After days of blogging about food..  (restaurants, pizza, cake, ice cream... no.. wait,  ice cream won't be published until later today...) on both Discover Columbus and Columbus Best Blog ... nows a great time to  bring up weight....

Thanks to Brad Nix's Atlanta 575 Real Estate Blog article"Move to Suburbia and get fat"  catching my attention with an article in Science News, the week of January 20, 2007 enttitled  "Weighing In on City Planning" by Ben Harder is subtitled "Could smart urban design keep people fit and trim?"    There is no mention of Columbus...

We've heard Columbus called "FAT!" by various sources ...  but which comes first the fried chicken or the three egg omelet? The question is do neighborhoods make us fat or do we choose neighborhoods because we need more room... the Science News info is the same people.. same theories the Smart Growth Online  website used when they published "Mixed-Use Neighborhoods Decrease Risk of Obesity" in 2004 which also included:  

"Skeptics, like Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions president Samuel R. Staley of Columbus, Ohio, think maybe less physically active people simply prefer sprawling neighborhoods, while the more active like compact ones. In a free society, he said, ''People should have the choice to live somewhere where they can be fat.''

The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions

Please visit Columbus Best Blog if this has not turned you off eating... and tell me about your Top 10 Favorite Central Ohio Restaurants....

Copyright 2006 Discover Columbus and Maureen McCabe

Columbus is a "cheap place" to live

According to Forbes.com 

Cheap is good. Writing to those who can telecommute in the 21st century a special report told the movers and shakers in big coastal cities to consider relocating to 150 "Cheap Places" across the US including Columbus Ohio. 

Do not be alarmed Steve Forbes may  walk across the screen talking ..... I read this article a few times yesterday.  Steve must have been off on Sunday...this morning he startled me.   

Special Report -150 Cheap Places To Live by Rich Karlgaard 

"This is the 21st century, man! Today you can enjoy the best of both worlds:

1. Live where you want.

2. Get paid like you're in a big city

3. Never be isolated or bored."



Columbus is an IQ Campus according to the report:

" What Columbus lacks in geographic variety, it makes up for with a diverse economy and populace. Singles dig Columbus for its low cost of living and hip city neighborhoods like German Village and the Short North—half of the city's population is between eighteen and forty-four. And BET.com rated Columbus the single best city in the nation for black families in 2002."

In another current list Columbus was just one of 10 best cities for black families.

Our neighbors in Cinci, Cleveland, Dayton and Indy made the list as "Bohemian Bargains."   I started worrying that Columbus had been slighted but then noticed IQ Campus and knew that would be the category to look for Columbus. 

There are two awards voted for by the general public at the Parade of Homes each year, the People's Choice awards.  There is an award for Favorite House and a second award for Favorite Interior Decor. 

The winner of the Central Ohio BIA 's People's Choice Award at the Parade of Homes was New England Homes for Favorite House!  The winner of the Peoples Choice Award was New England Homes for Favorite Interior Decor!  This is according to a BIA Blueprint a BIA / Daily Reporter Publication dated Monday July 11, 2006 (Monday was the 10th of July.)   Today is Tuesday July 11, 2006.

The Sheffield Park home was gorgeous inside and out.  I worked one short shift at the house during the Parade of Homes and all the people who came through said it was the best house!

Congratulations to New England Homes, Doug, John and Jim... I think.   The New England Homes house was the Fondation House for the 2006 BIA Parade of Homes.  

Parade of Homes -  Awards

Parade of Homes 2006 - Sheffield Park  

Copyright 2006 Columbus Best Blog and Maureen McCabe

Cul-de-sacs are in the national news and on real estate blogs.  Nationally cul-de-sacs are under fire from urban planners, architects and other critics. Cul-de-sac's still seem popular in Columbus and it's suburbs.

National Public Radio (NPR)  had a story about the cul-de-sac being the root of all evil (urban sprawl, suburban lifestyles, not being able to walk to the grocery store, use of automobiles,  global warming, obesity in America...... etc.etc. etc. OK that IS highly exagerated...*)  WSJ Real Estate Journal also had an article about cul-de-sacs  written by Amir Efrati, on The Wall Street Journal Online.

"And because most cul-de-sacs aren't connected by sidewalks, the only way for people who live there to run errands is to get in their cars and join the traffic." 

Many Central Ohio cul-de-sacs are connected via sidewalks to the Drives, Lanes  and Boulevards within the development but no you can't easily walk to the store in most of Columbus suburbs.  According to the  WSJ Online article:

"If these critics have a leader, it is probably William Lucy, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Virginia. He says a national debate is brewing about the future of the cul-de-sac."

Lucy's new book started the "national debate."  A University of Virginia press release says: 

"Professors William Lucy and David Phillips' New Book Featured on NPR's "Morning Edition" In a story entitled, "Cul-de-Sacs: Suburban Dream or Dead End?," John Neilsen of NPR News discusses the American mythology surrounding cul-de-sacs and the effect they have on the suburban lifestyle. The research of Urban and Environmental Planning Professors William Lucy and David Phillips is quoted, and an excerpt of their new book, Tomorrow's Cities, Tomorrow's Suburbs," is available for download from the NPR website."

The NPR Article says:

"In Charlotte, where the suburbs have emerged as a leading cul-de-sac battleground, a recent study by transportation planners found that almost all of the city's heavily congested intersections were located near residential developments from the 1960s, '70s and '80s, which are filled with cul-de-sac neighborhoods. The biggest traffic problems aren't in the old central cities these days, says Orlando, Fla.-based traffic engineer Walter Kulash, "but rather in the suburban periphery."

"Some communities are moving away from culs-de-sac.  It's thought that communities designed around culs-de-sac discourage walking to destinations and increase the amount of car use.."

The NPR article says:

"But one important group still appears to be in love with the cul-de-sac: homebuyers."

Remarks about newly constructed Central Ohio listings on cul-de-sacs include:

"HARD TO FIND ONE FLR PLAN ON QUIET CUL-DE-SAC IN RURAL SETTING"

"Quality, Luxury & Best Price on the Court!"

"LARGE KIT W/ 42' MAPLE CABINETS AND GRANITE COUNTERS, COMPLETE MEDIA ROOM W/ BAR, JACK & JILL BATH AND ON A CUL-DE-SAC"

" All of this located on a cul-de-sac!"    

NEW (homes built in 2006)  Southern Delaware County neighborhoods where I found descriptions of cul-de-sacs in the MLS (the multiple listing service of the Columbus Board of REALTORS® ) included  Seldom Seen Acres, Scioto Reserve, Meadows of Millcreek, Wedgewood Park Estates, Woodland Glen, Cheshire Crossing , The Shores, Tartan West and Rutherford Estates.  Buyers in  New Albany, Buckeye Lake, Madison and Union County developments also seem to still covet the cul-de-sac.    It seems the cul-de-sac is alive and well in Central Ohio.   

cul-de-sac on other real estate blogs