By Rita Price, The Columbus Dispatch
After more than two decades of ambitious revitalization efforts, residents of Weinland Park — by a large majority — believe their neighborhood is getting better.
About 72 percent of respondents in the 2016 Weinland Park Collaborative Neighborhood Survey see the urban community north of Downtown and southeast of the Ohio State University campus as improving, and more are satisfied with the housing quality than when a similar neighborhood-perceptions survey was conducted six years ago.
“Only 2 percent think it’s getting worse,” Michael Wilkos, director of community research at the Columbus Foundation and a Weinland Park resident, said Wednesday during a Columbus Metropolitan Club forum.
The area is no longer a hotbed of infant mortality, more residents are employed and the goal of making low-income and market-rate housing architecturally indistinguishable has largely been met. “If you can’t tell the difference, then good,” Wilkos said.