Columbus Overview: The Far South

America is often considered a melting pot and if that is true, that sentiment is twice as true for the metropolitan neighborhoods within the country. Every neighborhood is its own world, its own tapestry of human influence. People affect every place they live. The city of Columbus is named after the man who first colonized America, another piece of evidence that people can truly influence cities and homes for the better; however, what happens when people leave a mark on their own home or the home of others in a negative way? Columbus is one of the most prosperous cities in America, with the population doubling from 1960 to 2017, while the populus of other cities have been steadily declining. Despite the fast growth rate of the city in general, there is one neighborhood that, while large in population, has been stunted in growth over the past few decades - the South Side. The South Side has been negatively influenced by its residents and the city itself for a number of years. If the South Side is to ever become a community that can be considered as progressive as some of the others within the city, a lot of help, hard work, and dedication is needed. Success will be hard to achieve in making this area more livable and likable when the crime rates are soaring.

In the Far South, crime rates are 108 percent higher than the national average and 36 percent higher than the Columbus average, with 5,171 incidences per 100,000 people. Property crimes, such as robbery and vandalism, are the majority of the crimes in the area, however, there have been several incidents of violent crimes over the years. A shooting took place on Friday, July 23rd of 2022 on Southpoint Boulevard. The victim, a man in his thirties, did not survive the shooting. This incident marks the 116th homicide in Columbus 2022. The fact that the crime rates in the general Columbus area are lower than the crime rates in the South Side brings the question, why are crime rates in this area so high?

The robberies in the South Side could be partially explained by the poverty rates. The median household income of the Southside is $39,897, while the overall Ohio median is $50,674. Income per capita in the area is 40 percent less than the national average, and the unemployment rate is five point seven percent, while the unemployment rate of Ohio is four point six percent. If a man or woman can’t afford to pay the bills, stealing something of value may seem like the only option. This is especially true because of the low employment rates within the district.

The unemployment rates in the South Side are high due to the fact that the cost of living in the Far South area is nine percent lower than the Columbus average. When someone doesn’t have a job, they tend to look for a place that is cheaper than others and since the cost of living in the Far South is much cheaper than anywhere else in the city, it makes sense that the unemployment rates in this particular district are high. One resident, Shelly, claims her mother, Debbie, another resident, enjoys the low expenses of the neighborhood, as Debbie is unemployed and on social security. Shelly claims, “My mom likes it here because of how her last neighborhood was and she can’t afford to live anywhere else.” Debbie’s situation is made even worse because she is raising her 17-year-old grandson after his mother passed away. Debbie and her family are just one of many families in the South Side that are unemployed. The unemployment rates in Columbus skyrocketed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with 150,000 jobs lost, and while about one third of those jobs have been recovered, there is still a significant number of people who have not returned to work since March 2020.

The conditions of the South Side look even worse when compared to other Columbus neighborhoods. The median home value in Bexley is $379,200 dollars, while the median home value of the South Side is $77,184 dollars. The cost of living in Bexley is substantially higher compared to the South Side, leading to the question of how much money is put into these two neighborhoods every year and how does the amount differ from one another? Bexley is not the only part of Columbus that has more favorable conditions than the South Side. The crime rates of Upper Arlington are 60 percent lower than the Columbus average, while crime rates in the South Side are 35 percent higher than the Columbus average, which ties back into poverty, which is more common in the South Side than in other areas. The majority of Upper Arlington residents have a household income distribution of $60,000 to $100,000 a year, while the majority of South Side residents have a household income distribution of $10,000 to $25,000 a year.

The vandalism of the South Side neighborhood is a symptom of the fact that a lot of residents and city officials do not appear to care about the neighborhood. Trash, such as empty beer bottles and used cigarettes can be seen on any given street. There are light and electricity poles that are partly damaged from motor vehicle accidents and graffiti can be seen on many walls of various buildings, along with smashed windows and overgrown lawns. Family Missionary Baptist Church (Photo on Left), a place of worship in the Far South, was found vandalized in 2016. Pastor Frederick LaMarr found the damage when he arrived at work on a Monday morning and discovered the glass backboards of the basketball hoops in the court had been shattered by what looked to be BB gun pellets. This upset LaMarr, as he works with Ministries for Movement, a group dedicated to preventing violence in the neighborhood. Stories such as this one lead many people to question the conditions of the community.

Despite the conditions of the area, there are people that seem to enjoy living on the South Side. There are several people that feel that the South Side is a less than perfect place to live, while others seem content with the area. Working class citizen and South Side resident, Becky, was asked if she liked living in the South Side. She was currently in the middle of her morning shift at the Certified gas station on Parsons Avenue when she responded, “It's nice here. It’s quiet.” Becky seems happy with the neighborhood, just as Debbie and Shelly are. There doesn’t seem to be many residents that hate the area. There might be a few residents who dislike it, but there does not seem to be a large number of people who truly hate this edge of town. Likewise, there does not seem to be a large number of residents that love the area, as well, just those who are okay with it. The more positive opinions of the townsfolk might be from the slight positive attention the South Side has been getting these past couple of years.

The Far South’s reputation has been in shambles for many years because of the high crime rates, however, many Columbus residents and real estate experts, such as Betsy Sharp, claim the neighborhood is on the rise. Sharp is a real estate agent who lives in Merion Village and claims that the South Side is not as bad as people make it out to be. In 1988, this area of town was struggling with crack houses, but now a lot of family friendly businesses have migrated to Parsons Avenue, including the Crest Gastropub (Photo on Right) and Alchemy Café. Some real estate agencies are even trying to buy homes that were once considered a ‘fixer-upper’ and renovate them into new and beautiful houses worthy of Bexley and Upper Arlington. Many residents might consider this gentrification as bad, others claim that it is a new and fresh way to get the area back on its feet. This corner of the city definitely needs a little love, and the idea that more businesses are moving to the South Side and some investors are finally trying to put more effort into sprucing the neighborhood up, could very well be a sign that things are moving in the right direction, that things are changing.

The South Side, just like every other neighborhood in America, is a melting pot, a collaboration of different people affecting it each day. In a way, Betsy Sharp and Frederick LaMarr affect this city way more than Christopher Columbus ever did. This neighborhood is considered to be a gray area, a place that people neither love nor hate, however more and more people, including residents and investors are starting to see how great this place really is and how great this place could be. For the South Side to become a place that is respected and admired as much as areas such as Upper Arlington and Bexley, it needs a little more work, a little more elbow grease, and a little bit of polish.

Article written by Richard Caleb Stepp (September 2022)

Sources available upon request