Have you noticed, in that blink of an eye just before you cross the bridge heading toward West Columbia from downtown, a sign that says "Esplanade?"
All I can tell is that it seems to have something to do with the CanalSide development — or the riverfront, in any case. Looking back, I see passing references to it in the paper, and this notice to contractors.
Which makes me think somebody’s pulling a fast one on me. Given that Columbia can employ 42 people in a "unique" department with the express purpose of attracting Homeland Security dollars, I gotta figure there’s money to be made here, too.
True, I haven’t done any actual work to bring this thing about. But neither did Tony Soprano, and he managed to get a couple of "no-shows" and several "no-works" worth of income from HIS Esplanade.
So where’s my taste?
(Seriously, the development of our riverfront is an exciting and positive thing for the Midlands. I just couldn’t avoid poking a little fun at the "Esplanade" name…)
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I very much enjoy the Riverfront areas on both the Columbia and Cayce/West Columbia sides. I was devastated when they removed the beautiful foliage near New Orleans restaraunt. Also, the chicken plant is the most disgusting thing breathing the odor from that. Can’t we get that thing moved? But all in all I love the way the river has been developed without going overboard. The natural aspect of it makes it one of Columbia’s great attractions. I just hope they don’t go too far and try to emulate Chattanooga or Jacksonville. Those are nice too but I prefer the natural setting.
Now is a good time to list things I’d like to see in Columbia:
1. Removal of the RR tracks, especially on S. Assembly.
2. Removal of the West Columbia chicken plant.
3. A city this size should have a water park.
4. The tallest building in SC needs a good name and a fancy log near the top.
5. The next re-do of the state house dome should be in gold, not that ugly cooper.
6. Why can’t we get better stuff at the Koger Center? Seems like a bunch of fluff while Greenville, Charleston and Charlotte get good stuff.
7. Does Columbia even have a French restaraunt?
8. Biking around downtown Columbia is a nightmare. Let’s fix Assembly Street to make it four lanes of traffic plus lanes for bikes.
9. Will malfunction junction ever get fixed?
10. Can we ever finish with the downtown beautification projects? Remember the 150 foot light polls? That was about 4 beautification projects back. Main Street still seems rather bland.
“150 foot light polls? ” What were they smoking? And who came up with idea?
Bud,
Removing railroad tracks, that should be an easy project to tackle. Call Mayor Bob in the morning and he’ll stamp it with his big “APPROVED” rubber stamp. City of Columbia property taxes will only go up $300 per $100,000 this year.
The chicken plant was there long before anybody lived there and now that they do, and are complaining that there’s a chicken plant next door… well duh, where did that come from? I guess they can complain to their real estate agent. Who’s going to foot the bill to have it moved? Tax payers???
Why would you want a log on top of the building?
Is there not enough “bling” in this state without a gaudy gold plated dome on the capitol? We can look like downtown a Sikh temple in India. Personally I like the copper, or “cooper” to you, dome.
We have plenty of “French” restaurants, they’re just southern French. Instead of fancy, tiny servings of over-handled food in disgusting sauces, we have generous helpings of pork barbeque and gravy.
150 foot light poles? Who’s going to change those light bulbs?
He’s not proposing the tall light poles: they were part of an earlier, short-lived “revitalization” project on Main Street.
And don’t remove the railroad tracks, we’re going to need those one day for light rail transportation. (And let’s have high speed rail from city to city, too.)
Maybe a “log” on top of the tall building would be a bad idea. But a distintive “logo” would look nice. And of course a mini “Cooper” atop the State House would be a real eye catcher.
Frankly, the copper dome is really ugly. Georgia’s capitol dome looks so much better than ours. Even a nice stone dome like the U.S. capitol would look better. In a few years the dome will turn a yuk green and then it will really look awful. Not sure I understand that choice.
How about let’s stop spending taxpayer money on frivolous projects, window dressing, recreation and amusement that the public does not really want enough for a business to invest in it?
You want a water park?
Form a corporation and build one.
You want a ball field?
Do like previous generations did: buy a few acres and build one yourself for a fraction of what government will spend to lard up contracts for cronies.
Riverwalk is all about destroying the wild vegetation and running off those who enjoy hiking, fishing, and kayaking, in order to provide free amenities to subsidize developers.
I’m sure everyone has different ideas of ways to improve the city.
– The RR tracks are a pain but don’t affect me so I don’t think about them.
– The dome if the State House is something that I don’t mind but having a gaudy golden dome would not be an improvement.
– We have a water park in the very rivers found here. Grab a kayak or a tube and have some fun. The water levels need to be better regulated so that the rivers can be taken advantage of on a regular basis.
-A logo on a building, ‘fancy’ or not, serves no purpose.
– The chicken plant stinks (nothing like running a 5k right by there!), but was there first. As soon as moving it would be worth some private entity paying for it, I’m sure it will. Until then, no public money should be spent on it.
– Bike lanes would be a good thing. The ones added across the Lake Murray dam and into Irmo are nice.
– Having spent quite a bit of time in Montreal, I’ll simply ask: Have you seen what the French eat?
– I do think it was a poor choice to remove the natural areas next to New Orleans. I thought it was quite telling that signs describing the natural area were removed so that the area could be bulldozed. Money talks I suppose. Now instead of trees and animal life, we get old guys in hot tubs along the ‘trail’. Scenic, indeed.
– Malfunction Junction, and several other interchanges (absolute messes) are semi-functional and won’t be changed anytime soon. That particular one probably should have something done but several other traffic bottlenecks are the results of poor merging education and technique.
– In my opinion, parking has become a big nightmare in the Vista. It seem in the last couple of years the increase in valet parking and added ‘beautification’ and business has made it very difficult to find a semi-convenient parking place when trying to come to dinner, etc. in the area. The garages will help but I think there needs to be better signage in the area indicating where they are.