Mayor Michael B. Coleman, center, and Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee
laugh during the Partners Achieving Community Transformation community
celebration at East High School. Ohio State is committing $10 million to
rejuvenate the area around University Hospital East.
The event launched a revitalization effort on the Near East Side that is funded by a $10 million investment from Ohio State University, which hopes to fix up the depressed area surrounding University Hospital East.
While details are few, the coalition behind the project will choose a development firm by next month to craft the blueprint, said Dawn Tyler Lee, executive director of Partners Achieving Community Transformation, or PACT.
Along with Mayor Michael B. Coleman and Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee, Lee promised an enthusiastic crowd that improving the neighborhood’s housing will make it a safer and healthier place to live.
She also said that the project should begin in 2014 and eventually will need more funding.
Ohio State, the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority and the city form the coalition behind PACT. Dozens of representatives from neighborhood groups, churches and advocacy organizations serve on an advisory committee.
Of Ohio State’s $10 million commitment, $9 million will go to housing and $1 million to health-care initiatives.
The goal is to improve the quality of housing, eliminate vacant properties and diversify the type of housing. Low-income and market-rate housing both will have a place, said Bryan Brown, senior vice president of the housing authority.
The first two targets are the Taylor Avenue corridor and Poindexter Village, which consists of more than two dozen acres of public housing that is being emptied now before demolition next year.
“What people can expect is a mixed-income, diverse community that is sustainable over time,” Brown said, because concentrations of poverty have not made for successful neighborhoods.
Some residents are anxious about the plans.
Marceia Robinson, 46, who lives on 17th Street, said she needs more answers.
“Will I be relocated?” she asked. “They relocated all the blacks in Poindexter Village.”
PACT leaders say there are no plans to relocate anyone on the Near East Side beyond the Poindexter site, which they say is no longer safe to inhabit. Ohio State leaders said they don’t have their eyes on buying the Poindexter property.
Beverly McCaskill, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 60 years, is supportive. She said she hears gunshots almost nightly from her home, which is north of the hospital and close to Poindexter Village.
“Whatever they put in place of Poindexter Village would be an improvement,” she said.
Coleman acknowledged concerns about gentrification in his speech. “Change and transformation does not mean we lose our identity,” he said.
The event at East High School was heavy on pride, with homegrown success stories such as Ohio Supreme Court Justice Yvette McGee Brown talking about their personal history in the neighborhood. A senior at the high school, Ronny Chhun, spoke about his work with robotics and engineering groups and his expectation of graduating with honors in June.
Afterward, attendees were invited to offer written suggestions to the coalition, which is planning a second round of “community conversations” with residents in March.
mheagney@dispatch.com
No comments:
Post a Comment