It boggles my mind.
What I mean: say you are eating at Banana Leaf or shopping at Mirco Center there off Bethel and you need to go to Graceland. Your choice is to take either Henderson Road or 161, then up or down High. It's at least a 15-minute trip. Therefore, for long time residents of Columbus, Graceland's neighborhood is thought somewhat distant from the Bethel Road area. This is so understood that we don't even think it as anything other. But the truth is that Graceland isn't that far, it actually RIGHT THERE over the river, just a quarter of a mile, closer than Olentangy Road is to High Street at Lane Avenue.
This is germane to my review as the remodeling of Graceland missed an opportunity to fix its greater problem, its design. There was at one time a proposal to connect Bethel and Morse that would create a seamless transition of neighborhoods, make Bethel an 'off High' location, improve traffic congestion on Henderson and Dublin-Grandville, and allow Graceland to become a mini-Easton of sorts with the added space. That though was rejected by an Old Beechwood "Homes over Highway Campaign." I can't blame residents for fighting eminent domain though, especially when it's proposed to benefit chains and car culture, but it is a shame a compromise was impossible as such a bridge could had been beneficial.
Be that as it may, Graceland recently cleaned itself up and added businesses. Named after a horse ranch that was once on the plot, which in turn was named after a famed brothel madam who was beloved by the owner, a major bootlegger in the 1930s ( not after the house of Elvis fame as I once thought), it has been a shopping mall since the 1950s.
The shops and restaurants here is the who's who of strip malls. That is not meant to be 100-percent negative, but it does prevent Graceland from being a destination. Anchored by a Target and a Kroger's Market Place, Graceland also has a pet store, Michaels, a B-dubs, Bob Evans, a Game Stop. There are gyms here, stationary stores, it's basically Sawmill Road condense in a pocket.
Its bigger problem is its design. Born in the 1950s mode of car culture and suburban drift, its an asphalt gulf flooding a large square inlet surrounded by the stores. It is not walkable by any means, so that the stores are all together but they are apart as well; parking at Target doesn't mean ease of entry to Jack's. You still have to get in your car and drive the few meters. It lacks a social, public consciousness. Instead it has a fractured feel, a desolate air about it, a disconnection. You come here when you have too shop one of its stores, when that store is closer than other branches; no one plans a day here like they do at Easton, Polaris, or even the antique store stretch just south on High. But for area residence, it is a decent place to shop when need be. I just wish that area would included the Northwest, which is just a stone throw across the river. read more