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Rediscovering Columbus
What shall we do with a dense, lifeless figure who’s overstayed his welcome at City Hall? No, not Mayor Ginther…
The Christopher Columbus statue is back in the spotlight as the city kicks off a $3.5 million initiative—Reimagining Columbus—to determine its fate while “reimagining” the city itself.
As one of nine cities funded by the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Projects, Columbus has the opportunity to transform our commemorative landscape to more fully celebrate the diversity and “multiplicity” of our city.
The city of Columbus will invest $1.5 million in new art, its largest-ever commitment to a single public art project. And the Monuments Project is providing $2 million to design a space that re-contextualizes our Christopher Columbus statue.
In June 2020, the Columbus statue, gifted by our sister city of Genoa in 1955, was removed from City Hall and placed in storage.
Anonymously re-contextualized statue in June 2020.
“Today, we take the next step in rewriting our narrative,” Mayor Ginther said in a press release. “We take responsibility to tell the truth about colonialism and racism, and to tell the stories of the people who have been overlooked and erased from the telling of our history. I invite the entire community to join us in an inclusive discussion that will allow us to re-envision how we project ourselves to the world and create a symbolic landscape that more closely resembles our shared values and aspirations for our future.”
The multimillion-dollar question is why a corn-and-cows Midwest city was ever named for an Italian explorer who set sail under the Spanish flag and never stepped foot on American soil.
What if we put something outside City Hall that more accurately represents our heritage…
On display at Ohio History Connection.
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Scarlet Letter Trivia
Question: Ohio State has sold the most football season tickets in a decade. It’s tacking on a new $2 fee this year… for what?
A. The Reimagining Columbus Fund
B. NIL Fund
C. Short North violence prevention
D. Preservation fund for future Ohio Stadium maintenance.
In the News
Burger Bots
White Castle joins Wendy’s among local burger royalty testing ChatGPT-like technology for drive-through orders. Julia, White Castle’s artificial intelligence enabled chatbot, is supporting limited staff, but customers aren’t all too pleased with it. “It’s a pain in the butt,” one customer told the Wall Street Journal. Columbus-based White Castle is testing the technology in Indiana. We found out earlier this year that Wendy’s is testing its own technology at an undisclosed location in Columbus. This line suggests the plan to kill off humans is not as sudden and violent as sci-fi portrays it: “They also are programmed to encourage customers to binge on an extra burger or a dessert.”
Remote Control
If you thought your boss was unreasonable for making you take Zoom calls with the camera on, you should be nothing but grateful.
Some state Senators want to require state employees to be in the office at least four days a week. “You do more work, you do more effective work when you’re physically present at your workplace,' Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman said. But State Rep. Jay Edwards takes the other side, noting remote work saves taxpayer money.
The policy could be a boon for downtown, where a lot of state workers used to spend their days. The state of Ohio is the second-largest employer in Columbus with about 22,700 workers, trailing only OSU (about 33,600), according to Columbus Business First research.
Hear me out… Let’s try making all state workers AI chatbots, starting with the BMV.
Quotable
Have I ever been to Columbus, Ohio?
Cooking Through Columbus
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Trivia Answer
D. This year’s $2 surcharge on Ohio State football season tickets goes to a preservation fund for future Ohio Stadium maintenance. With a decade-high 55,000+ season tickets sold, well, you can do the math.
Signing Off
From a Crew match on Saturday evening to Mural Fest and ComFest, this weekend’s about to be kickin’.
