| The district stretches between 5th to Ohio State to the north. This includes several smaller sub-neighborhoods of Dennison Place, the Circles, Necko, and South Campus. Dennison Place and Necko was mostly built out by 1900 with great historic Victorian style homes. The area began to decline in the 1930s as Columbus expanded and people began to move to the suburbs. By the time decline bottomed out in the 1970s, many of the original homes were converted to rooming houses or knocked down to make room for modern apartment buildings, or simply abandoned and boarded up. This sparked neighborhood preservation policies and new zoning to prevent further destruction. By the 1980s, the revitalization of Dennison Place/Necko started with the restoration of its historic Victorians. Now these homes sell between 500K-1 Million. The fate of South Campus was more like the University District. A post WWII demand for housing led to new apartment buildings and larger homes being transitioned into multi-family. The area is still a heavily students. High Street has seen significant revitalization including a slue of new mixed-use infill buildings. Areas where the neighborhood could improve from an urban perspective include: more for-sale housing diversity, better park and recreational spaces, and walkable schools. |
URBAN STRENGTHS:
| * Great population density. * Good historic architecture especially in the Dennison Place/Circles and Necko section. * Great access to job centers across all modes. 1 mile to OSU and 3 to Dwtn Cbus. * Good coverage by the City’s bike sharing system. * Decent racial diversity thanks to the large international population at OSU. * Lots of rental options and most of them moderately priced. Some higher end rentals as well. * Cultural amenities include a good amount of restaurants, bars, and cafes, a cineplex, several live music venues and art galleries, and convenient proximity to OSU’s cultural activities. * Quality retail amenities a supermarket, several drug stores, a Barnes & Nobles bookstore, a public library, several boutiques, banks and other neighborhood serving retail. Parts of High St in OSU and the Short North are also walkable to residents living here. This includes the OSU Target. * Great urban massing and streetscaping along High Street. Also a quality urban node at Neil and 10th. A couple other nice mixed use blocks sprinkled throughout. |
URBAN WEAKNESSES:
| * Surprisingly the Olentangy recreation trail is the only dedicated bike path in the neighborhood. This does, however, provide a nice safe route to Dwtn. * For sale housing is generally expensive but some more modest options with 1-2 townhome condos selling in the 200Ks. Smaller SF homes or less updated ones selling btwn 300K-500K. Larger renovated historic homes selling anywhere from 500K-1 M primarily in the Dennison Place/Necko section. * Parks are pretty limited within the district although the Thompson Park (complete with a community center) sits on the district’s southern edge, OSU’s open space is nearby, and the Olentangy Recreational Trail on the western edge. * No schools within Dennison Place/South Campus but some in surrounding neighborhoods. * Modern in-fill is mixed bag. Some good off campus housing built by OSU are Neil and 11th Street and more and more quality mixed-use in-fill filling in along High Street. But plenty of post WWII garbage apartments in South Campus area. |
Evaluating our Urban Communities [with a focus on America] 