What can you tell me about Oregonia, Waynesville, Franklin, Lebanon, (Cincinnati: car rental, real estate market)

[ohiosgreat]

Looking for any info you can give me on the following areas:

just anything.....what its known for...is it a nice area...is it known for being run down...is it known for being nice...is there a difference with taxes, if it has lots of well water...are the wells usually good or bad?
do any of the areas have gas available? just anything that comes to mind on the areas.....

Thanks so much!

Oregonia, Wanesville, Franklin, Lebanon, and any area around that I may be missing....are any of these areas considered the "sticks"...?

[Ohioan58]

In terms of "classiness":

Waynesville and Lebanon both have upscale areas. Both have poorer areas, too. As well as a diversity of housing costs and quality. Waynesville functions as a suburb of Dayton and Lebanon is a suburb of Cincinnati.

Franklin and Oregonia are both poorer areas. Franklin has some stately old mansions along the river, and mediocre middle to lower income neighborhoods. Franklin has been known for petty vandalism in the past. Oregonia is a tiny village with no highway connections and is pretty downscale and some properties are very run down.

Oregonia is definitely the sticks. Franklin is pretty urban and built up and kind of merges into Middletown on the southern end. Lebanon and Waynesville are "self sufficient" towns, Lebanon more so with much more shopping and services available, including car rental and big box.

Waynesville is mostly nice. Corwin, its companion across the highway, is a dump. Lebanon is generally pretty nice. To be blunt, Franklin's reputation is white trashy and it would be the worst town of the bunch you mentioned to move into. Oregonia, while a dump, is so small you can drive through it in 1 minute and bike through it in 2 minutes. If one had buildable land in Oregonia, the area there would actually not impact your real estate values very much - property around Oregonia with some acreage or views is highly desirable on the real estate market.

[Ohiogirl81]

"Sticks" is relative. I thought Lebanon was the sticks when I lived there. Some people think Lebanon is the height of urbanity, others think it's an overpriced collection of insular hillrats. It all depends on your perspective.

Franklin is pretty much the same.

Waynesville is a mix of longtime residents and people looking to escape the Dayton suburbs for the slower pace of small-town life. Waynesville pumps its own water, but alcohol-wise is dry.

There isn't much left to Oregonia, as far as the town itself, and I'm not up on the state of the water supply. I'd imagine most people would consider it the sticks.

What exactly is it you want to know, other than is it "nice"?

[motorman]

^ Both agree and disagree with the two assessments above--as mentioned, a matter of perspective...

Lebanon may well be considered the "classiest" of this group of communities; much has been written about it and photographed for glossy tourist publications such as "Ohio Magazine." Yes, it's its own picturesque city/town, but it's also becoming more and more an upscale bedroom exburb-community for Cincinnati (and that's not all bad--Neil Armstrong lived here for years before his recent death.) It's also the Warren County seat, which gives it some clout in the immediate area.

Oregonia. Like a nothing little burg? (Situated in the sticks, with no discernible features except a road or two passing through it?) Then this nondescript hamlet may be just the place for you . (Pass on it, if you want a real life.)

Waynesville? Oregonia on steroids. Nothing here unless you're merely passing through it to get to either Dayton, Lebanon, Springboro/Franklin, or Caesar's Creek and an entrance to I-71... Sure, they have their autumn "Sauerkraut Festival"(which draws 200,000/year), but how much of that s**t can you eat before you're begging for mercy (or another beer, which is what it's all about anyway...). Like Lebanon, Waynesville has positioned itself as an antique mecca. Nothing wrong with this, I guess--if you like a bunch of old shops pawning off junk and making you believe you just bought priceless pieces of "Americana" coupled with class. BTW, even though the main road east/west (Rt.73) outta this town is a driving experience not suited for the faint-hearted, the northern journey up past Dayton's southeastern exburbs (Rt.42) is both benign and scenic, especially in autumn--and just think! You get to leave Waynesville in the rear-view mirror!

Franklin... Nowhere and everywhere wrapped into one. Something here to suit almost anyone who doesn't want to be challenged by a real city (say, like Cincinnati). A bedroom exburb of Dayton, yes. A hill-jack hangout, yes. A tight-knit community with dozens of affordable, decent homes, yes! A town with a really decent school-system, library, and public services, yes. A place with big-box shopping and major groceries nearby, yes. An ideal blue-collar enclave, yes. An integral segment of CIN-DAY, connected by busy I-75 with Middletown, Dayton, Cincinnati, and everywhere else in between, yes. A dynamic, exciting, diverse, upscale, sophisticated, genteel city? No.

[Scott SW Ohio]

I live in Lebanon proper. We have city water, sewer and gas. I don't know anyone here with well water. We used to live about a mile north of town along Hwy 42 and had water service there too. Lebanon's water used to be pretty hard and scaly, but recently the city began buying water from the City of Cincinnati. I was against this but the water quality is improved - though more expensive.

Lebanon does cater to tourists. An excursion train operates from downtown, and there are a series of festivals with various themes - blues music, art, apples. The Blues Fest is notable for a series of (IMO) pretty good bands that perform all day, and you can sit and listen for free. Sometimes there are vintage cars on display. The horse -drawn carriage parades the first Saturday of December are maybe the most distinctive event in town, though not unique.

[Scott SW Ohio]

Ohiosgreat, I had a look at your past posts and it seems you are asking this same kind of general question all over the country. What's up? Is the Lebanon area of actual interest to you, that we can feel good about devoting time and effort trying to help you?

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by Scott SW Ohio

Lebanon's water used to be pretty hard and scaly, but recently the city began buying water from the City of Cincinnati. I was against this but the water quality is improved - though more expensive.

Wow, that's quite a distance to pump water. I agree it's an improvement -- Cincinnati's water is quite good, and in Lebanon I used to soak my faucet aerators and showerhead in vinegar about once a month -- but did the aquifer run dry or something?

Motorman, you're right about Franklin. A lot of people dismiss it, but it isn't a bad little town and it certainly does have potential. But dang, what do you have against Waynesville?

[Scott SW Ohio]

Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81

Wow, that's quite a distance to pump water. I agree it's an improvement -- Cincinnati's water is quite good, and in Lebanon I used to soak my faucet aerators and showerhead in vinegar about once a month -- but did the aquifer run dry or something?

Motorman, you're right about Franklin. A lot of people dismiss it, but it isn't a bad little town and it certainly does have potential. But dang, what do you have against Waynesville?

Ohiogirl, I think the city struggled to maintain decent water quality and were worried about satisfying future demand so took the easiest out with Cincinnati municipal water.

[motorman]

Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81

...Motorman, you're right about Franklin. A lot of people dismiss it, but it isn't a bad little town and it certainly does have potential. But dang, what do you have against Waynesville?

Nothing really, Ohiogirl81--but Waynesville's only a small burg bested by many other Cin-Day communities surrounding it. Blink once at the intersection of Routes 73 & 42, and you done passed it, if you notice it at all sitting up there amongst the trees. And the trip to/from Waynesville to real civilization (read in, Springboro/Franklin) can be absolutely scary, as you drive up and down, up and down narrow, busy 73--one of the most unforgiving main routes in that area. (I ought to know--during the latter 90's I drove a large box truck, filled with corrugated material, every few days down that dreadful stretch of highway.) Perhaps I was a bit too hard in describing Waynesville the way I did, but the town never crossed my radar as any place except to pass through. My bad.

[Ohioan58]

Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81

Waynesville pumps its own water, but alcohol-wise is dry.

"Nooeewp." Used to be, but the law was changed in the recent past. A tavern opened in Waynesville last fall, the Stonehouse Tavern, run by the same people who run Archer's in Centerville.

I don't know about buying beer in town but you can now absolutely drink beer at a bar inside Waynesville's city limits.

Clearly it's the fourth horseman of the apocalypse. Kidding.

I'm probably bashing Franklin too much but the town's never given me a pleasant vibe. I don't think anyone buys property in Franklin for appreciation. They do in Lebanon and Waynesville. And Oregonia is basically just country with a collection of houses, a bar, and a couple of shops.