May. 26, 2006 - "Hip and happening?"

Columbus was described as "hip-sans-snootiness!"  

"Columbus? Hip and happening? Yes, it's true"  is the headline of an article in last Sunday's San Diego Union Tribune. Writer Laura Walcher  visited Columbus for a long weekend this spring writes as if being a "Cow Town"  is a bad thing...  "Cow Town? Nope. NOW Town.  Other than that it is a great article about Columbus.                 

Subtitled : "Ohio capital sheds image as a Podunk town"

By Laura Walcher
May 21, 2006

"These days, Columbus, Ohio, qualifies for heavy-duty respect and guaranteed never-boring fun for visitors."
                          

The Short North and German Village (GVS site)  are Columbus neighborhoods that get a nod in Walcher's article.   The only restaurant that got a mention is Schmidt's in German Village, a Columbus tradition.  Maybe Walcher was dieting during her visit and one Bahama Mama and a cream puff put her over the edge?  I wondered if she did not have a chance to visit other great Columbus restaurants  during her visit.  

Events mentioned included Oktoberfest, The Quarter Horse Congress, ComFest,  Vaud-Villities and the upcoming Columbus Arts Festival...  

Places Walcher mentioned (and actually visited)  included the Franklin Park Conservatory site of this weekend's Asian Festival.  Also mentioned but not by name, The Schott.

Do we have the worlds largest population of Amish in Columbus? In the city of Columbus?  Ohio has an Amish population, but Columbus?  Walcher wrote of the diversity of our Columbus population, Somali, Ethiopian but missed the Hispanic and Asian populations...here's what Walcher wrote of Columbus:

"The population of nearly 750,000 adds rich diversity to Columbus, where Somalis, Ethiopians, Russians and more find gentle hospitality, reasonably priced housing and job opportunity. "

"Tolerance is the name of the Columbus game � whether toward its ample Jewish community, gays (the third largest enclave in the country, after San Francisco and New York), Afro-Americans (BET, 2002: �the best city in America for Afro-American families�), Appalachians, who move from the mountains in Kentucky to the city, and of course the largest population of Amish in the world."

Columbus is a  good place Walcher goes on to observe we still have trees:

"Leave it to Columbus, amid the vitality of its community, cultural, commercial and educational development, to keep enough trees to remind us all of our American roots."  

Maybe Walcher could not see the cows for the trees?

Previously on Columbus Best Blog:

Asian Festival

German Village Neighborhood

Short North Neighborhood

More Short North Neighborhood

Even More Short North Neighborhood

Columbus is sometimes called a Cowtown

What's Happening - Local Weekly Guides Central Ohio

Copyright 2006 Columbus Best Blog and Maureen McCabe