Local

The Ohio Immigrant Alliance (OHIA) released the first two products from an 18-month research project helmed by Nana Afua Y. Brantuo, PhD, about racism and other injustices Black migrants navigate in U.S. immigration courts.

Do you want to become more involved in ComFest?

Do you have some ideas about making ComFest even better?

Do you have questions about year-round planning for ComFest?

You’re invited to a special ComFest planning meet-up. All volunteer and community-focused for over 50 years, ComFest is stronger with your participation.

We’ll be discussing ideas for developing new revenue streams as well as improving volunteer recruitment. We’ll also be seeking ideas for improving ComFest.

Whatever your volunteering interests and level of involvement, your input and ideas are welcome.

WHEN          

Sunday, January 21 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

WHERE  

Seventh Son Brewing, 1101 N. 4th Street in Italian Village

This commentary was originally published on January 3rd, 2024 in the Buckeye Flame.

The holidays can generate more household trash, and often you aren’t sure how to dispose of it the right way. What can you do with your Christmas tree or the string lights that have finally flickered out? The leftover food you can’t eat anymore? If Santa gave you a new computer or phone, how do you dispose of the old? Is your blue recycling container so full you can’t stuff one more shipping box or ball of crumpled gift wrap in it?

The City of Columbus offers an environmentally-friendly, one-stop solution at no cost to residents: the new Refuse Collection Waste and Reuse Convenience Center at 2100 Alum Creek Dr., Columbus 43207. 

The Convenience Center, open since November, provides Columbus residents with drive-through service to sustainably dispose of, recycle or reuse a variety of items — from food scraps for composting, to furniture and clothing in good condition for reuse, to electronics and many other materials for recycling.

Tuesday, January 9, 2024, 7:00 PM
Too busy to read the book? You can watch the Youtube presentation by the author and participate in the Q&A.  

The Indianola Presbyterian Church was built in 1916 in the center of Columbus’ historic, once noted and desirable University District. It was known for its architecture (the architect is not named on its website). Its congregation largely consisted of nearby homeowners, many of whom rented rooms to Ohio State University students at a time that OSU had no dormitories. OSU did not build residences on campus until after World War II with its GI Bill-fueled growth.

Contrary to local dangerously misleading mythologies, the area was long shared by homeowners and student tenants. There was no “golden age” of a middle-class mecca of homeowners. There were many students. But there were no large absentee landlords, and the city’s zoning codes regulating the number of properties an individual could own and the number of unrelated individuals living under one roof were actually enforced.

Monday, January 8, 2024, 4:30 PM
This is the first of a weekly vigil.  Cardboard signs, hot tea and handwarmers, safe community, and calls to action will be provided.  This action will be led by progressive Palestinian and Jewish community members.  All are welcome.
Location:  Outside Senator Brown’s office, 200 N. High St.  
For more information you can email to hello@barriertoentrypac.com 

The Discovery

This was not going to be a good day. The sky was cloudy, and the ground was still wet from the rain that poured down over Columbus all last night. I was walking hard and fast in my black army boots towards Jimmy’s cab company. I was not supposed to be going over there, and if Sheila knew I was going there, or even knew where there was, I would get an ass whipping that would cause me to not be able to sit down for a week. Sheila didn’t care how old her girls were or how big they were, if an ass whipping was called for, an ass whipping you got! I often wondered if this would still apply when we were grown. I didn’t dwell on it long though because I knew deep down that, yes, Sheila would still whup our butts, grown or not.

On November 18th, 2023 in Oxford, Ohio, 20-year-old Devin Johnson, a student at Miami University, was arrested and charged with assault, resisting arrest, underage drinking and criminal trespassing. After the arrest the Oxford Police Department claimed it was investigating the use of force, while immediately affirming the use of force was certainly justified. This false narrative immediately planted by the Oxford police department could not be further from the truth.

In recently released videos from the patio, you see the true version of events. Not only is there a stark contrast from the aggressor the department has painted Devin Johnson as, but you also see there was no need for the use of force he received. While being held on the ground by multiple people, Oxford officer Matthew Blauvelt almost immediately began punching Devin as he was held down by other officers. 

Clintonville’s Rag-O-Rama – a hipster destination for resale clothes – shut down this past weekend, leaving employees in a lurch and another remnant of Columbus’s soulful and non-corporate past in the proverbial back-alley garbage dumpster.

The Free Press often reminisces on Columbus of the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, when it was more a hip and quirky college town than a lame playground for young professionals and their corporate overlords.

“I’ve been going there for 25 years. After Bernie’s, Surly Girl, Larry’s, Mamas, Outland, Lil Brothers, King Avenue Coffee Shop, Atlantis, Blue Danube, Tee Jayes, Short North Coffee House, and almost all the entire Short North art district, etc. with nothing ever replacing any of it, Columbus is culturally dead,” wrote Michael Moore on the Crazy Mama’s remembrance page on Facebook. For those not in know, Crazy Mama’s on South High off-campus was Columbus’s answer to the punk, new wave and garage band “underground” which emerged in the 1970s and 1980s.