Weinland Park is a neighborhood in transition. Situated between the Ohio State University and The Short North, this largely residential area is on the cusp of a renaissance, thanks largely in part to one of the most ambitious collaborative efforts to ever be planned in Central Ohio.
The Weinland Park Collaborative (WPC) was officially launched in August of 2010 as a partnership effort to revitalize the neighborhood. The collaborative — which is made up of over 20 agencies including The Ohio State University, The City of Columbus, Campus Partners, The Columbus Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, United Way of Central Ohio and others — provides a unique opportunity to redevelop the entire area with a large-scale strategic plan and provide a way to reduce redundancy across the various groups involved.
“The WPC engages with residents and the Weinland Park Community Civic Association to learn what can best improve their neighborhood,” explains Michael Wilkos, Community Research and Grants Management Officer at The Columbus Foundation and Weinland Park resident. “The agencies and organizations coordinate and jointly support a variety of projects to leverage assets and meet needs in the areas of housing, workforce development, education, healthy living, public safety, youth engagement, and resident leadership.”
Currently, the Collaborative’s efforts focused on housing development is what is most visible to the general public. Weinland Park was originally built as a working class neighborhood for employees of the nearby machine factories such as the 3M/Auld site and the Columbus Coated Fabrics plant. When those industrial sites closed up and jobs left the neighborhood, the area began a decades-long decline that the WPC hopes to help reverse. Much more is here
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