Hey y’all, I hope you’re all staying cool this week during the heat wave. Cooling centers will be open and COTA will be free during the heat advisory when it starts tomorrow. I’ll be off next week for the holiday so I’ll see you in a couple weeks!

Things you can do in person

• Big Walnut Trail Community Open House
  Thursday, July 9th, 4:30PM-7:30PM
  Blendon Woods Nature Center
  

  

  
  Updates are coming to the Big Walnut Trail!

  We’re excited to share a new walking and biking extension on Big Walnut Trail that links Cherrybottom Park to the existing Gahanna Trail along the Big Walnut Creek near Morse Road! Join us for a community open house to view designs, talk with staff and share your thoughts on safety, nature preservation and how the trail fits near homes and businesses.

• Transit Columbus Monthly Meeting
  Tuesday, July 14th 7:00PM-8:30PM
  Columbus Main Library, Meeting Room 1A

  

  
  Our general meeting is going to look a little different this month. With the launch of the city’s Participatory Budgeting Pilot, we are using our July Meeting to collect ideas for how the city should spend a portion of its capital budget.

  How it works:

  • Each city council district will be allocation $1 million for capital projects (think physical changes like community gardens, parklets, crosswalks) that residents will choose how to spend.

  • Community members attending this meeting will get together to answer the question: if you were in control of a million dollars of the city budget, what types of public projects would you have them build in your neighborhood?

  • Your input goes directly to the city and a team of regular community members like you to turn those ideas into project proposals.

  • Once the proposals are developed, you get to vote on which proposal(s) will actually be built in your area.

  Join us to have a say in what gets built in your neighborhood!

• Our City Our Say Petition Circulator Opportunity
  Our City Our Say is hiring paid Petition Circulators to help us collect signatures across Columbus over the next few weeks.
  
  Position Details
  - Pay: $25 per hour
  - Timeline: Start as soon as today through July 15, 2026
  - Maximum: Up to 80 hours ($2,000 maximum compensation)
  - Flexible scheduling
  - Minimum shift: 2 hours
  
  If you're enthusiastic about people having power and democracy, enjoy talking with people, and want to make a real difference in Columbus, we'd love to hear from you.
  
  Apply today: https://forms.gle/SapnfYvckR1mxAa86
  

  

• Habitat for Humanity Triplex Build with Strong Towns Columbus
  Saturday, August 15th 8:30AM-3:30PM
  Help Habitat build a triplex for 3 local families! There is no experience necessary. Tasks will vary and our helpful site leads will teach you everything you need to know. You must be 16 years or older (and accompanied by an adult 21 or over if you are under 18) to volunteer. Teams of youth volunteers must be accompanied by 1 adult per 5 youth.

Things you can do online

• Help our Haitian-American neighbors
  Check out these two links from Ohio Immigrant Alliance.
  - Springfield Spotlight
  - Six ways to help today

  

Things I’m reading/watching:

• City Lays Out Timeline for Major Downtown Projects from Columbus Underground

• City’s Longest Protected Bike Lane Nearly Complete from Columbus Underground

• Nearly 40 COTA electric buses out of service due to industry-wide recall from 10TV

• Housing bill on President Trump's desk could help alleviate Columbus' housing crisis from WOSU
  

Have a great day everyone!

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