Stories from Downtown Columbus

A Companion to the Columbus Downtown 2030 Strategic Plan

Sharon Sung Andrews

Sharon Sung Andrews grew up through Columbus’ arts. Whether she was in the strings section of the Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, singing with the Columbus Indiana Children’s Choir, onstage at school or with Mill Race Theatre Company, or attending arts events with her family, Sharon and the Sungs were active art makers and patrons. This early appreciation for what Columbus has to offer set the stage for lifelong involvement in local arts.

“Having downtown as the heartbeat of this city is really important because it becomes where the blood flows, life has to flow through here. And I think that’s the only way it remains a community, having that heart creates community...The way to do that is to create relevant, livable experiences for people that draw them into downtown and make them want to stay.”

When Andrews left for college in “the big city,” she inadvertently found ways to make NYU feel more like the close-knit community she grew up in. After graduation, she was drawn back to Columbus by how its small-town feel is bolstered by local arts offerings. It wasn’t long before she was approached with her first board opportunity at the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic. The other board members were former teachers or connections she remembered well, and she eagerly agreed to join. This was the opportunity, she felt, to reciprocate all the benefits that she had received from the youth arts programming that made up her childhood.

One opportunity to give back turned into many, and she lent her support on the boards of Mill Race Theatre Company, the Columbus Area Arts Council, and still others. Her work started to feel more personal when she and her husband (who she met through productions with Mill Race Theatre Company) had their son. Since both of their families have been so involved in the arts, serving on various boards to support these organizations is how they’re setting the foundation for their son’s arts development.

Andrews’ dedication to Columbus’ arts programming and performances, along with her lifelong experience, set her up as a natural connection builder to help others get plugged in as well. You might find her making arts and event recommendations to her friends and neighbors, or dialoguing about downtown’s potential for performance space. Her heart is in the collective work to make downtown the heartbeat of Columbus’ creative community. She shared, “It’s not a chore to show up and put in extra hours. My predominant feeling is that it’s easy to do it when it’s fun. It’s easy to do it when it’s something that is so meaningful.”

A LEGACY OF ARTISTRY

Columbus is known for its capital ‘L’ legacy, but woven throughout this city are hundreds of family-sized legacies that build a unique community. One such lineage is the spark for Sharon Sung Andrews’ work, after she grew up in the Columbus Indiana Children’s Choir, Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, and Mill Race Theatre Company. Now, Sharon’s energy is poured into keeping the same opportunities she enjoyed as a child open and inviting to the next generations of actors, singers, and musicians in Columbus. What she didn’t notice as a kid was all the planning, fundraising, and coordination that goes into children’s programming. Back then, all she had to do was rehearse and show up. But now, she’s working behind the scenes with local arts organizations and loving how meaningful that work is as a way to give back to the community that supported her own growth and learning. “I think [community involvement] becomes even more meaningful now that we have a son, he’ll turn three next month, and we want him to be involved in all of these things. It’s sort of like building that foundation for us, for him,” she shares. Sharon’s isn’t the only family with multigenerational ties to the arts. This cycle of passion, this legacy of artistry, this foundation of giving back is what keeps the lights and curtains coming up in Columbus.

Mill Race Theatre Company’s “Seussical the Musical” in July 2023.

Sharon Andrews (Gertrude McFuzz) in

Photo by Kathryn Baylor Photography

"You can't import enough art to make downtown vibrant, you have to source that at home."

Brooke Hawkins Executive Director of the Columbus Area Arts Council

Mark Jones

Mark Jones is the Director of Columbus Parks & Recreation, with a history of over twenty years at the agency. Parks & Recreation manages twenty four parks, twelve facilities, and twentythree miles of people trail around the city. All in, the agency maintains 1,000 acres of parkland and provides unique programming throughout. Jones sees Parks & Recreation’s role as both bringing the fun to Columbus, and as an economic engine bringing additional tourism to and investment in the community.

Shanda Sasse

Shanda Sasse, The Commons Manager, grew up in Columbus and even has a family photo of herself as a newborn at the first Commons playground. She enjoys the stories and history that are inextricable from her work, since The Commons welcomes and touches so many lives in Columbus and throughout the region. Her role supports the ways community members celebrate, gather, and learn at The Commons, which brings something new every day.

Casey Ritz

Casey Ritz, Associate Director of Park Operations, has the next longest tenure. He grew up on a farm in Jackson County, and recalls learning the Columbus way when he first started working here. He was drawn in by how important parks have always been to Columbus, and spends his time working behind the scenes to keep parks spaces and facilities clean, safe, and functional.

Jacob Hendricks

Jacob Hendricks is the Recreation and CGC Program Manager for Columbus Parks & Recreation, whose tenure includes both his current full-time work and his years as a seasonal employee throughout college. As the Recreation Manager, he wants to be known as the guy who brings the fun to Columbus, but is willing to do the serious work behind the scenes to make that happen. His goal is to activate Parks & Recreations spaces and facilities with enjoyable, accessible programs that residents can engage in.

“We come to our work with the gravity of, ‘This is really important.’ I think a lot of people who work for the city and work in different areas have this aspect of: we ultimately want to see the fruits of our labor and be able to see something from start to finish. If we’re running a program or if we’re cleaning a park...at the end of the day it’s pass/fail. You can go see that the park is being used. The work that I did today directly impacted those people.” –Jacob Hendricks

Mill Race Park

Parks & Recreation staff are serious about bringing fun to Columbus. Team members like Jacob Hendricks, the Recreation and CGC Program Manager, are always thinking about the finishing touches they can add to an event or program. When first-time event planners are hosting at Mill Race Park, Hendricks and team come alongside them to help things run smoothly. They share years of experience to help start or grow something new. “It’s this acceptance of what we’re given,” Hendricks shares, “And then an ownership of it. Let’s truly make it great. We take people along and show them how to do an event because both from the Park’s perspective and as someone who lives in Columbus, I want to live in a community where we have places to do these kinds of events.” With Parks & Recreation’s dedication, downtown’s greenspace becomes a race course, a festival field, a meet-up space, or a concert hall without walls. The team works hard so that Columbus’s greenspace, recreation, and events become whatever the community can dream up.

Programming

There is inherent value in a public space, but most of the excitement comes from the things we can do there. This is a familiar scenario to Columbus Parks & Recreation staff, who not only maintain and operate Columbus’s greenspaces and recreation facilities, but program them too.

Their community impact through programming happens at the individual level (with programs like Come Out and Play or the Power of Produce) or at the community level (with The Commons’s full schedule of events, weekly Farmer’s Markets, or the economic engine of hosting youth sports tournaments). Zoom in, and Parks & Recreation is shaping summertime for students, providing playgrounds, lunches, and activities. At this face-to-face level, these formative experiences for residents, at Mill Race Park or The Commons or the Farmer’s Market, are essential pieces of the Columbus experience.

Zoom out, and the impact of Parks & Recreation programs are visible at higher levels too. “We’ve been known for fun, but we’re an economic driver too,” says Parks & Recreation Director Mark Jones. “More than just swing sets and playgrounds, we bring millions of dollars every year to the community, so we’re an economic driver as well.”

Diane Doup

When asked about her dream for the future of Downtown Columbus, Diane Doup has a line at the ready. “A vibrant destination. For everybody. Locals, visitors. All walks of life. That’s what I want.” This same ready excitement is prevalent in her role as head of Community Outreach for the LincolnCentral Neighborhood Family Center, the non-profit behind Columbus’s YES Cinema.

Randy Allman

Over his thirty year tenure as Executive Director of the Lincoln Central Neighborhood Family Center, Randy Allman has seen neighborhood development as a challenge to tackle. How can their work create opportunities for everyone to succeed in Columbus? He pursues his goals with equal parts humor and grit. Addressing local challenges has taken a lot of work developing relationships with neighbors and programs with local partners. It has also taken some thinking outside the box, hence the creation of YES Cinema to support the Lincoln Central Neighborhood Family Center’s work.

Randy Allman and Diane Doup have been organizing the Lincoln Central neighborhood together for thirty years. They’ve watched the landscape of downtown shift and have steered the direction of some of those changes themselves. But one thing they’ve noticed in Columbus and communities like theirs is a changing funding environment. Foundations and philanthropy that used to be community cornerstones have disappeared or narrowed their scope of work in order to survive. What does that mean for organizations like the Lincoln Central Neighborhood Family Center? For these two, it means putting just as much skin in the game as their partner organizations. “We work hard. We expect results. It’s not just for show,” says Allman.

That drive to succeed and to lift up the Lincoln Central neighborhood led Allman and Doup through their years of innovating and trying bold ideas–connecting partners, creating space for resident leadership, and most remarkably, opening YES Cinema, Columbus’s downtown non-profit movie theater.

YES Cinema is unique in that it supports the Lincoln Central Neighborhood Family Center and provides job placement for their program participants. But beyond the impact YES Cinema has for LCNFC, YES serves the same purpose as any other LCNFC program: to uplift community. YES Cinema aims to fill a gap in downtown, providing affordable entertainment and also inviting residents to patronize other local businesses.

Allman’s take: “What we’ve done has been to bring people downtown to support the other businesses that are here through a variety of things, through not only just affordable movies but first releases, classic films, an international film festival. All of that was geared to bring people downtown. It’s important for a thriving community to have people downtown.”

As we move forward with a focus on innovation, existing community organizations like LCNFC and YES Cinema can remind us about the creative opportunities and bold ideas it takes to knit together a community.

“I see great potential in Columbus. I think we are a great community — I’m proud to have grown up here.”

Diane Doup

Photo by Hadley Fruits for Landmark Columbus Foundation

Lindsey Babinec

Blondie’s Salon and Spa looks very different in its current Washington Street location compared to when they were first starting out seventeen years ago. Founder and owner Lindsey Babinec started Blondie’s as a mobile spray tanning business, first hauling equipment to clients, then converting a shuttle bus into a mobile studio, then growing out of a few studios before landing as a full service spa in downtown Columbus. Blondie’s is now part of the vibrant community of downtown business owners: “This downtown space is a dream come true for us.”

“We’ve only been located downtown for two years, and already collaborated so much. There is probably more opportunity for that than we could even take advantage of. That’s really, really fun–seeing what others are up to and it sparks ideas, supporting other people and what they’re doing, and keeping it local.”

When imagining the latest iteration of Blondie’s, Lindsey Babinec wanted to bring some of the ambiance from spas in bigger cities to Columbus. An aethetician by trade but a curator at heart, she feels her mission is accomplished when clients arrive and comment that Blondie’s feels like a space that they could find in Chicago or L.A. Luckily for them, the inspiration that Babinec finds downtown means they don’t have to leave Columbus to have a big-city experience.

Babinec shares that the way Columbus does things can be really galvanizing, whether that’s in its downtown collaborations or its investment in art. “We’ve got this fantastic architecture and we’ve got this great art scene as well. It keeps things new and interesting and fun. I think it’s inspiring in a lot of ways,” she shares. As a business owner, her goal is to keep innovating, curating that big-city feel Blondie’s brings to downtown, and promoting the image of Columbus.

While Babinec is inspired by Columbus’s art scene, she also finds a lot of support in the downtown business community. Connecting with her downtown neighbors has created plenty of opportunities for collaboration.

“A lot of partnership comes out of interacting with the Downtown Merchants Association or Chamber events. It sparks ideas, and keeps it local. We don’t have to go outside of what’s here in the community to find what we need.”

This small-town, cooperative feeling is what keeps Babinec rooted here. “I love Columbus. You can make really great connections with people. Even though it is a bigger city, you do still get that smalltown feel. That sense of community where you have an opportunity to know the other businesses on the street, watching other people grow and succeed and being a tiny part of that…it’s really neat.”

Whittney Gaines

Mother of five, teacher, founder of Black History Month Columbus, and on several boards, Whittney Gaines navigates all her responsibilities with intention and purpose. When planning events (like the full suite offered during Black History Month Columbus in February), Gaines begins with the end in mind. “What do you want the impact to be like at the end of the event?” she considers. “What do you want people to feel?” Then, she gets to work inviting in and connecting partners. After all, she wants her work to create shared spaces for everyone in Columbus to learn and grow together.

This kind of reciprocity is a core component of her work. Whether she’s working alongside community institutions or other local nonprofits, she makes a point to give back in turn, promoting and attending other groups’ events in the same way they support Black History Month or her other involvement.

Gaines’ partner network is a growing ecosystem with a life of its own. As she navigates Columbus, she gives others the opportunity to pay attention to the accessibility needs that are present downtown. As a parent of special needs children (with personal and familial experience navigating downtown in a mobility scooter) she acknowledges many overlooked barriers with simple solutions that can make downtown more inviting for everyone. “If we create a situation where everybody can come, then who loses?”

“The options are endless of how impactful you are when you put your resources together. It makes for really great, organic partnerships. Our reciprocal nature has been really, really productive. We support you, you support us, and the city is always better for it.”

Gaines is proud to call Columbus her hometown, first moving here at the age of nine and now commuting daily to work, volunteer, and see family. She acknowledges how special it is that here, because of her drive and the support of her community, she can be both a mother and a community leader. “I have the motto of, you get to create the life that you want here. You can really make an impact here. Because I grew up here, and I was a kid here, and now I’m an adult here, I love being able to see the progression and think, ‘I did good here.’”

PLANNING A COMMUNITY FOR EVERYONE

When it comes to planning the future of Columbus, it can be exciting to consider all of the development that is possible downtown, but perhaps less flashy to think about the ways people move between those destinations. For Whittney Gaines and her family, mobility and inclusion are topics to navigate every day. Her five children love to play at The Commons, enjoy ice cream at Zaharako’s, or celebrate special occasions at Taku. Gaines’ son Cordell has cerebral palsy, so finding downtown spaces and events that are inclusive not only to kids, but to kids with disabilities, is always top of mind.

Gaines gauges her participation in a space or event by how her son would be able to be included, and uses this as an invitation to help other spaces be more welcoming and inclusive. She shares, “I think it allows other people that I work with to expand their awareness. It’s important to me, so often partners will ask, ‘OK, what do you need? What does he need?’” Gaines is proud to be part of a community where these bids for inclusion are met with plenty of support. “I was giving a keynote at The Commons for a fundraiser,” she explains, “I can’t talk about disabilities if I can’t bring Cordell with me, it just wouldn’t make sense. This event was so special because it probably took a minor effort for the organizers to include him, but it made such a great experience for everyone.”

Thinking about how people with physical disabilities navigate downtown spaces is also relevant, as Gaines’ mother uses a mobility scooter, and Gaines herself had to rely on one when she broke her leg right before the first Black History Month Columbus. “It took this whole village to get me where I needed to go,” she recalls. “If you’re not experiencing it, you probably just don’t notice it.” Getting in and out of stores with steps or bumps or the lack of elevators to second floors make navigating downtown more challenging. “There are a lot of things my mom would probably want to participate in, but it’s just not always possible. But a lot of times, it’s an easy fix.”

These perspectives shape Gaines’ event planning with the various groups and initiatives she is involved in. “When we’re asking, ‘Does downtown work for everybody?’ I think these are things we have to consider.”

Misty Weisensteiner

Misty Weisensteiner has traveled far and wide as a destination management professional, but the places she wants to show off are right here in Indiana. Raised in southern Indiana, she worked for the French Lick Resort before becoming the executive director of Visit French Lick West Baden, then traveled the state as the executive director of the Indiana Destination Development Corporation. It would take a special place to move her from her Orange County roots, and that place was Columbus.

Now the Executive Director of the Columbus Area Visitors Center, Weisensteiner is still relatively new to the Bartholomew County community and taking every opportunity to get connected and explore. She was drawn to Columbus by its collaborative nature, by the energy to build a place people want to live in, by the Columbus Way. Whether she’s promoting the shops at Edinburgh, youth sport tournaments, unique festivals in Hope, or placemaking in downtown Columbus, Misty knows Bartholomew County has a lot to offer.

In Columbus especially, “What we’re focusing on right now is all of the great things that there are to do in terms of the festivals and events that happen year round. That’s primarily what we can hang our hat on

“People here are just so welcoming, and I felt as though I could help tell the Columbus story to not only the residents of Columbus and Bartholomew County, but also to attract visitors. That’s what the Visitors Center is. We’re more than just a building. We are a marketing engine for Bartholomew County.”

because Columbus does those really well.” Even so, one of the largest draws to Columbus right now is from sports. Through the Visitors Center’s efforts, Weisensteiner hopes to entice families visiting the area for tournaments to enjoy the sights, sounds, and flavors of downtown.

With the newly adopted Destination Master Plan for Columbus, Weisensteiner and her team have plenty of ideas and momentum for increasing the area’s regional draw. At the core of their work, Weisensteiner knows that a successful destination isn’t just for travelers and visitors. “If we create a space where residents love to live, attracting visitors will come naturally. Tourism is quality of place.”

Photo by Hadley Fruits for Landmark Columbus Foundation

PLACEMAKING IS THE FIRST STEP

The Visitors Center’s role is to tell the story of Bartholomew County and of Columbus. Inviting people into that story and encouraging visitors begins with having an enticing place to share. Placemaking is the essential first step. A city where people want to live–that boasts things like a walkable downtown, gatherings of all sizes, arts and culture intrigue, something for all ages–is well on its way. Storytelling comes easily to a place like Columbus, thanks to generations of work building things worth talking about.

Misty Weisensteiner describes Columbus like a person. How does the Visitors Center share Columbus’s personality with the rest of the world? That definition is the Visitors Center’s mission, as they’ve chosen to accept it. What sets Columbus apart (aside from the obvious amenities and architecture) is not only its curb appeal, but its community appeal.

Having travelled the state and country as a destination management professional, Misty acknowledges that Columbus’s collaborative spirit is one of a kind. The shared creativity, willingness to pour into a pop-up, coordinate a concert, or try something new is the way of life around here. Places that people want to visit, want to live in, don’t appear overnight. They are built brick by brick, link by link.

How do we make downtown a place that people want to visit? By first making it a place that people want to live.

Minami Matsumura

Minami Matsumura’s creativity is best expressed in the kitchen. Her love of making pastries started as a hobby, and as she grew in skill she sold cakes for birthdays and events. The hobby became a calling, and she went to Tokyo to work in the restaurant industry. Her excitement is infectious as she describes working in the kitchen, and this passion for food was the first thing she packed when she and her husband moved to Columbus over ten years ago.

“My first impression of Columbus was that people are friendly here. I’ve been doing the farmer’s market for ten years, and people stop by and are curious about what I’m selling. I see many people are interested, they have a welcoming heart and mind.”

As they settled in, Matsumura noticed the Farmer’s Market that came around every summer and signed up to sell her Japanese pastries at her own booth on Saturday mornings. Market goers were delighted to try her creations, and she was happy to share them. She also became the go-to baker for other Japanese families looking for cakes on special occasions. Eventually, she was drawn back to the kitchen when Ramen Alley’s original owners began talking about the idea to start a restaurant. As soon as her youngest daughter was in preschool, she started working at Ramen Alley, preparing the food faithfully according to the recipes left by the original Chef Shige. She savored the chance to share authentic Japanese ramen with the Columbus community.

Now after a decade in Columbus, Matsumura is raising three daughters and a restaurant here. When the former owners were ready to sell Ramen Alley, Matsumura rose to the challenge of taking it over. She wanted to preserve the qualities she enjoyed about working there and honor the original chef’s menu and process. Already, she is overflowing with ideas for the restaurant and menu, finding ways to weave local Columbus connections in as she goes.

Downtown’s unique personality–with the presence of workers and visitors alike ready to enjoy some ramen–gave her the confidence to take on this new venture. This is the next step on her culinary journey, but her pastry passion is still alive and well too. Now, you’ll just have to stop by Ramen Alley to see which new idea she tackles first.

ROOM TO TEST IDEAS AND TAKE RISKS

In a place that has entrepreneurship in its bones, downtown is the perfect launch pad for building a business. There’s inspiration everywhere you look: in the murals, the architecture, the streetscape, and there’s connection on every block, through every open door on a sunny day.

Now, this still doesn’t make running a business easy. There are menu items to test, partnerships to make, local sourcing to do. But the challenge is certainly more inviting with the ambiance that downtown creates. This humming engine of ideas, opportunity, and risk-taking chugs along with the reassurance that whatever you decide to try, a neighborly audience is ready and willing to come along for the ride.

Minami Matsumura is taking full advantage of the space downtown provides to test new ideas and try new things. After years of selling pastries at the Farmer’s Market, she got back into the restaurant scene by working at, and then taking over, Ramen Alley. It didn’t take long for business ideas to queue up, with a desire to keep Ramen Alley as an homage to the original chef, preserving the things that she loved about working there while also bringing her kitchen creativity.

If downtown, and all the businesses and workers that are there, didn’t exist as it is today, taking over a restaurant would not be in Matsumura’s plans. This welcoming business community and clientele helped encourage her to make the leap from Farmer’s Market booth to full-fledged restaurant, with more to come in the future. Only a place with Columbus’s kind of legacy opens doors like this.

“When they built Interoculus, they asked families from different nations to have a performance. My daughters practiced dancing and got to perform. Those kind of events, they make downtown for everyone.”

Photo by Hadley Fruits for Landmark Columbus Foundation

Alex Turner

Alex Turner is a third-generation maker in Columbus. He follows in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, both machinists and entrepreneurs, but isn’t afraid to take the road less traveled. Turner combines the knowledge and experience he inherits from his family, the resources he’s aware of through his roots here in Columbus, and his own bold ideas collected and honed through travel and networking. Like many people active in the Columbus community, Turner is burdened with the “good problem” of too-many-ideas, not-enough-time.

The idea that started it all was Taglia Tool, connecting dots between his machining background and artists he met while living in California. Now, Taglia Tools’ products for glass artists are distributed throughout the United States and around the world. But the initial idea didn’t stop there. Turner’s inventive spirit keeps seeking ways to get others, and Columbus itself, involved. Sometimes this looks like public workshops, demonstrations in the Arts Alley, or letting an artist set up at the flame shop while they’re traveling across the country. It also looks like dreams for future downtown social spaces, artist presence at the Farmer’s Market, and even festivals. Talking with Turner demonstrates Columbus’ inspirational effects, but he also points to the value of the connections and knowledge capital that are present in his hometown.

“I think that’s what’s always drawn me back to Columbus,” Turner shares. “I knew I could get more done here than anywhere.” Now, he enjoys showing off downtown to visiting artists and seeing what pieces of the community they take with them as inspiration. He feels spoiled by having so much offered within a small radius–the architecture of downtown, the destinations within an hour or two’s drive, and a city that was planned with intention and ambition.

“When you leave and then you come back, you realize that a lot of communities don’t have this type of intention or design or thought process. So it makes me want to give back and create something special for the next generation.”

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