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Boomtown Columbus: Ohio’s Sunbelt City and How Developers Got Their Way
Columbus, Ohio, and its ample cloud cover may be on the eastern edge of the Midwest, but the city’s unfettered suburbanization and rapid postwar expansion recall its Sunbelt peers. To understand why—and the social and economic stakes of this all-too-common model of urban growth—pioneering geographer Kevin R. Cox takes us through the postwar history of development in Columbus, a city that has often welcomed corporate influence at the expense of livability and equal opportunity for its residents.
How have development interests become entwined with government? How has a policy of annexation reformed the city’s map? Why have airline service and major league prestige lagged behind its status as a regional center? And what, if anything, makes this city with a reputation for being average stand apart? In Boomtown Columbus, Cox applies both scholarly expertise and his personal experience as a long-time resident of the city to look at the real-life costs of policy. The resulting narrative will fascinate not only locals but anyone with a stake in understanding American cities and a path toward urban livability for all.
How have development interests become entwined with government? How has a policy of annexation reformed the city’s map? Why have airline service and major league prestige lagged behind its status as a regional center? And what, if anything, makes this city with a reputation for being average stand apart? In Boomtown Columbus, Cox applies both scholarly expertise and his personal experience as a long-time resident of the city to look at the real-life costs of policy. The resulting narrative will fascinate not only locals but anyone with a stake in understanding American cities and a path toward urban livability for all.
- GenresNonfictionPolitics
274 pages, Paperback
Published June 5, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 20, 2021
This seemed right up my alley as someone who lives in Columbus and is interested in urban development and political economy. I was excited to read it, but this is an utter disaster of a book, even if I am broadly sympathetic with the author's thesis that developers dominate Columbus and determine how growth happens.
It's hard to understand for whom this book was written. Although written by an academic (emeritus) and put out by an arm of the Ohio State University Press, this is very much not an academic book. It's more of a book-length rant of what the author does not like about Columbus. We get it, dude, you hate Ohio State football and the Columbus Dispatch, and have a bug up your ass about the airport being renamed after John Glenn.
The historical parts about how Columbus used water and sewer access to push annexation, how the 'win-win' agreement severed the Columbus City Schools from the growth of the city of Columbus, and so on, have been covered better elsewhere. The author is not particularly clear about whether the issues he identifies with development in Columbus are unique to the city or representative of most American cities. At times he seems to argue both positions.
He dances around the issue of race and minimizes its importance throughout, even arguing at one point that racial segregation is of declining salience and the real segregation is by class. I'm a class-first leftist to a certain degree, but how could you live in and do research about Columbus, Ohio in 2021 and argue that race doesn't matter? Of course, in one place he says the Black population of the city of Columbus in 2016 was less than 14% (it's actually around 30%), so maybe he just doesn't see color??
Perhaps the worst part about this book is that it does not appear to have been edited at all. There are glaring factual errors throughout that are obvious to anyone who knows anything about Columbus. The statistic above is one of them. Also, Polaris is not located along I-70, John Glenn didn't grow up in Wapakoneta, Kentucky does not have casino gambling, and Ohio schools are allowed to levy income taxes.
Beyond these factual mistakes, the prose desperately needed a good editor throughout. Sentences run on and on and are almost impossible to parse.
This book is an embarrassment to Ohio State University. It shouldn't have been published, at least not in the form it was.
It's hard to understand for whom this book was written. Although written by an academic (emeritus) and put out by an arm of the Ohio State University Press, this is very much not an academic book. It's more of a book-length rant of what the author does not like about Columbus. We get it, dude, you hate Ohio State football and the Columbus Dispatch, and have a bug up your ass about the airport being renamed after John Glenn.
The historical parts about how Columbus used water and sewer access to push annexation, how the 'win-win' agreement severed the Columbus City Schools from the growth of the city of Columbus, and so on, have been covered better elsewhere. The author is not particularly clear about whether the issues he identifies with development in Columbus are unique to the city or representative of most American cities. At times he seems to argue both positions.
He dances around the issue of race and minimizes its importance throughout, even arguing at one point that racial segregation is of declining salience and the real segregation is by class. I'm a class-first leftist to a certain degree, but how could you live in and do research about Columbus, Ohio in 2021 and argue that race doesn't matter? Of course, in one place he says the Black population of the city of Columbus in 2016 was less than 14% (it's actually around 30%), so maybe he just doesn't see color??
Perhaps the worst part about this book is that it does not appear to have been edited at all. There are glaring factual errors throughout that are obvious to anyone who knows anything about Columbus. The statistic above is one of them. Also, Polaris is not located along I-70, John Glenn didn't grow up in Wapakoneta, Kentucky does not have casino gambling, and Ohio schools are allowed to levy income taxes.
Beyond these factual mistakes, the prose desperately needed a good editor throughout. Sentences run on and on and are almost impossible to parse.
This book is an embarrassment to Ohio State University. It shouldn't have been published, at least not in the form it was.
May 28, 2022
Columbus has a severe case of boosterism, and that's what makes this book such a treasure. The author tells us the real story underneath all the business-speak, which is very refreshing. He even discusses the most taboo subject in America: Class. So I am very grateful to him for that. That's why I give the book 5 stars, because this truth-telling is so important. My only objection to the book is that it is somewhat repetitive, so I might have given it four stars for that reason, but the book is relatively brief, and perhaps it does not hurt to repeat the realities a few times, when we are so continuously bombarded with propaganda day after day. So I'm sticking with 5 stars.
This is another library find. I like to wander around the library and see what jumps off the shelves at me (and the library here in Worthington, Ohio is very good at making that easy to do). I was sad to read that the author has retired from Ohio State University, as I would have liked to study with him. Judging by his voice in the book, he's probably really fun to talk with, so I may try to track him down.
This is another library find. I like to wander around the library and see what jumps off the shelves at me (and the library here in Worthington, Ohio is very good at making that easy to do). I was sad to read that the author has retired from Ohio State University, as I would have liked to study with him. Judging by his voice in the book, he's probably really fun to talk with, so I may try to track him down.
August 18, 2021
This book definitely needed to be edited with some of the boomer vocabulary removed (I'm instantly turned off when someone says "surprise, surprise"), but other than that this was a really essential book that streamlines a lot of Columbus' historical geography that would otherwise remain scattered throughout decades of papers, articles, and older books.
I don't think the other reviewer on here read the book, because the author does a very good job of emphasizing the uniqueness of Columbus relative to other American cities and Western European cities, especially regarding the notability of our annexation policy. There's also a huge emphasis on race and segregation (especially the impact of the Win-Win decision), so I don't know what the other review is talking about.
I think this book was written for anyone trying to be politically aware of how Columbus works and why the city looks the way it does - it's political, economic, and spatial (each connected to the other). While the book is more of an analysis on how the city is run by developers maximizing profits, there's an absent, yet haunting presence of the prospect of an alternative to this system. Imagining new futures where Columbus isn't just a free-for-all for big developers is a topic to be taken up by inspired readers of this book.
I don't think the other reviewer on here read the book, because the author does a very good job of emphasizing the uniqueness of Columbus relative to other American cities and Western European cities, especially regarding the notability of our annexation policy. There's also a huge emphasis on race and segregation (especially the impact of the Win-Win decision), so I don't know what the other review is talking about.
I think this book was written for anyone trying to be politically aware of how Columbus works and why the city looks the way it does - it's political, economic, and spatial (each connected to the other). While the book is more of an analysis on how the city is run by developers maximizing profits, there's an absent, yet haunting presence of the prospect of an alternative to this system. Imagining new futures where Columbus isn't just a free-for-all for big developers is a topic to be taken up by inspired readers of this book.
January 30, 2025
I love a granular urban history, and have spent most of my life in the Columbus area, so I really wanted to like this. But I can’t quite get there.
The good parts—this book provides a necessary antidote to Columbus’ booster mindset and triumphalism. Cox balances Columbus’ very real successes (retaining its tax base, maintaining income diversity, growing in a stagnant region) with its failures (inability to gain a national reputation, ongoing racial and class disparities). And he does this while pointing out that developers, not the people of Columbus or its metro area, have been the main beneficiaries of the region’s growth. This story is well told, and is bracing for people like me steeped in the narrative of "Columbus on the rise."
On the other hand…it feels polemic at times, and sometimes almost bitchy. Cox mentions often that Columbus is similar to many American cities in its method of growth and codependence with developers. But he seems to singularly dislike the place, which makes the book a bit of a chore to read. As the bulk of readers will likely be people with an intellectual interest in Columbus (and perhaps even affection for it!)…this seems like a mismatch that should have been sorted out before publishing.
I would welcome a more balanced history of Columbus since WW2–but until someone writes one, this is may be the best option. There’s some good stuff here, but it’s hard to like.
The good parts—this book provides a necessary antidote to Columbus’ booster mindset and triumphalism. Cox balances Columbus’ very real successes (retaining its tax base, maintaining income diversity, growing in a stagnant region) with its failures (inability to gain a national reputation, ongoing racial and class disparities). And he does this while pointing out that developers, not the people of Columbus or its metro area, have been the main beneficiaries of the region’s growth. This story is well told, and is bracing for people like me steeped in the narrative of "Columbus on the rise."
On the other hand…it feels polemic at times, and sometimes almost bitchy. Cox mentions often that Columbus is similar to many American cities in its method of growth and codependence with developers. But he seems to singularly dislike the place, which makes the book a bit of a chore to read. As the bulk of readers will likely be people with an intellectual interest in Columbus (and perhaps even affection for it!)…this seems like a mismatch that should have been sorted out before publishing.
I would welcome a more balanced history of Columbus since WW2–but until someone writes one, this is may be the best option. There’s some good stuff here, but it’s hard to like.
June 26, 2022
Two stars because the broad themes of the research are generally solid and, to be honest, there is not much competition in the world of writing about Columbus. But there a lot of factual errors in this book. Also it’s unclear who the intended audience is. (Europeans?) This is a decent first draft but is in desperate need of an editor.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews