New Resource: CMH Gourmand

CMH Gourmand is a food blog focusing on local restaurant reviews, news, and other opinions on the restaurant scene in Columbus.

CMHGourmand.wordpress.com

New Resource: The Bad & The Beautiful

The Bad and The Beautiful is the blog of Melissa Starker, the Assistant Editor of the Columbus Alive. This blog focuses mainly on local art and film.

blog.columbusalive.com/BadBeautiful

How do you change “Columbus Culture”?

There’s was an article in last week’s Dispatch that discussed the idea of cultural change, and explained how necessary it is for a growing city like Columbus. An interesting read, but it raises a very difficult question to answer. How exactly do you change culture?

Below is an excerpt from the article:

Cities must teach people “urban values” for their downtown revitalization efforts to work long-term, said Kyle Ezell, an Ohio State University lecturer in city planning whose Columbus-based Get Urban America initiative aims to reverse the nation’s suburban exodus.

“No matter what we do here, if we don’t address the culture, we’re wasting our time,” said Ezell, who advocates Downtown-living seminars and other urban-life classes to make the idea less foreign to people.

“The culture imprints itself on the landscape.”

Click here to read the full article.

New Resource: Columbus Alive

Columbus Alive is a local weekly news publication owned by parent company, The Columbus Dispatch. The Alive website features additionalonline content including multiple blogs.

www.ColumbusAlive.com

New Resource: Taco+Beer

Taco+Beer is a monthly event downtown that features… you guessed it… free tacos and free beer. If you’re looking to make some new friends, or do a little networking, this is a great spot for it.

www.TacoBeer.com

New Resource: Save the Hilliard Schools

“Save the Hilliard Schools” is a local blog that provides “a place for our community to discuss issues concerning Hilliard City Schools”.

This is a perfect example of how a concerned citizen can take a topic they feel passionately about and turn it into a resource for news, opinions, and discussion where new ideas can be brought to light and changes can come about on a local level.

If you’re a non-blogger, and are currently considering starting blog, take some time to read a bit of “Save the Hilliard Schools” and think about how a similar approach may be able to apply to your own concerns or issues that you feel strongly about.

SaveTheHilliardSchools.blogspot.com

Where are all the Columbus Blogs? Part I

Note: This is the first part of an ongoing series of articles. ColumBlogs has previously stated in more general terms that Columbus is missing many different types of localized blogs. The purpose of this series is to point out some specific examples in order to raise some questions, share some ideas, and hopefully start some conversations on how best to fill these identified gaps as well as others.

Example One:
Why doesn’t the North Market have a blog?

The North Market was established in 1876, and is the last remaining public market in Central Ohio. It’s a valuable community resource, and an iconic part of the downtown landscape. It serves many roles: a gathering place, a lunch spot, an event venue, and probably most importantly, it functions as a specialized grocery store. On the grocery store level, one of the North Market’s largest regional competitors is the national chain, Whole Foods, which moved into Central Ohio last year with a store in the suburb of Dublin, Ohio. Additionally, their recent purchase of the Wild Oats grocery chain may result in another Whole Foods location in Central Ohio in the near future. The current Wild Oats store that may see a conversion is located on Lane Avenue, much closer to downtown where the North Market resides.

John Mackey, the chairman and CEO of Whole Foods, has a blog (located here). It’s used as a means of communication to bridge the gap between the CEO of a major company, and the employees, customers, stockholders, and the rest of the general public who may be interested in what he has to say. This blog adds a nice human touch to what can be commonly perceived as nothing more than an emotionless corporate entity. It can also help to communicate information that may not typically find its way into the mainstream media. This type of information is definitely something that can go over the head of your average customer, but for the smart shoppers, and concerned citizens, it helps to satisfy their hunger for additional insight on topics they deeply care about.

Don’t get us wrong, the North Market website is a great resource. It has an events calendar, a section for press releases (mostly regarding upcoming events), and a form for opting in to email updates (again, mostly about upcoming events). These are great tools to keep the general public informed, but how can the North Market take these standard tools and move above and beyond? Is there more to keeping people informed than just event reminders? How can a blog benefit the North Market on a local level?

Here are a few simple ideas:

- A North Market Blog could contain updates directly addressing local restaurant owners, chefs, and other Columbus gourmets.

Several local restaurants pride themselves on serving local ingredients, and with a growing trend on consuming more localized food, even more restaurants can be expected to follow suit. The North Market is in a prime position to service the needs of these restaurants as they currently sell a variety of locally grown products and offer farmers markets throughout the summer. Finding new ways to address this small, but growing market could be easily worked into a blog where those seeking this type of information could find it with ease.

- A North Market Blog could expand upon the standard information on upcoming events (and the people behind the events) that may not make the cut for traditional press releases and newspaper stories.

For example, the North Market has a yearly Microbrew Festival. While a press release can contain information on what to expect at the festival itself, a blog could speak more directly to the community and address ways for people to become involved with the festival. Some educational information on how to brew your own beer could be supplied. Interviews with local microbrewery owners could provide some insight for those interested. This type of community involvement does a great job of keeping traditions alive from year to year and helps keep new people interested in attending as well.

Many contests are held at the North Market events, and sometimes this information may not make it into the newspaper articles and local tv news covering these events. Those contestants and winners could be congratulated on the North Market blog, as this type of public praise is what invites people to come back and participate again the following year or in other festivals and events.

- A North Market Blog could issue statements and praise to its individual merchants and vendors, highlighting them for certain achievements or accomplishments.

The North Market website lists their merchants, gives some general information and a way to contact them. The blog could feature more news updates focusing on merchants individually, and publicly praising them for their accomplishments. The blog could include interviews, news, and even guest columns written by the vendors themselves on a variety of local topics pertinent to the North Market and its neighborhood.

These are just a few small ideas on how a blog could compliment the North Market’s existing online community services. If you have some ideas of your own, feel free to add your comments below. All feedback is welcome.

Stay tuned for more local examples in this ongoing series, “Where are
all the Columbus Blogs?”

New Resource: Liz James Artscene

The “Liz James Artscene” is a blog by a local writer who does a monthly column for the Short North Gazette. Her blog also covers a variety of local art news and opinions.

LizJamesArtscene.blogspot.com

New Resource: Done Waiting

Done Waiting is a blog covering music and film with a focus on local culture.

www.DoneWaiting.com

On the Current State of Columbus Indie Cinemas

Blogging on a local level is a great way to go beyond what’s reported in traditional media and and raise new questions and conversations that may not be as appropriate in print.

Below is an excerpt from a recent article post on The Bad & The Beautiful, blog of Melissa Starker, Assistant Editor of Columbus Alive.

There’s been a lot of coverage of independently owned theaters in the local press over the past few weeks. Anyone who’s read Alive over the years knows that normally, we’d be right in there, but this time, we had a problem. More specifically, I had a problem. My knowledge of Studio 35 Cinema and Drexel Theatres, and of recent events affecting both theater operators, was too intimate for me to be impartial.

I’ve worked for both. I hired Todd May, the manager whose firing set off the staff walkout at Studio 35. I’ve known another Studio employee since he was too young to go there without his dad. I could tell you some stories over a drink, but if I wanted to get into what’s going on in print, I’d have to discuss my own experiences or rely on sources that had something valuable to lose (a job, a professional reputation) by coming forward.

Online, however, we can get a little cozier. And at this point enough has been stated in print elsewhere for me to step back and use my experience mostly to point out some peculiarities.

Click here to read the rest of the article.