Mayor Coleman's Wish List
Six gifts he wants for Columbus, 2010
By David Lewis |
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With the Christmas season upon us, many of us are turning our attention to holiday plans, from parties to putting up decorations, gift shopping, and dusting off family cookbooks. Mayor Michael B. Coleman is getting ready for the holidays, too; he brought his wish list for Santa to the 614 studios and talked with editor David S. Lewis about the things he hopes Santa has in his sack for Columbus, 2010.
"So this is the hat, eh?" he said, looking at the red velvet Santa cap we provided. "Okay..."
Coleman confided that he always looks forward to the annual tree-lighting ceremony at City Hall, as well as The Nutcracker and various holiday parties.
And the shopping.
"I usually shop, myself, on Christmas Eve." Wait until the last minute, eh, Mr. Mayor?
"That's the only time I have," he said, earnestly.
Coleman has been busy recently; from campaigning hard to pass a special-election tax increase, to stumping for City Council candidates, traveling to Saudi Arabia and, even more recently, presenting council with a balanced budget, the Mayor is always rolling, always working.
So, if there's just one thing in Santa's sack for the Mayor, one special present just for him . . . what would it be?
"One thing in the sack for me, personally? Oh gosh, there's nothing I really want, personally," he said. "Everything I want is for the city, for the citizens. For me, I want the citizens to be happy and celebrate Christmas. That's what I want."
Typical guy. Hard to shop for mayors like that.
"The life of a mayor is one of always giving, and that doesn't change during the Christmas season," he said. "I get great joy out of giving, trying to make the city better."
"It's a great job, being mayor," he enthused. "I love being mayor. You can make a difference; seeing communities being improved, families getting better . . . sidewalks getting built, streets getting paved . . . when those things happen it brings a great sense of personal satisfaction," he said. "That's the best part of being mayor, and more of all that would be a good thing."
Mayor Mike Coleman sits to tell us his holiday wish list.
Photo: Christopher Atwood
More importantly, what is on his wish list for Columbus?
"Dear Santa," he began with a laugh.
His wishes for the city ranged from the deadly serious, such as essential job creation, to the near comical, i.e. the Cincinnati Bengals winning the Super Bowl in 2010, for which more powerful medicine is needed than anything Santa can pull off. In effect:
Many more jobs in Columbus, to help stem unemployment in Columbus and to lift people out of poverty.
"We need a lot of help from federal government and from the state," he elaborated, "but at the city and local level we must be a lot more aggressive at expanding existing businesses in our city, as well as creating new businesses, and that requires an unprecedented cooperation between the public and private sectors."
Coleman alluded to new strategies that would be unveiled in the coming months to help facilitate his request to the Man in Red, and he hinted at a very broad partnership.
"Everybody is involved," he said.
More bikeways in the city - starting a bikeway revolution.
"We're already in line to do many more bikeways, and turn our city into Bike USA," he said. "Then people will say, 'That's a good idea, we want that in our neighborhood, too.'"
Coleman referenced Portland, Oregon, known as a "bike friendly" city, as a model for Columbus.
"We in the city of Columbus have to think about life outside the automobile," he said. "Bikeways, alternative forms of transportation, light rail: those are things that should be important. They are important to me, and have become important to the federal government, which is now providing funds for them," he noted. "That's something I'm very big on, and I've had the opportunity to talk to the Obama administration, and we are on the same page. Now we just have to get everyone else on board."
I want to see foreclosure rates down.
"That one's important, it's very serious," he said gravely.
"We set up a program called Home Again, with $25 million spent; we got a neighborhood stabilization grant for $22 million, and we have made an application for a $65 million grant from the feds," he said.
The Home Again program, in which abandoned or foreclosed homes are purchased by the city for either demolition and rebuilding or the rehabilitation of structures where possible, has been a primary strategy for the Coleman administration.
"Home ownership is important to all of us," he said.
"The thing we have no control of is getting banks not to foreclose," he said. "We need the federal government to have more intervention when it comes to financial institutions foreclosing," adding that foreclosure affects the local level, deteriorating neighborhoods and inviting crime . . . city problems. Coleman said that he had met with federal entities in charge of regulating the banks, and expressed confidence in their abilities.
"We have the right people in office, and now is the time lag between the initiative and it actually having an impact on the local level, and getting the right resources."
"We've got the right players, now it is just a matter of execution," he said.
I want to see the Buckeyes win the Rose Bowl, our [OSU] basketball team in the Final Four, the Columbus Crew back in the MLS. And, I want to see the Super Bowl for the [Cincinnati] Bengals.
"We are a championship city, we've won the National Championship, we've won the MLS, and I'm confident we [The Columbus Blue Jackets] will win the Stanley Cup," he said. He stressed the importance of keeping the Blue Jackets in the Arena District.
"We are a winning city. Whatever pro teams are in the future for us will be winning teams, too," he said, alluding to the possibility of Columbus one day hosting a freshman NBA team. (Somehow, that seems more likely than the Cincinnati Bengals ever approaching a Super Bowl Championship.)
Of the Columbus Clippers, the AAA minor league team whose new stadium is ranked with the best in the nation, the Mayor expressed high hopes.
"We just built a stadium for them, their attendance has gone up dramatically, and I enjoy watching them in that new stadium, and I want to see them take home the Governor's Cup," he said, punctuating his statements with finger stabs at the air. "They have a duty and obligation to bring home the Governor's Cup," he concluded, noting that he especially loves attending night games at the new ballpark.
I want to see light rail for the city of Columbus.
"I think those cities that see the relationship between mass transit and alternative forms of transportation will be the cities that excel, the competitive cities," he said. "And those that don't will fall behind."
"First and foremost are our residents; they need to be able to get around," he said. "The 3-C connector, actually more of a 3 C's and a D [Dayton, the fourth city in Ohio to be included in the high-speed train system proposed by the federal government, connecting Ohio with the Chicago hub], if it happens, it makes light rail in Columbus more likely to occur," said Coleman. "It will probably help Columbus more than any of them, because we are right in the middle. You have to go through Columbus to get to any of them."
He said that, once established, the 3-C connector would make light rail a more viable concept, ideally resulting in a "multi mobile" hub downtown. "The idea is, once you get off the 3-C downtown, you'll get on the light rail, to get to where you need to go."
I want to see a healthcare policy adopted by the federal government.
"This is also a big one. It's necessary so those people without healthcare in our city can get access to healthcare," he said. "I'd like to see Congress do its duty to ensure there is health care in our city."
With various hell being raised in the Statehouse, and Republican John Kasich edging in on Governor Ted Strickland's previously strong position, 614 had to ask . . . is a gubernatorial run in Santa's bag for Mayor Mike?
"It's not in the cards," he said flatly. "I am wondering what happens after 2016 in the White House . . . I'm just kidding," he laughed.
"I'm doing what I want to do. Exactly what I want to do. You can find your niche, the thing you want to do, and I'm seeing downtown development finally coming together, and hope in the neighborhoods. For the first time, we are seeing [federal] money coming in, and that is going out to the neighborhoods, and we will be able to invest in the right things at the right times," said Coleman.
Is the next phase of his administration likely to be more enjoyable, more rewarding, now with so much on the horizon? Maybe, but the Mayor has had a great time so far.
"I've enjoyed almost every day," he said. "For me, it's been a wonderful experience. I love being mayor, there isn't another role, there isn't another thing I can do that would generate the kind of joy I now have, and the challenges and responsibility - and I love it. I think we are trying to meet those many challenges and responsibilities, and we are going to do that," he concluded.
Originally Published: December 1, 2009
