Part One
The “city” of Columbus searches in vain for an identity and a history. Its basic identity is its lack of an established, broadly accepted identity, by any accepted definition, however contradictory that may seem. In fact, the more than two centuries old, state capital city’s best-known identity is its very lack of an identity.
Columbus is known for its exceptionality. But this is not a “good thing,” especially not a saleable product for the city that is for sale to private profiteers 24/7. Nor for the only city of its size that lacks a representative city government, functional public transit, and neither professional football, basketball, or baseball teams.
No college football team, especially one with a cartoon mascot, can compensate for these absences. Of course, Columbus does have a well-deserved reputation as the franchise restaurant, hotel, and shop capital of North America. Those qualities are known widely as The Columbus Way.
Both visitors and residents identify Columbus by its dirty, unsanitary, and broken streets, and the undistinguished quality of its major and minor institutions. In the past three years, in contrast to all other sizable cities, it is known for its plaque of unregulated electronic scooters and bicycles.
A full accounting for these patterns requires a substantial well-documented book. Not surprisingly, no university or commercial press—including Ohio State University Press, the publisher of the only two documented studies of the city but more picture books than works of research and interpretation—thinks that there is a market for any serious Columbus publications. The few unprofessional local histories were written by amateurs and published by self-publishing, “pay to play” houses.
To begin, the causes for this are both direct and indirect. As with the long-term conduct of city government, most major institutions including The Ohio State University, and major private and public enterprises, the interconnections of lack of relevant knowledge and expertise, relentless profit and influence-seeking regardless of the consequences, and active malevolence including often breaking the laws are inseparable. Compare Columbus to other cities past and present, including Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Detroit at their worst. Columbus is exceptional.
In the case of the City—centering on Council and mayor in name only and its agencies, this includes breaking the very laws that they themselves have passed over time and accepting salaries from public funds to enforce them.
The contradictions are incalculable. The damages and costs to residents and the city itself are countless, and to date the penalties minimal. City Hall sits in the shade of the State Capitol, its statutes of namesake Christopher Columbus in boxes likely in perpetuity.
With the swamp so expansive and deep—far beyond the Scioto creek or the imagined environmentally destructive joining of the waterways of the Metro Parks, it is hard to know where to begin. But both past and present, City Hall is the center of the ever- spreading swamp.
I begin my overview with the physical city: the Division of so-called Public but actually Private Service. I have probed this huge, disorganized, dysfunctional, anti-public, and radically profiteering unit on several occasions. In any city with either or both a qualified city manager and representative city council, it would have completely reorganized, and its director ordered to resign or terminated.
Jennifer Gallagher has been under investigation by the State of Ohio for years due to her awarding construction contracts to her husband’s company. That is a violation of conflict-of-interest standards across city and state regulations. But in Columbus, she remains in office and in power, in close relationships with Mayor, council chief of staff, and council members.
Private Service is directly relevant to my concerns because it includes Zoning and Neighborhoods (and inspection/enforcement); parking; public utilities; and approval first of short-term rental vehicles and then scooters. Although one would never recognize it by traversing the city, Private Service is also responsible for the nonexistent inspection and repair of streets and sidewalks.
One disjointed out of control division, almost none of whose employees know their jobs, the relevant laws, and basic civil courtesy. Look at the record. Gaze across the city. Speak with anyone who is not a private property developer and large-property owner about their experiences.
To summarize, without consultation with Columbus Police Department or public input, Private Service under the influence of out of city, state, and US private corporations, destroyed the city’s established parking payment, parking permit, and seniors’ parking systems. Profitable contracts were awarded in each which harmed residents and made it much more difficult for CPD to do their jobs. Money changed hands.
The same bad business brought 1000s of scooters, especially to OSU and the University District. Unlike every other US city and campus, there is no regulation to prevent scooters—and bicycles-- riding on sidewalks and left blocking sidewalks. Both are illegal. We know that the four scooter rentals companies reward the City and OSU in order to do harm to their community members.
Anti-Public Service is also responsible for the lack of inspection and repair of streets and sidewalks, and compelling the owners of private sidewalks to make repairs. Look around Columbus. There is no inspection and enforcement. There is only profit-taking and corruption. That’s what makes Private Service thrive. All the way to City Council, City Attorney’s Office, and the “Mayor.” Large property owners reward the City for its service to them.
Even more dangerous, Zoning and Neighborhoods with inspection and enforcement are also part of the ungoverned and out-of-control Private Service. This is precisely why so many buildings, especially homes for underserved populations, collapse, explode, and catch on fire. Their dangers are well known to every resident except the inspectors and their division heads.
In sum, among other City agencies, Zoning is paid not to protect taxpayers and the poorer people of Columbus. Inspectors under the orders of dishonest, rude, and unqualified Tony Celebreeze and also division head Scott Messer, who claims a law degree (from OSU not Capital University Law School), are ordered not to enforce the laws. Some inspectors—for example Hedrick and Huggins in the neighborhoods--never knew or enforced the laws. They will not report violations visible before their eyes. They lie brazenly, and walk all the way to the bank. Consider Celebreeze’s out of order and out of tune lying about the Greyhound Bus Terminal relocation. The Columbus Way.
Doing their jobs, serving the public whose taxes pay their salaries, does not serve their best interests, in their own and Columbus political economic calculations.
When he was actually doing his job—temporarily, before he became one of the City’s highest paid employees, Messer overruled them. He once walked with me for an hour in my University District neighborhood, agreeing immediately with every violation I point out.
But that does not matter. That lengthy series of confirmations led to no action at all. Messer and the Assistant City Attorney Steve Dunbar, with whom he works, refused to answer a single question about this from me or any of my neighbors.
Over the next months, I learned that the City, OSU, and the landlords in the University District secretly and illegally colluded not to enforce the zoning code and conduct regular inspections. Despite the record of reported violations falling to almost none, and the testimony of unhappy inspectors confirming this illegal conspiracy, not one involved official—not Messer, Dunbar or his boss Zach Klein, or relevant OSU assistant vice president--will acknowledge, let alone respond to a single direct question and request for an explanation. No one.
City officials’ ordering inspectors to ignore zoning violations and not enforce the law has multiple impacts. As noted, it threatens the safety and well-being of all residents including student tenants and long-time homeowners. It violates our legal and civil rights beginning with the “Equal Protection for All Under the Law” clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The City’s violation of its own laws promotes widening circles of illegal conduct by both absentee private landlords and student tenants. The long history—reported by the 1000s to under-funded, understaffed OSU Student Legal Services and often taken to court (especially NorthSteppe, HomeTeam, OSUlive)—of landlord violations of laws only worsens with both active and tacit City and OSU support. Lives have been lost.
The collusion between property owners and tenants—exacerbated by OSU and the City—spreads like a disease. Few know, care, or recognize that the University District remains a historic residentially zoned district. Contrary to landlords, laws apply. Contrary to too many students, and some CPD officers, the U.D. is not “campus.” Even if it were, City laws apply.
Students are either uninformed or misinformed. In some cases, on my own street, absentee landlords like Matt and Reed Cooper ignore the letter of the law—after asking me to share relevant sections with them. They both actively and tacitly encourage illegal activities and active harassment of senior citizen homeowning neighbors.
Almost every one of their properties has visible zoning violations. The City knows; there are no consequences.
The Coopers set an example of dishonesty and disrespect for their young renters. They know that—for now at least—they are immune from the City’s system of injustice. Of course, none of the technically illegal (by actual city charter and codes) multiple property owners with houses rented to more than 5 unrelated persons live in Columbus. Few city officials and employees do, including major division and division heads. 80 per cent of CPD officers live outside Columbus. There is a clear series of patterns and relationships.
HomeTeam, NorthSteppe, and anti-repair and maintenance OSUlive all cater to students escaping fraternity and sorority house minimal regulations, and out-of-state students searching for housing late. Formerly responsible Nicastro and Cope follow their bigger brothers in allowing illegality—sometimes promoting it—and disparaging former neighbors and long-term residents. First Place Realty is Last Place when it comes to zoning violations. None of them replies to communications from neighboring property owners who assisted them in past years.
OSU is paid by landlords not to inform students about the property owners who are well known for breaking the law and cheating their tenants. OSU will not warn its own students about criminal landlords, especially if they are donors. OSU does not tell students about the legal status and history of its adjacent University District, Columbus laws that affect them, or their own rights.
Why? It is not in OSU’s economic interests and does not fit OSU’s business model. NorthSteppe Reality has given OSU at least $5 million. Owner Michael Stickney is not an alumnus.
The hell with the public including homeowners, taxpayers, and voters. The hell with human lives from senior citizen long-term homeowners to 20-year-old student tenants. A great many rental properties do not meet basic elements of the City code. Porches and laws overflow with flammable furniture, illegal lighting, and illegal structures of all sorts. The laws are clear. But the hell with that. Inspectors “see no visible violations.” Ever.
Lives are at stake. On the morning of Aug. 16, a major fire erupted in a NorthSteppe house (listed under a shell company name in the county assessor’s records). The house was uninspected. The fire was electrical. The smoke detectors did not work. The fire department rescued 10 young men.
OSU never sent out a Safety Alarm, nor did they send an alert 3 weeks later when a 77-year-old woman was stabbed to death in her home a block away. NorthSteppe began repairs the morning about the fire before the fire department inspected. Neither the City nor OSU said one word. It is not in their interests.
CPD does not patrol regularly. OSU “patrols” are show very occasionally and do not tell.
There will be more endangered lives and deaths—by illegal commission and/or omission.
References
Kevin Cox, Boomtown Columbus: Ohio’s Sunbelt City and How Developers Got Their Way. Ohio State University Press, 2021
Mansel G. Blackford, Columbus, Ohio: Two Centuries of Business and Environmental Change. Ohio State University Press, 2016
by Harvey J. Graff
“Columbus’ identity crisis and its media,” Columbus Underground, July 23, 2021
“Response to Columbus Alive, ‘The list: Reasons that Columbus Underground
opinion piece is trash,’ by Andy Downing and Joel Oliphint, Columbus Alive, July
26: A visit to journalism fantasy land,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Nov.
7, 2021
“Notes on current politics in Columbus and Ohio: Thoughts in response to questions
from my editor,” Columbus Free Press, Oct. 21, 2021
“Columbus City Government is Undemocratic and Disorganized: It’s 2021 and we
need a revolution in this city,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Nov. 20,
2021
“Columbus searches for its Downtown with historical, urbanist, and developers’
blinders,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Dec. 22, 2021
“Columbus, Ohio, searches to be a city: The myth of the Columbus Way,” Busting
Myths, Columbus Free Press, Jan. 9, 2022
“Intel and the Ohio Way: Secrecy, deals, public neglect, myth making, and re
election campaigning,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Jan. 27, 2022
“Columbus’ major ‘news media’ against democratic politics and the public,”
Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Mar. 10, 2022
“Is Columbus really a City?” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Apr. 7, 2022
“Columbus isn’t Cowtown or Silicon Valley Heartland; It’s the lawless wild-wild-
Midwest,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, April 20, 2022
“How Columbus, Ohio State University, and major developers destroyed a historic
neighborhood,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Part One, Apr. 26, 2022
“How Columbus, Ohio State University, and major developers destroyed a historic
neighborhood,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Part Two, Apr. 29, 2022
“How Columbus, Ohio State University, and major developers destroyed a historic
neighborhood—A continuing legacy,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, May
2, 2022
“My short life as a ‘civic leader’ in the directionless maze called the City of
Columbus, Part One, Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, May 11, 2022
“My short life as a ‘civic leader’ in the directionless maze called the City of
Columbus, Part Two,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, May 14, 2022
“Franklinton, 1797-2022 and Columbus’ Contradictions, Part 1,” Columbus Free
Press, June 5, 2022
“Franklinton, 1797-2022 and Columbus’ Contradictions, Part 2,” Columbus Free
Press, June 9, 2022
“How the Harvard Business School and the Columbus Way attempt to enrich each
other: Lessons in the promiscuous relationships between Columbus’ private
interests and an elite university’s profiteering,” with Bob Eckhart, Busting Myths,
Columbus Free Press, June 12, 2022
“An open letter to Kenny McDonald, new head of the ‘Columbus Partnership,’”
Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, June 16, 2022
“The Columbus Way versus the rights of residents, Part One,” Busting Myths,
Columbus Free Press, June 21, 2022
“The Columbus Way versus the rights of residents, Part Two, Busting Myths,
Columbus Free Press, June 24, 2022
“The Columbus Way versus the rights of residents, Part Three,” Busting Myths,
Columbus Free Press, June 27, 2022
“The Columbus Way versus the rights of residents, Part Four,” Busting Myths,
Columbus Free Press, June 30, 2022
“Remaking the City of Columbus for the 21st or is it the 20th century?” Busting
Myths, Columbus Free Press, July 5, 2022
“My ongoing struggles for responsibility from the City of Columbus,” Busting
Myths, Columbus Free Press, July 12, 2022
“Is Columbus the corruption capital of a corrupt state? Mismanagement, no
management, and corruption in the 2020s,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press,
July17, 2022
“Mr. Mayor and City Council: May I introduce you to the city of Columbus?
Beyond the Short North and the Scioto River Bank, there is a diverse complicated
city,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, July 31, 2022
“Still searching for Downtown: ‘Ideas considered for Downtown plan,’” Busting
Myths, Columbus Free Press, Aug. 14, 2022
“Frederic Bertley, Salesperson, Meet Science and English Expression,” Busting
Myths, Columbus Free Press, Aug. 17, 2022
“You can’t sue City Hall, can you? But we should educate the public and use the
ballot box: That’s the American Way, not the Columbus Way,” Busting Myths,
Columbus Free Press, Aug. 21, 2022
“Columbus continues as franchise and fast-food chain leader: Columbus Classical
Academies,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Aug. 24, 2022
“Why I remain in Columbus despite Columbus. . . .” Busting Myths, Columbus
Free Press, Sept. 16, 2022
“Columbus, meet a ‘real’ city: Toronto,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press,
Oct. 1, 2022
“The City of Columbus and The Ohio State University: Two peas in a pod, one
bigger than the other, relatively speaking, but so much the same. Part One,”
Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Oct. 8, 2022
“The City of Columbus and The Ohio State University: Two peas in a pod, one
bigger than the other, relatively speaking, but so much the same. Part Two,”
Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Oct. 14, 2022
“Why won’t Columbus, Ohio, grow up?” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press,
Oct. 22, 2022
“Abandoned by my elected and unelected officials (unless I pay to play): The
Columbus Way, Part One,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Oct. 30, 2022
“Abandoned by my elected and unelected officials (unless I pay to play): The
Columbus Way, Part Two,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Nov. 2, 2022
“I call on the Columbus Dispatch, aka Dishpan or Dishrag, to do the city a public
service and close up shop,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Nov. 5, 2022
“How universities fail their students: The president may be “born to be a
Buckeye,” but the students are not. A call to eliminate Offices of Student Life and
invest directly in students’ lives,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Nov. 10,
2022
“The City that breaks its laws has a police force that refuses to enforce the city’s
laws: The Columbus Way, Part One,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Nov.
13, 2022
“The City that breaks its laws has a police force that refuses to enforce the city’s
laws: The Columbus Way, Part Two,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press,
Nov. 16. 2022
“Andy Ginther as Columbus, Ohio’s very own shabby 21st century limitation of
New York City’s 1860-1870s Boss Tweed,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press,
Nov. 19, 2022
“Columbus meet another ‘real’ city, nearby, smaller, but….Pittsburgh,” Busting
Myths, Columbus Free Press, Nov. 30, 2022
“Columbus’ anachronistic, private interest-dominated ‘area commissions’ and
neighborhood organizations’ must go,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Dec.
3, 2022
“Columbus City Council muddies, no--defaces art in public: $250,000 in
uninformed boosterism for the ‘little city that can’t,’” Busting Myths, Columbus
Free Press, Dec. 8, 2022
“Columbus’ home-grown illegal landlords in a destroyed historic district,” Busting
Myths, Columbus Free Press, Dec. 11, 2022
“The plague city: Daily life in Columbus, Ohio,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free
Press, Dec. 17, 2022
“Columbus mayor election campaign, 2023,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free
Press, Jan. 1, 2023
“Columbus, Ohio: Rude and Crude: The little big city that refuses to represent.
serve, or respect its publics, Part One,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Jan.
15, 2022
“Columbus, Ohio: Rude and Crude: The little big city that refuses to represent.
serve, or respect its publics, Part Two,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Jan.
19, 2023
“A city versus its neighborhoods: Columbus, Ohio,” Busting Myths, Columbus
Free Press, Jan. 25, 2023
“Appreciating—so to speak--Columbus and Ohio humor, such as they are…,”
Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, 1, 2023
“Unsafe at any speed: The unsafe city—from mayor to city council to CPD,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Feb. 16, 2023
“J’accuse: The City of Columbus Division of Public (aka Private) Service,”
Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Mar. 3, 2023
“Columbus’ right wing Democrats vs. the city’s publics,” Busting Myths,
Columbus Free Press, Mar. 8, 2023
“The Columbus City Council and City Attorney’s Office the First Amendment on
March 6, 2023,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Mar. 10, 2023
“How can a city with no history destroy its history? The Columbus Way,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Mar. 18, 2023
“Career politician and candidate for re-election: Andy Ginther’s Anti-State of the
City Address, March 2023,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Mar. 25, 2023
“A call for reparations from the City of Columbus, the large corporate landlords,
and The Ohio State University for the destruction of neighborhoods with a focus on
the University District,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Apr. 1, 2023
“Rob Dorans and the real Columbus ‘crew’ vs. the city of Columbus, again,”
Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, Apr. 8, 2023
“The plague of Columbus’ streets and sidewalks: Electric scooters illegally fueled
by the City’s Division of Public (aka Private) Services,” Busting Myths, Columbus
Free Press, Apr. 14, 2023
“Why does Columbus have no legitimate media” Busting Myths, Columbus Free
Press, Apr. 2023
“Lawless, Unsafe, and Dirty: The Dying University District.” Busting Myths,
Columbus Free Press, May 2, 2023
“Ohio State University and its Dying University District: The Oval and the
Campus Beyond,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, May 5, 2023
“Columbus’ identity failure: The mad scramble to fabricate a ‘brand’ for the
biggest little city in the US,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, May 11, 2023
“The private city and the secret city: Columbus is dying and no one in
Colemanville knows or cares. Part One,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press,
May 20, 2023
“The private city and the secret city: Columbus is dying and no one in
Colemanville knows or cares. Part Two,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press,
May 25, 2023
“The private city and the secret city: Columbus is dying and no one in
Colemanville knows or cares. Part Three,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press,
June 2, 2023
“Andy Ginther, Guns, and Unsafe Columbus,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free
Press, June 7, 2023
“Andy Ginther doesn’t live in Columbus. Does he live in the United States? On
planet Earth?” Busting Myths, Columbus, Free Press, June 26, 2023
“The Columbus US Postal Service fails well beyond the national USPS. It lies
about its illegal lack of service and private profiteering in advertisements paid for
by my taxes, and lies to my face. Under major investor Louis De
Joy, only Amazon counts,” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, July 6, 2023
“A week in the life of the failing City of Columbus: One weekend’s low lights,”
Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press, July8, 2023
“August 2, 2023 Weekly Headline Notes,” Columbus Free Press, Aug. 2, 2023
“The broken, no—the evil—triangle of the City of Columbus vs. its residents.
Destroying the physical city and the semblance of neighborhoods: Zoning
(Un)enforcement, Public (Private) Service, and 311, with the assistance of OSU,
the City Attorney, CPD, City Council, and Mayor, Part One,” Busting Myths,
Columbus Free Press, Aug. 4, 2023
“The broken, no—the evil—triangle of the City of Columbus vs. its residents.
Destroying the physical city and the semblance of neighborhoods: Zoning
(Un)enforcement, Public (Private) Service, and 311, with the assistance of OSU,
the City Attorney, CPD, City Council, and Mayor, Part Two,” Busting Myths,
Columbus Free Press, Aug. 8, 2023
“Emergency Bulletin: The City of Columbus, OSU, and landlords against student
tenants and homeowners—dramatic case in point,” Columbus Free Press, Aug. 21,
2023
“Columbus is lost among midwestern metropolises. Can it learn from others and
finally begin to find itself? Or is it too late?” Busting Myths, Columbus Free Press,
Oct. 4, 2023
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Harvey J. Graff is Professor Emeritus of English and History, inaugural Ohio Eminent Scholar in Literacy Studies, and Academy Professor, Ohio State University . Author of many books on social history, the history of literacy and education, and interdisciplinarity, he writes about social history and higher education for Times Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, Washington Monthly, Publishers Weekly, Against the Current, Columbus Free Press, and newspapers. Searching for Literacy: The Social and Intellectual Origins of Literacy Studies was published in 2022. My Life with Literacy: The Continuing Education of a Historian. The Intersections of the Personal, the Political, the Academic, and Place is forthcoming. He is now writing Reconstructing the “Uni-versity” from the Ashes of the “Mega- and Multi-veristy.”
