Columbus, OH

Just over ten years ago, the City Center Mall was the place to shop in Columbus. With exclusive stores like Gucci and Henri Bendel and great anchor stores like Lazarus and Jacobson’s, the City Center offered things no other shopping center in the area offered.

Then, a trip to the City Center was something to look forward to. Christmastime was done up there like nowhere else around and summertime brought trips just to visit Everything But Water.

Now, sadly, the City Center probably gets the bulk of it’s revenue from it’s parking lots. The hours are shorter, a testament to the lack of traffic. Empty storefronts abound and the Lazarus and Jacobson’s stores are long gone.

I know this is just the result of capitalism. I have no problem with capitalism; as a matter of fact my retirement probably depends on it. Newer and bigger malls and outdoor shopping centers have come into town. Tuttle, Polaris and Easton have all done their part to wipe out City Center (heck, at least City Center is still standing, Northland Mall, the busiest mall in Columbus through the 80s is now an empty parking lot). The mess of traffic congestion downtown doesn’t help either.

But I still yearn for the City Center. I miss the days when it was a much of a destination as it was a shopping center. I miss making a “special trip” just to go shopping there. Dressing up to go Christmas shopping, watching the animatronics that beautifully dressed the Lazarus windows and waiting to work my way through Tudor Town, first to see Santa myself and then later watching my own son sit on his lap.

I miss taking a summer day and escaping the heat while having lunch at the Boulevard Grill, trying on what turned out to be my favorite summer dress at Guess and looking jealously at $100 a stem crystal at Gucci.

I hear there is a small group wanting to change Ohio law. They want to turn the City Center into a casino. I think of it and I know it would be perfect. I doubt it will ever happen. But when I think of a casino, ballroom, hotel, revived shopping and great restaurants moving back to the City Center, oh I can just picture exactly where I would put them. I know it will probably never happen–but I can dream . . .