In response to letter to the editor (see below):
I’ve said for three years now that the Hilltop is the no man’s land between 70W/W. Broad St and Wilson Rd. It’s even an embarrassment going west of Wilson Rd with the new sidewalks, lighting, and streets and the wonderful median strip that was beautifully filled with weeds this year. But let’s go further west on W. Broad St and see the wonderful developments going on in Lincoln Village. Their median strip was beautifully kept with sustainable plants that made a pleasure to go thru Lincoln Village. So why has the Hilltop failed and Franklinton and Lincoln Village have succeeded? Perhaps we are a lost cause. Perhaps we are the dumping ground of Section 8 vouchers from other areas of the city that had to move those populations out in order to revitalize. Perhaps we have land development banks that claim to be doing us good and patronize our community but really they are sectioning “poor” dollars to our neighborhoods in developments so that they can take the higher end dollars to better neighborhoods. Perhaps we are the new “project” place to be for homeless shelters, free medical facilities, and mental institutions after all that’s the people we have. Perhaps we are the famous place for out-of-state LLCs to buy up all our housing dirt cheap and then renting these properties unfixed, broken to people desperate for housing that will pay the high rent prices because they don’t qualify for other housing. And of course let’s thank and kiss the asses of our great Columbus City officials who walked our streets and talked the talk but still shy away from any tough stance on slumlords, tougher regulations from LLC’s buying up property, especially from out-of-state, and setting up slum housing right next to Hilltop residents who still give a damn but are damned for trying to get the city to do something. Let’s not even get into our new claim to fame of being the heroin place to be for the City of Columbus. Let’s continue to allow the city to dump clean needles and naloxone which we all get to view daily discarded in our alleys and sidewalks. Let’s continue to thank the City of Columbus for continually setting loose habitual drug sellers so that they continue to come back to our communities and continue our fame. Let’s continue to thank the city for turning a deaf ear on reported call-ins of known drug houses in our communities because resources can only be devoted to the “big gamers” while our small time drug dealers flourish on our streets and laugh and boldly sell in our streets because they know they are untouchable – they know the game. And finally let’s not begrudge the Hilltoppers that moved here and tried to do their best to make a better community but realize they are only one against many and are leaving in defeat because they only want a safe, clean, and sustainable, vibrant place to live.
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Letter to the Editor: City is turning its back on Hilltop
Saturday November 26, 2016 5:00 AM
In his 2016 State of the City address, Mayor Andrew J. Ginther stated, “We know there are other neighborhoods that could benefit from more city investment.” He then outlined plans for the Hilltop and Linden neighborhoods (Dispatch article, Feb. 25). However, it seems Ginther has quickly abandoned the Hilltop.
Since Ginther took office, Linden has emerged as the ostensible favorite child, with promised inclusion in the Smart City transportation program, offices for the new Department of Neighborhoods, and tax incentives for a new Huntington headquarters (“Huntington investing in Northland, Linden,” Dispatch article, Wednesday).
On the Hilltop, it is more of the same neglect: The city approved a tax credit to a major employer, Big Lots, to move offices out of the area (“Big Lots gets city tax break,” Dispatch article, July 19), and COTA is actually cutting bus service on some lines after voters in November renewed a sales tax for the transit system. The current administration takes credit for Hague Avenue improvements and sidewalk and sewer improvements, but these long-overdue Hilltop improvements were already set to be made under the administration of Mayor Michael B. Coleman.
Watching the promised investment go to Ginther’s pet project and not balancing the investment between the two neighborhoods is yet another signal to the West Side that City Hall is leaving the Hilltop further and further behind. How disappointing.
Ruth Thurgood Mundy
Columbus
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