Local
The city of Columbus can now tout it's very own bike share program thanks to a $2.3 million contract signed with Alta Bicycle share. If you have been anywhere near downtown in the last month you may have noticed the shiny unmanned stands stocked with bikes and evidently powered by a lone mounted solar panel. When I was approached by my editor about writing an article about riding the CoGo, I was excited about the opportunity to explore the cutting edge of sustainable urban transportation, what I found was a little disappointing.
Columbus attorney William Todd, Chief Executive Officer of real estate development firm Develop88 LTD, submitted a purchase offer to the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) on August 9th, in an effort to purchase and rehabilitate ten of the 35 buildings of the Poindexter Village housing community, which is now being demolished.
Todd said, “the goal of every revitalization effort should be to get private investment to turn these neighborhoods around. We can’t continue to rely on federal dollars, when the private sector is willing to step up and invest. These are great buildings with a rich history of particular importance to Columbus’s African American community. These buildings are ripe for reinvestment, and we are willing to bring private dollars to get this project done.”
Develop88 Managing Partner Beth Gano Cattunar says “we were excited by the vision of a new future for Poindexter Village – one that retained a strong sense of service and history while breaking from the government housing past. Every neighborhood is as unique as the people that live there. We want to build on the strong foundation of the past while adding vision for the future.”
The obvious question is, “so why in the hell would you start an independent print newspaper business – jumping into a news industry in rapid decline?”
Unfortunately, our best answer is “well, somebody has to do it!” And to borrow from Richard Nixon’s 1972 campaign slogan, we believe an independent newspaper is needed in Columbus “now, more than ever.”
Why? Because every big city needs a free and independent weekly press – a serious and politically astute newspaper that is fun, funny and fundamental to its healthy democracy. And we don’t have one. And we really are a big city.
So let’s call it our civic duty – our expression of our love for Columbus – to bring The Columbus Free Press to the people. And as for a business model … well, let’s just say that we are the kind of people who buck the trends, rage against the machine, spit into the wind (well, actually just once – and we won’t do that again) … and, the truth of the matter is, we think we’re smarter than every other Columbus independent weekly publisher that ever has been and that we can make the numbers work.