I Heart My City (part II)
I know I'm probably sounding like a broken record, but I guess it's only human nature that when your proud of something you intend to crow a bit. Especially when it's going against the norm.
The unemployment rate in Columbus, which stood at 6.5% in April, dropped to an even 6% in May. 2,600 people found jobs in May and it was the 12th straight monthly drop. I know 5 friends who either found jobs or moved up to better jobs in the past 6 weeks, and a couple of those even read this blog. I was just made aware last night that a good friends relative got a job at the new casino paying $40,000 plus tips and insurance. That's good money in these parts.
The new cancer center, which should be finished next summer, will add 6,000 permanent jobs. The jobs created there have a major ripple effect and its noticed the most in the housing market. While home sales declined again in the US last month, they were up 20% here. Columbus has invested a lot of money in tearing down the worst of the worst inner city houses but the others are being flipped with mostly local investing. I was working at a house being rehabbed on the east side the other day and it was the 12th house the man has done in a three block area and that's where he and his friends live. He told me "one house at a time and we'll have the best neighborhood in the city, we're keepin it local."
After 10 years of negotiating to put in a road from the Franklin/Pickaway County line straight into Rickenbacker Inland Port, it has finally become a done deal. This will allow access from the south and will add even more expansion there. As soon as the deal was announced Moodys raised Rickenbackers credit rating from A2 to A1 citing its "strong financial and operating results, and the bright economic outlook of the Columbus area." The reason this this road finally got approval after all these years was the fact that Columbus and Franklin County were finally able to come up with the funds to match state and federal monies, plain and simple.
Our latest local investment is a new recycling plan, AND it takes paper this time, all paper. "If you can rip it, we can take it". We've tried this before but it wasn't very well thought out. This time they're making it too easy with the new containers and the acceptance of paper. It's absolutely wonderful to pull that junk mail out of the box and put it right in the recycling bin. It's estimated the the average household receives 50-75 pounds of junk mail a year and I'd venture to say our household is above average. (Bonny's a registered independent voter and we're getting slammed now from both sides.) Not only is this recycling saving the city landfill fees but someone is actually paying the city to take the recyclables. Outstanding.
All of the cities Rec Centers are now open again and so are the city pools and this is where the best part of this blog begins. The city has invested money for street corner cameras in the higher crime areas and now they're making the same investment in all the Rec Centers. Our company has installed cameras in about 6-8 of the centers in the past and we've now received the okay to begin work on a contract okayed for the remaining Rec Centers. For a small company like ours this really big thing, 22 weeks of continuous work at prevailing wage, very nice.
This weekend, 50,000 people a day will head down to a free party of music and entertainment like no other in the country. Comfest started as an anti-war gathering 43 years ago and grown into one of cities many highlights. Throughout its 43 years Comfest has never accepted corporate money, it's all done with volunteers, and as a former volunteer I can assure you, participation is half the fun. A lot of people will be strolling through Comfest today and thinking if not saying, I Heart My City.
On July 3rd a half a million people will make their way to our downtown to witness one of the best firework displays in the country. I'm sure many of them will be thinking if not saying, I Heart My City, I know I did when I used to go down there.
As for me and my friends, we'll head downtown on the 4th of July for the annual Doo-Dah parade. Its the parade where we make fun of everything and anybody. We'll be drinking our beers on the sidewalk and diving into Steves for handfuls of $1.00 jello shots. We'll see people making fools of themselves and then we'll become people making fools of themselves. We'll even see boobies, it's legal here. You see, we don't take things to seriously here. We understand that things are what they are. All you can do is take care of where you live. We laugh at the pissing contests in Washington, we know if you want change, it happens at home not on a hill.
The unemployment rate in Columbus, which stood at 6.5% in April, dropped to an even 6% in May. 2,600 people found jobs in May and it was the 12th straight monthly drop. I know 5 friends who either found jobs or moved up to better jobs in the past 6 weeks, and a couple of those even read this blog. I was just made aware last night that a good friends relative got a job at the new casino paying $40,000 plus tips and insurance. That's good money in these parts.
The new cancer center, which should be finished next summer, will add 6,000 permanent jobs. The jobs created there have a major ripple effect and its noticed the most in the housing market. While home sales declined again in the US last month, they were up 20% here. Columbus has invested a lot of money in tearing down the worst of the worst inner city houses but the others are being flipped with mostly local investing. I was working at a house being rehabbed on the east side the other day and it was the 12th house the man has done in a three block area and that's where he and his friends live. He told me "one house at a time and we'll have the best neighborhood in the city, we're keepin it local."
After 10 years of negotiating to put in a road from the Franklin/Pickaway County line straight into Rickenbacker Inland Port, it has finally become a done deal. This will allow access from the south and will add even more expansion there. As soon as the deal was announced Moodys raised Rickenbackers credit rating from A2 to A1 citing its "strong financial and operating results, and the bright economic outlook of the Columbus area." The reason this this road finally got approval after all these years was the fact that Columbus and Franklin County were finally able to come up with the funds to match state and federal monies, plain and simple.
Our latest local investment is a new recycling plan, AND it takes paper this time, all paper. "If you can rip it, we can take it". We've tried this before but it wasn't very well thought out. This time they're making it too easy with the new containers and the acceptance of paper. It's absolutely wonderful to pull that junk mail out of the box and put it right in the recycling bin. It's estimated the the average household receives 50-75 pounds of junk mail a year and I'd venture to say our household is above average. (Bonny's a registered independent voter and we're getting slammed now from both sides.) Not only is this recycling saving the city landfill fees but someone is actually paying the city to take the recyclables. Outstanding.
All of the cities Rec Centers are now open again and so are the city pools and this is where the best part of this blog begins. The city has invested money for street corner cameras in the higher crime areas and now they're making the same investment in all the Rec Centers. Our company has installed cameras in about 6-8 of the centers in the past and we've now received the okay to begin work on a contract okayed for the remaining Rec Centers. For a small company like ours this really big thing, 22 weeks of continuous work at prevailing wage, very nice.
This weekend, 50,000 people a day will head down to a free party of music and entertainment like no other in the country. Comfest started as an anti-war gathering 43 years ago and grown into one of cities many highlights. Throughout its 43 years Comfest has never accepted corporate money, it's all done with volunteers, and as a former volunteer I can assure you, participation is half the fun. A lot of people will be strolling through Comfest today and thinking if not saying, I Heart My City.
On July 3rd a half a million people will make their way to our downtown to witness one of the best firework displays in the country. I'm sure many of them will be thinking if not saying, I Heart My City, I know I did when I used to go down there.
As for me and my friends, we'll head downtown on the 4th of July for the annual Doo-Dah parade. Its the parade where we make fun of everything and anybody. We'll be drinking our beers on the sidewalk and diving into Steves for handfuls of $1.00 jello shots. We'll see people making fools of themselves and then we'll become people making fools of themselves. We'll even see boobies, it's legal here. You see, we don't take things to seriously here. We understand that things are what they are. All you can do is take care of where you live. We laugh at the pissing contests in Washington, we know if you want change, it happens at home not on a hill.
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