Nice writeup about Columbus on CNN.com

[AngryOldDem]

Yeah, it's a travel story, but it's nice to see something positive being written for a change. For your Sunday reading pleasure:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/getaways/05/30/columbus.ohio/index.html

<<Columbus, Ohio's happening side

Tens of thousands of people head to Columbus every fall during Ohio State's football season. I'm as much a road-trip loving football fan as the next guy, but I actually never thought the Ohio capital was as charming as say Madison, Wisconsin, or Ann Arbor, Michigan. I obviously wasn't looking very hard. With a revamped downtown and a booming population (it surpassed Cleveland in size in the 1980s), the city has restyled itself from a college town into a fairly happening urban center.

For a place obsessed with college football, Columbus owes much of its revival to pro hockey. When Nationwide Arena opened in 2000, people not only came to see the Blue Jackets (the team releases 250 $10 tickets two hours before each game), but they began to spend more and more time -- and money -- in the once-gritty Short North district near the arena.

Today, the neighborhood is packed with galleries, restaurants and shops. One of them, Studios on High, is a co-op with 18 members, including jewelers, printmakers and other artists. "Back in the day, I'd see drug deals going down across the street -- it was better than daytime TV," says founder Judy Hoberg, who sculpts wide-eyed animals from clay. "It's amazing how the area has changed."<<

[realisticphish]

1. high street

has gotten a million times better just in the 5 years I've lived here