Woods: Kevin Smith was shot sleeping in a garage. That says a lot about Columbus' identity

Scott Woods is a poet, cultural critic, essayist and founder of the arts nonprofit Streetlight Guild.

Upon reading the recent article regarding Columbus’ identity, I thought it was a more or less fair read. It answers its headline question - does Columbus need an identity? - but it doesn't answer a deeper question, which is, in whose interest?

It’s a difficult question to answer definitively when you haven’t determined which goal you want an identity to satisfy. Identifying the point of identity determines how much effort should be put into determining whether it’s necessary.

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And we understand that effort means resources — money, media attention, legislation, bodies on the ground —which in turn becomes a quality-of-life discussion. If you want to be a travel destination, then identity is important.

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This article doesn’t make that goal distinction.

It gets past the tourism question, which I very much appreciate, but then grounds itself in a capitalism context. I'm not surprised by that, since Columbus' basic function for many years has been to act as a giant ATM for developers and investors.

We're not a collection of walkable neighborhoods or caring infrastructure or service-led leadership or even healthy environmentalism. We're a bank card.

Ultimately, the answer to that question is, "Depends on what your goal as a city is." If the goal is to keep lining the pockets of the political class and the rich, then yes, it needs an identity. It has to have something to sell to attract businesses and people.

This is almost entirely how our city currently functions.

But if the goal is to make a more equitable city, or a more cultural city, or a more historically aware city, or a city that invests in education and safety, then no, we don't need to spend a lot of energy on defining our identity.

We need to allocate our resources and attention to fixing the core of our city infrastructures and building out services that make living here better, and for as many people as possible, not just those who can afford to.

What Kevin Smith's death says about Columbus?

I am thinking here of the unhoused man who was shot sleeping in a garage on the South Side recently.

Kevin Smith was a contributing member of the South Side community. He helped others in his position get aid. He had a law degree. He was of service to people. And yet, he was perhaps only one civic service away from not being killed. The services that we have established to address homelessness are over-taxed. They are under-staffed. None of this is a secret. It also isn’t a city priority.

A lot of cities don’t have the means to address such disparities.

Columbus does.

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It has the money to move the needle on this issue, and many others. It simply does not have the will. Kevin Smith did not have to die in a garage he used for a night of shelter. He was not a hobo, bouncing from one city to the next. He was perfectly capable of accessing services if they were where they should be.

As cities go, you are how you treat the least of your citizens. That is what our city is, identity or no identity.

Scott Woods is a poet, cultural critic, essayist and founder of the arts nonprofit Streetlight Guild.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Kevin Smith shooting speaks to Columbus true identity |Scott Woods