On Astor Avenue, the far edge of Schneider Park now opens onto a bridge. The new Schneider Park Pedestrian and Cyclist Bridge crosses Alum Creek. On the other side is the Alum Creek Greenway Trail, which belongs to the City of Columbus. A Bexley bike ride used to end at the creek bank. Now it can keep going on Columbus pavement.
The bridge is a good way into what the City of Bexley calls its Year of the Parks. Officially, 2023 was the designated year. Some projects were always meant to run into 2026, and they are finishing now. Most of these last pieces add little or no new green space. They are a bridge, a plaza between two buildings, and a rebuilt street between two halves of a park. Each one joins places Bexley already had.
The Astor bridge ends in another city
GPD Group designed the bridge. The city describes it as the link between Bexley, the City of Columbus and the Central Ohio Greenway Alum Creek Trail. It opened next to the other big Schneider Park project this year, a skate and bike park designed and built by Hunger Skateparks. The skate park keeps strictly enforced hours from dawn to dusk and is watched by security cameras. Now that the clocks have fallen back, that makes it a short-afternoon spot.
In September, the city scheduled a joint grand opening for both projects at Schneider Park, 2115 Astor Avenue, on Tuesday, Sept. 22. The city's announcement said both had "already welcomed many community members and neighbors." It thanked the Bexley Community Foundation, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the State of Ohio for paying for the work.
The bridge also finishes a chain inside Schneider Park itself. The park already had a push-button splash pad between the Schneider Shelterhouse, the playground and the community gardens, plus a natural dog park. The city lists both as completed under the same program. The skate park and bridge were the last two Schneider items on that list.
The library is getting its reading porch back
The second link sits on East Main Street. Bexley Public Library at 2411 E. Main St. has been rebuilding its front entry. Next to it, an Outdoor Reading Room is being built on the strip between the library and Torat Emet Synagogue. The library calls it a joint project with the City of Bexley and Torat Emet. The space is meant for reading, relaxing and gathering, with room for performances and programs and more landscaping.
The idea is older than it looks. Library Director Ben Heckman told The Torch, Bexley High School's student newspaper that the library's 1950s layout had a porch for reading, and that porch inspired the new room. "I feel like what's old is new again," he told the paper. He also told The Torch that the cement walls built in the 1980s would come back shorter, with limestone caps, "so when you see it from the street, it looks like it blends along."
The same article listed the planned features: a wider wheelchair ramp, seating, a water feature, a small stage and string lights. Paige Bilotta, the library's director of advancement and community relations, said the library plans to host poetry readings and children's storytime there. Heckman added that the widened front landing can act as a stage during events.
Bilotta put the cost at $1.5 million. The funding is split in two. The park area next to Torat Emet comes out of the city's Year of the Parks budget. The safety and accessibility work at the entrance comes from the library's Building Maintenance Fund. The library says no major changes to the façade are planned, and the Mother and Child statue at the entrance is being kept.
At the start of November, the library called the project "nearly complete." It set a public ribbon cutting and opening celebration for Sunday, Nov. 8, from 5 to 6 p.m.
"While this project is about parks, green spaces, and natural beauty, really it's about us... about parks as a canvas to nurture and grow community and to strengthen the connections within and around our neighborhoods." Mayor Ben Kessler, on the Year of the Parks page
Main Street is being built as a line of small parks
The reading room is one stop in a longer plan. The city files three Main Street projects under a streetscape it calls the "Trail of Parks." All three are small, and each takes a piece of the street residents already walk and gives it a place to stop.
- Schneider Main Trailhead, where Main Street meets the creek. It has a bluestone paver walkway, a sitting area and a signature willow tree, and it leads into the Schneider Park natural trail. The city lists it as substantially complete. A second phase with lighted entry columns and a creek overlook is pending funding.
- D.G.B. Kindness Park, the Denise G. Blank pocket park just west of the Drexel Theatre. It has bench seating, a small fountain, a spot to leave kindness rocks and a public chalkboard. The city lists it as complete.
- The Outdoor Reading Room at Bexley Public Library, described above.
Read together, the list shows that the Main Street piece of the program never meant to add one large park. It adds a series of small pauses along a street people already use, from the creek at one end to the library and the Drexel.
Commonwealth Park's two halves get a shared street
The last link is the one still under construction. Commonwealth Park has an East and a West side, and Columbia Avenue runs between them. The city's plan for the Commonwealth Connector turns that street into a brick and cobblestone surface. The design adds medians, recessed parking and a pedestrian shelf, with a plaza and pergola at each end. The city's listed completion target is late 2026.
Most of the rest of Commonwealth is already done, which makes the connector the piece that ties it together. The rebuilt athletic fields, with new soil, turf and irrigation, are complete. So are the gateway columns on the park's south side, which frame Columbia Drive. The east structure houses a public restroom. The arboretum walk on the west side, with signature tree species, an interactive pond and a natural path, is finished too. That walk fits a city that in 2013 earned its designation as a municipal arboretum, which the city calls the first in the country. The Bexley Arboretum keeps track of it.
December runs along the same lines
The first big weekend of December lands on the same map. Three events in four days sit near the projects above.
Capital University Christmas Festival, Dec. 3 to 6. This year's theme is "O Hush the Noise: A Weary World Rejoices." Capital's Chapel Choir, Choral Union and Cantabile perform with instrumentalists from the Conservatory of Music and the wider Columbus arts community, in Mees Hall. Shows are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 3:30 p.m. Tickets are on Capital's festival page.
Pancake Breakfast at Jeffrey Mansion, Saturday, Dec. 5. The Bexley Recreation & Parks Department and Scout Troop 166 serve an all-you-can-eat breakfast of pancakes, sausage, juice and coffee from 8:30 to 11 a.m. at 165 N. Parkview Ave. Mrs. Claus will be there for photos and cookie icing. Details are on the city's event page.
Tree Lighting at Drexel Circle, Sunday, Dec. 6. From 5 to 7 p.m. at Drexel Avenue and East Broad Street, the Bexley 8th grade choir and the High School Vocal Ensemble perform. There will be hot chocolate, cookies and candy canes before Mayor Kessler and Santa Claus light the community tree. Santa stays afterward to meet kids. The city's tree lighting page has the details.
Sunday, Dec. 6, is the busiest day. Capital's last show starts at 3:30 p.m., and the tree lighting at Drexel Circle starts at 5 p.m. Capital says performances run less than two hours with no intermission, so the Sunday show can run past 5 p.m. Anyone going from Mees Hall to Drexel Circle should plan on getting there after the start, with the lighting going until 7 p.m.
Projects like the Astor bridge and the library's reading room tend to come up when we talk with Bexley homeowners about what's changing near them, and that list keeps growing. If you'd like to know how this year's changes might show up in your own home's value, the team at Cam Taylor Realtors is happy to walk you through it. Get Your Free Home Valuation.
