Single moving to Cleveland area (Parma, Strongsville: for sale, to rent, crime)

[osugal9]

I'm an upper 20's, single woman, moving to Cleveland from Oklahoma City for a great job opportunity. I'm looking for the most safe place to live with an up to a 20 minute commute to downtown, but the closer to downtown the better. I've been looking at the Westlake area as well as the Beachwood/Shaker Heights area... but really don't know anything more than what it says on the internet. I'm hoping for some advice from "real" Clevelanders. Any thoughts on the best areas to live?

[MABCle]

The closest/safest places to live are in the Warehouse district in downtown, Ohio city on the near west side of town, West Park in the northeastern section of the city or Shaker Square, which has direct rail access to Downtown and the Airport.

The commute would be longer than 20 minutes if you lived in Beachwood or Westlake, but only about 10-15 minutes more. As usual I suggest you check out urbanohio.com, which has some pictures of some of these areas and an active forum as well.

[wrightflyer]

You probably could find some info on the Cleveland forum as well.

[ohio_5]

Born and raised on the west side, I'd say stay west! Check out Parma, Seven Hills, Broadview Hts., Independence (note, housing costs go up according to how they are listed above). Parma is very reasonable and safe as are all the rest I listed, but they are way more expensive. From Parma, you can drive into downtown within 20 minutes easy. Parma also has easy access to the highways.
You could also try the Old Brooklyn Area of Cleveland, which borders Parma.
Many of these areas are saturated with homes for sale right now and you should be able to get a fantastic price.
Good Luck!

[bailey2227]

Wow, you ask a very good question. There are good areas and not so good areas here in Cleveland, Ohio. The crime you seen based on statistics I have never seen in my 27 yrs of living here. There are just certain areas on the EAST SIDE of cleveland you want to stay away from. Downtown has become a ghost town in recent years, but going down for sporting events, concerts, and even the warehouse district/west 6th street where the nicer bars/restaurants are, would be fine for a single female.

It is really hard to help you without finding out more of what you are looking for. Are you looking to rent/buy??? What price range are you looking to stay in? Based on what you wrote about looking at Westlake.

I will say the two best areas in my opinion for having EVERYTHING at your beckon call would be WESTLAKE AND STRONGSVILLE. They are both within 10-15 away from Downtown Cleveland. Also, if you don't want to spend the high costs of parking downtown you can just take the RTA. Alot of people do that and it is very effective both costly and not having to worry about the traffic every morning.

Shaker Heights is a nice area, but it is on the East Side. Not putting it down by any means, I guess it just depends on if race is a issue or not.

If you want to you can shoot me an email @ jenjeremy040605@hotmail.com, and I'd be more then happy to help you out.

[MABCle]

I guess it just depends on if race is a issue or not.

Hmmmm....