Cycho Librarian

The mayor recently delivered his State of the City address , and while the biggest attention was on enforcing curfew laws and installing streetcars, a lot of folks in the media seem to be downplaying what was actually a fairly significant part of the speech. Hizzoner committed to spending $20 million dollars in the next 4 years (pending a bond issue in November) on bikeways! A grand total of 86.3 miles of bike routes and trails, 54 of which are on-street routes and lanes . Needless to say, I was very happy about this. It's about time that people in power started listening to us and doing something about the fact that you take your life in your hands every time you get on a bike in this city. But as nice as it will be to have dedicated bike lanes, this is only the first step in making Columbus bike-friendly. First of all, I couldn't help but notice that bike lanes certainly didn't make headlines in the reports on the speech, and in many cases didn't even make it into...

Election Day is Tuesday, and while the rest of the nation focuses on an election that will take place a year from now, we here in Cowtown actually have some stuff to vote on, namely City Council, the School Board, and the Mayor. Our School Board is run by a bunch of very well-meaning people, some of whom I've met and most of whom I like. My problems with the city's schools lie much more at the feet of the State than the District. Now, maybe they could be doing more, but I don't think anyone else is in a position to do more than those who currently hold the seats. So that's a no-brainer. Similarly, City Council by and large does a decent job. About the only thing they could do better would be to abolish themselves and go to Ward representation. But again, in the current state, the folks who are there are doing a good job so I'll keep them in place. As you can see, I'm not overly enthused about those races. My attitude is basically "eh." However M...

From this week's The Other Paper : Ah, dear old Columbus. We've got a substantial enough Gay community near downtown that the presence of an actual "Gay Street" in downtown Columbus is always cause for amusement. Nevermind that the street was named for some family named Gay. You can even take it further and point out that Gay Street is the East-West street between Broad and Long. Just so you know I'm not making this up: My favorite of all time though, was when someone called into a local radio station's rapid-fire "Taking Calls" segment (basically people call in and spout nonsense for 5 seconds) and said "I was standing at the corner of Gay and High, and I thought to myself, 'Yes I am!'"

For those of you not in Columbus, this past Saturday marked the beginning of the Ohio State University's football season. I say those of you not in Columbus because if you had been in Columbus there is literally no way you could not be aware of this fact. You could have been living under the proverbial rock for the past four months, but if that rock was anywhere in Franklin County, you would know that the Buckeyes were playing Youngstown State in the home opener at 12:00 on Saturday September 1st. Please don't take this post as a rant against the unfortunately named sport of football (where the only time feet enter into the game are at the beginning of play, after an unsuccessful drive, and for a handful of virtually meaningless points). I enjoy American football from time to time. It can be a highly entertaining game. But the levels to which it has been elevated in this country border on the absurd. And for my money, the absurdity reaches its pinnacle here in lovely Colu...