moving to cleveland in january (Columbus, Lakewood: safest area, place to live, young professionals)

[BelieveInCleve]

The city of Columbus is a lot safer than the city of Cleveland. For the metros Im not sure though. You also have to account that the Cleveland/Akron area is still much larger than Columbus (3 million to 1.7 million), but Im not sure which one is worse, I always hear that the Columbus area is so much safer than the Cleveland area. Cleveland has much larger bad areas than Columbus does. Cleveland can also go from good to really bad (Bratenahl to Glenville). I dont think Columbus has any real bad areas.

[hillside]

columbus is much safer than cleveland. it does have some awful parts though like any city. near east, near west, short north (going east), the hilltop, the southside, eastside, and parts of the northside. near east and the westside off sullivant and west broad are terrible. joyce, kelton aves on the eastside are no fly zones and cleveland avenue is madness. livingston on the southside is a BAD BAD part of town. there is a ton of larceny and theft in columbus. indeed, people will take your ish in this town. violence is contained to a few parts mostly. eastside, southside, northside and near west

[Traveler87]

People also must not confuse metros with the cities themselves. Cleveland can be a dangerous city, depending where you are, but we have a fairly safe metro area. Same goes for most cities in this country. Please name me one large city that doesn't have its problems?

[michael75065]

Cleveland is trying but we do have the high unemployement rate and one of the highest forclosure rates and for school there is not very good either. Also we have a lote of crooked people working in business in cleveland. Come on we can do better.

I just got transfered here and I seen tons of of better cities but don't get me wrong with all the crooks in business in and the goverment no wonder are economy sucks. What happened to morals and ethics anymore in business.

United states is going in the tank and I feel people in America don't care anymore may be a few do. It's all what I can get and heck with the rest. Sad world we live in.

Reply if you like.

[WeSoHood]

Anyone know the area in Columbus by Easton/ The Airport? I got mixed up going to a friends and ended up turning around in some Trailer park that was filled with hispanics. It was pretty awkward location and I didn't really expect to see these places when I got lost.

[WestwardHO]

I moved from Cleveland (Shaker Heights) to Northern Arizona in April and could not be happier! The sun shines more in Arizona than Florida, very low humidity, wonderful afternoon storms that cool off temps during the "monsoon season". High desert so wonderful daily temperature ranges. Doctors and nurses desperately needed in this area. Unless you can find a job in those fields, the job market is not good. Housing values incredible! Property taxes on a just<$300,000 house= $1300 a year!!! Very friendly people, most moved from other areas. Good schools, good services, lots and lots of outdoor life and recreation from skiing to horses to hiking to canoing, etc. SAFE!!! The silence is deafening! The starts at night..........I hadn't seen the milkyway since I was a child. Yup we have 3 months of hot weather. Big deal!
Unless you really are a fall/winter/gray skies person, what the hell are you doing there?

This Ho is happy!

[ggrogg]

I live in Mentor and moved here from Willowick. We love our home and our neighbors. The freeway is 3 minutes away. The city of Mentor has fantastic amenities. A bicycle path goes by our front door. A city park with pool, tennis courts, hockey rink, baseball diamonds, etc is literally 2 minutes away. We own about .5 acres and if we sneeze our neighbors do not hear us. Traffic is a problem but if you learn the back roads and avoid the shopping areas it is not that bad. The school system did have a problem with money getting lost (ripped off...I think that is what happened). A lot of money. We are thinking about moving out of state (economy-layoffs etc.) but if we do not leave Mentor is the place for us.

[TheKnow]

Everyone, thank God, have different standards!!! I was in Cincinnati for a few months in 2007 and I am currently in Cleveland March 2009 and they are both CRIMINAL ridden with aggressive Black people who do NOT have anything better to do than destroy everything in their pathway. I am confident that not all Blacks are ruining these citifies (I am a Black American man) however, the majority of destruction across most urban cities is always centered on Black males and it has to STOP!!! Too many excuses and too much resistance to self-improvement seems to be the mantra for too many Black Americans. Back to the point, I don’t recommend either of these criminally infested and decaying cities.

Originally Posted by paintballer1708

Thank you, Nikki. Cincinnati is really going well. It is very suprising to me where some of these people are getting their information from on Cleveland. It seems like some are getting the information from right off the top of their head. First to start off, Cleveland has one of the lowest vacancy rates in the country. Many businesses are having trouble moving in because it is so popular, and there arent many places to go. That is why Cleveland is planning on building a 500 ft. office tower to make more room for businesses to grow. And Cleveland is no where near as dangerous as some people are saying. Its downtown is very clean and safe. The suburbs that border the city are booming. Many new housing developments and shopping malls going in. Even though that sounds progressive, which it is, that is sprawl. And i hate to see sprawl happen. Cleveland is a great city, with world class healthcare, orchestras, parks, recreational areas, sport venues, and restaurants. Cleveland offers so much.

[TheKnow]

Originally Posted by Cle440

The city of Columbus is a lot safer than the city of Cleveland. For the metros Im not sure though. You also have to account that the Cleveland/Akron area is still much larger than Columbus (3 million to 1.7 million), but Im not sure which one is worse, I always hear that the Columbus area is so much safer than the Cleveland area. Cleveland has much larger bad areas than Columbus does. Cleveland can also go from good to really bad (Bratenahl to Glenville). I dont think Columbus has any real bad areas.

You are 100% correct! There are NOT any areas in Columbus, OH that are criminal as Cleveland's areas, it is HORRIBLE! Cleveland, OH is smaller than Columbus and yet far outdoes Columbus, OH in crime. What does that tell you?

[TheKnow]

[SIZE=3]Cleveland's DOWNTOWN is empty! Office building vacancy is ridiculous!!! [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]There are countless empty apartments in Cleveland. Goto CNN Best Places to live and look up Cleveland, OH. There is a HUGE attrition rate in this town.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Cleveland is too dangerous! Too many aggressive Black people in this city... and the crime is random and reckless. Why MUST anyone live in this type of city??? Absolutely NOT!!! It's awful. As a well-educated Black man I am disgusted at the criminal activities of Blacks all over this country. This is what fuels racism in our country. As a Black American, I am NOT interested in harboring criminals either. I don't want them around me. Clearly racism in America is predominantly due to the pervasive and perpetual criminal activities of Blacks all over this country. After that group are the Mexican. Why are the percentages in these ethnicities so high? EDUCATION... lack of education... clearly that is the reason. [/SIZE]

Originally Posted by Subway

paintballer:

I don't mean any disrespect, but it seems to me that you are the one who is getting some of your information right off the top of your head.

As for the dangerousness of the city of Cleveland, I cited the source (Morgan Quitno Press) in my above post in which I stated that Cleveland was ranked as the 12th most dangerous of the 369 cities that were ranked (BTW, I failed to mention that Parma was ranked as the 19th safest - there is definitely a big divide betweeen Cleveland and its suburbs). The Morgan Quitno rankings are based on the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program's annual "Crime in the United States" publication. Cleveland has been ranked as one of the 25 most dangerous cities in the country for the past four years. However, I didn't need to see the rankings to know that Cleveland is dangerous: I lived in the city of Cleveland (in one of its least dangerous neighborhoods, Old Brooklyn) for 27 years before relocating to the Cincinnati area in 2000. All but one of my friends/family members who still lived there when I moved have moved out of the city of Cleveland to various suburbs or to other metro areas because they were fed up with all of the crime in the city. OTOH, as I previosuly stated, I do agree with you that downtown Cleveland is relatively safe.

City Crime Rankings by Population Group

BTW, it's ironic that you stated that Cleveland is just like Minneapolis. On the 10/16/06 CBS Evening News, there was an 'Eye on Crime in America' segment about the fact that the sharpest increases in crime have recently been in America's mid-size cities. The segment focused on Minneapolis, which has experienced skyrocketing crime rates lately. Apparently, Minneapolis is well on its way to becoming a dangerous city like Cleveland.

As for your saying that Cleveland has one of the lowest vacancy rates in the country, where in the world are you getting that from? This type of information is very easy to research on the Web. The percent of office space vacant in Cleveland's central business district in the 2nd quarter of 2006 was 22.5% (down from 22.6% in the 1st quarter of 2006 but up from 21.8% in the 2nd quarter of 2005). For the sake of comparison, here are the central business district office vacancy rates for the 2nd quarter of 2006 for other major Midwest cities:

Columbus - 18.5%
Cincinnati - 16.6%
Indianapolis - 16.3%
Detroit - 18.6%
Chicago - 18.0%
St. Louis - 16.8%
Kansas City - 20.6%
Minneapolis-St. Paul - 20.1%.

Yes - Cleveland's downtown office vacancy rate is the highest of major Midwest cities.

Market Analytics Home | Market Insights | Reed Construction Data

And yes - less than two months ago (on 8/29), the U.S. Census Bureau named Cleveland the poorest big city in America (poorer than Detroit) for the second time in the last three years. Nearly a third of the city's residents - 32.4% - were living below the federal poverty level (Detroit was the 2nd poorest with 31.4% below the poverty level).

Story not found - Cleveland.com