Columbus near bottom of walkability survey

Some more short-sighted coverage of flyover territory, again.

from Columbus Business First... yet another bogus survey, from a bit more well-known organization than previous surveys I've posted about, the Brookings Institution. Looks like they're losing some street cred here (pun intended); the issue is the term "regional-serving walkable urban space". By their own definition, which refers to a park-and-walk magnet area and not just walking to and from the store or work, there should be other areas in Columbus which count in the score... Easton, Old Worthington, Grandview, German Village. So Columbus comes in 19th of 30 large cities in walkability; for comparison, Cinci and Cleveland anchor the bottom of the list, probably due to Cincinnati's back-breaking terrain and Cleveland's crime rate (it's not walkable if you're running for your life).

This is not a midwest disaster blog. Really. But aside from repeated headlines about record house foreclosures, job losses and the heat, what else is there but rain and floods? It's drying up here at FOT central, but in NW Ohio, they got up to 8 inches of rain, and in flatland like that, bad stuff will happen.

I'm just loving this Bizjournals article about Columbus being the 15th largest city in the US (with a bullet, as they used to say). Note the last line:

Columbus remains the 15th-largest U.S. city, but with ceaseless growth and 3,500 more residents within a year, it might not stay that way.

An update released this week by the Census Bureau show the city's population reached 733,203 a year ago, making Columbus the fourth-largest city in the Midwest behind Chicago, Detroit and Indianapolis. Columbus trailed 14th-ranked San Francisco by less than 11,000 residents, having added 3,500 residents in the year ended last July.

Columbus' population grew 3.1 percent from April 2000 to July 2006, the third-fastest rate in the Midwest. Only Omaha, Neb., and Wichita, Kan., grew faster, with 7.6 percent and 3.9 percent growth, respectively.

From the 1990 to 2000 census, Columbus' population grew 12.4 percent, the Census Bureau reported.

Since 1830, the population of Columbus has increased in every census, a feat Mayor Michael Coleman said is due in part to economic factors.

"Columbus continues to be among the few growing cities in the entire Midwest because of our stable economy, high quality of life and growing reputation as one of America's best 21st-century cities," Coleman said in a release.

The five largest cities in the Midwest, according to 2006 figures, are Chicago (population 2,833,321), Detroit (871,121), Indianapolis (785,597), Columbus (733,203) and Milwaukee (573,358).

New York remained the largest city in the country, followed by Los Angeles, which took the No. 2 ranking from Chicago in the 1990 census.

Correction:
In an earlier version of this story, Detroit was not included.

They FORGOT Detroit. Now if only the rest of us could manage that.

More storm damage... here's what is left of Greensburg, Kansas.

Kansas.com slide show

Forbes profiles Nationwide Ins. investments in Columbus real estate, and the benefits that have followed. Locals would have issue with the claim of 'little retail or restaurant life', but that's not what the article focuses on anyway. Instead it points out new and good things that can happen in Midwest cities.

As mentioned on my other blog, here's the crappy white-rap vid mentioned on a sports gab site. Taken strictly as humor, it's worth a look, and maybe even enjoyable, but if these guys are in any way serious, then all it does it reinforce negative stereotypes about we denizens of FT.

But then I'm probably just as much at fault... pointing out how fat people in Ohio are in some of my photoblog pics. Witness the heft here. I have other examples, but didn't post them. There are indeed fat folk in Ohio. Now, if *they* start doing rap videos, then we have a problem.

What I'm getting at is, like every other place on the planet, we have shortcomings. When people rip on the wrong things though, that's when it gets lame.

(Check out KDSK's snapshot gallery for more damage pics like the one above; some nice lightning and sky shots amid the damage.)

Disasters can happen anywhere; flyover territory is not immune. After a very large storm system passed through yesterday, St. Louis and area are under a state of emergency; 1/2 million residents without electric. That's a very BAD thing to have happen in summer, but especially out here, where the heat AND humidity combine to lethal levels.

7/21/06 Update: The Parental Units reported in, on their trip west.... indeed St. Louis, southern Illinois, and many areas surrounding are in bad shape. Never hear much of this on ABC, though... no pleas for international aid, or even FEMA temporary housing and phat debit cards... no, we just get by here.