If I describe my perfect town, can you tell me where it is? (Cleveland: section 8, credit)

[kgw911]

Medina would be tops. I left Brunswick, OH for Colorado and miss the small town feel. I live in a small town in Co but it isnt the same. True, it isnt a melting pot but does that always matter if you look beyond color. My wife is from Mass and she loved the greenery and trees ( which, contrary to popular belief, Co doesnt always have. It's high desert ya know ). Anyways, Medina has a nice town square and though it is growing by leaps and bounds it still has small town feel..

[jassy2]

Originally Posted by katiecabot

Hi everyone,

My family wants to relocate from Massachusetts to Ohio. We are looking for a nice, unpretentious Mid-Western lifestyle. I have list of particulars describing my "perfect town". Could you please look it over and let me know which areas I should be considering? So far I am thinking Shaker, Medina, and Lakewood, but I know that the locals will be able to look and my list and let me know if I'm on the mark or way off, and if there are other areas I should be considering.

Thanks so much!

Katie

My small town is a thriving “Main Street USA” kind of town. It’s not a tiny little small town, but rather a completely self sufficient large-small town or very small city.

There is a downtown business district, (larger than one block) with a combination of restaurants and NON TOURISTY shops. Some restaurants are casual, while others are upscale. A few of the shops can be touristy, but the majority are actual stores that residents of the town can shop at (five and dime, hardware, jewelry, barber shop, ice cream, blue plate café, pharmacy, dry cleaner, etc). The people of the community are friendly, regular everyday people, not pretentious. The schools are exceptional. The town is not depressed.

My town has:

A local movie theatre and a small historic hotel

A town square, with fountain and/or gazebo, surrounded by a business district

A community pool or beach

An active recreation department

Pond or lake where my son can fish

Tree lined streets of stately older homes

Friendly, regular everyday people, not pretentious

Community festivals, parades and outings

Block Parties

Live community theatre

“Walk to” activities and hangout for my older children

Access to a city

Climate: Four distinct seasons. Cold (not bitter) winters with average snowfall, not constant blizzards. Hot summers. Spring that lasts continually (not intermittent days here and there) from March through May. Falls with beautiful foliage and pumpkin /apple festivals.

I would say chagrin falls has most of these things. As for your ideal climate, your being too picky for cleveland.

[kikiFL]

I live in Medina & you described it to a "T"! I wouldn't consider Lakewood equivalent - I find it to be a bit rundown, but that's my opinion.

Shaker is expensive & Medina you can find houses in all price ranges. It is about 30 minutes from Cleveland via I-71 (which is 3 lanes the entire way north from Medina). I disagree that it is cookie cutter, although that is out there. The historic district has worked really hard to make things look as they did years ago.

Our square is the most beautiful around (IMO) with the gazebo in the center. Traffic has gotten crazy the past few years as so many have discovered that Medina is way cheaper in housing & taxes, while having one of the best school districts in the area. A lot of people avoid the city taxes by living in Montville Township.

[kikiFL]

My town has:

A local movie theatre and a small historic hotel on the movies, no historic hotel - it was torn down many years ago.

A town square, with fountain and/or gazebo, surrounded by a business district

A community pool or beach - pool - indoor & outdoor. The Rec center has an excellent indoor water"park" & also an olympic sized competition pool

An active recreation department Our Rec Center won best in Ohio

Pond or lake where my son can fish - Lake Medina (former reservoir)

Tree lined streets of stately older homes

Friendly, regular everyday people, not pretentious For the most part - you'll get your hags anywhere

Community festivals, parades and outings All the time

Block Parties

Live community theatre

“Walk to” activities and hangout for my older children - the hangouts haven't taken off yet. They had some teen theater or club or something & it closed pretty quick. There's a laser tag, arcade place though

Access to a city Smack dab between Cleveland & Akron

Climate: Four distinct seasons. Cold (not bitter) winters with average snowfall, not constant blizzards. Hot summers. Spring that lasts continually (not intermittent days here and there) from March through May. Falls with beautiful foliage and pumpkin /apple festivals. Boyerts Farm has the best hay rides & pumpkin picking around (on a non-commercial type scale). Hale farm is great in Brunswick, but very crowded during the "season".

The climate is the reason I'm on my way out of Medina, but I'll definately miss it here.

Another negative (besides traffic) is the transient nature of the community. When I was young people planted their roots here & rarely left. Now there is a great deal of people that move in for a few years & then move away due to company transfer. [/quote]

[WHISPERGIRL]

solon would probably fit your description of the perfect city best.

[HockeyMac18]

My vote would be for Chagrin Falls and Hudson. In regards to the snow-related comments, being born in Chagrin Falls and having lived there long enough to experience many winters, I wouldn't say the winters consist of constant blizzards. Lake-effect snow rarely comes in huge blasts. Rather, it's more a consistent flurry, with heavier snow coming occasionally. Nor'easter type snow that the East Coast is used to (very huge blasts of snow (talking 20+ inches in one storm)) very rarely occur in this area. Take a look at the weather.com pages of these places in the winter to get a sense of what the weather is like on any given time in these places. The temps in this region will be comparable to MA winters (that is to say, there are much colder areas of the northeast in the winter than Northeast OH).

Lakewood and Shaker are great towns, but I'm not sure if they would be too urban for the OP's tastes (?). Perhaps a visit could clear this up?

I would advise a visit to all of these cities (and just he Cleveland area in general) to see what these towns are all about. I personally don't think the snow is that bad anywhere in Cleveland, but that may be because I've experienced much worse lake-effect winters (Rochester and Buffalo are much worse than Cleveland in terms of overall snow fall (compare the avg totals)...I've lived in both cities to know this is true).

I think a list of 5 cities that meet the majority of the qualifications you listed would definitely be:

Chagrin Falls
Hudson
Lakewood
Shaker Hts.
Medina

A visit to the area would help you clear up any concerns you might have though. Good luck!

[Sunnyloohoo]

After reading this thread, I felt I needed to post a response.

I lived in Medina for 15 years before moving out of there 3 years ago. I agree that, back in the day, Medina would have fit your description perfectly. The town square had a lot of quaint local mom & pop shops as well as a movie theater. The community, as a whole, was very tight knit and enjoyed a nice-paced lifestyle. We never planned on leaving. However, in the past several years, Medina has grown at an insanely fast pace. People started flocking there because of the lower taxes (Medina County) and the easy access to I-71. It was the closest commute to Cleveland without having to live in Cuyahoga county.

The housing developments went up so fast that the roads soon became inadequate. Traffic became such a burden that our main goal in getting from place to place was to get there without having to travel any of the main roads. Our quaint town square lost it's movie theater when the large multi-screen movie theater was built near the large Super K-Mart. Traffic in and out of our lovely square became a nightmare. Driving up and down the main street (Pearl Rd/Rt. 42) was worse than driving in any city because it only has one lane going each direction. The cars back up, literally, for miles during the holiday season.

Thanks to the influx of new residents, we now have dozens of tract house developments where our farms used to be. We have a Wal-Mart, Target and Super K-Mart all within 1 mile of each other. There are more strip plazas than any town could ever need or want.

As far as the schools go, they do very well on the standardized state tests. However, after having two children attend them, I can tell you that the education, overall, isn't that great. The schools have become so large that the teachers simply cannot work closely with the kids. They mainly teach for those tests. I won't say the education is bad - it simply isn't as exceptional as the test scores may indicate.

I don't mean to sound like I am just bashing Medina. A lot of people obviously like living there. I'm just saying that those of us who lived there before it became so popular loved it much more.

I also want to address your desires for the climate. I've lived in Ohio for 40 years and our climate is not going to be able to meet your ideal. Our winters can, and often are, bitter. We get wind chills below zero and temperatures in the teens fairly often. Springs here are mainly rainy and cold. We get a couple of nice days here and there, but most of our flowering trees lose their buds before they can bloom because the late frosts kill them. It's not unheard of to have snow as late as April. Summers are nice. They are hot and dry. Fall is, by far, our nicest season. We get the most sunshine and the most consistently wonderful temperatures in the fall. The trees change to the most beautiful colors and our pumpkin festivals are awesome. I would pit our fall against any other in the nation.

I think you really need to spend some time in Medina before you would choose that to be your new small home town. I think you may find it isn't nearly as lovely as some may wish. That isn't to say that there aren't other areas that may fit your bill. There are some lovely small towns that you would probably like. However, be prepared to pay to live there. Towns like the one you are describing are expensive. Also, keep in mind that the weather in the Cleveland area isn't going to fit your desires. Watch The Weather Channel for a couple of weeks during the winter and you'll see what I mean.

[buckeye1]

I would add Berea and Olmsted Falls to the list that's been mentioned. Berea has a neat downtown area and benefits culturally from being the home of Baldwin-Wallace College. Olmsted Falls has a quaint downtown district that feels very New England, similar to Chagrin Falls on the east side. Both have affordable housing in a mixture from century-old farmhouses and Victorians to new developments, and both have excellent school districts. While definitely suburbs of Cleveland, each grew up as a town on it's own, and there's a sense of history to each that many suburban areas lack.

[xwideopenskyx]

I would have to add Brecksville to the list. It's a suburb of Cleveland but it has the town square that you describe. All the necessary shopping and restaurant establishments plus a fantastic park. You will not find the weather based on your description in the Cleveland area or Northeast Ohio. Weather in general is one of the main reasons why people move out of the area to begin with.

[121804]

Medina, Solon, Chargrin Falls, maybe Chardon & areas of Twinsburg