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• Celebration to mark start of Gateway construction
• Community Properties implements plans for Section 8 housing
• City tackles bulk refuse in cooperation with neighborhood
• Towing remains critical to street sweeping
• Evans Scholars donate $1,500 to Crime Stoppers

• Planners honor students for code enforcement project
• New undergrad representative chosen for board
• Work-Study students contribute to University District
• Congressman Hobson visits Campus Partners office
• University District civic leaders to speak at conference

Campus Partners staff is working with Griffin Communications on a major public event on Saturday, Oct. 18, to celebrate the beginning of construction of the South Campus Gateway buildings. President Holbrook and Mayor Coleman have agreed to participate in the celebration. The event will have a pep rally theme since Oct. 18 is Homecoming. The formal program will run from approximately 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. on the Gateway site on the west side of High Street, followed by music and tailgate food until 1 or 1:30 p.m. A highlight of the event will be the presentation of large-screen, high-energy video with three-dimensional renderings of the Gateway project. (The football game that day is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. The Homecoming parade is being held on Friday night this year.) Put the date on your calendar. More information and an invitation will follow.

Meanwhile, the University Area Review Board held its third review of the project on July 17 and, as requested, approved buildings A, B, C and E. The final plat (which creates the new building parcels, dedicates and vacates rights-of-way, incorporates several terms from our Economic Development Agreement with the City) has been approved by the City Council and will be recorded in the near future. The construction drawings for many portions of the Gateway project are well under way, with Building D remaining on a somewhat slower tract until the proposed cinema design and development issues are fully addressed.

Nearly 40 persons attended the public gathering in the Campus Partners office on July 30 for an update on the architecture, construction timetable and leasing plans for Gateway. The University Area Commission and Campus Partners hosted the gathering to update neighborhood civic leaders and residents. Terry Foegler spoke and answered questions. Mr. Foegler also is tentatively scheduled to speak about South Campus Gateway to the Columbus Metropolitan Club on Friday, Oct. 17.

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Community Properties implements plans for Section 8 housing

Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing (OCCH) is making good progress in implementing the plans for the Section 8 housing now known as Community Properties. Community Properties of Ohio Management Services (CPOMS) is moving aggressively to deal with property maintenance issues, to bring all residents into compliance with their leases, to better screen prospective tenants and to deal with public safety issues. As a follow-up to its Social Service Summit on June 24, CPOMS sponsored a meeting for social service agencies on Aug. 20 to help establish partnerships with the agencies and to identify a steering committee for this human services network.

As vice president of university outreach, Bobby Moser convened a meeting Aug. 28 of key leaders of Ohio State’s outreach initiatives with the top management of OCCH and CPOMS to learn more about the plans for Community Properties and to discuss how Ohio State might engage with this housing effort. The meeting was a good exchange and will result in further discussions within the university on how best to structure Ohio State’s engagement.

City tackles bulk refuse in cooperation with neighborhood

The city’s Refuse Collection Division conducted its seventh annual special collection of bulk refuse in the University District from Monday, Aug. 25, to Monday, Sept. 8. The number of drop-off sites increased to 13 from six last year with additional cooperation from local property owners. In addition, the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO) joined our efforts, providing a refuse hauling truck and funding more communications with residents about what to do with their trash. This program has been critical to keeping the neighborhood’s alleys clean during the busy days of move-out and move-in at the conclusion of the university’s summer quarter.

Campus Partners staff worked with the city and property owners to identify drop-off locations and to publicize the special collection. The following companies provided locations for the collection: Buckeye Real Estate, Inn-Town Homes & Apartments, Kohr Royer Griffith, University Apartments, and University Manors, plus Campus Partners and Ohio State. Roll-offs for the special collection were donated by Waste Management, Local Waste Services, and Republic Waste Services.

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Towing remains critical to street sweeping

The Campus Partners Public Service Committee on street sweeping met Sept. 3. Ray Browning of the city’s street maintenance office reported that sweeping was done as scheduled in July and August. Parked vehicles, however, were ticketed and not towed. The Columbus Police maintained that the city’s impound lot was full, so towed cars could not be accepted. Although more than 900 tickets were written both in July and August, the sweeping was judged to be unproductive because the sweepers had to move around so many cars. Barry Bauer, assistant administrator for operations with the city’s Transportation Division, said he would work within the city administration to emphasize the need to tow parked cars in September and October if the sweeping is to be effective. Cars were towed for the sweeping conducted Sept. 11 and 12. The next meeting of the committee will be Feb. 4, 2004, at 1:30 p.m. in room 200 of the Northwood-High Building, 2231 N. High St.

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Evans Scholars donate $1,500 to Crime Stoppers

Evans Scholars last month donated $1,500 to the University Area Crime Stoppers. The funds came from the proceeds of the annual Stephanie Hummer Memorial Golf Tournament held last May. Evans Scholars, whose apartment house is at 52 E. 14th Ave., has made public safety a focus of the chapter’s public service activities. The organization also was one of the founding members of University Area Crime Stoppers. The board of the University Area Crime Stoppers is scheduling its first meeting of autumn quarter for mid-October.

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Planners honor students for code enforcement project

The Ohio Planning Conference later this month will present its Outstanding Planning Students Award to Ohio State students for their work in a graduate course in city and regional planning which focused on an assessment of code enforcement in the University District and recommendations for improvement. Jennifer Evans-Cowley, assistant professor of city and regional planning, developed and taught the course last winter quarter. As part of the course, students conducted focus groups with residents on code issues, assessed code violations, met with city officials and developed a report and set of recommendations.

At the meeting of the University District Code Enforcement Task Force on Aug. 12, task force members discussed how best to proceed with systematic exterior code enforcement in the south campus area. The task force eventually recommended that the city apply the systematic approach in an area bounded by Highland, Neil, West Ninth and West Eleventh. Professor Evans-Cowley reported that she continues to meet with city officials on her class’s code enforcement recommendations. The task force suggested that a representative of the Division of Fire be asked to attend an upcoming meeting to discuss issues that might fall under the city’s fire code. Dana Rose, code enforcement supervisor, reported that the city’s Refuse Collection Division is placing brightly colored tags on 90-gallon refuse containers in the predominately student neighborhood to inform residents of the requirement to return the container to its proper storage. The container is not to be left along the street. Several residents of Findlay and East Patterson avenues reported their concerns with noise and late-night parties by young people. The residents of Findlay Avenue are working with police and code enforcement to resolve the problems.

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New undergrad representative chosen for board

The Campus Partners Board of Trustees has appointed Daniel B. Work as the new undergraduate student representative on the board. He succeeds Mike Goodman and will serve a term of July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2005. Mr. Work is a sophomore at Ohio State, majoring in mechanical engineering. He is from Westerville, Ohio. His appointment was recommended by the selection committee composed of students.

The Campus Partners Student Advisory Board will have a table at the annual Student Involvement Fair on Sept. 22 to recruit new students to the board. Meanwhile, three students have expressed an interest in succeeding Mark Minor as chair of the Student Advisory Board. The board will be asked to select a new chair early in autumn quarter.

Work-Study students contribute to University District

Several years ago, the university’s Office of Student Financial Aid expanded the Federal Work-Study program to include student employment opportunities in non-profit community agencies and schools. During the 2002-03 academic year, approximately 250 Ohio State students worked part-time in some 50 agencies and five Columbus public schools. The students were paid through the Federal Work-Study program. The majority of those students served in agencies and schools in the University District. Campus Partners has benefited from the students who have filled its Work-Study position for the past five years. This program is a tremendous service to the people and agencies of the University District.

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Congressman Hobson visits Campus Partners office

Congressman David L. Hobson of Springfield visited the Campus Partners office on Aug. 19 to see the plans for South Campus Gateway and to gain a better understanding of Campus Partners’ neighborhood initiatives. The visit was arranged by Herman Bulls of Jones Lang LaSalle, who has worked with Mr. Hobson on military housing issues. Mr. Hobson is a graduate of Ohio State’s law school. His district extends west and south of Columbus and includes a small portion of Franklin County. Mr. Hobson was helpful in working with Congresswoman Deborah Pryce to obtain the special appropriations for the Broad Street Portfolio. Among the people who joined us for Mr. Hobson’s visit were Interim Provost Barbara Snyder and Law Dean Nancy Rogers, who spoke about the Buckeye Barrister Club and law student housing which will be part of Gateway.

University District civic leaders to speak at conference

Two members of the University Area Commission, Catherine Girves and Robert Caldwell, and Steve Sterrett, community relations director of Campus Partners, will each make presentations at the Outreach Scholarship Conference 2003 in Madison, Wis., on Oct. 12-14. Ohio State sponsored the 2002 conference last fall in Columbus. A number of other Ohio State faculty and staff also will be participating in the conference in Madison. Campus Partners and the university’s Outreach and Engagement Office are sponsoring the participation by Ms. Girves and Mr. Caldwell to emphasize the important role of community residents in the continuing dialogue about neighborhood revitalization.