I’d like to make a shocking revelation: Columbus has a south side. I know it’s hard to believe, especially for those of you who have come here from other places, but it’s true. I’m sure even some of you native Columbus residents find it a little far-fetched.I know, because that’s where I’m from. I also know that the south end is the redheaded stepchild of the city of Columbus. An embarrassment which it hides constantly and sometimes actively harms. Ever hear of the trash-burning power plant? A pollution-spewing disaster that was inflicted on the city of Columbus by big-money developers? Well, they didn’t put it in Bexley. They put it where they knew they could get away with it, south of Greenlawn Avenue, where the residents aren’t rich and influential enough to have it moved away. It’s in good company: at the place where Frank Road becomes State Route 104, there are not one or two, but three noxious air-polluting plants. There’s also the sewage treatment facility and the rendering plant, where road kill are taken to decompose. As anyone who’s ever driven by that area on I-71 in the hot summer can tell you, they’re no laughing matter. The smell is bad enough to cause involuntary dry heaves. It peels the paint off nearby homes.But they’ve gotta go somewhere, right? What bothers me is that too often, when a necessary public nuisance has to go somewhere, it ends up on the south end. Dublin gets the Chiller hockey arena; the south side gets the city jail. The northeast side gets Easton; the south side gets sewage treatment. The reason is obvious: the south side is poor.Now, I’m not saying there aren’t poor people elsewhere in Columbus. But it is hard to argue that the south side, which is made up, to a large degree, of the working poor, isn’t an easy target. Things are not equal. I remember a few years ago when a cellular company built a tower in Upper Arlington to route cellular phone calls. The residents forced them to move it because it was ruining their cable reception! Yet they think nothing of dumping their trash and dangerous air pollutants on the other end of town.The south side is also neglected in other, more subtle ways. Listen to a traffic report sometime. Pay attention to how much coverage is given to St. Rt. 315, I-71 north and the north outer belt. Traffic backs up for more than a mile every day heading north into the I-71 split, but if it gets a mention, it’s only in passing. But as soon as they shut down a lane on I-270 north, it gets live coverage. Or how about events? When was the last time you attended a concert south of the Brewery District? The nicest restaurant south of German Village is Bob Evans. The south end doesn’t even have a movie theater, much less a Lennox, an Imax or a Polaris.There is a map on the wall as you wait in line at the BMV location near my house which shows the city of Columbus as a collage of images from around town. They place downtown at the bottom of the map. How appropriate. This seems to sum up the way the city is viewed by many residents. People on the south end are no worse than anyone in Gahanna, Reynoldsburg or Upper Arlington; they’re just poorer. They certainly don’t deserve to be mistreated because of it.
Andy Henderson is a junior English major from Columbus.