Two-thirds of the way through a commanding performance that served as her introduction to the community, Jena Jones asked an audience to close their eyes and listen as she tells the story of two children. Recently installed as Director of Muscogee County’s Dept. of Family and Children Services, Jones held her 100-plus audience rapt as she introduced two siblings—the boy Malachi and girl...
“We don’t like to dwell on the past,” Frank Lumpkin IV answers when asked why Columbus isn’t connected to I-85. “It was definitely a mistake,” the 20-year-old Columbus native, University of Georgia student and president of the Youth Infrastructure Coalition (YIC) continues during a recent interview at Iron Bank Coffee. “Some of our leaders didn’t want labor unions coming to Columbus and made sure...
The monthly gathering of Peachtree NORML at Mellow Mushroom Thursday night brought together a table for 15 that included an attorney, a political operative and a dude tribe-identified in tie-dye. Past guest speakers at the meeting have included Jose Guzman, an attorney with the city’s public defender office, Libertarian Party candidate for Georgia governor Ted Metz and Dr. Eric Codner, a...
Hosting her next-to-last “Let’s Talk” community-conversation series inside the Springer Opera House in March, Mayor Teresa Tomlinson was asked by a South Columbus resident what the city was going to do to bring back the banks and retailers where the elderly woman had long deposited and spent her money. Though blunt in stating such big-box operations won’t be coming back—not to South Columbus, not...
When she reported for work each day at the Stewart County Detention Center, Latifa Craword recalls, “I didn’t know what to expect.” Hired as a case manager when the facility first opened in October 2006, Crawford was assigned to Level 4 detainees—”drug dealers, rapists, murderers, child molesters, and I didn’t feel safe. My working conditions were too “open” for a detention center.” Crawford then...
When he was approached with the request to write a poem about his hometown, Isiah Harper responded that he was an essayist, not a poet. No matter, as the Northside High School English and drama teacher put into eloquent prose a unified narrative to describe Columbus. The final piece in the city-wide mural project envisioned and paid for by the Together 2017 initiative, Harper’s poem “My River...
Grubhub’s online delivery is taking a bite out of the Columbus, Georgia food industry, now. Grubhub’s worldwide reach is expansive with +85,000 restaurants participating in +1,600 cities. At this point, 17 local eateries will participate in Grubhub’s digital platform to order, pay for, and deliver across Columbus. Customers can order via the Grubhub Android or iOS apps, or...
Swinging open the doors from the fourth-floor conference room at Troy University-Phenix City Campus onto its expansive adjacent balcony, Vice Chancellor Dr. David White presents what is perhaps the best view of the Columbus riverfront. Instead of the bird’s-eye perspective on gleaming whitewater and impressive edifices for both home and office, however, White points toward an undeveloped lot that...
Anticipation has steadily grown as Barberitos prepares to open its doors at 1012 Broadway in the space formerly occupied by Brother’s General Store. Built by Herndon Construction LLC, the year-long ground up historic renovation has taken the first floor retail space from a country store to a modern steel and stacked stone restaurant. Though some original materials like the 100-year old wooden...
Americans want a new idea of the city.