Rapid growth of exurbs alters the equation
Politics changing along with the demographics
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COLUMBUS, Ohio - When I was growing up, the northernmost tip of Columbus was considered the boonies. It was outside the outer-belt freeway that rings the metropolitan area, too distant from the city to claim much connection to it. It wasn't even in our county.
Two decades later, it is barely recognizable, an ever-expanding mecca of shops, restaurants, apartment complexes, and subdivisions along thoroughfares whose names - Polaris Parkway, Gemini Parkway - convey an almost celestial remoteness. What used to be farmland is now home to every big-box store imaginable, including - I'm not making this up - The Great Indoors, an aptly named home improvement emporium.
And more is on the way. At the Polaris Fashion Place mall yesterday, workers in fluorescent vests and hard hats scurried around in Bobcats and forklifts. Landscapers unloaded fresh saplings from trucks. A Barnes & Noble is opening soon, as is a
This region of Columbus, 15 miles from the city center, typifies the so-called exurbs, the fast-growing outskirts quickly becoming major population centers - and thus major centers of political, social, and economic influence - in the United States. It is here where you'll find scores of swing voters in arguably the biggest swing state of them all. Conversations with them yesterday suggest many have yet to swing, despite the fact that Election Day is less than three weeks away.
Delaware County, which includes these outer stretches of Columbus and towns to the north, voted for President Bush by wide margins in 2004 and 2000, but it is hard to know whether that pattern will hold this year, because it has changed so rapidly - the population of the county rose 50 percent from 2000 to 2007. We found a wide range of views among voters - some excited about Democrat Barack Obama, others putting their trust in Republican John McCain. Views on GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin were especially divergent.
"I do not believe a single word that comes out of McCain's mouth," Sam James, a 30-year-old Hillary Clinton-turned-Obama supporter from Columbus who works in information technology, told us outside the Polaris food court. "He'll say whatever he needs to to get elected."
James's friend, Elizabeth Coy, a 23-year-old from North Lewisburg, about 30 miles farther northwest, isn't so sure she agrees. She liked McCain before but is now undecided. She said she is most concerned that health insurance will be accessible for her two children when they are older, but is wary of Obama's idea of giving government more of a role.
"What they grow up to see is what matters to me," said Coy, who works at a law firm. "But I'm not looking for socialism."
Ron Gamble, a 41-year-old sales associate at a Pearle Vision branch, told us that he likes Obama. He says that the financial industry needs more regulation and believes Obama can improve America's standing in the world.
"We've definitely got to go in a new direction, and everything I've heard from McCain is, 'No, we're fine,' " said Gamble, who lives in Delaware, a city north of Columbus that serves as the county seat.
Devin Jones, 20, is voting in her first election. Dressed in an oversized Ohio State Buckeyes sweatshirt, she told us that she was firmly behind McCain, and that watching him discuss the economy and energy during the debates has only affirmed her support.
"I've always gone with Republican views," she said.
Some voters said they are having difficulty arriving at a decision amid a bombardment of information.
"It is noisy, it is muddy, it is convoluted," said Julie Banik, a 46-year-old executive recruiter from Columbus still making up her mind.
Later in the day, we drove to Dublin, a fast-growing city that borders Columbus on the northwest. Once upon a time, the Dublin Shamrocks were sports rivals of my high school, in Bexley, an old suburb next to downtown, their kelly green matching up against our royal blue.
And then, about 20 years ago, things changed. Dublin was growing so fast that they started overpowering us, and high school athletic officials realigned the sports leagues. Dublin was put with the suburban powerhouses. We were put with small farming towns that seemed light years away by school bus.
The people we talked to in Dublin illustrated how McCain's choice of Palin has energized some Ohio voters and turned others off.
Jones, the young McCain supporter, had told us, "I love her. Great choice." But that was not the opinion of Tim Swisher, a 64-year-old retired juvenile court clerk from Columbus, who was decked out in full Cleveland Browns regalia - hat, jersey, pendant, watch, shoes, socks - to celebrate Monday night's win over the New York Giants. Palin was a deal-breaker for him. He's now backing Obama, he told us as he walked into a
"As a woman I'd love to vote for a woman," Jennifer Fons, a 38-year-old part-time librarian from Dublin, told us as she put her 2-year-old daughter in her minivan. But, she said, "it's a scary thing to imagine her as president."
Fons recalled hearing Palin recently on a National Public Radio show. "I thought she was a caller," she said. It wasn't a compliment.
Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com. Dina Rudick can be reached at drudick@globe.com
