Driving New Investment and Providing Services to Neighborhoods

Proud to lead an All-America City, Mayor Michael B. Coleman is getting results in his effort to build Columbus as a leading 21st Century city and for its Bicentennial in 2012.  Committed to improving the safety and quality of life in neighborhoods, building a more vibrant downtown, creating and retaining jobs and building partnerships to solve community challenges, the Mayor promises to make Columbus the best city in the nation to live, work and raise a family.

Mayor Michael B. Coleman was elected in 1999, and was re-elected to a third term in November 2007.  In addition to his record of public service and plans for Columbus’ future, Mayor Coleman is married to Frankie Coleman, and they have three children, Kimberly, a private banker in Chicago, Justin, a Columbus Police Officer, and John-David, a Sergeant in the US Marine Corps. 

Under Mayor Coleman’s leadership, the City of Columbus has been recognized as the nation’s 8th best place to live by CNN and Money magazine, with a special note that Columbus was the nation’s safest big city.  Columbus regularly makes top rankings as a hot destination for relocation of businesses and in 2007 was ranked as the 3rd “Big City of the Future” by international fDi Magazine and ranked as the 4th “most business friendly.”  In addition, Columbus continues to earn top rankings for its stable housing market, affordability, and as a top City for African-Americans, young professionals, and members of the GLBT community. 

Promoting Responsible Growth and Enviromental Stwardship

Understanding that over the next 25 to 30 years, an estimated 500,000 people will move to Central Ohio, nearly half of whom will live in Columbus, the Mayor launched the 21st Century Responsible Growth Policy Team and Get Green Columbus, a series of policy directives to set the stage for fostering dynamic job growth, sustainable neighborhoods, environmental protection and stronger cooperation in Central Ohio.

Mayor Coleman established a new Pay As We Grow policy as a result of recommendations from the 21st Century Growth Policy Team.  The new policy helps the City balance residential development with job growth to make sure that the City doesn’t over-stretch services and encourages more regional cooperation on economic development and environmental protection.

Mayor Coleman's Get Green Columbus initiative is transforming our community into a more environmentally friendly place to live and work.  Early successes include:

• Transforming the abandoned downtown Lazarus building into an award winning million square feet of Green office space in one of the largest Gold certified historic rehabilitation efforts in the country;
• The creation of Greenveiw Estates, an award-winning affordable inner-City Green neighborhood.
• The City is also attracting new green companies to help strengthen our economy, and has brought free and accessible recycling to our community by placing a recycling bin at each Columbus Public School.
• Mayor Coleman was instrumental in saving the Big Darby Creek, which is a national scenic river in western Franklin County.  Columbus first enacted a moratorium on growth in the Big Darby watershed, and then joined together with 9 other jurisdictions to develop a plan to allow growth to occur in a responsible and environmentally sensitive manner. 
• Mayor Coleman has also been a leader at improving regionalism and cooperation among central Ohio municipalities.  In 2007, the Mayor worked with community leaders to create the Central Ohio Green Pact, a 10-point common sense plan for how the entire community can come together and create a better, more sustainable future for our region.

A Proven Record of Responsible Municipal Budgeting

Despite the impact of national and Ohio recessions, Mayor Coleman made Public Safety his top budget priority, with eight balanced budgets that protected essential neighborhood services.  Since 2000, every department cut spending growth, including the Department of Public Safety, which was 59% of the General Fund in 2000, and is now nearly 71%. 

Since 2000, Mayor Coleman has spent $61 million less than budgeted, maintained the City’s Rainy Day Fund savings account, and continued to hold strict spending restrictions on every Department.  This fiscal management over the General Fund protects Columbus AAA Bond Rating, the highest possible credit rating.