ThisWeek Clintonville 3/10

Page 1

March 10, 2011

Beechwold Plan

MorseBethel Connector opposition briefly mentioned By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers

By Eric George/ThisWeek

Duwayne Terry, 40, said he has been homeless since moving to Ohio in 2005 after being displaced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. He said he spent two years sleeping on a bench at Portal Park at Arcadia Avenue and North High Street.

Portal Park

Few businesses represented at meeting By KEVIN PARKS

A closer look

ThisWeek Community Newspapers

Asking someone for money is constitutionally protected free speech, but so is advising people not to pay. Spending time in a public park is hardly a crime, but restricting hours is also perfectly legal. In addressing a meeting last week intended for owners and managers of businesses in the vicinity of Clintonville Portal Park, the executive director of the Capital Crossroads and Discovery special improvement districts downtown outlined some simple things that can be done to deal with the problems sometimes presented by aggressive panhandlers and homeless people. By the same token, Cleve Ricksecker said, the issues facing businesses along North High Street near Portal Park do not lend themselves to easy solutions. “Getting people what they need is hard work,” he said. “It takes time.” The meeting last week, which

The meeting last week, which drew about 35 people to the Charity Newsies building on Indianola Avenue, was convened by a special committee made up of the Mayor’s Office of Homeless and Social Service Advocacy, Clintonville Area Commission, University Area Commission, the Olde North Columbus Community Collaborative, North United Methodist Church, Community Shelter Board and city departments of development, public safety recreation and parks.

drew about 35 people to the Charity Newsies building on Indianola Avenue, was convened by a special committee made up of the Mayor’s Office of Homeless and Social Service Advocacy, Clintonville Area Commission, University Area Commission, the Olde North Columbus Community Collaborative, North United Methodist Church, Community Shelter Board and city departments of development, public safety recreation and parks. The group has been meeting for the past six months, according to Mayor Michael B. Coleman’s di-

lems, hanging out in Portal Park and giving the area an unsavory reputation. The meeting, the result of three months of planning, was intended to get store owners and managers together to find out from them what they have really observed relating to troubles at Portal Park, instead of relying on anecdotes relating to concerns about and safety, Jones said. When Clintonville Area Commission member Dave Southan asked how many present for the meeting represented business interests, however, only seven or eight people raised their hands. Fellow CAC member James R. Blazer II, a member of the special committee, later said that a second session, one in the evening, might be arranged in order to get more business people involved. During his remarks at the meeting, Officer Ken Ramos, the community liaison to Clintonville, got right down to one of the main is-

rector of the Office of Homeless and Social Service Advocacy, to look into “quality of life issues” along the North High Street commercial corridor near the tiny park. Although the park is within University District boundaries, it was created 30 years ago with funding that came through the Clintonville Area Commercial. Committee members, Erika Clark Jones said, want business owners and managers to be involved in finding solutions to the issue of homeless people, some of them with substance abuse and mental health prob- See FEW BUSINESSES, page A2

The prediction from Clintonville Area Commission chairman John DeFourny that last week’s monthly meeting would feature information about a renewed effort to create a MorseBethel Connector proved to be a bit wide of the mark. John DeFourny In fact, he was the only one who brought the subject up, leading some of his colleagues to express their befuddlement. During his district report, DeFourny read a document entitled “The Beechwold Plan.” Among other things it called for the “preservation of the residential character and continued beautification of Morse Road, west of Indianola Avenue to (North) High Street.” The plan would also seek to “nurture Beechwold’s Morse Road corridor, high residential owner-occupancy level and keep it strong.” The controversial proposal for a bridge that would link Bethel and Morse roads did not come up until the third plank in the Beechwold Plan. “In regards to any future Morse-Bethel Connector initiatives, the Beechwold Plan calls to monitor community groups advocating traffic changes in Clintonville; to support and protect the rights of those owners on the street in question and those adjacent streets affected by that change,” the document stated. The plan, DeFourny read, calls for “discussing initiatives such as residential tax abatements, streetscape and most of all ‘impact’ in regards to facing any future Morse-Bethel Connector initiatives.” When he had finished reading the document and sat down, D Searcy of District 9 asked where the possibility of a renewed initiative for the connector came from. Certainly not John DeFourny, he said, stating See CONNECTOR, page A4

CAC District 1 commissioner

McLaughlin won’t seek re-election By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers

Fed up with the infighting and insults that have become the norm of late at Clintonville Area Commission meetings, District 1 representative Mike McLaughlin announced last week that he would complete his current term but won’t seek another one. McLaughlin said that he “can see no way that I can run for reelection.” Serving on the commission used to be fun, he said, even when members of the advisory group had strong disagreements with one another. However, ever since the issue of a proposed left turn lane at East North Broadway and North High Street to alleviate congestion of the intersection came up, “this community and this commission have gone downhill,” in

McLaughlin’s view. “This is not a positive environment to be doing my civic work in,” he said. Mike McLaughMcLaughlin lin was chairman of a task force that, in August 2009, recommended as an interim solution to traffic tie-ups at High and North Broadway the installation of a left turn lane for westbound traffic. The longerterm solution suggested by the members of the task force was a roundabout at the intersection. Much discussion and many meetings later, and after a good deal of engineering time on the part of city traffic personnel, a See MCLAUHGLIN, page A4

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CAC chairman levels accusations By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers

Clintonville Area Commission chairman John DeFourny last week accused the four members who frequently find themselves in the minority of “trying to manipulate and corrupt the commission.” This came early in the March meeting, and helped set the tone for what was an unusually contentious session. DeFourny was attempting to put to rest

an issue that first came up at the Jan. 6 CAC meeting, regarding the doors of the Whetstone Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library being locked at 9 p.m. The move denies access to a public meeting for anyone arriving after that time. District 1 representative Mike McLaughlin, who announced last week that he would not be seeking re-election, expressed the concern of one of his constituents, Jason V. Advani. The solution, according to DeFourny, is

a simple one. “We expect you here at 7 (when the meeting begins),” the chairman said. “That should be the accessibility.” He said the meetings are supposed to run from 7 to 9 p.m., so perhaps the best course would be to just end them then and carry any unfinished business over to the following month. DeFourny noted a warning his predeSee CAC CHAIRMAN, page A2

CAC severs ties with Clintonville Inc. By KEVIN PARKS ThisWeek Community Newspapers

The divorce is final. The members of the Clintonville Area Commission voted 5-4 last week to sever all ties with Clintonville Inc. That prompted CAC secretary Jennifer Kangas to ask: What ties? James R. Blazer II, the District 3 representative who was appointed to be the panel’s liaison to Clintonville Inc. by chairman

John DeFourny, said that in the past an area commission member had served on the latter organization’s board of directors. But the board of Clintonville Inc. had rejected his appointment, he said, and the president had declined to respond to a series of questions Blazer posed about, among other things, a sidewalk replacement project last fall in a portion of the Indianola Avenue business district. Blazer also said that Clintonville Inc. officials had

denied a public records request from a citizen to view minutes and other records of the nonprofit organization. All of this, Blazer said, led him to question why the CAC would have any kind of a relationship with what he termed a “rogue organization.” Clintonville Inc., according to its website, is a nonprofit group “designated by the city of Columbus to plan and carry out the recommendations made by the city’s

urban planners in the ‘North High Street Corridor-Clintonville: Market Study and Action Plan.” “We’re a completely volunteer group of residents and Clintonville business owners,” the site adds. “CI is governed by a Board of Trustees and has four committees … that focus on different aspects of the work that needs to be done.” Clare Balombin, Blazer’s predecessor as the District 3 area comSee CAC SEVERS, page A2

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