I have to admit that I had never heard of the Paducah Artist Relocation Program before it was recently brought up in the CU forums. If you’re unfamiliar yourself, I’ll give you a few minutes to read through that link to the CU discussion, and also the official PaducahArts.com website. Lots of good information on there. Take your time.
Done? Ok, good.
So basically, what this leaves me thinking is that Columbus can do something like this with ease. We’ve already got some similar programs in place. There’s assistance from the city to purchase cheap land or buildings to redevelop. There’s special grants and loans that can be handed out to those who qualify for them. The only problem is that there’s no central resource to help artists get started with these types of projects. And that’s a big problem, because while creative, a lot of artists either don’t have the time or the mindset to research business plans and figure out how they can get the resources together to execute the plans that they’ve come up with. For every Chop Chop or Artful Dodger, there’s a dozen other artists/entrepeneurs sitting back and saying “Wow, I wish I could do something like that”. Well, they can! And the city needs to give them a helping hand!
The Short North is an example of what artists can do to a neighborhood. 25 years ago that place was a dump. It was the neighborhood you rolled up your windows and sped through to get between OSU and Downtown. Now it’s turned into then neighborhood where you roll down your windows and cruise slowly through.
Everyone these days wants to point at Franklinton as “The New Short North“, and rightfully so, because that neighborhood looks a lot like the Short North did 25 years ago.
The question we have to ask ourselves is do we want to let the artists revamp it by themselves and take 25 years to turn it around, or should the city help them out and turn it around in 5 years?
I have a question – isn’t Franklinton on a flood plain. like a REALLY bad one? Like a every 25-40 years it floods plain?
Does anyone know about this? I got my information from the Franklinton website.
Please advise
Much of Franklinton does sit below the level of the Scioto river, and it experienced several devistating floods in the early 1900s. There were a lot of building restrictions put into place by the city so that new structures could not be erected in that area due to the flooding problem. That coupled with white-flight caused the neighborhood to take a dive over the last 50 years.
The new floodwall was completed in 2000, and building codes have been lifted. It’s been slow going so far because the neighborhood has fallen into disrepair, but some artists are slowly starting to move into the neighborhood with the cheap rents and cheap buildings for sale that can be found.
I think it’s totally doable for the city to get behind the artists and push this neighborhood along faster. And we probably wouldn’t be spending much money on it in the process.
About Franklinton’s potential: We have a 2200-sf carpeted open space at 1082 w. mound available for rent @ $1000/month. It is a large single room with an office up front, two doors and good freeway access, across from Cooper Stadium.
Write “1082 W. Mound Street” at windhw@aol.com if you are interested.
That’s a great deal for a space that big, but what I’d like to see more of (and this where the Paducah plan comes in) is options for artists to buy into the neighborhood. If an artists wants to rent that studio space at $1000 a month, and the neighborhood gets flipped in the next 10 to 15 years, I don’t think the rent is going to stay that low as demand increases and property values rise.
We need to get the artists invested in the neighorbood if we want them to be able to stay longer. The Short North is seeing a huge flight of artists as both studio space and living space gets more expensive every day. Few artists in Columbus can afford a $300k condo going up there. Which is why Franklinton needs to be revamped a little differently in my opinion.
I can (and do) get 50 cents a square foot in Grandview. Franklinton will have to do better- but beyond that… these neighborhood development groups and developers need to start cutting artists into the long term gains.
The artists I know and talk to are fed up with creating and then being pushed out- they won’t do it any longer.
Is that 50 cents a square foot what you rent or what you own? A lot of buildings and lots in Franklinton are for sale right now. I think the city can work and partner with artists at helping them get something started and keep the ownership in the hands of the artists.
If Franklinton gets gentrified, I’d love to see the artists still in ownership of the properties they’ve purchased and invested in. The Paducah plan seems to be all about ownership, and I’d love to see a plan like that translated to fit somewhere in Columbus (Franklinton or anywhere else for that matter).
I’m still terrified of flood plains, but I’ve been searching the planet to buy a place to live and work from and Franklinton seems to be ringing bells for me…
As much as I look in Franklinton (via driving around) I can’t seem to find properties via the internet & driving around that meet my needs. Web real estate search sites seem so geared to suburban gentrifiers looking for a cheap home and/or slum lords. Even the real estate agents I’ve spoken with don’t get it. They are catering to those two markets.
So friends I ask you this: I want something big, and open, and really messy. With great light of course. And probably floors that are and will be destroyed. A place to dump the toxic crap I create and something that can handle sparks and noise. Especially since I started welding.
I’m working my ass off right now trying to put together the funding for this and I’d like to know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I know my place is in cbus. But I can’t seem to find it or anything like it.
So any recommendations on how to go about looking for such properties to buy?
You could always start with the City of Columbus Land Redevelopment Office Website. There’s a lot of stuff there for sale, some of it in the $1000 range. Not all of it is in Franklinton, but the site is updated with new property listings pretty regularly.
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