National Veterans Memorial and Museum | Photo Credit: Brad Feinknopf

Columbus, Ohio

Is this the American city of the future?

With a revitalized riverfront and booming downtown, Columbus is already one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities…

Photo by Andrew Spear for The New York Times

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The capital city of Ohio adopted a reconstruction plan for encouraging development 14 years ago that emphasized three unexpected ingredients: more grass, less water and targeted taxpayer spending.

This year, those words on paper are fully coming to life in the southern blocks of the downtown area of Columbus, which is beckoning developers after decades of disinvestment.

“What happened here is that people chose the future,” Mayor Andrew J…