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Old 05-26-2014, 02:23 PM
 
3,281 posts, read 6,249,317 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ctownballr27 View Post
St. Edwards...ranked up there with any school in the country.
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Old 05-26-2014, 04:58 PM
 
372 posts, read 589,621 times
Reputation: 340
I second (third?) Rocky River. I have a third grader and a preschooler and am highly critical of schools, high test scores or not, and we have been very happy. I believe River has the housing stock diversity and bikeable amenities you are after. My son will be able to bike or walk to all his schools 3rd grade and up. You can find houses in your price range for sure. Good
Luck!
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Old 05-26-2014, 11:52 PM
 
12 posts, read 14,137 times
Reputation: 10
Quote:
Originally Posted by Emrak View Post
I'll be moving to Cleveland for work in August, but will be visiting in June/July to check out prospective areas. I would appreciate your insights as to which neighborhoods I should focus on. My criteria is below, from most to least important.

1. I'm a parent, so areas with *excellent schools are mandatory. I don't mind paying for a private school if it's worth it.
2. I'll be working downtown near the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, so I'd like a neighborhood that didn't involve more than a 20 minute commute (side note: is there a subway in Cleveland?).
3. I have many interests, so areas with a variety of options nearby would be awesome. By nearby I mean within a 20 minute biking radius.
4. Neighborhoods with bike lanes or at least wide sidewalks. We are not uber bikers, but when we do bike, I'd like to do so w/o fear of having to dodge pedestrians on narrow sidewalks. I also like going for walks.
5. Lastly and leastly, while I don't really care about racial homogeneity, I dislike architectural homogeneity. I'd love to be in an area that had a variety of different housing/building styles. I avoid bland rows of similar tract housing.

Again, the criteria is from most to least important. If it means excellent schools then I will gladly live in soulless, uniform tract housing. Thanks so much for any input!



*In just about every city forum there will be folks who say that school X is misrepresented and doesn't deserve it's low scholastic rank for various reasons. I totally get that, unfortunately anecdotal commentary will not find any traction with me. I am not interested in any school that requires an apologist for its low test scores, sorry. :-/


Hi,
I grew up on the east side in Pepper Pike, and have lived in Tremont, Parma Heights, and Westlake. If you are looking for good schools, Bay Village, Rocky River, Orange, Solon, and Beachwood are decent public schools. Decent being that the teachers are good, and I have friends who all went to these schools and enjoyed them and did get a good education (Orange is a great prep for Ivy league). As far as private schools St. Joseph's Academy off Rocky River Dr. is good. (and that area actually is quite beautiful. I used to drive through there on my way to work a lot and seriously looked at buying a house over there)

The Cleveland public transit system is not good. They don't have a subway, but they have the rapid which is above ground (which is kind of like a subway I guess), buses, trolleys, and cabs. Sometimes the drivers of buses are late or don't show up. The buses don't run all over the place and only run during certain times of the day. As far as the rapid goes, it can be unsafe so just be careful if you take it. The trolley runs down town, but it is free I think and it's a pretty nice and fun thing to do.

How quick you can get downtown will also depend on where you are in relation to the nearest freeway. If you live in Beachwood, Pepper Pike area, you have to get on 480 to 77 N or the Jennings Freeway, or take 271 N to 91 W and you're looking at least 30 minutes not including rush hour. If you live on the west side, most of the time you can just hop on 91 E and zip on down.

Be careful of pot holes in this area. They're everywhere and if you're not paying attention you can really mess up your car.

Cleveland has a really good metroparks that you can walk or ride your bike through, so that is nice although I wouldn't walk them alone as a single female. One women was attacked a few years back, and I used to live in an apartment in Parma Heights that had a registered sex offender that used to hang out in the Metroparks by the complex. Use the buddy system when you go through the parks. Some people will say I'm crazy for thinking that, but it's the smart thing to do.

I think Rocky River and Bay Village are good areas to raise a family. They are affluent areas though so I don't know if that is what you are looking for. A lot of people say Lakewood is nice, but a lot of people, including myself, hate Lakewood and would never raise a family there. Edgewater is in that area. I would never live there.

One person will say one area or one school system is great, the next person will say it's horrible. And the city really is sometimes street by street of good areas and bad areas.

Tremont is trendy, but not that safe at night and only has like a 4 block radius or so until you're in the bad part of town.

Stay away from East Cleveland. There's is the east side of Cleveland which is the suburbs on the east side, then there is East Cleveland which is an area all itself. It is very run down and very not safe. That Castro guy was in that area, and that Anthony Sowell guy was out that way too.

Shaker Heights is a mix. Some of it is really old money, and really nice houses. Some of it is just so run down though.

Strongsville (west side) and Chagrin (east side) are nice sort of more conservative areas.

Berea can be good, but sometimes the traffic is absolutely horrendous. Same thing with the Woodmere area.

Mayfield used to be a nice area, but it's getting run down now.

I liked Westlake because I could run all my errands fast because everything was near each other so that was nice. I didn't like Westlake because there's a lot of bars which IMO equals drunk drivers and not something I would want my kids around.

I would get an apartment or something for a few months and then just check out the different areas. It will be hard to find a nice one on the east side, but there a few nice ones on the west side. Expect to pay at least $900 or around there for a nice apartment with washer and dryer in the unit, probably more if it's a short term.

I hope some of this helps you even though it can be overwhelming. Feel free to message me if you have any more questions.
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Old 05-27-2014, 12:15 AM
 
Location: Cleveland
3,412 posts, read 5,087,711 times
Reputation: 3082
This post is full of misinformation. Looks like we might have another Rere on our hands.

1) The rapid is very safe. I have taken it countless times, and never once saw an incident. Thousands of businesspeople use the rapid every weekday, and many use it to go to events downtown, so based on that, I don't really think there's a problem with safety. Also, compared to many other cities, our public transportation is very good.

2) There is no 91 W in Cleveland. There's 90 W, and a 91 N though.

3) Ariel Castro was on the West Side, nowhere close to East Cleveland. Anthony Sowell was in Cleveland, close to Kinsman, again, not close to East Cleveland.

4) There are really no parts of Shaker that are run down. The city has very strict property codes, and will jump on anyone who lets their property start looking run-down.

5) There are really no parts of Mayfield that are run down. The city has a ton of businesses and retail, and is probably one of the economically healthiest suburbs in the region. It does have mostly characterless 1950s bungalows and 1 story shops though.
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Old 05-27-2014, 08:35 AM
 
Location: Cleveland
246 posts, read 473,211 times
Reputation: 156
Lakewood and Rocky River would be great for you. Lakewood as a city has more to offer than Rocky River, but River is more family oriented and homogeneous from a socioeconomic standpoint. Lakewood has a wide mix of race, ethnicity and income levels. River is almost entirely white upper middle class north of Detroit and white middle class south of Detroit. Both are active communities but Lakewood is probably the most active community in NE Ohio and has a lot more community events during the nicer weather months.

Most cities have programs for gifted kids that keeps them around kids of equal educational levels but a place like Lakewood might suffer on the whole school test score because they also have hundreds of kids in the district who are refuges/immigrants from places like Bhutan, Laos or Somalia and aren't prepared to step right into american school and succeed. Factor in a decent chunk of low income renters, which Lakewood has much more than RR, and the average is dragged down but the gifted kids do just as good. Plus, because of its size and diversity, Lakewood has many more programs and course offerings in the High School than R. River does.

After thinking about it for a little, houses in Rocky River under $230K, will probably put you in an area with housing stock less appealing to your tastes or something quite small (currently 26 houses listed in RR under $230K, 13 are over 1,600 sq ft. and 3 are north of Detroit). $230K in Lakewood would get you a large, move in ready, century home on one of the cities nicest side streets (The side streets west of Lakewood Park come to mind in that range - Lakeland, Sylvan, Rosalie etc) or Grace or Arthur, but you could easily get something for $150K on a great street like Marlowe or Wayne or Wagar.
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Old 05-27-2014, 04:25 PM
 
185 posts, read 246,810 times
Reputation: 58
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clevelander17 View Post

Some of their programs are ranked very high nationally. Oh I noticed you cut out St. Ignatius. Smart decision, troll.
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Old 05-27-2014, 04:29 PM
 
185 posts, read 246,810 times
Reputation: 58
Quote:
Originally Posted by JBear1209 View Post
Hi,
I grew up on the east side in Pepper Pike, and have lived in Tremont, Parma Heights, and Westlake. If you are looking for good schools, Bay Village, Rocky River, Orange, Solon, and Beachwood are decent public schools. Decent being that the teachers are good, and I have friends who all went to these schools and enjoyed them and did get a good education (Orange is a great prep for Ivy league). As far as private schools St. Joseph's Academy off Rocky River Dr. is good. (and that area actually is quite beautiful. I used to drive through there on my way to work a lot and seriously looked at buying a house over there)

The Cleveland public transit system is not good. They don't have a subway, but they have the rapid which is above ground (which is kind of like a subway I guess), buses, trolleys, and cabs. Sometimes the drivers of buses are late or don't show up. The buses don't run all over the place and only run during certain times of the day. As far as the rapid goes, it can be unsafe so just be careful if you take it. The trolley runs down town, but it is free I think and it's a pretty nice and fun thing to do.

How quick you can get downtown will also depend on where you are in relation to the nearest freeway. If you live in Beachwood, Pepper Pike area, you have to get on 480 to 77 N or the Jennings Freeway, or take 271 N to 91 W and you're looking at least 30 minutes not including rush hour. If you live on the west side, most of the time you can just hop on 91 E and zip on down.

Be careful of pot holes in this area. They're everywhere and if you're not paying attention you can really mess up your car.

Cleveland has a really good metroparks that you can walk or ride your bike through, so that is nice although I wouldn't walk them alone as a single female. One women was attacked a few years back, and I used to live in an apartment in Parma Heights that had a registered sex offender that used to hang out in the Metroparks by the complex. Use the buddy system when you go through the parks. Some people will say I'm crazy for thinking that, but it's the smart thing to do.

I think Rocky River and Bay Village are good areas to raise a family. They are affluent areas though so I don't know if that is what you are looking for. A lot of people say Lakewood is nice, but a lot of people, including myself, hate Lakewood and would never raise a family there. Edgewater is in that area. I would never live there.

One person will say one area or one school system is great, the next person will say it's horrible. And the city really is sometimes street by street of good areas and bad areas.

Tremont is trendy, but not that safe at night and only has like a 4 block radius or so until you're in the bad part of town.

Stay away from East Cleveland. There's is the east side of Cleveland which is the suburbs on the east side, then there is East Cleveland which is an area all itself. It is very run down and very not safe. That Castro guy was in that area, and that Anthony Sowell guy was out that way too.

Shaker Heights is a mix. Some of it is really old money, and really nice houses. Some of it is just so run down though.

Strongsville (west side) and Chagrin (east side) are nice sort of more conservative areas.

Berea can be good, but sometimes the traffic is absolutely horrendous. Same thing with the Woodmere area.

Mayfield used to be a nice area, but it's getting run down now.

I liked Westlake because I could run all my errands fast because everything was near each other so that was nice. I didn't like Westlake because there's a lot of bars which IMO equals drunk drivers and not something I would want my kids around.

I would get an apartment or something for a few months and then just check out the different areas. It will be hard to find a nice one on the east side, but there a few nice ones on the west side. Expect to pay at least $900 or around there for a nice apartment with washer and dryer in the unit, probably more if it's a short term.

I hope some of this helps you even though it can be overwhelming. Feel free to message me if you have any more questions.
Wow. Tons of off based opinions here. First of all, for our size Cleveland's public transit is excellent, and was ranked best in the country in 2007. I'm not even bothering with your other stereotypes.

Last edited by ctownballr27; 05-27-2014 at 04:43 PM..
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Old 05-27-2014, 11:10 PM
 
Location: Cleveland, OH
3,844 posts, read 9,246,793 times
Reputation: 1645
I'd vote Lakewood as well.
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Old 05-28-2014, 01:37 PM
 
Location: Ak-Rowdy, OH
1,522 posts, read 2,988,466 times
Reputation: 1152
I would suggest Beachwood. Excellent school district and you could do Park and Ride on the Rapid. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_(...ransit_station)
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Old 05-28-2014, 06:03 PM
 
3,281 posts, read 6,249,317 times
Reputation: 2416
Quote:
Originally Posted by ctownballr27 View Post
Some of their programs are ranked very high nationally. Oh I noticed you cut out St. Ignatius. Smart decision, troll.
Nationally-ranked by whom? And how?

I cut out St. Ignatius because at least they might have a potential argument. But the truth is that both schools, like all private schools, benefit from a selective enrollment which skews any outputs one might use to "rank" them against other schools, particularly public schools. I don't for a second believe that the education at St. Ignatius is clearly superior to what may be offered at a place like Rocky River High School or even Lakewood High School. However because St. Ignatius has a cherry-picked student body, it's much easier for them to fool people into thinking that they're superior by way of outputs (i.e. student "achievement). However there are a lots of public schools that have programs and teachers that are on par and quite possibly superior to what Iggy offers.
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