Updates & Actions!

Hello again, neighbor! If you’re new, we are obligated to welcome you, since that’s kind of what we do, we welcome newcomers! So, in the spirit of openness and inclusion, welcome to Neighbors for More Neighbors—Columbus! We are a grassroots group of residents who support building more housing in our growing region. We’re excited to be at the beginning of this movement that says “yes” to more housing, and to have your support.

Our action items this week are limited to

1. City of Columbus Zoning Survey, and
2. Letting City Council know you support more housing on Whittier Street!

Take a minute to check out some of the latest housing-related news in our region and peek at the bottom of this email to check out our inspiring winter read! Send your ideas for content our way—anything from ridiculous videos to super-serious studies about housing topics. [Build 🔨 more ⬆ housing 🏘]

You probably already did, but take the City of Columbus' Zoning Survey!

The City of Columbus has initiated the process to update the zoning code, and they need our input! While there have been many revisions over the years, the Columbus Zoning Code has not undergone a comprehensive update since the 1950s.

Let city officials know that you want a zoning code that will:

• increase residential density,
• eliminate exclusionary zoning practices, and
• build a greater diversity of housing stock.

For more on what that means, check out our blog post. The survey will be available through February 28.

Whittier Street Project Moves to City Council

The Pizzuti Company’s proposal to add 263 housing units on the site of the former Giant Eagle at Jaegar and Whittier streets has passed the Columbus Development Commission and will soon move to Columbus City Council for a final vote. The proposal was approved by the South Side Area Commission and by all required city departments.

How this project supports our values:

• It adds more housing
• It’s located in a walkable and transit-oriented community
• It adds more neighbors to an area that has lost thousands of people

What you can do:

To voice your support for this high-quality example of urban infill, contact Columbus City Council.

Here are your links

Of the newsletters we subscribe to, links are our favorite part. Sharing the weirdness of the internet is fun.

• Number of Downtown residents to hit 10,000 (Columbus Dispatch | 24 Feb. 2021)
  Pop quiz: How many downtown residents were there in 1960?*
• Nearly 500 student apartments proposed south of OSU (Columbus Dispatch | 23 Feb. 2021)
• Columbus overhauling zoning code as city struggles with redevelopment issues (Columbus Dispatch | 23 Feb. 2021)
• Impact Of Population Stagnation (WOSU | 18 Feb. 2021)
• Study: The Effect of Market-Rate Development on Neighborhood Rents (UCLA | 17 Feb. 2021)
• Is the City’s Tax Abatement Policy Meeting Affordable Housing Need? (Columbus Underground | 17 Feb. 2021)
• Columbus-area home construction jumps in 2020, but not enough to meet demand (Columbus Dispatch | 16 Feb. 2021)
• Boise’s Affordable Housing Land Trust Strategy Includes Office Conversions (Next City | 16 Feb. 2021)
• Treplus planning 'active adult' housing community in northeast Columbus near New Albany (Columbus Business First | 13 Feb. 2021)
• Healthy Homes houses, built and renovated to be affordable, now selling for big numbers on South Side (Columbus Dispatch | 11 Feb. 2021)
• New construction can’t keep up with housing demand in Columbus
  (WBNS 10TV | 5 Feb. 2021)
• Are we trapped in another housing bubble? A rapid rise in home prices has some experts worried (Columbus Dispatch/USA Today | 4 Feb. 2021)
• VIDEO: The cutest dog trotting down a hallway to Harry Belafonte (unmute)

From our Bookshelf

Possibly the reigning text of the more neighbors philosophy in housing is the 2020 book Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America, by Bay Area-native and economics reporter Conor Dougherty. This book was recommended to us by a veteran-housing expert in Columbus and we’re still making our way through it. But we couldn’t help sharing an excerpt to whet your appetite. It helps put into context many of the concurrent narratives dominating housing conversations in Columbus, while not attempting to diminish the lived experiences of marginalized populations.

“It has become a popular narrative, at least in a certain kind of high-cost city, to say that the reason housing has become so expensive is that working-class neighborhoods are being gentrified, foreign investors are parking money in U.S. condominiums, houses and apartments are become commodified by hedge funds, and companies like Airbnb are turning rental buildings into hotels. These things are all happening, and they’ve been exacerbated by years of federal disinvestment in affordable housing, a tax code that subsidizes wealthy homeowners at the expense of poor renters, and a building industry that hasn’t had any meaningful innovation in decades.”

With so many revelatory lines, it was hard to pick just one little excerpt. But it will be super-easy for you to pick up a copy of Golden Gates at a local bookseller, like Prologue or Gramercy Books. Please don’t think twice about sending your book and article recommendations our way!

*Pop quiz answer: There were 19,483 residents in Downtown Columbus in 1960.

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