Young family moving to North Canton (Cleveland, Akron: low crime, how much, houses)

[rb4595]

Thanks in advance for any help. My husband and I are looking at relocating for his job in North Canton. We currently live in Utah (college town of about 50,000) near Salt Lake City. We have a 3 year old and a 1 year old. Just wondering where around North Canton would be a good place to live? My husband would be working right by the Akron-Canton airport. We are looking for good schools and a safe neighborhood within a 30-45 minute commute for him. I don't want to live out in the middle of nowhere but am not really a "city" person either. Any other thoughts for us? We have lived in Utah/Wyoming our whole lives and are nervous to move cross-country with two small children. He has other opportunities in Helena, MT and Herndon, VA that we are looking at as well.
On another note: I am a speech-language pathologist and work part-time/prn at a large urban hospital on their neuro rehabilitation floor. Are there any larger hospitals nearby?

[windsorwindsor1]

One thing we do have in Ohio is great hospitals. The biggest ones are in Cleveland (Metrohealth, University, Cleveland Clinic), but Akron City and Akron General are good too, and closer. Stay away from Robinson in Ravenna though. The cost of living is low here, which may be a plus.

If you want good schools there are some suburbs like Green that might have what you're looking for, but cost of living is higher in suburbs than in cities or in the country, and there are a lot of restrictions and laws that I think are invasive, but I think a suburb might work for you. Stow and Hudson are good too, but also more expensive to live, and a bit of a commute to the airport. Kent is a college town, cheaper living, and great schools, but gets crazy on the weekends and might be further than you want to drive. I live in Ravenna which very cheap to live, but a little rough around the edges.

Someone that lives closer to Canton might have more info on towns further south.

Many people in the city, like Akron or Canton, send their kids to catholic schools. Crime is a problem there, but not as bad as some people say. Both cities and rural areas have public schools that aren't that great, IMO.

There are pros and cons to Ohio. We have a lot of great colleges, when your kids get older.

[SquareBetterThanAll]

Originally Posted by rb4595

Thanks in advance for any help. My husband and I are looking at relocating for his job in North Canton. We currently live in Utah (college town of about 50,000) near Salt Lake City. We have a 3 year old and a 1 year old. Just wondering where around North Canton would be a good place to live? My husband would be working right by the Akron-Canton airport. We are looking for good schools and a safe neighborhood within a 30-45 minute commute for him. I don't want to live out in the middle of nowhere but am not really a "city" person either. Any other thoughts for us? We have lived in Utah/Wyoming our whole lives and are nervous to move cross-country with two small children. He has other opportunities in Helena, MT and Herndon, VA that we are looking at as well.
On another note: I am a speech-language pathologist and work part-time/prn at a large urban hospital on their neuro rehabilitation floor. Are there any larger hospitals nearby?

It sounds like if you don't like the country and don't like the city, that leaves you with the suburbs.

It happens that the Airport falls right inbetween Akron and Canton and subsequently smack in the middle of a host of suburbs with excellent school districts and low crime rates. The Airport itself is about 3/4 in the city of Green which fits the bill. One thing it does lack (if you lived in a smaller college town) is any sort of city or town dynamic - it is built on sprawl and lacks any downtown or center. Directly to the south is North Canton, which also is low crime and has excellent schools but is an actual small city with a town area and older neighborhoods, as well as the obligatory McMansions a bit further out. Also to the south is Jackson Township, same with low crime and excellent schools and relatively sprawl-y but does contain Belden Village which is the primary shopping area in that neck of the woods. Mall, lots of chain stores and restaurants. These areas are extremely racially and somewhat economically homogeneous, though - little diversity if that is a concern. Plain Schools also score well but have a more diverse population as it covers the northern 1/3 of Canton (city neighborhoods) and way out into McMansion territory. All of these areas are within a handful of exits on I-77 right around the Airport.

If you are coming from a smaller sized college town/city, I would suggest looking into Kent as well. It's a little bit further away but still within about a half an hour of the Airport, has excellent schools, very safe, and they just completed a massive downtown-to-University development project that added a substantial amount of new buildings in that area. It is just down the expressway from Akron but not contiguous and is surrounded by suburbs/exurbs of varying degrees on all sides. Kind of a nice middle ground IMO.

Don't let me limit you though - I picked areas right next to where you asked about, but there are numerous excellent communities within a half hour or so commute of CAK.

The other responder's post about cost of living in the suburbs - the difference isn't that much, and honestly, if you're comparing to suburban DC (and probably Utah as well), it will be completely irrelevant as the cost of living in urban areas in Northeast Ohio is ridiculously low in comparison to similar sized metro areas elsewhere. You can live like a king in comparison.

Finally, about the hospitals, as the other guys mentioned there are numerous excellent hospitals and system,s in the region. Closest large(r) hospitals to where you're asking would be Akron General and it's system, Summa (Akron City, St Thomas, etc.) and it's system, Akron Children's, Aultman (Canton) and Mercy (Canton). There are other smaller hospitals in the area as well and most if not all are affiliated with one of the larger hospital systems around here so checking job listings isn't too tedious. Those all would be within 30 mins of the Airport. As mentioned before, depending on where you happened to live and how much driving you wanted to do, you've also got world class hospitals like the Cleveland Clinic within commuting range (more than a half hour though most likely unless you starting looking at northern Akron/southern Cleveland suburbs).

Honestly, though, if you're looking at going as far as 45 minutes from the Airport, you've got quite a selection of areas to work with. Unless you want to be Oceanside or in a Mongolian majority enclave or some other very specific requirement I would be surprised if you couldn't find multiple places to fit the bill for you.

Feel free to ask any more questions you might have, more than happy to help out. Let us know what you turn up here or in one of the other areas you're looking at.

[SquareBetterThanAll]

FYI I cheated and looked at some of the responses in the other forums to your questions. Your $400,000 "1960s or 1970s" vintage houses in Herndon are about $150,000 (or less) here, in minimal crime suburbs with A-rated schools and a 10 minute commute. Just a thought.

Also, not sure what experience the Montana poster had in Ohio, but that I can assure you the only time you run into anything they described is if you deliberately put yourself there. I can assure you a neighborhood in the suburbs around the Airport is about as non-"gritty" as you can get!

[rb4595]

Thanks for your advice. The places we are looking at are so different... it's hard too know where to start. It sounds like Kent might fit the bill.

[SquareBetterThanAll]

Originally Posted by rb4595

Thanks for your advice. The places we are looking at are so different... it's hard too know where to start. It sounds like Kent might fit the bill.

I could imagine! The nice thing about Kent is that for being a somewhat small city (30,000 or so) it offers a fair variety of just about everything positive and is in proximity close proximity to everything else.

Good luck on your hunt and let us know how it goes, whichever place you land. And if you have any more questions, feel free to ask - glad to help.