COSI's first 10 years in its new digs haven't gone as expected ...

Miranda Shapter pedals through the air on the "skycycle" at COSI Columbus. The 15-year-old Columbus resident was on a field trip to the science museum with her Graham School classmates.

[Topper]

Tell me if you've heard this one before...

...It'll be a gem....
It'll attract people from all over to our downtown...
It'll encourage new businesses to open..

......[and the best of all]...
.....AND IT WON'T COST TAXPAYERS ANYTHING !!!!!

Answer....a) City Center
b) Santa Maria
c)Lazarus Building
d)Arches
e)Blue Jackets
f)Cosi

[Reason people]

Well I love Cosi and I'm willing to pay for it...

But you should add Casinos to your list, Topper!

[homer]

Topper wrote:

Tell me if you've heard this one before...
...It'll be a gem....
It'll attract people from all over to our downtown...
It'll encourage new businesses to open..
......[and the best of all]...
.....AND IT WON'T COST TAXPAYERS ANYTHING !!!!!
Answer....a) City Center
b) Santa Maria
c)Lazarus Building
d)Arches
e)Blue Jackets
f)Cosi

You couldn't have said it better. Why do you think they want the county to buy the blue jackets, they would get there money at the cost of joe-the-taxpayer!!!
If you notice most of the politicans have money so they don't care how much things cost or go up.....

[Susan Burkett]

COSI bit the hand that fed it when it moved. It had been a reasonably priced option for us. We had always purchased an annual membership. When it moved, that cost doubled. For families on a limited income, that slammed the door in our faces. Daily admission was out of our range, and the membership was impossible. So we said good bye. I used to be there a couple of times a month in the old building. I've been there twice since it moved. I wasn't impressed.

[sulee]

We loved the old building (2 adults, no kids) and went there 2-3 times a year. We visited the new site once, about a year after it opened. At the time there was definitely more "space" than "display." Hated it, haven't been back, and have no intention of going back.

[Dave]

I visited Cosi soon after it moved. Annual memberships were only a few dollars more than a one-time visit so I figured sure, I'll come back. And I have never been back since.

The old, cramped building was stimulus overload which worked great for me as a kid. The new building was large and mostly empty at the time. I didn't have fun there as an adult, and I knew if I were a kid I definitely wouldn't have fun.

I'm sure they filled in some more stuff since then, but features like the "mine car" and the caboose out back of the old location? Those were classic!

[mjones]

COSI of MY youth was interesting, exciting a place to go from a coal mine to the stars. I am SO disappointed at the new COSI, we found ourselves and grandchildren bored in the visit. Mostly walking down caverous wall. The exhibits where kids learned interactively were few and the gift shop -which used to be a hole in the wall you saw on the way to the electric eel or the transparent women shows--now is a main attraction. Sad Sad Sad. I can remember spending hours and hours in COSI-the nickelodeon theatre, walking a true yesteryear-making paper, spining yarn- now it's a disjointed walk from the 50's through some old exhibits and the weather station? How is this coherent? Progress? Not for me. I wish I could have shared the delight of the old COSI with my children's children but instead the sterile cavern with few offering will be avoided by us.....born in 1960-not too much of a dinosauer.

[Topper]

Susan Burkett wrote:

COSI bit the hand that fed it when it moved. It had been a reasonably priced option for us. We had always purchased an annual membership. When it moved, that cost doubled. For families on a limited income, that slammed the door in our faces. Daily admission was out of our range, and the membership was impossible. So we said good bye. I used to be there a couple of times a month in the old building. I've been there twice since it moved. I wasn't impressed.

Do You Remember ????

....COSI moved to save Reinhards rearend.....
The city bought and renovated Central High School for the Son of Heaven scam.....
They said that after the "show" Central would have many uses....
But it didn't...
Theives stole all the copper...
The redfaced politicians got COSI to move to prove that the millions spent on Central High wasn't wasted...

Kinda like spending millions on the old Lazarus store and pretending it was a good investment....

Or the millions spent/lost on AmeraFlora at the Franklin Park Conservatory that would become "self-sustaining..

And what about that famous downtown car race ????

[geubux]

Gosh! You mean being an astronaut doesn't make you an expert in all things amusing? Who would have thunk it. Apparently, not the board who does the hiring.

[Tina]

The old COSI rocked, grew up going there and stayed over night in girl scouts.. Awesome!! The new one sucked....went once never went back along with most of my friends! It was never the same.

[Topper]

Am I the only one who remembers the mayor telling us that if we "invest" $$$$ into moving the North Market it will attract people to live downtown....
and.....[here it comes]...The North Market will become selfsupporting.....and won't cost the taxpayers a dime......

......[Moodys trashburning power plant was actually going to be a "money-maker" for the city]....

[Happy mama]

Wow, I too remember the coal mine exhibit and I think something about brushing sheeps wool with those metal brushes? My elementary school visit was amazing but when I visited the new COSI in my 20's I wasn't impressed at all. Now with 2 young kids, it is a bit overpriced for what little is there.

I didn't think COSI wasn't getting any public funding, but now I read Franklin county is helping subsidize. GREAT. Just what I needed to hear about, another project I don't like that I am working to support through tax dollars. Gee, I wonder why we have budget issues? Who would have thought that you can't support everyone and subsidize everything within a reasonable budget. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Cut the fat and give me back my money so I can spend it where I choose.

[sewbabe]

Like many others, I, too, went to the "new" COSI and having been not only a grad of Central High School but on the alumni board for many years, I was more than disappointed at the "new" COSI and after visiting once said I would never go back. Having said that, our alumni board had a fantastic birthday bash that was supposed to be outside COSI but was moved inside COSI due to the weather and the powers that be, including David, were more than gracious, hospitable and bent over backwards to make sure our bash was a success. COSI has come a long way under David's tutelage and he is a very personable man. COSI needed him from day one. Hopefully COSI will continue its fantastic recovery in the future!

[COTA_FAn]

The new COSI is expensive and boring. You could spend two days in the old one and never get through each exhibit. I can run through the new one in about two hours- not worth the price of admission. Last winter I took my kids- we went to the underwater exhibit. I thought we were on candid camera- every experiment the guy tried failed or the electricity did not work, etc.

[Calvin Smith]

I have attended COSI since day one as a teacher, a father, grandfather and as just a visitor. I am thrilled with the new facility and its programs.
Many communities envy our good fortune. Keep up the good work; I am still a grandparent with a wide-eyed grandson who always enjoys COSI.

[MGB]

At some point people have to recognize that no one wants to be downtown in a midwestern city. No amount of development is going to change that. The next time someone says a project is going to bring people downtown and will eventually pay for itself remember that. Won't happen in a city with the size and geography of Columbus. Perhaps the management responsible for COSI should take a look at the reasonably successful Children's Museum in Indianapolis as a model on how to get families to show up and spend their money.

[liberal AND proud]

Do they even still have the planetarium? If not, how can you have a science center without one? We've only been to the new COSI twice. I think it's geared way too much for children. The old COSI also had exhibits from which adults could learn something. And other posters are right; in the old COSI you could spend all day. I did not think the old one was cluttered at all. Just another "new and improved" thing that isn't.

[mom of 2]

When I was a child, I loved cosi. I have taken my children (aged 2 and 4 years) there once and they didn't like it. It is no where near as exciting as it used to be. No more hands on stuff, except for occasional button. I woiuld love for cosi to be how it used to be.

[LHartman]

I miss the old COSI, this one is too spread out and missing a lot of the things I loved as a kid. My kids get bored when we go there because its the same thing over and over.

[Ugly bumper]

COSI is a mirror of the public school systems. Dumbed-down herding to the lowest common denominator. I got the hunch that the people who designed the exhibits were of the same variety as human resources types; dull idiocy designed to ensure conformity of thought and action.