Columbus, Georgia knows how to keep on rollin’ with the flow
Columbus, Georgia knows how to keep on rollin’ with the flow
COLUMBUS, Georgia — They say you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. There may be some truth to that, although I don’t understand how you’d know something’s gone if you didn’t know you got it to begin with.
I’d like to add a twist on that old adage after spending just a couple of days in Columbus over the Fourth of July weekend — you don’t know what you got until you’re gone. And I’ve been gone from Columbus for nearly 15 years. Now I know that Columbus has got a lot to be proud of.
I interviewed for a copy editor/page designer job at the Ledger-Enquirer in 1997. I drove in on Victory Drive — past the strip clubs, adult entertainment shops, tattoo parlors and such. That was about all I’d seen of Columbus back then. I’d come as a child when my grandfather had a reunion with his World War II squad and even met the two men who loaded him onto a truck after the Germans machine-gunned off both of his legs in Tunisia in 1943. We stayed at a hotel on Victory Drive, and let’s just say the night was a little loud. The next time I visited was for a Beastie Boys concert in 1987 at the old Municipal Auditorium, which, um, was not exactly luxurious.
For all I knew back then, Victory Drive was Columbus. Yet, I took the job. I’m still glad I did.
From 1997 to 2011, I saw much more of Columbus. It became home. I took advantage of the Riverwalk, Lakebottom Park, Cooper Creek Park, the Civic Center, Golden Park and the Columbus Museum. I found numerous great places to eat and shop. It was a good place to live and to visit. During my time there, the city kept improving.
My son was born in Columbus and lived his boyhood days there, so the town will always have a special place in my heart. I also somehow landed a weekly column-writing gig at the paper. I don’t think the publisher at the time was a big fan of this college dropout with a Southern accent addressing the most important issues of society — such as what cows are thinking, alien abductions, confronting burglars while naked, Bubba Claus, butt-dialing while singing Jerry Reed songs, and how to deal with men named Skeeter and Peanut. Yet, it resonated enough to keep running for 25 years.
In fact, that column ran in the Ledger-Enquirer for a dozen years after I left Columbus to work in the nonprofit world (although most newspapers’ profits are unfortunately now in the “non” category in this propaganda age). It ended in 2023 when an editor (who came and went quickly) and I had disagreements about my writing style — I was cool with it, and he wasn’t. We also differed on how much time I should spend planning, writing and editing it. I explained I really didn’t plan my columns, and we couldn’t bridge the gap of how much effort I should put into it — he seemed to want “a lot” and I was more in the “not a lot” camp.
So, not only had I left Columbus, but the column left, too. The city was in my rear-view mirror.
Today, I live in Houston County, Georgia — where growth is outpacing infrastructure. There’s a stretch from north Perry to Warner Robins that basically looks like bland capitalism vomited a million mini-strip malls onto the packed roads. It’s a lot like Columbus Park Crossing with some of the shops and restaurants. But, eventually you have enough and then too much of that stuff. Few places have more “too much” stuff than the northern suburbs of Metro Atlanta. And as much as I have loved the Atlanta Braves since the 1970s, Truist Park has more of a mall feel than a baseball park feel to me. If you like that park, well, more power to ya.
I prefer baseball parks with character or with history or, better yet, both. Yes, I love quality baseball, but not enough to fight Metro Atlanta traffic and then be annoyed by the rampant money grabs that people just accept as a fact of life in those areas.
And it was baseball that brought me back to Columbus for a couple of days. When the Braves decided to move their AA affiliate from Mississippi to Columbus, I knew I’d be making a return at some point. I’ve seen lower minor league games at Golden Park — sorry, Synovus, but it’s still Golden Park to me — and it has always been a great riverside setting for baseball. (And, yes, I’ve seen plenty of hockey, indoor football and basketball at the very nice Civic Center there, too. The whole sports setup there at South Commons is excellent.)
Because I prefer experiences over stuff, my main birthday gift this year was tickets to a Clingstones game. (I’d already checked the Rolling Stones and The Flintstones off my Stones bucket list.) We chose July 4 because my wife and I both had the holiday off. We got into Columbus a little after noon and hit legendary Country’s Barbecue first, of course. Then we did a little light shopping at Columbus Park Crossing — yes, I do need a little bit of stuff sometimes — and checked into our hotel.
Now, I’ve had some pretty disappointing hotel stays in the past 12 months or so — from a fancy boutique hotel in Oxford, Mississippi, to a Super 8 in Mayfield, Kentucky, where I was covering a Fuller Center for Housing build for tornado victims. So, I don’t get my hopes up too much about hotels anymore. In fact, the best hotel I’ve stayed at in the past year was in San Salvador, El Salvador. Nevertheless, we decided to book the City Mills Hotel, which did not exist during my days in C-Town. It was supposed to be nice.
It was far beyond nice. City Mills’ setting along the river with the Chattahoochee Riverwalk running between its two main buildings is enough to give it 5 stars. However, the hotel itself perfectly blends modern conveniences with its rich history that dates back to 1828. The exposed brick on the interior and all the industrial touches pay homage to the mills’ and the city’s roots. The front desk folks were super friendly and helpful, and the free breakfast and coffee were delicious.
The hotel also allows pets. Normally I don’t care because my chimpanzee prefers to stay home, but the folks in the room above us apparently brought their team of hyperactive clogging Clydesdales. But while they took away a few hours of sleep, they couldn’t take away from the views as we could watch folks raft the river from the comfort of our room.
The only improvement I suggest is to add oceanview rooms. Of course, that would require the installation of an ocean and stocking it with sharks, which may be cost-prohibitive. Maybe sea-level rise will solve that problem in a few centuries.
As I suspected, the quality of AA baseball is far above most of the minor league action I witnessed during my days in Columbus. The usual fan games and activities were standard fun, and the prices were reasonable. I did buy a Clingstones t-shirt at their clubhouse store, so maybe I’m not as anti-stuff as I thought. Maybe I’m just anti-expensive stuff.
I even ran into a former Ledger-Enquirer colleague, WRBL’s Chuck Williams, at the game. We were both sports writers and sports editors in former lives, so that wasn’t exactly shocking. He’s also seen Golden Park through the years and confirmed my view that they really nailed the re-opening of this stadium.
The postgame fireworks, the parking, the staff and food were great. They may need to add a dome and air-condition it. Then again, the vast majority seats were in the shade at the start of the 7 p.m. game, so we survived.
My only concern is that so many new teams, new arenas and new restaurants start out excellent and then become complacent. Once such establishments quit caring as much, so do their patrons. As long as the Clingstones keep doing what they’re doing now, it’ll stay a great experience. They should follow the lead of Country’s Barbecue — open for 50 years now and still working hard to deliver outstanding food and service. (I had the brisket, by the way, and it’s as good as I remembered … especially the sauce.)
I already was extremely familiar with the Chattahoochee Riverwalk. I’ve walked it, jogged it, nearly killed myself on roller blades on that giant hill behind the Civic Center and biked it many times. I had plenty of lunch breaks on the Riverwalk.
Most of that activity, though, was on the stretch from the Eagle & Phenix Dam to Fort Benning/Moore/Benning. (By the way, Hal Moore was a great leader and deserving of the honor.) I also knew the Phenix City side from the amphitheater to the 14th Street Pedestrian Bridge. This time, however, I saw another side of the Riverwalk — from the 14th Street Pedestrian Bridge to City Mills.
The bridge area has been updated and feels like it’s in the center of the action with the new hotels and establishments downtown, whereas it kinda felt like the end of activity when I lived there. And the stretch of Riverwalk that I discovered on this trip was truly peaceful. Those folks at TSYS and the Mercer University School of Medicine have some amazing views in their backyards.
It’s amazing to think that there were plenty of naysayers when they first began building the Riverwalk. And there were plenty more as they expanded the Riverwalk. I don’t know who gets or deserves the credit, but they were ahead of the game. The Riverwalk is a treasure and something most cities would be jealous of.
Next time, we’ll bring the bicycles. If you stay at any of the nice hotels along the Riverwalk, you will rarely need anything more than a bicycle to get around. It is a bike-friendly town, especially downtown (or Uptown if you’re into branding), and there are plenty of places to park and secure your bicycle — including behind Golden Park. Yes, you can ride your bike to the game, just like I did growing up in Brooklyn in 1924.
In fact, the only reason we didn’t bring the bikes was because we knew it was going to be 92 degrees with a real-feel temperature of 263. And it ain’t no dry heat!
I was most familiar with downtown during my Columbus days. The newspaper back then was on the corner of 12th Street and Broadway. Columbus State now owns that space and tore down the ugly six-story part of the L-E but kept the beautiful facade facing 12th Street. I worked in that part of the building. I would occasionally gaze out the windows at the Chattahoochee before someone decided to block my view with a parking garage — or grrrrr-age, as I referred to it.
It has changed drastically. I used to stroll past many empty shops and wish we had more places to eat on my lunch break. As the years went by, more restaurants started, a few more stores came, and it was clearly on the rebound. Now, downtown is thriving.
We went on a Saturday morning while Market Days on Broadway was going on. It was like a small-town crafts fair for three blocks. We also couldn’t walk 50 feet without seeing a unique restaurant, a specialty store or a fancy shmancy hotel. And there was only one trio of loud street preachers shouting random out-of-context scripture on the corner of 13th Street and Broadway, a sunny spot where I assume the 263-degree real feel temperature was getting to them.
It has a Savannah Riverfront feel but less touristy. It’s definitely more pedestrian and bike friendly. It’s also closer to my home than Savannah. I get tired of traveling, and downtown Columbus is close enough to call “a short drive” and a place I can park it and get comfortable when I get there.
We had lunch at The Mix Market and dinner at the Cannon Brew Pub. The Cannon has been there a while, so I was familiar with their good food and unique atmosphere. The Mix Market, though, was a new one for me.
I knew nothing about The Mix Market. All I knew was folks coming out of there seemed happy — though, granted, most were holding beers at the time. I was hot and exhausted sitting on a bench between the religious fanatics and the folks with beer. My wife had already warned me “DON’T!” when we saw the ranters because she knows I like to engage with them. I was still tempted, though, so she dragged me into the cool-looking place producing happy beer-holders. It wasn’t difficult.
I’m glad she did. It was modern but spacious and unique. We had a delicious brick-oven pizza, and the rest of the food looked amazing. Most unique was the long line of beer taps along one wall. There’s no jostling, raising hands or flashing one of my nipples for a bartender’s attention here. Nope. You just start a tab, get an armband, and use that armband to activate any tap you want. When you’re done, you just go settle your tab.
I had a Diet Dr. Pepper … because I’m wild like that.
You can only squeeze so much into a two-day trip. We did find time to enjoy the still-free Columbus Museum, which is as awesome as ever. I admired the things I considered art, and I nodded cluelessly at the things art aficionados consider brilliant. “Okie dokie.” And other than the beer cave in some convenience stores, it just might be the coolest (literally) attraction in Columbus.
I spent a lot of time there with my son when he was little. There was a great space for kids to play, learn and experiment downstairs back then that has been expanded and shifted to the main floor. We didn’t have time to visit some of the other places I frequented with him through the years such as Lakebottom Park, the Space Science Center, Hollywood Connection and more. I’d also like to return to the outstanding National Infantry Museum, where I bought a brick to honor my grandfather a few years ago.
Of course, I thought I was just going to Columbus for a baseball game. Now, I’ll be back for another visit. I’ll bring the bikes, and I’ll do some whitewater rafting. Maybe I’ll try to find my granddaddy’s brick again at the Infantry Museum among the other thousands.
But Columbus absolutely could serve as your base for a weeklong vacation. There’s plenty to do here, and there are other attractions nearby from Pine Mountain to Auburn to Providence Canyon.
What sets this town apart from others, though, is that it’s a great place to visit and to live. Most communities feel geared to either its residents or its tourists. Columbus perfectly blends and welcomes both.
It’s not without problems. No city is. In fact, just about anywhere you have more than two people gathered, you’re going to have problems. When you have a thousand, 200,000 or a million, you get even more problems. What communities must do is to counter those problems with more benefits. If more communities would abandon their growth-above-all-else attitudes and focus on growing their quality of life, they would be better served — and so would their residents … and visitors.
Unless cities plan effectively for the future and add a dash of bold dreams the way Columbus did, they may find themselves up the creek without a paddle. Trust the folks who live in and love to visit Columbus — it’s much better to be rollin’ on the river.
3 Comments
Fantastic article (as always ), and appreciate the photos, especially taken in the hotel, which, as a local resident I may never have the opportunity to see. Thanks for letting folks know how Columbus has grown and the quality of life has improved. There is always more work to be done, but that just keeps attracting new folks with new ideas.
Thanks, Pat! — CJ
Very nice article. As a Columbus native it’s easy to find the negatives above the positives. Thanks for reminding me it is a beautiful town with a lot of to offer.