“I’m not much of a movie guy, but the last good movie I
saw was Sideways”
[great
things about his neighborhood]
“It’s a reverse commute, which is fantastic.”
McRedmond, a longtime resident of
Italian Village, compares the Seattle suburbs to Columbus
urban living, talks about his many jobs and reveals one of the
area’s hidden jewels.[on family]
McRedmond is always on the go, out
and about with 21/2 year-old daughter Sofia, but very settled
into his neighborhood with his wife (a pediatrician at
Children’s Hospital), daughter, two dogs and a baby on the way.
Will the baby be a little brother or a little sister for Sofia? McRedmond says they won’t know until the big day arrives. “We
don’t know the sex, so that will be a lot of fun. We’ll find out
here at the end of June,” he says. “I don’t want to find out
beforehand about the baby. There are very few good surprises for
us adults right?” he laughs.[on suburban vs. urban]
McRedmond has lived in
Italian Village since 1993. Born and raised in Seattle, he
moved to Columbus in 1991, lived on campus for a year, lived in
Merion Village for about 8 months and then moved to
Italian Village where he has made his home.
How does Columbus stack up to
Seattle. “It’s a tough call. I lived in the suburbs in Seattle.
Columbus has treated me fabulously. Obviously this is an urban
environment. There are no mountains, there’s no water, but here
I’ve got a 10-minute walk to Goodale Park, a 5-minute walk to
the Short North, a 10-minute walk to the
North
Market and a 12-minute walk to the
Arena
District.
[on wearing many hats]
Before 9/11, McRedmond traveled a lot,
sometimes flying out of Columbus on Monday morning and flying
home on Thursday. “Pre-911 traveling was great, I was a 100,000
mile flyer. The airport is 7 miles from my front door. I could
leave my house an hour and 10 minutes before the flight, park
and go through all the lines quickly. It was perfect,” he says.
“I was working outside of New York City on 9/11 installing
software. That day changed everything.”
McRedmond has 18 rental units in town and he
has a high-end cabinet shop in
Grandview called
Jeffrey
Redmond Company. “We’ve done a lot of high-end kitchens
Bexley, Upper Arlington and Seattle.”
His newest career is probably his favorite.
“I’m a full-time stay-at-home dad. I’ve got a little girl,
Sofia, almost 21/2.”
[favorite restaurant]
“Hands down Rigsby’s Kitchen, hands down, bar
none,” he says.
[the area’s best kept secret]
McRedmond says not a lot of people
know about or take advantage of
North Bank Park, a brand new park at Spring and Neil. “It’s
probably about an 8 million dollar park that opened last year on
the river,” he says. “It has picnic tables, and for kids, they
have a water fountain that comes out of the ground. It’s a
20-minute walk from my house with a fabulous view of
downtown.”
[pet peeves]
McRedmond, a homeowner, has put a
lot of work into his home over the years including the front and
back yards. Because
Italian Village is a neighborhood full of historic homes, he
would like to see a certain level of pride from all of his
neighbors. “There are still a few homeowners that don’t take a
lot of pride in their houses. It doesn’t take a whole lot of
effort to pull weeds and trim your lawn,” he says. “It doesn’t
matter what your socio-economic background is, if you own a
house, take a little pride in it, sweep the front walk, pick up
trash, paint the house, pull up weeds. Those are the basics of
home ownership.”
[urban living pros and cons]
While McRedmond says urban living
has been good to him, he admits it has its pros and cons. “One
of the down sides is, it’s probably a little more transient with
residents. It’s slowly changing but there are a lot of renters
down here, you have turnover,” he says.
Despite turnover, he says more of
the area rentals are becoming home occupied and anyone moving
into the area (whether renting or owning) will be able to find
someone they identify with.[on carving out a niche]
“It’s diverse, you have married
couples with young children, you have older people, you have
singles, you have all races and backgrounds. Certainly we have
both political denominations, one more than the other, but I saw
yard signs for both parties in 2004. It’s pretty diverse,” he
says. McRedmond finds it easy to feel comfortable and content in
such a diverse neighborhood. “Just say hi to your neighbors,” he
suggests.
He says with such an eclectic
group, people with similar interests tend to gravitate toward
one another, making it easy to feel at home no matter what your
situation may be. He and his wife have friends that live on the
street and then there are people he doesn’t know very well. “ I
have both scenarios, Sofia’s best friend lives up the street,
then there is the neighbor that I really don’t have anything to
do with.
McRedmond is always on the go, out
and about with 21/2 year-old daughter Sofia, but very settled
into his neighborhood with his wife (a pediatrician at
Children’s Hospital), daughter, two dogs and a baby on the way.
Will the baby be a little brother or a little sister for Sofia? McRedmond says they won’t know until the big day arrives. “We
don’t know the sex, so that will be a lot of fun. We’ll find out
here at the end of June,” he says. “I don’t want to find out
beforehand about the baby. There are very few good surprises for
us adults right?” he laughs.
