January 4, 2008
General Monthly Meeting – This Saturday – January 5
4:00 – 5:00 at Bethany Presbyterian Church
206 N. Garfield – (pictured here) in the basement
Potential Discussion Points include
All are Welcome!
December 31, 2007
From your friends at the King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association. Let’s hope that 2008 brings appropriate and sustainable development to Columbus’ Near East Side.
September 7, 2007
As of September, 2007, The King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association’s new home on the Internet is here at BronzevilleNeighbors.com.
We’ve decided that a blog platform is considerably more user friendly for administration purposes, more interactive and inclusive for community purposes, more able to handle the sights and sounds of our neighborhood and more economical.
Soon, anyone will have the ability to log in, become a registered user, and post to this site any Bronzeville related news, links or photos. We were surprised to see that it was way back in January of 2004 when our first Yahoo groups posting went up.
We’ve come a long way since then, but we still have a long way to go. We hope you all enjoy this site, subscribe to it, and check back often.
– Willis Brown, Dana Moessner, Rev. Pinkney, Stephanie Myrieckes, Joe Peffer
April 4, 2006
The Bronzeville Neighborhood was created and named by its residents during the 1920s. Its geographic boundaries at that time were as follows: Broad Street to the South, The Train Tracks to the North, Nelson Road to the East, High Street. to the West. It was a neighborhood that was home to 70,000 proud, predominately African Americans of all social and economic backgrounds. During this time, many of the residential and commercial buildings were designed, built and financed by African Americans who lived and worked in the neighborhood. This neighborhood also had its own elected mayors who would participate in victory celebrations at which over 40,000 residents would attend.
The fall of this economically vibrant and sustainable neighborhood came with a) The Interstates – I – 70 & I – 71 during the late 1950s and finally b) Urban Renewal late 1960s – 1970s.
Today, the Bronzeville Neighborhood is part of Columbus’ Near East Side and home to KLBNA. Its smaller geographic boundaries are as follows: Broad Street to the South, I – 670 to the North, Taylor Avenue to the East and Jefferson Avenue to the West. It is also home to only 16,000 residents and a struggling economy that is unable to sustain many of the needed services and/or businesses requested by its residents. There are no elected mayors, and no victory celebrations with 40,000 residents in attendance.
Within the remaining Bronzeville Neighborhood and KLBNA’S new boundaries, there are several existing, new and future commercial and/or residential developments. These developments are and will be the catalyst for the re-establishment of a stable and strong neighborhood economy. This economy will support services and/or businesses for existing and new residents; Creating a similar environment as that of the Bronzeville Neighborhood during the 1920s-1950s.
The King-Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association is charged with efforts to knit back the social and economic fabric of our neighborhood and to eliminate the negative stereotypes given to the residents and communities within Columbus’ Near East Side. We believe it is ‘high-time’ to give value, dignity and economic opportunities to our multi-cultural residents by re-establishing BRONZEVILLE, as our official name.
KING-LINCOLN BRONZEVILLE NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION (KLBNA)
…Experience Our Heritage With 4,000 Stakeholders
Contact Person: Willis Brown —- 258-6842 ——————–April 3, 2006
January 2, 2005
Columbus turning its back on neighborhood’s wishes
Saturday, January 01, 2005
Our community should be disheartened by the recent report in The
Dispatch that the Columbus City Council and Mayor Michael B. Coleman
had decided to fly in the face of a local neighborhood association.
It agreed to sell land for peanuts at the northeast corner of
Hamilton Avenue and E. Long Street for the development of an
unwanted and needless office building, at considerable expense to
Columbus taxpayers.
The King-Lincoln-Bronzeville Neighborhood Association, of which I am
a member, is opposed to the city’s sale of land at that corner for
$32,000 to the Gideon Development Partners. An office building is
the wrong idea.
This building seems to be a pet project of Coleman — he even showed
up at a City Council meeting on its behalf. An office building would
be a repetition of the bad news at the corner of Cleveland and 11 th
avenues, compliments of our city planners and some of our
politicians. A great deal of money was spent at that location to
build buildings, only to discover that the corner is a wasteland
after 5 p.m. This kind of development should not be repeated.
This sort of development is not the model for building a viable
neighborhood and raises the question of whether the city will ever
learn from its mistakes.
The neighborhood association has developed a proposal that would
advance the development of a vital urban environment in an area that
desperately needs it. Unfortunately, its ideas have been ignored by
the mayor and his staff.
The association has proposed a mixed-use project that includes,
first and foremost, residential units (condominiums), along with
retail and office components, based on its belief that what the
neighborhood needs first is people, not just bricks and mortar. When
you have people, you encourage the development of services people
need, such as coffee houses, restaurants, dry cleaners, florists,
entertainment venues and stores.
The mayor’s office does not appear to understand these concepts. If
it did, it would not insist on pushing an office building opposed by
the very people who will have to live with this bad idea for decades
to come.
It is not difficult to become suspicious of the mayor’s intentions
when considering other circumstances of the proposed Gideon group
project. For example, the city is proposing to lease 28,212 square
feet of space in the building at an annual escalating rent of
$383,000 (at $13.57 per square foot), plus utilities. Why would the
city agree to pay this much money when it could house the Internal
Affairs Bureau of the Division of Police nearby in an existing
building for far less money?
In fact, there are more than 50,000 square feet of vacant and
available office space within 1,000 feet of that intersection.
Further, at an alternative location, the city would not be required
to help finance the building’s leasehold improvements to the tune of
$675,000 and would not have to grant a 10-year, 75 percent real-
estate tax abatement to the detriment of our school system, both of
which the city has agreed to do for the Gideon project.
What in the world is the mayor, his administration and the council
thinking about?
Because of the misdirection coming from city government, I believe
the neighborhood association should do everything in its power to
serve the best interest of its neighborhood, as all neighborhoods
should do.
After all, wasn’t that one of the central planks in Coleman’s
platform? Hasn’t he been advocating the importance of neighborhoods,
including Downtown, “everyone’s neighborhood”?
If he were wise, he would work to harness, not to contradict, the
power that neighborhoods can bring to their own revitalization.
That, in the end, is what is really needed and is most effective and
efficient. Anything else is not only counterproductive but wasteful
and inefficient.
I would not be surprised to learn that the mayor has too much
political capital invested in the Gideon project to change course. I
urge the King-Lincoln-Bronzeville Neighborhood Association to use
all the legal means at its disposal to stop the Gideon project,
including filing an injunction to allow for a complete
reconsideration of what is truly in the best interest of the
neighborhood.
WILLIAM FULLARTON
Columbus
