THE NEXT NEW COLUMBIA: Downtown living
Downtown Columbia has been waiting for this: a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week lifestyle, with more and more people populating the streets and the rooms above them at all hours of the day.
The city’s Main Street and Vista districts, the core of downtown, increasingly are attracting residents to a vibrant urban community. There are reasons to live here – reasons that, for most people, didn’t exist more than a handful of years ago.
Who wants to live here? They’re folks who don’t necessarily fit the average family mold – mainly young professionals, like Colin Irvine, Damion Hollomon and Reyna Carrasco, and empty-nesters, like Rick and Deborah Rowe.
With construction on nearly every other block, and as shopping, attraction and events abound, the non-student population could double in just a few short years. Then double again.
As Columbia’s core continues to blossom, we’ll see even more places to live and more people excited to live there.
MEET SOME OF NEW COLUMBIA'S RESIDENTS
The young professionals
Damion Hollomon and Reyna Carrasco
“It’s good to be part of something that seems like it’s on the way. ...This city is on the way.”
The empty-nesters
Rick and Deborah Rowe
“The downtown environment, for us, has turned out to be one of freedom. ... It’s just a good lifestyle.”
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The would-be downtowner
Kim Bendillo
“If I wasn’t spending the traveling time, I would most definitely zip out a lot more. ... I would pay a premium for the convenience.”
THE NEXT NEW COLUMBIA: As activity picks up in Columbia’s downtown core, so does demand for living options
Downtown Columbia has reached a critical mass of activity to the point where it’s finally experiencing a 24-hour life cycle in the Vista and Main Street corridors. More and more residents appear eager to live in an increasingly vibrant community, and developers are apparently responding to the demand. ...read more.
THE NEXT NEW COLUMBIA: The look of Columbia’s housing future
What will it look like to live in downtown Columbia in the next few years? For a glimpse, look at what architect and developer Scott Garvin is doing on Gervais Street. ...read more.
THE NEXT NEW COLUMBIA: Have condos gone the way of the dodo?
In the heady days before the Great Recession hit in 2007, condominiums were all the rage in booming downtown Columbia. But no more. ...read more.
THE NEXT NEW COLUMBIA: As downtown living fancies up, what happens to lower-income options?
As Columbia’s business and entertainment core attracts more upscale living options and high-wage earners who don’t mind paying a premium to live there, people looking for affordable housing options risk being pushed further to the periphery – away from jobs and resources that are helpful to everyone, not just the people who pay top dollar for homes, local affordable housing advocates say. ...read more.
This story was originally published March 14, 2015 at 7:36 PM with the headline "THE NEXT NEW COLUMBIA: Downtown living."