Berea or Medina...

[jlg05]

I lived in Berea for 4 years and definitely prefer Medina. Berea has more of a small college town feel!

[RedHawkRick]

Interesting. I lived in Berea for twenty years, growing up there. I never really felt much of a BW presence, though granted we lived at another end of town. I would certainly consider the presence of a college to be a plus though.

The main difference to me is that Berea is a largely landlocked post WWII suburb that is certainly showing its age. Medina has the advantage of being able to expand and definitely has changed from the quaint country town I remember.

[1watertiger]

you are comparing apples to oranges. medina=rural/suburban. berea=urban/suburban. living in berea also cuts commute time to cleveland/downtown by 30 minutes.

[TheCLE]

Originally Posted by jlg05

I lived in Berea for 4 years and definitely prefer Medina. Berea has more of a small college town feel!

I didn't know this was still alive. I'll give my thoughts.

First off, both Medina and Berea are great cities.

While Medina is a better fit for us, considering where I and my wife work, it's also way too expensive. The only area we could afford a home in was in the "less desirable" area near the Union Square projects. It's all relative and the area we were looking at isn't exactly Belliare Gardens or Wilkes Villa, but even living next to the Medina "projects" was still too overpriced for us.

Berea is also nice, but too far away. While Berea is cheaper than Medina, Cuyahoga County taxes are a *****. For us, a home in Medina we could afford would be about the same as one in Berea once you add in the gas prices, taxes, and the money we would pay to commute.

Anyway, we settled on Wadsworth. We'll see how that goes ... Wadsworth has Berea home prices plus the lower Medina County taxes .. but it lacks diversity. From the numbers I saw only about 30 of the 1,800 students (2 percent) at Wadsworth High were "black" or "multi-racial," which is a lot lower than either Medina or Berea, which is at least 10 percent in Medina and up to 15-20 percent in Berea.

But, we'll see how it goes.

[Jimirulz2004]

Originally Posted by newmex

Hillbilly Factor? More like Cleveland White Flight factor, and they brought their downtown C-town driving habits with them

White flight sucks you fool.

[plumster]

I am retired, single, living in Cape Elizabeth,ME. I am thinking of moving back to Berea, where I grew up. Any thoughts on "going home?"

[jam40jeff]

Originally Posted by Medinaman

hillbilly factor?
downtown is 45 minutes away with half the crime, 1/3 the traffic and I cant remember the last time I saw a homeless person holding the front door of a restaurant hostage.....

Medina has MORE traffic than Cleveland. All of the suburbs do. Those of us who don't need the freeway to get downtown (if we even have to drive) aren't the ones stuck in daily rush hour traffic.

And did you notice that Medina has the largest increase in crime in the last year according to Cleveland Magazine's Rating the Suburbs (which usually drools over sprawl communities like Medina)?

Berea is a much nicer community in my opinion. It is a college town, so there is a much larger range of opinions there. You won't be made to feel evil if you don't have 2.7 kids in an SUV and vote for every Reoublican on the ticket. You'll be a short drive to a free parking lot where you can dump your car and take the Red Line rapid downtown for $2. You'll be much closer to a variety of activities and shopping, instead of being stuck in teh big box Wal-Mart world. And as previously stated, there is a larger stock of homes with potential that may need some attention and can be had at a reasonable price. And the school district is still a good one.