added the eventual winning goal with 4:58 to go.
“(Hocker) just needed to get in a rhythm, have some confidence and keep shooting,” St. Xavier coach Nate Sprong said. “We’re spoiled. I’ve coached these guys for a long time and the offense wasn’t the prettiest tonight, but they have a sense of each other’s strengths and weaknesses and they pulled it out when they had to.”
Caine scored UA’s final goal with 2:02 left.
UA outshot St. Xavier 30-28. Yelton made 10 saves.
—Dave Purpura
Olentangy Liberty 15, North Canton Hoover 11
ASHLAND — Liberty (22-1) fought off two weather delays and Hoover (20-3) to earn its first state tournament win in Division I.
In the state final, the Patriots will try to beat St. Xavier for the second time this season. Liberty won 14-11 on May 11.
The semifinal at Ashland University had a nearly two-hour weather delay before it began and another 30-minute delay before halftime.
The delays didn’t faze the Patriots, who erased an early 2-0 deficit to tie the game at 5 after one quarter and led 9-6 at halftime. Liberty never trailed in the second half.
“That start wasn’t too nerve-racking,” Patriots coach Jason Godwin said. “We’ve won a couple of our biggest games trailing. I was not too worried.”
Luca Minniti led Liberty with five goals. J.R. Hocutt scored three and Brian Savage and Justin Sebert added two apiece.
“We have to come in with big energy (on Saturday),” Minniti said. “(St. Xavier is) a good team, but I think we’re better and we have to get the best of them. … This was a good team win.”
—Frank DiRenna
DIVISION II
DeSales 17, Bellbrook 1
Ty Hampton had six goals and Blake Carawan scored four, fueling the Stallions’ rout of first-time state qualifier Bellbrook at Dayton Chaminade Julienne, and DeSales rolled into its third consecutive final.
DeSales (15-3) gave up Bellbrook’s (13-4) only goal three minutes in and led 4-1 after a quarter, 9-1 at halftime and 14-1 after three.
The Stallions will face Toledo St. John’s in the final at 1 p.m. Saturday at Historic Crew Stadium.
DeSales is seeking its second championship in three seasons and fourth all-time, all of which have come since 2012.
After Saturday’s launch of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft was scrubbed once again due to technological issues, a new launch date has been set for this week.
USA TODAY is providing live coverage of the Boeing Starliner launch, which is scheduled to liftoff Wednesday, June 5, at 10:52 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. You can watch the embedded video live at the top of the page or on USA TODAY’s YouTube channel.
Launches are also streamed through NASA via NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, on YouTube or on the agency’s website, with live coverage beginning at 6:45 a.m. ET.
If Wednesday’s launch date does not go as planned, another possible launch date is Thursday, June 6
The Saturday launch was scrubbed about 4 minutes before liftoff. In a post on X, NASA said the launch attempt was stopped “due to the computer ground launch sequencer not loading into the correct operational configuration after proceeding into terminal count.”
This week’s launch attempt follows several delays including a May 6 launch halted by a series of technical issues, an oxygen leak and a helium leak from the capsule’s propulsion system.
Where is the Boeing Starliner going?
The Boeing Crew Flight Test is meant to carry two NASA astronauts: Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams, both former Navy pilots, to and from the International Space Station.
Once on board, Wilmore and Williams will stay at the ISS for about a week to test the Starliner spacecraft and its subsystems.
The Starliner was designed to accommodate a crew of no more than seven for missions to low-Earth orbit. On NASA missions, the capsule would carry four astronauts along with a mix of cargo and other scientific instruments to and from the space station.
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If Starliner is successful, NASA will begin the final process of certifying the spacecraft and its systems for crewed rotation missions to the space station, according to the U.S. space agency.
Competitor SpaceX, which recently saw the return of its eighth crew sent to the ISS, was awarded $3.1 billion to develop its respective spacecraft as part of NASA’s commercial crew program. NASA has also paid SpaceX $2.9 billion to develop the first commercial human lander for the agency’s Artemis moon missions and eventually trips to Mars.
Jack D’Aurora is a partner with The Behal Law Group and produces a podcast, JUSTUS with Jack & Gonzo. He is a frequent Dispatch contributor.
We vote for our legislative representatives, but the reality is that they select the voters who put them in office. It sounds crazy, but it’s true.
A group called Citizens Not Politicians is poised to bring real change to how state and congressional legislative districts are drawn in Ohio. Before explaining what’s coming, let’s take stock of where we are.
Gerrymandering — drawing statehouse and congressional maps to favor one party over the other—is done with great precision, to the point voters are deprived of meaningful choices. The process involves a variety of tactics, like “packing,” “cracking,” “kidnapping,” and “hijacking,” to maintain a party’s majority.
Too often, the party in power—whether Democrat or Republican—draws districts maps so as to protect its incumbents, no matter how ineffective an incumbent might be.
What matters is maintaining power.
As a consequence, to win an election, many candidates only need to win the primary; the candidate from the opposing party often has no chance of winning in the general election because of the skewed maps.
Ohioans made their will clear
Ohioans voted twice to amend the state Constitution and bring fairness to the system. In 2015, a redistricting commission, composed of seven elected officials, was created, along with a new process for drawing state legislative maps. In 2018, the process of drawing congressional maps was reformed.
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Despite the clear mandate from voters to end gerrymandering, politicians disregarded the two amendments. Between September 2021 and April 2022, the redistricting commission drew five Statehouse maps for the House and Senate. Political considerations, not fairness, drove the process. Each map was struck down by the Ohio Supreme Court as unconstitutional.
You would think the commission would have gotten the message after the first or, maybe, the second set of maps was held to be unconstitutional. But no, the politicians blew off the Ohio Supreme Court.
No surprise, the General Assembly and then the commission drew two congressional maps that were also held to be unconstitutional.
What we learned is that the amendments passed by voters were insufficient.
The language in the amendments—the commission “shall attempt to draw” proportionate maps and no plan shall “unduly” favor or disfavor a political party—was not precise enough. The drafters apparently envisioned that the commission would act in good faith and abide by what 70 percent of Ohioans wanted when approving the amendments: fairly drawn maps.
Here’s what is galling: after the first state maps were drawn, commission members, including Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Gov. Mike DeWine, both Republicans., suggested the maps were not constitutional but still voted for them—and then voted for multiple subsequent unconstitutional maps.
Now that we’re saddled with unconstitutional maps, DeWine has admitted the process “doesn’t work very well” and favors making a change.
big change is coming
Assuming enough signatures are obtained by this July, a constitutional amendment to reform redistricting and gerrymandering will be on this November’s ballot. The change will be significant: the Citizens Not Politicians Amendment will create a 15-member citizens redistricting commission, to be composed equally of Republicans, Democrats and Independents. Current or recent office holders, individuals with strong political ties and lobbyists will be prohibited from being members of the commission.
The amendment will require that maps be drawn in an open and independent process that does not favor any one party over another and includes a series of additional safeguards to ensure that the redistricting process is fair.
You can expect some politicians and special interests to oppose this amendment. They like the status quo that keeps political insiders in power—at the expense of the interests of Ohio citizens.
Grammy Award-winning musician Lyle Lovett, who fuses country, jazz, blues, big band, swing, and gospel into his own signature sound, is lined up to perform with His Large Band on July 24 at Newport Music Hall.
A crafty wordsmith, Lovett is noted for his wry, deadpan sense of humor in many of his lyrics and his music’s sophisticated orchestration. He has won four Grammys, is an Austin City Limits Hall of Fame inductee, and was named a Texas State Artist Musician by the Texas Commission on the Arts.
Among his dozen-plus albums are the Grammy-winning “Lyle Lovett and His Large Band” and “The Road to Ensenada” and his most recent release, “12th of June.”
In addition to his musical endeavors, Lovett has acted in a number of TV shows and movies, most notably four films with the late director Robert Altman.
Drawing nearly half a million people each year, the Columbus Arts Festival is one of the city’s biggest summer events. Festivalgoers flock Downtown to enjoy live music, dance, theater, spoken word and other performances, fashion, food, hands-on art activities and more.
And of course, they turn out in droves for the various types of art presented by juried artists who travel from near and far to give demonstrations and sell their works.
Last year’s festival was unfortunately canceled due to strong storms moving through the area. At press time, the weekend weather outlook was pleasant, with only a 30% chance of rain, but given nature’s fickleness, anything can happen and festival organizers are prepared.
“We go rain or shine. If the weather looks to be severe — high winds, lightning, tornadoes — we may make a decision to close for the day or temporarily, depending on time,” said Jami Goldstein, vice president of marketing, communications and events for the Greater Columbus Arts Council, which coordinates the three-day festival.
“If that happens, we make announcements on the riverfront public-address system, social media and media alerts.”
Goldstein said there are two safe shelters if inclement weather crops up: the Priscilla R. Tyson Cultural Arts Center, 139 W. Main St., on the east side of the river and COSI on the west.
So, if you’re hoping to hit the 62nd Columbus Arts Festival this weekend, keep your fingers crossed for dry weather and sunny skies. While we can’t tell Mother Nature what to do, we can tell you a few things you need to know before you go!
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When does the Columbus Arts Festival take place?
Hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Artists’ booths close at 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Where is the festival being held?
The festival is to take place on the Scioto Mile riverfront in downtown Columbus at 233 S. Civic Center Drive.
How much does it cost to attend?
General admission is free. VIP Patron packages are also available for $150, which entitles the guest to one ticket to the Friday night Patron Party, two drink tickets, a free festival T-shirt (while supplies last), and other amenities. To purchase a VIP package, go to columbusartsfestival.org/visit/patron-package.
How many artists will be there?
The festival boasts more than 250 artists in 15 mediums: 2D and 3D mixed media, ceramics, digital art, drawing, fiber, glass, jewelry, leather, sculpture, metal (non-sculptural), painting, photography and digital photography, printmaking, and wood. The artists hail from more than 30 states, as well as Canada.
Twenty-two of these artists were chosen for the Emerging Festival Artist Program this year, a record number for the festival. Established in 2011, the program is for central Ohio artists who have limited or no experience exhibiting at national festivals. Over the years, several of the program’s participants have gone on to become regular exhibitors at the Columbus Arts Festival.
What’s in store entertainment-wise?
Entertainment is lined up on four stages: the Genoa Park Main Stage, Bicentennial Park Stage, Big Local Arts Stage and Word is Art & Acoustic Lounge. With music of all kinds, magicians, dancers, storytellers, poets, spoken-word performers and more, there’s bound to be something for everyone.
Among the highlights planned is Fashion as Art, which returns to the Genoa Park Main Stage at 8 p.m. Friday. Curated by designer and fiber artist Celeste Malvar-Stewart, the runway show is to feature four local designers.
Keep your eyes peeled for the Savannah Mobile Tour trolley, scheduled to roll into the Arts Festival from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, bringing Southern charm, sweet treats, entertainment and more from Savannah, Georgia. Festivalgoers can sample honey from the Savannah Bee Company, enjoy free giveaways and live music, win prizes by answering Savannah trivia and do other activities.
What’s new at this year’s festival?
First-time features at the fest include Go Brewing’s nonalcoholic beers and a Water for Everyone Today (WET) portable water fountain to allow attendees to fill reusable water bottles. The fountain is to be located at Main Street and Civic Center Drive on the east side of the river, near Bicentennial Park.
Another addition is a mobile universal changing station for families near the corner of Town and Belle streets, the outgrowth of a partnership between the arts festival and Momentum Refresh. In a team-up with the Autism Society of Central Ohio, the festival also offers a sensory-friendly tent on Belle Street, near the Kids Hands-On Activities Village. Both services are sponsored by Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Also new, the Compost Exchange is to be on-site with free composting buckets for the food trucks on the west side of the river.
Last but not least, the Big Local Arts Stage might look a bit more high-tech this year, thanks to an immersive lighting and projection installation by digital artist collective Mural ReMix paired with art by Heidi Clifford aka Primary Child.
Will there be street closures?
The following streets are scheduled to close at noon Wednesday and reopen at 6 a.m. Monday:
South Civic Center Drive from Broad Street to Main Street
South Second Street from Main Street to Mound Street (open to local traffic)
South Civic Center Drive from Mound Street to Main Street (open to local traffic)
Main Street (Rich Street west of the river) from the east side of Lucas Street to Front Street (local traffic only starting at McDowell Street)
South Ludlow Street from Town Street to Main Street (open at Town Street to local traffic)
West Cherry Street, from South Second Street to South Ludlow Street
Washington Avenue from Main Street to Broad Street
Rich Street (Town Street west of the river) from the east side of Lucas Street to Front Street (open to local traffic on Starling Street)
Noble Street east side of South Second Street, to South Civic Center Drive
Jewett Street from Mound Street to Main Street
Town Street from Front Street to Civic Center Drive (open to local traffic)
Belle Street from State Street to Rich Street
Starling Street from State Street to Main Street (open to local traffic)
Broad Street is to remain open throughout the Columbus Arts Festival.
What’s the parking situation?
Parking is available on surface lots east and west of the river, at paid kiosks or through the ParkColumbus app on surrounding city streets and in garages throughout the Downtown and Franklinton area. For a list of garages and other parking information, visit columbusartsfestival.org/visit/parking.
Groups in favor of pausing the Columbus City Schools building closure process “tailgated” Tuesday outside the board meeting while central Ohio pastors held a separate event praying for the district’s students, teachers, and administrators.
Speakers at the tailgate addressed the school board, with many members of the public urging the board not to close Cranbrook Elementary and other schools with strong English Language Learning programs.
Last month, the Superintendent’s Community Facilities Task Force presented a plan that included the possibility of closing up to 20 of Columbus’s more than 110 school buildings under nine different recommended scenarios.
Although there are nine proposals, some are alternates of each other and the Board of Education may or may not approve any or all of them. Over a number of meetings earlier this year, the task force considered factors such as building utilization, or how full a building is, transportation data and whether a building has been aging without substantial renovation, The Dispatch previously reported.
Here’s the latest from Tuesday’s meeting and the school closing discussion:
Dozens gather for ‘tailgate’ to pause school closure process
Dozens of parents, Columbus City school teachers and activists gathered Thursday for the parking lot tailgate and free food, and children also made signs and artwork. The event was organized by All in for Ohio Kids, a statewide organization that partners with parents in local school districts.
Katelyn Jackson, organizer for the All In group, said the message of the event was that the school board needs to pause the school closing process.
The idea for the event event was first floated by a member of the public at the last board meeting in May, who addressed the waiting meeting crowd while the board was in executive session.
“It doesn’t feel like the plan reflects what we hear parents want for their schools,” Jackson said.
Susan Cavendish, a parent of a student about to start first grade at West Broad Elementary School at 2744 W. Broad St., which is suggested for closure, said she thinks the board needs to “take a moment and actually acquire community feedback.” Cavendish, who is physically disabled, said closing West Broad Elementary would impact her ability to get her child to school every day.
“It just feels like a show,” Cavendish said. “I do not think there is any reason they cannot pause just a little bit to wait to close 20 schools — even if they do ultimately close them. There is no harm in them just waiting.”
Central Ohio faith leaders pray for school district
Local faith leaders also held a “pastors praying for Columbus City Schools” event in the parking lot before the board meeting, where they prayed for unity and wisdom from district officials in the closure process. The pastors were joined by school board members and Superintendent Angela Chapman.
Rev. Kevin Hairston, pastor of Living Word Bible Fellowship and a member of the facilities task force, said one of the purposes of the prayer circle was to pray that God gives district officials “the wisdom and knowledge to make the decisions they need to make.”
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“We believe that God has your back at the end of the day, and that there’s no division,” Hairston said. “We don’t believe in division, we believe in unity.”
He also said the prayer circle wasn’t about politics, but about the prosperity of the community and “the seed of academic success inside our students.”
“This isn’t any type of political endorsement,” Hairston said. “This isn’t whether you’re on one side of the fence or the other side of the fence. This is us believing in God, and and believing in God for our school district and believing in God for the decisions that decision-makers have to make.”
Parents: Don’t close English language learning program schools
During the public comment portion of the board meeting, many parents and teachers from Cranbrook Elementary and other schools with a high English Language Learning population spoke, saying they were concerned for students learning English if they were closed as proposed.
At Cranbrook Elementary, for example, 58% of the 268 students are in an English Language Learning program, according to Ohio Department of Education data.
Amber Nash, a CCS teacher and parent of a Cranbrook student, said the staff at the school excel in offering a multicultural education, and closing the school would damage the students at the school. She said the proposal to close the school was “shortsighted and ignores the needs of the students and communities.”
“New American and refugee communities will be further harmed by being separated from the staff and school that has become their second home,” Nash
