Franklinton

I live in Washington state but still try to keep up with local news from Columbus. I saw recently that my old home from back in the 1940's and 1950's is being torn down. Riverside Apartments, we called it the "projects" back then, was brand new when we moved in there in the early 40's. The local elementary school was Fieser school located on State and Starling. It was an old 3 story brick building built in 1872. There were little neighborhood stores located at Rich nad McDowell (Van Dykes) and a littlle store right at the railroad under pass on Rich and Cherry Drive called Riverside Market. We went to Starling Jr. High on Central Ave, (no school buses in those days) and went to Central High School where some sort of exposition center now sits. Most of the local men were off fighting WWII, there were a lot of facturies located in Franklinton at that time. B&T Metals, which was just torn down employeed over 500 African-Americans, as far as I know, my grandfather was the only white guy who worked there as a night watchman because he lived right next door at Town and McDowell. I loved that area. I was saddened to see that condition of the neighborhood when I returned there several years ago. What most people don't know, and probably do not care, is that that four and five block area represents the first town built in central Ohio. Lucas Sullivant laid out the streets in 1793 thus "Lucas Street" and "Sullivant Ave", they intersected where Riverside Apts were located. There's a lot of history there, you don't need to dig into the ground very deep to find all kinds of relics. The neighborhood was working middle class blue collar families. There were taverns on just about every corner in Franklinton, but seldom caused any problems. It's too bad that the old homes on McDowell and the surrounding neighborhood could not be saved. Tacoma, Washington was facing the same crisis until people stepped in and demanded better law enforcement and pushed the drug dealers and trash out of the area. The old neighborhoods here are being fixed and old facturies and warehouses turned into condos and a campus of the University of Washington. I wonder why politicians Columbus didn't show a little leadership in that area?