The 1990s were supposed to be the decade of the American city’s rebirth.The most obvious example is New York City, where a drop in crime and the revitalization of Times Square has revived it as a tourist destination. In Ohio, Cleveland has parlayed new sports arenas and the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame into removing the albatross it carried as the nation’s running joke.Other Ohio cities have seen the Cleveland success story and followed suit. In Akron, a downtown minor league baseball stadium has awakened the long-dead area.Then there’s Columbus.The Columbus inferiority complex defines the city. Whether it’s the uneasy way we call it “Cowtown” or how quickly we spout out that we’re Ohio’s biggest city, even though trounced in metropolitan area by the big boys to the north and south, we’re always unsure of ourselves. Issue 1 was to be our vindication. With a gateway-esque complex combined with the new COSI and other riverfront development, nothing could stand in the way of making downtown viable again.Nothing, except the voters.But salvation arrived in the form of Nationwide chairman Dimon McFerson. The arena would be built after all and we would get a National Hockey League team. Now nothing could stop the downtown push.Nothing, except Crew owner Lamar Hunt and Limited chairman Les Wexner.There are two visions of the future of this city, and all Ohio cities for that matter. One is that downtown is already developed and once was a thriving city center, so concentrate on bringing that back through new attractions. The other is that Ohio is a huge state with vast tracts of flat land, so build outward.Guess what vision’s winning.It’s called urban sprawl, and it’s destroying the greatness of Ohio. As Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders’ put it, “My City Was Gone”: The farms of Ohio/Had been replaced by shopping malls/And Musak filled the air/From Seneca to Cuyahoga FallsChrissie was raised in Akron not far from the Falls, where I grew up, and she hit it dead on. There, every open piece of land is being invaded by crappy shopping and trashy restaurants.But no city epitomizes building gone bad more than Columbus.That’s where Lamar and Les come in. After Issue 1 failed, Lamar went to Dublin with his soccer stadium. Through some legislative butt-kissing and the thievery known as “eminent domain,” it looks like relatively untouched farm land will soon be invaded by beer-drinking, soccer-loving yahoos.But let’s not be too hard on Lamar. After all, we did kick him out of the ‘Shoe and voted down his dream downtown stadium.Les is another story.Drive to Morse Road and follow it from the Continent to I-270 and see what it offers. Take a running tab of how many businesses along the stretch are actually different. The restaurants are all TGI Chili Max and Applebees, and the stores sell loads of the same crap. Then, when you get to Morse Crossing, take a right to see the future.Just what we needed: More crap! What you’ll see is a disgusting amount of open land getting raped by Wex in biblical proportions. It’s called Easton Town Center, and I hope the “town center” part is meant to be ironic.When it’s done it’s supposed to have more per-area shopping than even the Mall of America. Besides all the Wex stores you can imagine, it was just announced that a 30-screen theater connected to an All-Star Cafe and Planet Hollywood will be built.Where will the hillbillies go? It’ll be a tough choice: Hockey or overpriced food and the suit worn by Will Smith in “Men in Black.” The science museum or Ken Griffey Jr.’s jock strap. The riverfront or the neon light front.Urban sprawl wins again.Thanks, Wex. With the revamping of South Campus, it could connect with Short North to be a corridor to downtown. But it looks like a corridor to nothing.Ohio is dead. Everything that distinguished us as special has been built over and covered with shiny lights. All the time we worried about being called Cowtown, we never realized that’s part of our greatness. Now the only cows you’ll see will be on the glowing signs of steakhouse chains.Heh-ho, way to go Ohio.
Nathan Crabbe is a sophomore from Akron. He can recommend several malls if you ever visit.
