Cincinnati and Cleveland (Columbus, Lorain, Mentor: crime, house, school districts)

[cincimaster]

I am from Cincinnati and getting an offer to move to Cleveland. Please advise about the comparison between Cincinnati and Cleveland.
What are good school districts in Cleveland.

Is it more colder in Cleveland than in Cincinnati.

My question is is it worth moving to Cleveland

[marie0614]

I live in the Cleveland area and hate the COLD. It's just to cold here for me. That lake wind will cut right thru you, no matter how many layers of clothing you have on.

I've never lived in Cinci but I'd think twice before moving to Cleveland due to weather. I live in the suburbs on the westside and I do enjoy my small community. I have shopping, etc within 20 minute drive, my son goes to great school and I live in small town. I love the area but hate the weather.

[MABCle]

Originally Posted by cincimaster

I am from Cincinnati and getting an offer to move to Cleveland. Please advise about the comparison between Cincinnati and Cleveland.
What are good school districts in Cleveland.

Is it more colder in Cleveland than in Cincinnati.

My question is is it worth moving to Cleveland

Hello and welcome!

I briefly lived in Cincinnati as a student and personally would never live there again. It is usually between 0-10 degrees cooler in Cleveland than in Cincinnati, though there are times when Cleveland is warmer than Cincy. It snows more in Cleveland especially on the Northeast side due to the lake effect and the higher elevations. though there are times Cincy gets hit when Cleveland doesn't.

There are many good school districts in the Cleveland area among them are Solon, Shaker, Stongsville, etc..

Cincinnati has things to offer as far as entertainment, but I'd say there's more in C-town. We have world class museums (not that Cincy doesn't, Cleveland's just rate a little higher), its more ethnically and racially diverse, we have pro basketball, the 3rd ranked hospital system in the nation, the Lake coast, the second largest performing arts district in the nation as well as one of the big 5 orchastras, Cedar point(between 25-50 minute drive away), etc, etc.

Maybe more people could help if your job is in. If you have any more questions ask!! Hope this helps.

[bakkam]

Originally Posted by cincimaster

My question is is it worth moving to Cleveland

If your job does not offer a substantial increase in your quality of life, then, the short answer, in my judgment, given the lack of detailed information, is, no.

[Subway]

I agree with bakkam - if the job doesn't offer a substantial increase in your quality of life, the move would not be worthwhile. I relocated from Cleveland to Cincy 7 years ago and I personally would not move back. If I decide to move out of Cincy, which is a definite possibility at some point, I want to head west, probably to the Pacific Northwest. It's difficult for me to imagine any circumstances under which I would move back to Cleveland.

Whereas Cincy officially averages 24" of snow per year, Cleveland officially averages 63". However, because of the lake-effect, there is more variablity in the average snowfall across the Cleveland area as MABCle pointed out; it varies anywhere from about 45" in western Lorain County to about 105" in the heart of the snowbelt in Geauga County and Ashtabula County.

As MABCle said, it is typically 0-10 degrees cooler in Cleveland than in Cincy; the difference is more pronounced in winter and spring than it is in summer and fall. However, as marie0614 pointed out, you have to factor in the wind chill. The wind chill temperature is usually more like 15-20 degrees colder in Cleveland than it is in Cincy in winter.

As for sports teams, while Cleveland does have an NBA team, it does not have the big college basketball atmosphere that Cincy has. Also, Cleveland has won fewer major championships with its 3 pro teams than Cincy has with its two unless you go more than 50 years back in counting championships. In 2004, ESPN named Cleveland the "most tortured sports city" because of its failure to win major championships (the last one was in 1964 when the Browns won the NFL Championship in the pre-Super Bowl days). Cleveland has the longest championship drought of all cities with 3 pro sports teams.

As for central city crime, Cincy is bad, as I'm sure you know, but Cleveland is even worse. In the most recent rankings based on official FBI crime stats, Cincy was ranked as the 18th most dangerous city in the country and Cleveland was ranked as the 7th most dangerous.

Question for MABCle: how fast do you drive!? You said that it's 25-50 minutes from the Cleveland area to Cedar Point. I say that you'd have to be living in Lorain County or far western Cuyahoga County to make it to CP in that time frame. I used to live on the west side of the city of Cleveland and it took me 65 minutes to get there. Mapquest estimates 67 minutes from downtown Cleveland. Obviously, it's longer for those on the east side. For example, Mapquest estimates 83 minutes from Shaker Heights and 93 minutes from Mentor.

[MABCle]

Subway I drive between 65 and (irresponsibly) 90. And that's from the east side. It has never taken more than an hour to get there. At some point in the future though I'll be able to take the train there and not drive as they may be installing a commuter line out as far as Sandusky to add to the regions metro-rail network. Did you live on the South west side or the Northwest side Subway?

To answer is it worth the move... I guess it really depends on your personality. What do you like to do? What annoys you? things like that. Both cities offer much of the same, but they also offer something different. Please give us more detail as to things you want in a city. I think we could better answer your question if we had more detail.

[cincimaster]

Salary wise I will be 20 % higher in Cleveland. Now my question is is this increase worth looking at the cost of living and weather

[MABCle]

according to Salary.com if you made $100,000 in Cincy you would have to make $111,698 to live the same in Cleveland. that's an 11.7% increase so you'd actually be making 8.3% more money if you moved. And obviously that depends on where you end up living and what house you buy.

The snow really isn't all that bad IMO. It generally starts anywhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and stops for good in early to late March. Also its not like its just constant snow between November and March. There are plenty of warmer days when it will rain instead of snow and warm and cold days when the sun will be shinning and there's not a cloud in the sky. Take this year where temps hovered in the low 50's and upper 40's until they plummeted in mid February. I've experienced snow in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati and (because of the snow we get) Cleveland gets the streets cleared MUCH better than any of these other cities except in EXTREME circumstances.

Also check out the forums on urbanohio.com there is a wealth of info and forumers there as well.

[Subway]

MABCle,

To answer your question, I lived in the city itself near I-71 and Fulton Rd (close to the zoo). Mapquest estimates 67 minutes from my old address to CP, which I would say is quite accurate based on my previous trips.

Also, I wouldn't say that the snow stops for good in March. There is usually one snowfall in April, for which the average is 2.5". I remember a few Tribe games being delayed/postponed for snow over the years in April. I still remember the 'surprise' snowfall that postponed the home opener in 1996 and lengthened my normal 8-minute commute to CSU into more than an hour! I also heard about the 12.4" that Cleveland Hopkins officially received on April 23-25, 2005. I still like Dick Goddard's old quote that Cleveland has a 3-season, not a 4-season, climate because the winter is so long and the 'spring' is so short. BTW, The Weather Channel is currently calling for a high of 40 in Cleveland next Friday for the Tribe's home opener...it just wouldn't be Opening Day in Cleveland if the high was above 50!

[MABCle]

Yeah there are those April suprises but it goes to show you that you really can expect anything in Cleveland. You can get 70 degree days in February. Or what about two weeks ago when there was a toranado west of the city, two 70 degree days, then a snowy day, then a rainy day and top it all off with an earthquake. Gotta love it.