2016 Year in Review

Tim Fulton 0:08Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week, we're reflecting back on the year of local news 2016 with the co-founders of Columbus Underground, Anne and Walker Evans. We go through a roundup of the top dozen stories of the year, diving deep into some of them. We also get into how Columbus Underground does its work and why they got rid of the discussion boards. You can get more information on what we discuss today and the list of the year's top articles in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Enjoy the discussion. Sitting down here on the occasion of the end of the year doing a wrap-up of the news of the year with the founders of Columbus Underground and The Metropreneur, the Evans Creative Group, Anne Evans and Walker Evans. How are you guys?

Walker Evans 1:13Good.

Anne Evans 1:13Yeah, great.

Tim Fulton 1:14Good. We are gonna talk through some of the, the sort of highlights of the year. First of all, can you guys talk about, you know, how, how the year was in Columbus? I think, you know, you've given me a rundown of what the most viewed stories on Columbus Underground were. We also have a brand new mayor. Uh, we have a mostly brand new city council. There has been a lot of national news that has been interesting. How's the year been?

Walker Evans 1:39I think overall in Columbus it's been pretty good. There's been a lot of, uh, a lot of positive things. You know, some, some negative things as well, but, uh, it, it seems like some of the year end review stuff that we've read on a national scale lately all says that 2016 was, like, the worst year ever.

Tim Fulton 1:56Right.

Walker Evans 1:56But I, I think that's more-

Tim Fulton 1:57Everybody died

Walker Evans 1:57... more national. Yeah.

Anne Evans 1:59Well-

Tim Fulton 1:59We elected a president.

Anne Evans 2:02Yeah.

Tim Fulton 2:02Uh-

Anne Evans 2:02You would basically tell your grandchildren.

Tim Fulton 2:05Right.

Anne Evans 2:05"Let me tell you a story from 2016."

Tim Fulton 2:07Right. "Let me tell you what happened this year." Also, we're recording this literally the day after astronaut Senator John Glenn passed away.

Walker Evans 2:15Yeah.

Tim Fulton 2:15It's been a crazy year. Walker, give us a little bit of philosophy for Columbus Underground. Talk about how you guys choose the stories that you have.

Walker Evans 2:25There's not any sort of rigid structure-

Tim Fulton 2:28Okay

Walker Evans 2:28... to it, I guess I would say. Um, we're, we're always looking for anything new and interesting and exciting all the time. You know, there are different types of things that we, we kinda seek out. We're like, you know, we recognize a trend and so let's do something on this and kind of, you know, start that process ourselves, uh-

Tim Fulton 2:44Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 2:44... internally. Uh, a lot of the things we write about are things that get sent our way either through a press release or just a friend of a friend says, "Hey, I heard this thing is going on."

Tim Fulton 2:54Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 2:54Um, and we kinda look into it from there. So we, we've really grown over the years to cover a pretty wide range of topics, so the sky-

Tim Fulton 3:01But you guys-

Walker Evans 3:02... the sky's kinda the limit, I guess

Tim Fulton 3:03... you guys also don't cover a whole lot of crime. Uh-

Walker Evans 3:07Not particularly, no.

Tim Fulton 3:08Okay. When I envision this is how sort of a website, a, a news website works, it's almost like you're trying to serve up a square meal in that, yeah, you're gonna have some comfort food, which would be, like, a new development or some gossip about something that someone hasn't heard about yet.

Walker Evans 3:25Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 3:25But you're also trying... I remember when we were launching the Confluence Cast, Anne, you specifically, we were talking about issue one, the ward issue.

Anne Evans 3:33Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 3:34And you pointed out, you, you said very frankly, just w- "Well, that is important. Like, we should cover that because it is important. And it's not necessarily something that people are going to be seeking out, and we need to put it in front of them. We need to make sure people are eating their vegetables to an extent."

Anne Evans 3:51Right. So there are some things that we do feel are important in the community, like we really enjoy lifting up the arts organizations here. I personally always really like to find someone doing something really cool on a personal level-

Tim Fulton 4:07Mm-hmm

Anne Evans 4:07... and getting that story out there. And I feel like those are the most rewarding ones for me personally when they will go back and tell me, "Having that written about us just really validated what we're doing."

Tim Fulton 4:18Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans 4:18"It made us happy that we're doing it and excited and gave us some real validation."

Tim Fulton 4:23Well, and it's validation for you guys as well.

Anne Evans 4:26Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 4:26Absolutely.

Walker Evans 4:26Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 4:27Let's walk through what the year in the news was. We've sort of compiled the top dozen subjects that have had the most eyes on them on columbusunderground.com. First off, uh, Short North development.

Walker Evans 4:39Yeah, kinda collectively all of the development happening there, you know, added up to be one of the top, the top stories. The two that kinda stood out the most, uh, in terms of getting people's attention are the, uh, the 10-story building that-

Tim Fulton 4:52Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 4:52... Kaufman Development proposed on the old, uh, IE, is it IEBW? International Electrical Brotherhood?

Tim Fulton 4:59IBEW.

Walker Evans 5:00IBEW.

Tim Fulton 5:00International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Walker Evans 5:02Of course you would know the... So, uh, that 10-story building and then the, uh, Pizzuti building, I think it's also proposed to 10 stories.

Tim Fulton 5:10Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 5:10I don't think either of these have been fully approved yet, so of course they haven't started construction or anything. Uh, the Pizzuti building would replace, uh, Graham View Mercantile-

Tim Fulton 5:17Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 5:17... which would probably look to relocate the, the store.

Tim Fulton 5:20How much do you guys follow... Because you're putting out, you're putting out basically the renderings that are proposed with either the Italian or the Victorian Village Commission.

Walker Evans 5:28Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 5:29How much do you guys sorta follow that process? Are you sitting in on those commission meetings, or are you sort of, you're reporting on what the initial thought is and then sorta reporting on, after the sausage has been made-

Walker Evans 5:41Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 5:41... reporting on what was finally approved?

Walker Evans 5:44We follow it, uh, pretty closely the entire, through the, through the entire process.

Anne Evans 5:49Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 5:49And when I say we, I should be- Say Brent Warren is the one

Tim Fulton 5:52Okay

Walker Evans 5:52... who covers most of this.

Anne Evans 5:53And they do attend some of the meetings, not all of them.

Tim Fulton 5:56Right.

Walker Evans 5:57Yeah.

Anne Evans 5:57But, yes.

Tim Fulton 5:57Well, and when there's an update, that's when it's appropriate to sort of refresh it or to put out a new story altogether.

Anne Evans 6:03Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 6:03Yeah. Well, a lot of these meetings, uh, take place at night-

Tim Fulton 6:06Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 6:06... or, you know, kinda during difficult hours, and honestly, as much development has been going on, they've turned into five-hour, six-hour, seven-hour meetings sometimes.

Tim Fulton 6:15Oh, yeah.

Walker Evans 6:15So what Brent and I have kind of loosely done when it comes to, like, attending these meetings, we look at the agenda in advance and say, you know, "If there's four or five or six things on here, and they're proposals from developers who don't always respond to emails or phone calls, maybe we should go there and listen."

Tim Fulton 6:31Right.

Walker Evans 6:31And you know, you can get a quote from someone at a meeting a lot easier than getting a response via email.

Tim Fulton 6:36Right.

Walker Evans 6:36But if there's only one thing on the agenda, and it's someone I know I can just call on the phone, might as well just try and get the story and save yourself the time of going to the meeting.

Tim Fulton 6:44Any perception on what readers think of these developments? Is it always like, "Oh, this is great," or...?

Walker Evans 6:50Uh, no, it's, it's all over the map.

Anne Evans 6:51It's a mixed bag, I would say, for sure.

Tim Fulton 6:53Okay.

Walker Evans 6:54Yeah. A lot of people are very pro-development, pro-future. They wanna see things change and evolve and grow and-

Tim Fulton 7:00Okay

Walker Evans 7:00... but everyone has their own opinion about architecture.

Tim Fulton 7:03Right.

Walker Evans 7:03It's very subjective what style people prefer.

Anne Evans 7:07Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 7:07Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans 7:07How they want their neighborhood to look.

Tim Fulton 7:10Right.

Walker Evans 7:10Yeah.

Tim Fulton 7:11Well, and we talked just recently with a couple of, uh, I mean, people that are not experts in development, talked to a couple of bartenders, and both had very different opinions on sort of the evolution of the Short North, that it is just sort of becoming a bar and condo scene. And yeah, everybody has different opinions on that sort of thing.

Walker Evans 7:28Yeah.

Tim Fulton 7:28So next up, Smart Cities Grant.

Walker Evans 7:31Was it June, I think?

Tim Fulton 7:32Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 7:32We, uh, we won the grant. Uh, we were one of, I think, 76 or 77-ish cities that applied for it across the country, and Columbus was picked.

Tim Fulton 7:42And talk just a brief overview of what the Smart Cities Grant is and does and means.

Walker Evans 7:47The Smart Cities Grant was a federal grant given to a city to implement new technology and how it affects transit.

Tim Fulton 7:57Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 7:57And so there were sort of multiple ways Columbus planned to implement that.

Tim Fulton 8:00Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 8:01Uh, the biggest and brightest and shiniest piece was about self-driving cars-

Tim Fulton 8:05Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 8:05... autonomous vehicles, because everybody is really focused on that.

Tim Fulton 8:09Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 8:09There were other things like app-based, you know, transit ridership solution stuff, and some mobility option type stuff, but the, the big piece was the autonomous vehicles.

Tim Fulton 8:19While it is great and exciting for us to have gotten it, do you have any insight as to why we got it?

Anne Evans 8:25I think it's because of the, quote, "Columbus way".

Tim Fulton 8:28Okay.

Anne Evans 8:28And that is bringing together a lot of private and public dollars and support.

Tim Fulton 8:33Okay.

Anne Evans 8:34So they-

Tim Fulton 8:34So being able to say that we had some matching funds from private-

Anne Evans 8:38Mm

Tim Fulton 8:38... entities.

Walker Evans 8:39It was over 100% matching funds.

Tim Fulton 8:41Right.

Anne Evans 8:41Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 8:41It was big.

Tim Fulton 8:42Absolutely. Well, and a testament to the city and the preparation that went into it.

Walker Evans 8:46The, there was a little bit of backlash, uh-

Tim Fulton 8:48From the readers?

Walker Evans 8:49From Transit Columbus.

Tim Fulton 8:50Okay.

Walker Evans 8:51Uh, they, they kinda took the reins on this, and I agree with them to some extent, that it's a little bit of a putting your eggs all in one basket-

Tim Fulton 8:59Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 8:59... uh, scenario to flat out say and promote that autonomous vehicles will allow our city to leapfrog light rail and rail-based transit.

Tim Fulton 9:09I mean, do you think those are missteps in terms of the perception of the grant, or do you think that it truly is putting all our eggs in one basket?

Walker Evans 9:19I, I-

Tim Fulton 9:19Because there are a lot of things that this grant does not do.

Walker Evans 9:22Right.

Tim Fulton 9:23It does not do public transportation for the masses. It does public transportation for some communities, some neighborhoods, as Mayor Ginther would want me to say, within Columbus.

Walker Evans 9:34In terms of transit, it's a small amount of money, and it-

Tim Fulton 9:37Right

Walker Evans 9:37... is a pilot program.

Tim Fulton 9:38Right.

Walker Evans 9:38So it's, you know, you can't spend $50 million on rail and get very far, but I do think it is shortsighted to discredit other modes of transportation. Uh, any, any business or city should pride itself on diversification.

Tim Fulton 9:54Right.

Walker Evans 9:55And so to say, "Oh, the, the way of the future is only one mode of transportation, and nothing else matters," th- there's a lot of think pieces that are really interesting too that say the more autonomous the vehicle, the more sprawl we're going to get.

Tim Fulton 10:07Absolutely.

Walker Evans 10:07The, the whole reason we have sprawl to begin with, suburban sprawl, is because people had cheap cars and cheap oil, and-

Tim Fulton 10:13And freeways

Walker Evans 10:14... cheap, and cheap land and freeways, and-

Tim Fulton 10:15Right

Walker Evans 10:15... it was all subsidized by the government.

Tim Fulton 10:17Well-

Walker Evans 10:17And hey, let's, let's start moving further and further out, and now we have downsides to that.

Tim Fulton 10:21Right. Well, and there's the argument that autonomous vehicles don't cure congestion at all, because-

Walker Evans 10:27No

Tim Fulton 10:27... you're still going to have a person in a car.

Walker Evans 10:30Yeah. Why, why not move 90 miles outside of the city if you can sleep in your autonomous vehicle on the way to work?

Tim Fulton 10:35Exactly. It doesn't matter to you that it's more than a 30-minute commute at this point.

Walker Evans 10:39Right.

Tim Fulton 10:40Yes. Up next, number 10 on the list, we are counting down to one, the development at 15th and High.

Walker Evans 10:46Campus Partners and OSU announced their big plans for the 15th and High district.

Tim Fulton 10:52Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 10:52Uh, right in the center of the university district. I think it runs from, like, 14th to 17th?

Tim Fulton 10:58Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 10:58Se- several blocks. They, they want to, um, tear down a lot of buildings.

Tim Fulton 11:02They have torn down a lot of buildings.

Walker Evans 11:04They, it's already underway.

Tim Fulton 11:05Yes.

Walker Evans 11:05Um, they got underway very quickly on this. Tear down a lot of buildings, build a lot of new stuff, basically kind of give a, a big facelift to that area. Obviously, it was met with a lot of opposition. A lot of people are upset that their fond college memories are being torn down.

Tim Fulton 11:21Well, it's essentially a non-designated historic district as well. I mean, that's where Bernie's was. There were old-

Walker Evans 11:28Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 11:28... fraternity houses that weren't actually fraternity houses anymore-

Walker Evans 11:31Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 11:31... but were there in that strip.

Walker Evans 11:33Yeah.

Tim Fulton 11:33And yeah, a lot of bars where people remember or don't remember-

Walker Evans 11:38Yeah

Tim Fulton 11:38... having their evenings, so.

Walker Evans 11:40Right. There was also a lot of mid-century, cobbled together, odd add-ons-

Tim Fulton 11:47Right

Walker Evans 11:47... to a lot of these buildings that, you know, if you, if you looked at the, uh-

Tim Fulton 11:51Well, it was almost char-

Walker Evans 11:51... Ch- Charlie's Steakery and those kinds of places, there was an older building behind it that wasn't even used, and then this sort of, like, weird commercial structure kinda plunked in the front.

Tim Fulton 12:01Right.

Walker Evans 12:01Yeah.

Tim Fulton 12:01Well, and it, and that, it frankly, it was, as much as you can call that hodgepodge, it was also-

Walker Evans 12:07Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 12:07... the character of that That area

Walker Evans 12:09Sure

Tim Fulton 12:10So

Walker Evans 12:10Yeah. And, you know, Anne and I both went to OSU, and we have memories of that sort of stuff as well, but to be honest, we don't spend too much time a- at Bernie's or Charlie's Steakery or any of those places anymore, so.

Tim Fulton 12:23Right

Walker Evans 12:23It's, it's not really our... I wouldn't say it's my decision to make. It's not gonna take away my fond memories of those places.

Tim Fulton 12:29Right. Number nine on our list, IKEA is coming in up at Polaris. What do the readers of Columbus Underground think about that?

Walker Evans 12:37They're excited. Everybody is so excited.

Tim Fulton 12:39Are you excited?

Walker Evans 12:41We like IKEA.

Anne Evans 12:41I like going there.

Walker Evans 12:42Yeah.

Anne Evans 12:43Lingonberries, hooray.

Tim Fulton 12:44Everybody's super excited to get the IKEA.

Walker Evans 12:46Yeah, yeah.

Anne Evans 12:47Yeah

Walker Evans 12:47I mean, it was announced back in, like, the start of 2015-

Tim Fulton 12:50Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 12:50... that we were getting this thing in the summer of 2017, so this year was all just construction. But every time we published anything about, like, different milestones in the construction process, everyb- everyone and their brother was sharing it on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram.

Tim Fulton 13:03Just so excited not to have to drive down to Cincinnati anymore.

Walker Evans 13:06Yeah.

Anne Evans 13:07A little concerned about the traffic.

Tim Fulton 13:09Okay.

Anne Evans 13:09But I don't think you can go to that area and not have that in your mind at all.

Tim Fulton 13:14Is it going to make things incrementally worse than they already are up there?

Anne Evans 13:18Yes, probably by 10 times or more.

Tim Fulton 13:20You think so? Okay.

Anne Evans 13:21I think so.

Walker Evans 13:21Especially op- opening day.

Anne Evans 13:22Probably for a while.

Tim Fulton 13:24Okay. All right.

Anne Evans 13:26But-

Tim Fulton 13:26Uh-

Anne Evans 13:26... it's still fun to go to

Tim Fulton 13:28... ab- and, and to argue with your, your partner, uh- ... as you go-

Anne Evans 13:32Test your relationship

Tim Fulton 13:33... as you test your relationship - ... walking through the IKEA. Up next on the list, number eight, Holy Chicken!, as brought to us by Morgan Spurlock, turns out to be a hoax.

Anne Evans 13:44Well, maybe not necessarily a hoax.

Tim Fulton 13:47Now-

Anne Evans 13:47But-

Tim Fulton 13:48... many people have framed this differently. So first of all, give us, uh, just the rundown on what Holy Chicken! was, without giving any sort of opinion on it.

Walker Evans 13:57Exactly what it was?

Tim Fulton 13:58Exactly what it was.

Walker Evans 13:59So Holy Chicken! was a restaurant concept, a pop-up restaurant concept from Morgan Spurlock, the f- famed documentary filmmaker most known for Supersize Me-

Tim Fulton 14:09Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 14:09... his, his McDonald's, uh, kinda takedown documentary.

Tim Fulton 14:12Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 14:13He opened it up near Westerville, four-day run, kind of promoting it as a healthy-ish chicken restaurant.

Tim Fulton 14:20Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 14:21And people came, discovered that all of the buzzwords he was using don't really have any sort of meaning. And-

Tim Fulton 14:28Well, the buzzwords don't have any sort of meaning.

Walker Evans 14:30Right

Tim Fulton 14:31Some of the words being all natural.

Walker Evans 14:33Yeah

Tim Fulton 14:34Basically, words that we attach to things-

Walker Evans 14:37Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 14:37... creating sort of the halo effect of health, but they're not words that actually mean they're good. In my mind, sort of being a takedown for places like Chipotle-

Walker Evans 14:48Right

Tim Fulton 14:48... that are serving you a 1,500 calorie burrito, and you for some reason believe that it's still good for you-

Walker Evans 14:55Yeah

Tim Fulton 14:56... to engorge yourself with that much food-

Walker Evans 14:58Yeah

Tim Fulton 14:59... regardless of the calorie content, the fat content, and all of that. So the negative implications from it, in my perception, is that when it launched, the mayor went up for the ribbon cutting, all the television stations went up and covered it-

Walker Evans 15:13Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 15:13... as like, "Oh, isn't this great that this quote unquote famous person is here-"

Walker Evans 15:17Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 15:17... doing this thing?" And yet, shouldn't they have had an idea from the get-go that maybe this wasn't going to be exactly what was presented to us?

Walker Evans 15:27I think maybe people thought that there, there was something more to it. But I think people generally want to just take people at their word, you know?

Tim Fulton 15:36Right

Walker Evans 15:36If someone says, "All natural," you just say, "Okay, it's all natural."

Tim Fulton 15:38Right

Walker Evans 15:39Um, once you arrived in the restaurant, they had a lot of language on the walls that kinda said, "Hey, guess what? All natural doesn't really mean anything."

Tim Fulton 15:46Right

Walker Evans 15:46Uh, and then you start, then you realize, like, oh, he's calling attention to this issue, and it all kinda clicks. And you're like, okay, I get it. I get what he's doing. He has a film crew there. He's obviously making a documentary of some sort.

Tim Fulton 15:57Right

Walker Evans 15:57This is, this is what his point is.

Tim Fulton 15:59But people were offended.

Walker Evans 16:01They were. They felt tricked.

Tim Fulton 16:02Okay

Walker Evans 16:02And I, you know, I, I told, uh, a friend that when it happened, like when I realized it, it had, like, the Keyser Söze moment, where you like-

Tim Fulton 16:10Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 16:10... drop the coffee mug in slow motion and it all kinda clicks.

Tim Fulton 16:13Right.

Walker Evans 16:13Um, but I think people's anger was a little bit misdirected, because they're mad at him for tricking them for one day-

Tim Fulton 16:21Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 16:22... but not upset that every other company is tricking them 24/7.

Tim Fulton 16:26Exactly.

Walker Evans 16:26And this isn't, you know... It's, it's easy to point a finger at Chipotle, 'cause I think they're probably a pretty good, like, one-to-one example of this.

Tim Fulton 16:32Very easy example of it, right.

Walker Evans 16:33Yeah, but you go into a grocery store, and no matter what product you buy, if it's, if it's Wheat Thins or whatever-

Tim Fulton 16:38Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 16:38... there's, you know, it says "gluten-free" on the box, and you're just like, "Oh, these are gluten-free. I'm gonna buy them, 'cause that makes me feel healthier."

Tim Fulton 16:44Right

Walker Evans 16:45And like, you don't bother looking at the ingredients. You don't bother looking at the actual statistics.

Tim Fulton 16:49Well, and like, I bought chicken breasts the other day, and they said "gluten-free" on them. And I was like, "Of course they're... It's meat."

Walker Evans 16:56Right.

Tim Fulton 16:56Why would it not be gluten-free?

Walker Evans 16:58But, but it makes you feel a little bit healthier when they have that sticker. Well, okay, you're-

Tim Fulton 17:02Not me

Walker Evans 17:02... you're seeing through it.

Tim Fulton 17:03Right

Walker Evans 17:03You're seeing through it a little bit.

Tim Fulton 17:04I'm sorry, the listeners can't see me shaking my head no.

Walker Evans 17:08Yeah. But, but it's... I mean, that health halo effect is a real thing, you know? I, I think-

Tim Fulton 17:13Right

Walker Evans 17:13... his idea of calling attention to that is a noble cause. But of course, some people felt burned in the process.

Anne Evans 17:19It was still a tasty sandwich.

Tim Fulton 17:20Okay.

Walker Evans 17:21We both had it.

Tim Fulton 17:22I'm, I'm glad it was delicious.

Anne Evans 17:23It was delicious.

Walker Evans 17:24Yeah.

Anne Evans 17:24Well, I mean, with all that stuff, even though if it does say, "No antibiotics" and-

Tim Fulton 17:29Right

Anne Evans 17:30... "organic" and "free-range," it doesn't mean you should eat as much as possible.

Tim Fulton 17:34Exactly. Onto a totally different subject, I hope. Number seven on our list, the Eat Purr Love Cat Cafe, and then the Tail Wags Cafe, which is a dog cafe.

Walker Evans 17:44Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 17:44First of all, what is that?

Walker Evans 17:45So they're both a little bit different. The Eat Purr Love Cat Cafe-

Tim Fulton 17:49Well, one has cats, and one has dogs, right?

Walker Evans 17:51True.

Tim Fulton 17:51Okay.

Walker Evans 17:52True. But the other difference is that the Eat Purr Love Cat Cafe has their own cats. So you go there by yourself- And you can work and play with cats

Anne Evans 18:02You can have all the fun of cats and none of the responsibilities.

Tim Fulton 18:05Okay.

Walker Evans 18:05But I think they're all up for adoption though too.

Anne Evans 18:07I think so.

Walker Evans 18:07Like you can adopt, you can adopt the cats and stuff.

Tim Fulton 18:09Okay.

Walker Evans 18:10So if you wanna go and work, and you love cats, and you just wanna go play with cats, that's what it's for.

Tim Fulton 18:13Oh, so the dog place, you bring your dog.

Walker Evans 18:15You bring your dogs, yeah.

Tim Fulton 18:16I see.

Walker Evans 18:17Yeah.

Tim Fulton 18:17Are they-

Walker Evans 18:17So they have a big area to run around in and-

Anne Evans 18:20So it's a little more like-

Tim Fulton 18:21It's an indoor dog park

Anne Evans 18:22... doggy daycare, but supervised.

Tim Fulton 18:24Okay.

Anne Evans 18:24Like you're hanging out.

Walker Evans 18:25Mm-hmm, drinking coffee.

Tim Fulton 18:27It's like a play cafe.

Walker Evans 18:28Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans 18:29Yeah.

Tim Fulton 18:29Uh, we being parents understand-

Walker Evans 18:31Yeah

Tim Fulton 18:31... that you go to this place, there is coffee, and you can sort of let your kid run around over there.

Walker Evans 18:36It's for the dog parents.

Tim Fulton 18:37Okay. Dog parents. D- are people excited about that, or is it something that they're sort of like... In my head, it's like what crazy thing are they going to come up with next? Who needs this? Who needs a cat cafe?

Walker Evans 18:51I, I think-

Anne Evans 18:51I think-

Walker Evans 18:51I mean, people, people read.

Tim Fulton 18:53Have you been to the cat cafe, Walker?

Walker Evans 18:55I'm not a cat person.

Tim Fulton 18:55Okay. Anne, have you been to the cat cafe?

Anne Evans 18:58No.

Tim Fulton 18:58Okay.

Anne Evans 18:58I haven't either.

Walker Evans 19:00We need to take our daughter.

Tim Fulton 19:01Well, and how much does it cost too? It's like-

Anne Evans 19:04$10 an hour cover fee.

Tim Fulton 19:07Okay. How long do people stay on average?

Walker Evans 19:10These were very well-read stories is what I'm getting at though.

Tim Fulton 19:13People love that stuff.

Walker Evans 19:15Yeah. I, I thi- I think it was one part people are excited and one part, like, weird curiosity.

Tim Fulton 19:21Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 19:21Kind of that, like, you know-

Anne Evans 19:22And they were new.

Walker Evans 19:23Yeah.

Anne Evans 19:23They were-

Walker Evans 19:24Yeah

Anne Evans 19:24... first of their kind here.

Walker Evans 19:25Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans 19:26And I think they are happening in other cities, so-

Walker Evans 19:28Yeah

Anne Evans 19:28... it's kinda neat that Columbus can-

Tim Fulton 19:32Add it-

Anne Evans 19:32... have that too

Tim Fulton 19:33... add itself to the list.

Walker Evans 19:34When the 12th cat cafe opens, it won't be quite as buzz-worthy anymore.

Tim Fulton 19:39I don't imagine so. I don't know that the market will be able to stand that.

Anne Evans 19:43There are a lot of cats around.

Tim Fulton 19:46Get your pets spayed and neutered. Thanks, Bob Barker. Number six on our list, uh, social entrepreneurship saw big investment.

Anne Evans 19:52Yes, it certainly did. I think it was a pretty big year for social entrepreneurs. In 2016, we saw Joe Delas and his Hot Chicken Takeover get a pretty nice investment from Access Ventures, and Kiva Columbus launched here as well-

Tim Fulton 20:09Mm-hmm

Anne Evans 20:10... to help support small businesses. And we also just are getting a lot more people caring about extra community involvement that businesses do and how they-

Tim Fulton 20:21Well, and sort of the social-

Anne Evans 20:22Yes

Tim Fulton 20:23... model, the social aspect of their business model.

Anne Evans 20:26Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 20:26I have said privately, and I think it's fair to say here now, I don't think Joe... I think Joe makes fantastic chicken. I don't think that's what he's doing.

Anne Evans 20:35Right.

Tim Fulton 20:35I think he has a new human resources model that is being tested out with Hot Chicken Takeover.

Anne Evans 20:42I agree. And it's nice to see that that's supported. Even if people are just going there for the chicken, they do still get to know that that's what's happening.

Tim Fulton 20:50Right. So number four and five, I think I'm going to just call the yin and yang. Uh, a lot of people paying attention to closings around town, and then a lot of people paying attention to openings as well. What are sort of the big closings we had this year?

Walker Evans 21:05Uh, the number one biggest one was Haiku. When that was announced, uh, everyone was very upset.

Tim Fulton 21:10Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 21:10I mean, obviously they've got a lot of fans. They've been around, I think, 18 years, 19 years-

Tim Fulton 21:14Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 21:15... uh, in their location. Beloved restaurant. The owners decided to sell the building and the land, and kinda, you know, they're probably heading into retirement, so the new-

Tim Fulton 21:24Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 21:24... there's a new building proposed for development there. That was definitely the biggest closure. The, the Japanese steakhouse-

Tim Fulton 21:31Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 21:31... by the North Market. A lot of people didn't even realize that was still open. That, that officially closed and is either for sale to a new restaurant or to a developer.

Tim Fulton 21:39Right.

Walker Evans 21:39Uh, Patrick J.'s in Clintonville.

Tim Fulton 21:41Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 21:42Uh, same story. They decided to sell and redevelop.

Tim Fulton 21:45Well, that's not the same story.

Walker Evans 21:46Well, uh-

Tim Fulton 21:47There's the connection, uh-

Walker Evans 21:48There's a little more to it.

Tim Fulton 21:49Right. The owner happened to be the imprisoned lobbyist-

Walker Evans 21:53Right

Tim Fulton 21:53... uh, who was involved in the red light traffic cameras contract with the city of Columbus. For reasons still not publicly known, uh, lost a city council member over it. It still sort of follows council to an extent.

Walker Evans 22:06Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 22:07I think it's important to note, if you are a convicted felon, you cannot own a liquor license.

Walker Evans 22:13Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 22:13And so it's sort of, you know, that's what happened there.

Walker Evans 22:17Right.

Tim Fulton 22:17So, and then also just, you know, a roundup of, um, uh, Dick's Last Resort, which is in a location that seems to not be able to maintain a large scale restaurant. Honestly, I think that has to do with the fact that the, while the hockey season is long, it is not that many games.

Walker Evans 22:35Right.

Tim Fulton 22:35And so that, that district sort of depends on it, and office workers in that area do not want to go to a restaurant where they're going to get insulted just for a happy hour.

Walker Evans 22:45Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 22:46Also, The Chintz Room, the Liz Lessner attached restaurant from the Columbus Food League has closed. Till Dynamic Fare on King and Neil, and then also Cafe Bella in Old North Columbus. Let's talk about some of the big openings then.

Walker Evans 23:00Yeah, so I mean, some of the biggest, uh, included Balboa on, uh, Grandview Avenue in Grandview, Standard Hall in the Short North.

Tim Fulton 23:06And to be clear, when you say biggest, you're talking about number of eyes on the article.

Walker Evans 23:10Yeah, yeah, the ones that our readers seem to be the most excited about-

Tim Fulton 23:12Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 23:12... when those announcements were made. Press Grill opened a second location on Fifth Avenue. Uh, Pinz Mechanical Company, which, you know, kind of bar/restaurant/many other-

Tim Fulton 23:22Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 23:23... many other things, duckpin bowling. Duck Donuts, which I had never heard of, but when that was announced, people started losing their minds. I guess they have a huge following. I think they're based in North Carolina. It's, it's a donut place, and it's up at around Polaris.

Tim Fulton 23:36Delicious.

Walker Evans 23:37Yeah.

Tim Fulton 23:37And then roundup of just sort of some of the other openings. Rockmill opening their Columbus Brewery District location. Hadley's opening up at the Fourth and Main District. Pale on Fifth Avenue. Polly G's at Fifth and High. Bonifacio sort of around the Grandview area, and then Hoof Hearted in Italian Village. Second locations for Little Eater, Native Cold Press, Harvest Dublin, and also Condado now in downtown. Surprisingly, to me at least, downtown development came in a whole lot higher in terms of viewership than Short North development. The biggest of which is the Millennial Tower. Can you talk about the Millennial Tower a bit?

Walker Evans 24:16Yeah, so the, Bill Schottenstein, R. Schott Development proposed earlier this year, uh, the creation of a new large scale tower downtown, apartments, condos, offices, retail, parking garage, kind of all in one building. Uh, a lot of downtown development people complain is too short. It's all, you know, six-ish stories.

Tim Fulton 24:35Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 24:35And this is the first 25 story building-

Tim Fulton 24:38Okay

Walker Evans 24:39... uh, that's been proposed for a while. So very, um, contemporary design. A lot of big LED screens and- You know, bells and whistles and stuff, so

Tim Fulton 24:48Is this literally going to change our cityscape?

Walker Evans 24:50Yeah, it would. Yeah, tw- 25 stories it would be in, in the skyline, so it came in for its initial review. The Downtown Commission, you know, kinda reviewed it, reviewed it and gave feedback, but it's not been back yet for kind of second round stuff.

Tim Fulton 25:03Okay.

Walker Evans 25:03So it's still kind of in the conceptual phase, but that was the really, really big news for downtown. Obviously, there were a lot of other projects as well.

Tim Fulton 25:11Mm-hmm. Any perception on how sort of the Downtown Commission feels about it, and will... Is it gonna go through?

Walker Evans 25:17The Downtown Commission works a lot differently than the other commissions.

Tim Fulton 25:19Okay.

Walker Evans 25:20Uh, I would say that they generally if, if a development proposal comes to them, they're not looking to block or reject or shorten anything.

Tim Fulton 25:28As long as it's not a parking lot.

Walker Evans 25:29Right, right.

Tim Fulton 25:30Right.

Walker Evans 25:30If anything, their, their design standards generally are more about, you know, if it's too short it needs to be taller.

Tim Fulton 25:36Okay.

Walker Evans 25:36Every development they wanna see taller downtown. So they love the height and the massing, the density. They took issue with some of the screen type stuff.

Tim Fulton 25:44Right.

Walker Evans 25:44Some LED screens.

Tim Fulton 25:45Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 25:45Um, a lot of times those are pitched as art installations and very quickly turn into just giant advertising walls.

Tim Fulton 25:50Right.

Walker Evans 25:51Um, there are other residents that live in the area, too, so they were concerned if these screens are full blast LED brightness at night, are people going to be unable to sleep?

Tim Fulton 25:58Right.

Walker Evans 25:59Because of all this, you know, kinda light pollution in the area. But generally they're really in favor of it. They're, they're very in favor of all downtown development.

Tim Fulton 26:05Good.

Walker Evans 26:06Yeah.

Tim Fulton 26:06Talk to me about some of the other downtown development stuff that's happening.

Anne Evans 26:09What's happening on Gay and High Streets are pretty significant. We have a lot of our buildings that have sat empty for quite some time.

Tim Fulton 26:17Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans 26:18Finally seeing some love and care put into them.

Tim Fulton 26:21Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans 26:21They're not, they're not all just getting torn down. The DE Company is, is working with historic tax credits, and they are restoring some. They are putting in some cool pedestrian streetscape walkways and-

Tim Fulton 26:34Mm-hmm

Anne Evans 26:34... adding retail. And they're just gonna create an extension of Gay Street just a little bit to the north-

Tim Fulton 26:41Okay

Anne Evans 26:41... on the Madison building area.

Tim Fulton 26:44Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans 26:44And it's just gonna really add a lot of vibrancy to the whole neighborhood.

Tim Fulton 26:48Got it. Number two on our list, a single piece, but an evergreen piece certainly, the Columbus Festival List. Anne, you put that together each year. Is that right?

Anne Evans 26:56Yes.

Tim Fulton 26:56And while a fantastic resource for people planning and stuff, what sort of feedback have you gotten on it?

Anne Evans 27:02It's pretty exciting to see all of the things happening in Columbus on the festival type circuit-

Tim Fulton 27:08Mm-hmm

Anne Evans 27:08... all just in one spot. We have probably around 300 different festivals the whole season. I mean, the season technically probably lasts all year, but I always count it from May to about October.

Tim Fulton 27:22Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans 27:22And really starting, like, the first big mega weekend for the summer is, like, mid-May.

Tim Fulton 27:28Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans 27:29When we have the North Market Apron Gala, we have Race for the Cure, we have Village Valuables, we have the Urban Living Tour.

Tim Fulton 27:36Mm-hmm.

Anne Evans 27:36There's just so many things that start happening, and then we usually go until about the Circleville Pumpkin Show.

Tim Fulton 27:44Okay. That's sort of the wrap up.

Anne Evans 27:46It was pretty cool this year, 2016. We had about maybe at least 10 new things come on the radar.

Tim Fulton 27:52Okay.

Anne Evans 27:53The, the Whiskey Bear Comedy Festival started. Um, GCAC started their Columbus Open: Studio and Stage. The Sunlight Market started up.

Tim Fulton 28:03Good. And then surprising to me as well, the number one story on Columbus Underground this year, the Tanger Outlet Mall.

Walker Evans 28:09Yeah.

Tim Fulton 28:10Why?

Walker Evans 28:11Uh, we published the list of stores, the, the first 75 stores when they were announced.

Tim Fulton 28:16Okay.

Walker Evans 28:16And it, like, on a local level I guess, went viral.

Tim Fulton 28:20Okay.

Walker Evans 28:21Uh, people were just really excited to see that initial lineup of stores. Uh, which it was really surprising to us as well. You know, the, the outlet mall had been announced. We had done stories on it in the past. It was, you know, always well read, but this, like, blew up in a way that no one had, like, really expected.

Tim Fulton 28:36Right.

Walker Evans 28:37And we learned then that people really, really, really like their outlet malls.

Tim Fulton 28:41Right. Well, what's interesting to me is that the top two stories on Columbus Underground are sort of resource stories.

Walker Evans 28:49Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 28:49They are sort of, this is the basic information on what you would like to find out about in our city.

Walker Evans 28:55Yeah.

Tim Fulton 28:55And so it's a testament to the service, I think, that Columbus Underground offers the city. So that's our roundup of the top 12 stories of the year. This is based on number of eyeballs on things.

Walker Evans 29:06Right.

Tim Fulton 29:06You guys, in May of this year, took down the discussion boards on Columbus Underground.

Walker Evans 29:10Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 29:10Comments are still alive and well on the individual stories.

Walker Evans 29:14Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 29:14Can you talk about, first of all, sort of the philosophy behind taking down the discussion boards?

Walker Evans 29:20It was something that had kind of outlived its purpose.

Tim Fulton 29:23Okay.

Walker Evans 29:24You know, we, we launched those message boards I think in 2002 or '03.

Tim Fulton 29:28Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 29:29Uh, it had gone through a lot of different iterations. So, you know, w- when we launched it way back in 2002, 2003, that was pre-social media.

Tim Fulton 29:37Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 29:38Uh, people were looking for a gathering place to discuss things online.

Tim Fulton 29:40Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 29:41Um, so we saw its use kinda grow and grow. And, and really most of Columbus Underground before it became a news resource-

Tim Fulton 29:48Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 29:48... when we really shifted to, to news production around, like, 2009-

Tim Fulton 29:51Okay

Walker Evans 29:52... Columbus Underground was almost 100% a message board.

Tim Fulton 29:54Okay.

Walker Evans 29:54It was like a message board and event calendar.

Tim Fulton 29:56Okay.

Walker Evans 29:56Over time we became more of a news source. We became a business. We started growing. Um, as social media kind of rose and people had more places they could go online to discuss things-

Tim Fulton 30:07Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 30:08... we saw message board use kinda decline. So even though readership of Columbus Underground, you know, has continued to, to grow or be steady-

Tim Fulton 30:15Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 30:15... uh, the message board use had just become basically this t- tiny little piece of what we were doing.

Tim Fulton 30:20Okay.

Walker Evans 30:21From a technology standpoint as well, we had amassed this really large database of, of live content.

Tim Fulton 30:26Okay.

Walker Evans 30:26And since it, it was this really old system that we had sort of grown and grown into other types of systems, it became a really big sorta resource hog on our database.

Tim Fulton 30:35Right.

Walker Evans 30:35And we realized we need to, you know, we can't spend 90% of our resources on something that's, like, 10% of what we do.

Tim Fulton 30:42Right.

Walker Evans 30:42So it's probably time to, you know, archive this thing. A lot of the old message board stuff is still archived. It's accessible, it's searchable, so we didn't delete all that stuff.

Tim Fulton 30:50Right.

Walker Evans 30:50We just disabled the ability for new comments and kind of pulled all that stuff out of the database.

Tim Fulton 30:54Well, and there, some of it is maintaining it as well.

Walker Evans 30:57Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 30:58Is sort of keeping the trolls at bay, if you will. And those are human resources then that you have to dedicate to it.

Walker Evans 31:05Really there wasn't a whole lot of that.

Tim Fulton 31:07Okay.

Walker Evans 31:07Like, it-

Anne Evans 31:08We had like a self-moderating board.

Tim Fulton 31:10Okay.

Walker Evans 31:11Yeah. I mean, I, I think people always have more vivid memories of, of craziness from maybe like the earlier days when the internet was a little more Wild West-

Tim Fulton 31:20Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 31:20... type, type thing. But in the past three, four, five years, I mean, the amount of time we spent on forum moderation was practically nothing.

Tim Fulton 31:29Okay.

Walker Evans 31:29Which I-

Tim Fulton 31:29But there are still comments turned on on individual stories.

Walker Evans 31:32Yes. Yeah, yeah.

Anne Evans 31:33Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 31:33And I assume for some at least, active discussions happening-

Walker Evans 31:36Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 31:36... revolving around them.

Walker Evans 31:37Yeah.

Tim Fulton 31:38Okay.

Walker Evans 31:38But there's really not a lot of moderation time devoted to, to that sort of stuff.

Tim Fulton 31:43Okay.

Walker Evans 31:43Uh, it, it's interesting though because there, there's been some interesting pieces on, uh, Reddit recently about how their user community has kind of taken control-

Tim Fulton 31:52Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 31:52... uh, of the platform. Like some of the worst people in their community-

Tim Fulton 31:56Right

Walker Evans 31:56... are kind of the biggest users of the platform now, and how that's kind of affecting, you know, people's views of, of that service and that platform.

Tim Fulton 32:04Have you thankfully not had to really deal with it? This was not a response to that sort of thing happening.

Walker Evans 32:09No, no, no. We, we basically shut it down because it wasn't who we are anymore.

Tim Fulton 32:13Okay.

Walker Evans 32:13You know? And we, we wanted to focus on what we do well. You know, a- as a business, even as a person, you know, there's only so many hours in the day, so are you gonna do the three things that you do well, or are you gonna do 20 things kinda half-assed?

Tim Fulton 32:25Right. What are you guys looking forward to in 2017?

Walker Evans 32:28Getting that IKEA open in the summer.

Tim Fulton 32:30Summer 2017. Well, you guys are expanding your events, right?

Walker Evans 32:34In 2017-

Tim Fulton 32:35Mm-hmm

Walker Evans 32:35... we, uh, we have, uh, a lot of new event ideas that we're looking to, to implement. We really ramped up our events and kind of expanded them in 2016.

Tim Fulton 32:43Mm-hmm.

Walker Evans 32:43So 2017's gonna be more about kind of refining different ideas and swapping some things out and, and addressing some things for, for moving forward and making everything more exciting for 2017.

Tim Fulton 32:53Great. Great. Anne, Walker, thank you guys so much for your time. Have a great holiday and have a great new year.

Anne Evans 32:59Thanks. You too, Tim.

Walker Evans 33:00Thank you.

Tim Fulton 33:09Thank you for listening to The Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of The Confluence Cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your local reporter. If you're interested in sponsoring The Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a good new year.