Akron2Columbus

The Knight Foundation and GAR sponsored another trip in their Akron2---- series, this time it was Akron2Columbus and organized by Liz Walters. This was my first time being invited. We left from the Art Museum on Sunday afternoon and returned Monday evening. We started out at the Columbus Idea Foundry then met for dinner at and with the owners of Market 59. The next day was a combination of DIY activities and organized group events. I learned much from out trip to Columbus, and much of it from my fellow Akronites on the trip.
Check out the hashtag #Akron2Columbus on twitter to see what everyone else learned and saw.

The Columbus Idea Foundry - a maker space. It is funded by membership and classes.

Alex Bandar -Idea Foundry Founder

A project that demonstrates some of the skills that can be learned here.

In the welding room.

A few of the projects that can be learned in the three hour welding classes.


Large 3-D printer.

Drill press and tour group.


Kyle - the second floor is the next phase for the Idea Foundry.

Perfect Light

Liz at Market 65

Patrick Katzenmeyer and Anthony Micheli are the owners of the restaurant we had dinner at on Sunday night. They explained the processes, challenges and successes of opening a business downtown - and ahead of the curve at that.

Nice light from the Franklintown neighborhood.

Water with my beer at North High Brewing.

A few of us decided to go out and explore the craft beer scene in Columbus. North High was great - the bartender giving samples of beers and liquor - and brewing going on on the back.

The bar with a window onto the brewing process.

Delicious IPA paired with social media.

The brewery was right at the end of the booming area known as the Short North. We walked roughly 15 minutes to our next destination - Seventh Son.

Katie, Dina, and beers at Seventh Son. Going out for a drink on trips like these is often the best part of the trip - and not just because of great beer. Meeting the people who work, live and hangout in a city can be as insightful as any presentation. Not to mention the great discussions we had among ourselves.

We had a breakfast with three of Columbus's city council members - Zach Klein, Elizabeth Brown, and Shannon Hardin. All of the council member is Columbus are under 40 - a stark contrast to Akron. They were very down to earth and interesting to listen too. Our group asked lots of great questions.

I jumped out of bed Monday morning when I saw the golden light on the city below my room on the 17th floor. Maybe I was a little slower than I would have like(no idea why) but I managed to get out and snap some photos before breakfast.

Old and New

Ohioans


In the morning I had planned to take a bike tour with Yay Bikes - a group that advocates for biking issues in the city. Unfortunately our contact was sick. A group of us decided to rent CoGo bikes anyway. The bikes are $6 for a 24 hour pass. The only issue is the bikes have to be docked at a station every thirty minutes. There are a lot of station so if you were using the bikes strictly for transportation I could see how this would make sense. However for a group like ours it was less than ideal. By the time the last of us had their bike the first person had already lost 10 minutes. Also - when trying to later dock the bikes the station we stopped at didn't have enough open spaces...

Cruising downtown on High Street.

Entering the Short North District.


We stopped at Mission Coffee for a drink. Albert had a contact there to discuss the local coffee scene.

My espresso.

Karen Starr in the North Market - where some of us stopped for lunch.

The North Market has over 30 vendors - a mix of prepared food & drink and retail food and drink.

It makes me wonder if something like this could work in Akron - and what size it would have to be.

It was hard to decide what to eat - so many things here looked good - I ended up going Mexican though.

Kyle went Polish.

The dinning area is up here on the second floor overlooking the vendors.

Everyone talked about this place - of course it was closed when we visited.

We walked back downtown after lunch and had a meeting with Ashley Lester who gave us a tour of the Columbus Commons and the Lower Scioto Greenway.

The Columbus Commons are 7 acres of land where the City Center Mall used to sit before being demolished. Seven acres were reserved for green space and an amphitheater.
Down by the Scioto River 33 acres has been reclaimed as green space after the removal of a dam. We were all a little surprised to learn that the dam actual served no purpose but to widen the river. I guess that was a thing at one time.

They were lucky that the sediment was not polluted. Old foundations reappeared and dredging needed to be done - but no heavy metal build up.

Even without a dam it is still a broad river.

"Wandering"

After the last meeting everyone dipped into to a coffee shop - but I saw that Elevator Brewing was just a block down the road. I went for a beer.

My photographs don't do this bar justice - I didn't have the time for that. The bar was built in 1897 and is restored to its former glory. It was one of the most beautiful bars I have ever been in.


"Baltic Porter"

Next up was a tour of the Statehouse - I had never been there so I was quite fascinated.

In the Map Room

Our awesome tour guide.

"Mini-Museum"






"Dome on the Inside"

"Dome II"


"Everybody Tweets"

"Arch City"

"The Senate"


"Hanging in the House"

State Rep. Emilia Sykes

Sawyer and Sykes met with us. Sitting at the desks in the Capitol building talking our state senator and house member was really, really cool.

Suzie Graham from Downtown Akron Partnership

"Kyle Shoots"

Senator Tom Sawyer

This trip was truly interesting in many ways and with many take-aways. One thing that stands out to me when seeing the vibrancy of downtown Columbus compared to Akron(which has made great gains over the last decade) is our lack of market rate housing downtown. I think that is a huge peace to the Akron puzzle - and would lead to many more businesses moving in.

This is just a brief overview of the trip - I have more posted to my social media accounts and I will be created a cloud folder with these images and more on Friday(I will update this with a link then).